Signature of the Month Contest Generic Discussion Thread

[Miko Miko]

Well where is Solace these days?

[felix]

Originally Posted by Miko Miko

Well where is Solace these days?

Banner contest I think... he jumped the gun pretty quick too.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Miko Miko

Well where is Solace these days?

Dealing with many things at once.

The contest isn't dead. I had stated that it was going to return last month, but to be honest my mind has been occupied with other things and motivation hasn't been strong in restarting it asap.

When will it return? Soon™.

[Miko Miko]

Originally Posted by Solace

Dealing with many things at once.

The contest isn't dead. I had stated that it was going to return last month, but to be honest my mind has been occupied with other things and motivation hasn't been strong in restarting it asap.

When will it return? Soon™.

Yaaay!!!

Ahh well I will be waiting ~ good luck with everything else you got going on too ~

[MagicaLideaL]

Originally Posted by Solace

Dealing with many things at once.

The contest isn't dead. I had stated that it was going to return last month, but to be honest my mind has been occupied with other things and motivation hasn't been strong in restarting it asap.

When will it return? Soon™.

Ahh.. How i missed the days where i could see plenty of amazing signatures. Maybe you could look back at the previous SoTM to find back the motivation.

[Suomi]

Solace: if it returns, maybe you could enlist some help running it, if you wanted.

I can't wait for the return~! my PS is getting rusty!

[CMHerrera]

Solace: I have been missing it a lot lately I have been looking to challenging it again XD

[Urei]

SOTM is one of the things I really, greatly enjoy on Animesuki. Would love to compete in it once again.

[Marina]

I think after fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving AS will probably focus on new year-round banners, so SOTM will probably be postponed a bit longer?

[Sanaki]

I will definitely try to enlist in this contest, if its possible for me to, that is.

[Dist]

Originally Posted by Marina

I think after fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving AS will probably focus on new year-round banners, so SOTM will probably be postponed a bit longer?

Why? SOTM isn't about banners, and Solace isn't in charge of those contests so this should be able to run independent of other contests. Makes me really wonder how busy can Solace be that he can't run the contest when it hardly requires any works. Few posts here and there, rally up votes, put them in Excel, oh we're done.

[ganbaru]

The issue isn't about who's being in charge, it's about thoses than would participate to the contest(s); some barely managed to get the time to participate to one, many won't be abble to participate to two.

[CMHerrera]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

The issue isn't about who's being in charge, it's about thoses than would participate to the contest(s); some barely managed to get the time to participate to one, many won't be abble to participate to two.

Shouldn't we then make a poll to see how many would try to participate?

[Marina]

Originally Posted by CMHerrera

Shouldn't we then make a poll to see how many would try to participate?

If you just look at the numbers of participants in the SOTM competition for each one since 2008 when it first started, you'll notice a significant decline in participants. When we first opened up the competition, there were around 30-some entries. Our more recent ones only number somewhere in the low teens.

I agree with ganbaru that it's important to take into consideration multiple contests, number of participants, and staff involved. An upcoming banner competition will be more than enough to keep graphic artists focused on improving their works, and if not, they should still be able to work independently through their own threads here in the fan creations subforum, or try contributing to sig/avatar request threads.

[Urei]

Originally Posted by Marina

I agree with ganbaru that it's important to take into consideration multiple contests, number of participants, and staff involved. An upcoming banner competition will be more than enough to keep graphic artists focused on improving their works, and if not, they should still be able to work independently through their own threads here in the fan creations subforum, or try contributing to sig/avatar request threads.

True that, although without starting such a contest we will not know which one of those activities people would rather take part in. If you have an option to compete in 2 kinds of events you won't think about a third, non-existent one. This changes when the third option becomes available, when you actually have to consider what to concentrate on.

My point is, without the contest, there's no way of telling who is willing to participate since there's no such option to begin with.

[Suomi]

I've noticed there have been some new sigmakers coming to the forum, too. Perhaps they'll join too, to replace some people who have left and to flesh out the numbers, eh?

Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a poll (in FC) about who would be interested in it, and, for returning participants, what, if anything, would they like to see stay the same/change. That would also help garner interest and participation, i think.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Dist

Why? SOTM isn't about banners, and Solace isn't in charge of those contests so this should be able to run independent of other contests. Makes me really wonder how busy can Solace be that he can't run the contest when it hardly requires any works. Few posts here and there, rally up votes, put them in Excel, oh we're done.

I wasn't in charge of the banner contest (I was pondering it, but decided to let the other mods have some fun), but I did help behind the scenes. As for "it hardly requires any work", you grossly simplify how "easy" it is to run any contest. Some months, it doesn't take much effort, true. Other months, it's a pita. I guess it's like moderating, no one notices when you do your job, unless they don't like how it was handled.

Either way, I'm not understanding the whining here. I suspended the contest because it needed a break. Most of the contestants were doing it simply because it was something to do. I wanted a break from running it nonstop year after year. The format itself had become stale and the themes (mostly because of the old policy of not letting themes be reused) were becoming more difficult for winners to think up.

Obviously there's a few who want it restarted, as expected, but that isn't going to make me suddenly say "oh gee, five people want to do this again, I should hurry up and start things up again!".

I've already stated the contest will return, but I'm not in any rush, and none of you should be either. If you're really itching to show off your skills, enter the next banner contest in a month, or start making some Holiday signatures to hand out as gifts for others on our forums.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Solace

If you're really itching to show off your skills, enter the next banner contest in a month, or start making some Holiday signatures to hand out as gifts for others on our forums.

Xmas signatures as a showing off opportunity ? It probably not the best reason but it might not be the worse...
(And for the record, I already started thoses back in september... )

[Suomi]

Solace has a point. The mods do more work (not just on SOTM) than we see, than we often even know. Plus, I'd imagine it would get dull after a while, and a pain, to run/do the same contest over and over. And when SOTM makes its resurgence I have a feeling the break will have done it some good, especially if we can have comments and input from members on the contest itself.
I'm not particularly impatient, but I look forward to its return when it does so.

[Haladflire65]

Yeah, I think it would be great if we can think of ways to improve and revamp SOTM while Solace takes a break. As mentioned, I think the banner contests will serve as perfectly good outlets for any graphic designers (such as myself) for the time being. Hopefully, when SOTM comes back, there will be renewed interest in it so it can restart with a bang!