2013 Halloween Costume Contest - What could we do better?

Hey Guys,

So although not without it's flaws I think this year's contest went MUCH better than last years. Which in turn was much better than the year before. This is in no small part due to the feedback we received after the contest closed in 2012.

Therefore, with the goal of making it even better next year, I'd like your feedback once more! As always, constructive criticism is most welcome, let's just make sure to keep it respectful.

So how did we do? Were things clear? Was help provided when needed? Was the format good? What would you change?

Well, it was hosted nicely, I especially liked that the voting happened here at the forums and required a RPF membership which helps a lot to reduce the "popular facebook bigwig" thing and gives everybody almost the same chance to win.

What I didn't like was the necessity to (re-)name the build threads into that "...'s Halloween contest entry" scheme. Browsing the "New Posts" category on the site suffered from this since (often) there weren't hints to the portrayed character displayed anymore. This lead to missing some cool builds, at least in my case due to me browsing for "eye catchers" in the list...

I think compiling a photo of each of the entries (with the link to their main thread) into one thread would be a marked improvement.

Voting was pretty clunky. You couldn't vote via mobile and I saw a few ppl comment in lieu of voting (ie, "this one" or "vote") because the buttons didn't show if you were accessing via the Facebook signin as well. Build threads were difficult to naviagate from the gallery and back and the ever-changing order of the gallery was a bit confusing as well.

I think it went very smoothly this year! I'll just echo the improvements on not renaming the build threads. Couldn't find anything after people started doing that!

The voting process could have been easier.

ApophisV said:

What I didn't like was the necessity to (re-)name the build threads into that "...'s Halloween contest entry" scheme. Browsing the "New Posts" category on the site suffered from this since (often) there weren't hints to the portrayed character displayed anymore. This lead to missing some cool builds, at least in my case due to me browsing for "eye catchers" in the list...

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VilleLeskinen said:

I think it went very smoothly this year! I'll just echo the improvements on not renaming the build threads. Couldn't find anything after people started doing that!

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Totally understand. The reason we do that is so that I can find the entry and add it to my list. I could just type "contest" into the search and find everything I needed. Perhaps a better way to do it would be to have people post a link to their thread in the main contest thread. That way I wouldn't have to look for them. I spent a long time trying to make sure that I didn't miss anyone.

I would have liked an easier way to check out the build threads when I was looking at the gallery pics. Browsing the threads was my favorite part and it required some digging away from the gallery area to do so. There wasn't an easy way to compare different build threads one after the other, I had to open a bunch of tabs and switch from gallery profiles to forum profiles and search through user's latest threads, etc.

I didn't mind the changing order of the gallery pics because it prevented higher voted entries from getting a visibility bump, thought that was a cool feature.

The voting mechanism itself could be improved, as mentioned, voting on mobile wasn't possible, and I noticed some strange happenings in the new member thread where the winning entry had a half dozen or so incidents of duplicate votes. They weren't counted in the final tally of course, but it was a little alarming to look at the photo page and see them numbered below with many more votes than they actually had. Kinda disheartening for other contestants, the way that comments were counted as votes in the display interface, etc.


I also agree that re-naming threads to only include the name of the contest was a little wonky when casually browsing the site in the weeks leading up as I couldn't tell what kind of project was being built in several thread titles. Perhaps the "post a link of your entry in the contest thread" solution would sort that out.

I like the already proposed idea of adding a clause that in the event of multiple wins, the winner would be given the larger of the prizes and their other prize would go to the runner-up. Would allow for a little more diversity of builds to be recognized and honored---- as it stands, instead of four more costumes being celebrated in the judges pick, we only got two more to look at, and all of them being foam and pepakura builds.
Perhaps, in that vein, it would be good to have a judges pick runner up listed as well (whether or not that entails more prize money/whatever). Though that might make the whole thing seem like two separate contests instead of one, I dunno.

Overall, I think it ran really smoothly and was fun!

Lunaman said:

I would have liked an easier way to check out the build threads when I was looking at the gallery pics. Browsing the threads was my favorite part and it required some digging away from the gallery area to do so. There wasn't an easy way to compare different build threads one after the other, I had to open a bunch of tabs and switch from gallery profiles to forum profiles and search through user's latest threads, etc.

I didn't mind the changing order of the gallery pics because it prevented higher voted entries from getting a visibility bump, thought that was a cool feature.

The voting mechanism itself could be improved, as mentioned, voting on mobile wasn't possible, and I noticed some strange happenings in the new member thread where the winning entry had a half dozen or so incidents of duplicate votes. They weren't counted in the final tally of course, but it was a little alarming to look at the photo page and see them numbered below with many more votes than they actually had. Kinda disheartening for other contestants, the way that comments were counted as votes in the display interface, etc.


I also agree that re-naming threads to only include the name of the contest was a little wonky when casually browsing the site in the weeks leading up as I couldn't tell what kind of project was being built in several thread titles. Perhaps the "post a link of your entry in the contest thread" solution would sort that out.

I like the already proposed idea of adding a clause that in the event of multiple wins, the winner would be given the larger of the prizes and their other prize would go to the runner-up. Would allow for a little more diversity of builds to be recognized and honored---- as it stands, instead of four more costumes being celebrated in the judges pick, we only got two more to look at, and all of them being foam and pepakura builds.
Perhaps, in that vein, it would be good to have a judges pick runner up listed as well (whether or not that entails more prize money/whatever). Though that might make the whole thing seem like two separate contests instead of one, I dunno.

Overall, I think it ran really smoothly and was fun!

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Well said. :thumbsup

I guess since the majority of my time here is on a computer I don't get the voting problems on mobile but it seems that there are enough people with issues in that regard that it's something we should look at. Would definitely be nice to be able to click on the picture and have it take you to the build thread as well.

That's tech stuff though, we'll have to see!

Michael Bergeron said:

Well said. :thumbsup

I guess since the majority of my time here is on a computer I don't get the voting problems on mobile but it seems that there are enough people with issues in that regard that it's something we should look at. Would definitely be nice to be able to click on the picture and have it take you to the build thread as well.

That's tech stuff though, we'll have to see!

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Thanks!
Looking forward to next year's contest.

I liked the gallery The only thing I'd suggest is linking build threads to the entries. Regardless of the direction of the contest next year this would be a really good way to showcase the huge range of methods used to get final looks. I mean when people are inspired by an end product it's nice for them to be able to see several ways to get there.

Everything else is fair cop And part and parcel of being part of a contest with a really wide audience!

The contest went really smooth this year, I think. It was easy to follow in the thread who was entered and Michael you got back to us really quickly with what we still needed and when we were good to go. Thanks so much for all your work on this, I hope we were easy to work with too! It seemed like everyone was from my perspective... which means the process is working. Let us know what we can do to make your life easier too.

As much as I understand that some might feel slighted in categories where the judges picked someone who already win, I personally appreciate that the judges did not allow who already won to influence their pick. That showed that it was really their honest opinion of which was the best costume... but the fix for prizes awarded sounds like a great way to make sure to spread out the winnings - so long as the true titles are also announced. Would you have a third place then for the runner up prize?

I 2nd (or is it 4th??) the idea of gallery photos having links to the build thread. Can comments have links to build pages?

As for the title of the threads, I thought having all the contest thread popping up was good advertizing for the contest. It is possible to put what the costume is you're building in the title as well. I put all the required costume contest wording as well as - Thorin from The Hobbit in the title and it didn't seem to be a problem. (except when it got moved to the DC comics forum because someone thought it said 'Thor' haha!) But I do think it would be good for contestants to post a link to their thread in the Costume Contest thread as well as renaming it, just to make it easier on the person running the contest.

And, as I posted in the other thread:

Having contests in different genre would be interesting or type of material/media used - since it is difficult for people to judge between a HUGE armor costume compared to a hand made spiderman where they guy literally painted on every little design. Both are impressive for different reasons.

Also, since my 12 year old is going to age out of the kids contest, but he wants to work on his own and won't be competitive for many years unless I help him significantly. So, it might be nice to have, instead of a 'new to the board' a 'young costumer' contest to encourage the younger generations to get involved. like 13-14, 15-16, 17-18.

Then you'd have to have them prove age and all...

Another idea would be a fan film short contest, maybe just 2-3 minutes in costume. As controversial as the last contest was on the Heroes of Cosplay, the idea of bring theater into costuming really, really appeals to me.

And yeah, it wouldn't need to be a $$ prize, but something that would give recognition and give a platform for more people to see their work.

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Guri said:

As for the title of the threads, I thought having all the contest thread popping up was good advertizing for the contest. It is possible to put what the costume is you're building in the title as well. I put all the required costume contest wording as well as - Thorin from The Hobbit in the title and it didn't seem to be a problem. (except when it got moved to the DC comics forum because someone thought it said 'Thor' haha!)

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I actually remember that "Thor" thread, happend to me as well

Maybe a solution would be to have prefixes like in the Junkyard instead of the whole "Mister X's Halloween Contest Entry"-Stuff, e.g. "HCE-2013 - <Thread Name here>". This way you can identify contest entrys but there is enough space left to see the actual thread title!

I thought the contest ran really smooth, the entry stipulations were clearly defined in the contest thread and M went above and beyond to check the threads and let people know what they needed to complete (even at the 11th hour :lol )
For next year:
1)The contestant can already put a link to the build thread under the gallery pic, so it seems like linking the gallery pic itself might be creating more work for Michael.(he dosen't need any more! )

2)Is it possible to have a contest sub-forum within the costume forum? Since we now have 4 seperate places that a costume build thread could be (general costumes,SW,Marvel,DC) I can see that making it even harder next year to find the build threads. A sub-forum for entries only would put them all in one place, then they could be moved to the appropriate forum after the contest and have the sub-forum closed until the next time it's needed. (more costume contests? :thumbsup )

3) Judging: I was surprised that 2 winners were picked by the judges, however before commenting I went to the contest rules and saw nothing that states this is not allowed. I assumed (we know where that gets you! :lol ) that since 3rd place was replaced by the judges pick, they would be choosing among those that hadn't won yet. Personally I would word the rules next year to either allow judging only on the costumes that have not won a prize, or leave it the way it is. The idea of the judges picking contestant A, then giving that prize to the next in line because contestant A already won, seems like a disingenuous
consolation prize.
My only beef is with the time it took to get the judges pick, all the contest entrants worked really hard to meet the deadline for the contest, I know going through all the threads is time consuming, but rules are rules. I would suggest next year if we don't have a judges pick by the deadline, then defalt to the 3rd place voting pick (this is not a based on a bias ) Anybody with a kid that was waiting for the results for a few weeks knows where I'm coming from! :lol
Another thought is to have a seperate catagory for judged winners, so that the entrant can choose to enter in the public voting or judged voting, and leave the number of prizes the same, a 1st and runner up in each catagory and perhaps 4 winners in the judges catagory that could be for different aspects.(e.g., screen accuracy, originality, difficulty, etc.)
Thanks again Michael a great time was had by all! cheers

Bigdaddy said:

1)The contestant can already put a link to the build thread under the gallery pic, so it seems like linking the gallery pic itself might be creating more work for Michael.(he dosen't need any more! )

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I tried 2x and each time my link did not go to my build thread but to the main forum. So... not sure why it doesn't work.

Guri said:

I tried 2x and each time my link did not go to my build thread but to the main forum. So... not sure why it doesn't work.

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I had some trouble getting mine to work as well, linking had a bunch of options I had never seen when linking in a thread. I figured it was just me :lol

I had a really hard time sorting out how to vote (The stupid Facebook log-in was the issue) but other than that it went relatively smoothly for the first time I've gotten to play along with the rest of you big kids.

My only real gripe is echoed with everyone else so far...Finding the build threads was a royal PITA after everyone changed the names to satisfy the contest rules. I follow some of these builds from the day they start and kinda get accustomed to what they are named.

I like the idea of a wholly separate forum or a locked thread where the persons who are entering get a single post to show the final costume with the required picture for entry and link to the build thread in their signature. Then the name of the original build thread doesn't have to be changed.

Maybe they could simply send a PM with the picture of their final entry to the person running the contest and they can post it on the behalf of the entrant in a "Halloween Contest 20XX entrants" sticky thread that no one else can post in (eliminating drivel and confusion as to who has an entry, and who is just commenting). An added benefit will be that person will then have logged entries in their PM folder as to whom has satisfied the prerequisites for entry, and can correspond back directly if there is something missing instead of having to search all over the new sub forums for entries every time someone adds something else.

All good points folks.

Like last year I'll be going through all the suggestions and coming up with a list of proposals for next year.

I was an entrant in the kids vote and fell victim to an ambitious creator of six costumes. Of course he's gonna win over any one costume. Kids group and kids solo should be defined as two separate classes. IMO. I had fun though!

fdileague said:

I was an entrant in the kids vote and fell victim to an ambitious creator of six costumes. Of course he's gonna win over any one costume. Kids group and kids solo should be defined as two separate classes. IMO. I had fun though!

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I noticed that as well. It almost felt as if they should have been entered independently of each other. There were a lot of great entries this year. I messed up and didn't even vote this year(shame on me). I saw the advertising for the new layout (marvel, dc, Starwars, everybody else) and didn't remind myself to look for the contest.