Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread - FINAL SUGGESTIONS IN POST 65

As promised here's a thread to discuss ideas relating to the site's largest contest, the Halloween Costume Contest. No idea is stupid and we want to hear them all however please let this be a RESPECTFUL and CONSTRUCTIVE conversation. It's my hope that we can all be friendly here.

Keep in mind that although I have taken on the task of running the contest I am not a moderator on the site. In the end it's their rules and their objectives. I have found however that they've been very open to my advice.

So with that out of the way here are a few thoughts that people have mentioned so far that have resonated with me:


Votes from the same IP address should be restricted.

Personally I agree. This would cut down some of the accusations of cheating while only "hurting" a few votes. There are legitimate reasons to have an IP conflict, registering from a workplace or your spouse registering from your computer at home for instance. However I think that the positive outweighs the negative on this one.

There should be no photoshop allowed in gallery pics.

I completely agree and I had meant this to be in the rules language. Next year I don't think there should be any photoshop permitted in the final gallery photos. Post as many as you like in your build thread though.

New members should not be allowed to enter/vote.

I can see why people would ask for this but I think this is one that won't change. So far as the RPF is concerned contests are a great way to attract people to the site. Some noted that 99% of people that visit to vote likely never come back, that still leaves 1% that stick around and could potentially become contributing members.

Entrants should not be allowed to change their gallery pic after the deadline has closed.

I agree fully. This is something I would like to see happen next year.

The entry rules were too strict, lighten up. OR I saw you let "so and so" get away with something but not "so and so".

We required three things: A build thread, a gallery pic, and a proof pic. I did my absolute best to chase around and remind folks of the requirements throughout the contest and I was lenient on quite a few entries (particularly the proof pics). The purpose of the proof pic is to ensure that the person entering is the person who made the costume. In some situations a proof pic without the exact wording or without the exact setup requested was accepted because it fulfilled the "proof" aspect and I wanted as many people to be included as possible. I don't see my handling of it changing, as long as I'm satisfied that the person submitting is the one in the costume I'll accept it on a case by case basis. That said the best way to ensure that is to do exactly what is stated in the rules.

Entrants shouldn't be allowed to solicit votes on other sites.

I honestly don't see this one changing either. The whole idea is to get the word out and establish a presence where otherwise we might not have one. This is free advertising whether the solicited vote or not.


And now I leave it to you guys to continue the conversation. Let's keep it civil! Feel free to agree or disagree with anything I've said here.

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Too many rules and people will lose interest or get so fouled up their entry might not count.......but I do think some things need changing and some tweaking done..........


Starting off with what I liked about this year's 2012 competition that O_B did a great job overseeing.

I liked that a build thread was required. What I always liked best about all the completions here at the RPF is the build threads that follow and it was great to see all the build threads for all the costumes.

I liked the layout of the picture Gallery and liked how the images sifted order each time you went there so you weren't seeing the same costume popping out at you at each visit. I think we could easily lose the Dimensions tag on the tumbnails page, seemed more of a distraction than a help. Wish clicking on the member name would take you to their RPF profile instead of where ever it goes to some Gallery profile. I think the build thread should be automatically linked, but if that's not possible, then should be required to be the first thing posted by the entrant in their comment that show under their larger image.

The actual voting process, clicking the blue text VOTE under the image, maybe the text should say CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR THIS ENTRANT or something or have an actual vote button icon, or something across the page that says YOU'VE NOT VOTED IN THIS CATEGORY YET and when a vote is successfully cast says YOU HAVE ALREADY VOTED IN THIS CATEGORY. Along with that goes the suggestion to not have the comments and the votes show up in the same list. This confused a lot of people. Some posted comments and thought that was their vote and then didn't "really" vote by clicking the blue VOTE text. Some thought they had accidentally and unintentionally voted for the wrong choice because it looked like the comment counted as a vote..........either way it surely skewed some of the results.

As for the names being displayed as to who voted for whom. First of all I'm against the number of votes being shown during the voting period. With the open anyone can register and vote policy, showing the number of votes just leads to a feeding frenzie as the contest nears the end and IMO really, really skewes the votes. But if the names were eventually shown......I don't know that it serves to deter cheating if that was the intent, and maybe some people don't want others to know who they voted for. As an entrant, it's kinda nice knowing who voted for your costume, but I don't think the suspense would have killed me had I not known. Sticky situation if you want to vote for a certain costume but your friend is expecting you to vote for them which may not be the costume you'd choose if your name wasn't being taken down!?

Editing should definitely be locked when the Gallery opens to voting. There was some switch-a-roos going on there for a while after the voting started. Which brings up another point, I was glad that the rules said we could photoshop the background ONLY because not all of us have access to some wonderfully photographic venues or to even a good photographer either, but some did full blown photoshopping that they had to know was way over the top and way off from the intent and spirit of the allow.

Going save my suggestions for next contest for a following post as this one is already so laboriously long I doubt anyone read to the end

Shylaah

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

100% in agreement with Shylaah! wow! COmpletely seconding everything she said

Orange_blend was incredibly attentive to any concerns or submission problems, and was available to answer questions very quickly!
As a membership drive & costuming showcase, it was amazingly well done.

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Even though my husband and I both would want to vote, I agree that it is worth only one of us voting if it means less people making multiple accounts to vote. I totally agree with no photoshop, even backgrounds. I know some of the costumes look better with a photoshopped background but then again how do we know they did not make other little tweaks as well with the actual costume. I was a new member and this contest is what started me in participating in the forum so obviously I am against not allowing new members to enter, as well as not allowing new members to vote or soliciting votes from networking. If I would have signed up a few months before the contest to be eligible for entering and only relied on votes from established members I feel that no matter how good my costume was that older members with a good reputation that everyone liked would have gotten more votes. It is just human nature to want to vote for someone you like and know rather than someone you don't know because you want them to win. I also agree that you should not be allowed to change the gallery pic afterward because of switching to an awesome pic to get votes and then switching back to the original. Voting needs to somehow be made easier, I don't know if that can be done. A lot of people that I got to vote for me could not figure it out, and even then they left a comment instead of a vote. Maybe if you can somehow get it to have a vote option where the actual pic is instead of the gallery, or make the voting button something different?

Definitely do away with the photoshopping for the vote picture. The only one I liked was a Dredd and I think a few were actually hurt by it.

I really do not know what we can do about vote stuffing, especially if this is to attract members. Maybe limit voting to people who were members before the voting or costume submissions begin, but I have not thought threw the effects of doing that.

Sent from my Etch-A-Sketch

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Some points that have been made previously about this contest and other contest previously, costume and others.....

There has, in every contest here and not just the costume contest, been a lot of complaining about just WHO gets to vote. Ultimately that decision lies with Art, and him alone--his board, his rules. The rest of us have two choices--participate or not.

I know the contests are recruitment and advertising opportunities for the RPF, valuable for bringing new people to the site--they come, they register, they vote, they might look the site over and decided to come back and maybe even become the next outstanding member. But let's face it, most never come back, never make a post, and registering with names like kkkkk and 123456 it is quite obvious they have no intentions to ever darken the RPF's door again.

Then there's the popularity contest argument. There are likely to be some popularity votes from "already" members, DEFINITELY popularity votes from those being recruited primarily to come here to vote for their friend/s. Those who do not participate so much in other forums, communities and social media, how are they to compete with those with hundreds of "friends" who will just come here, register, hit the one VOTE button, and disappear again into the fog? They don't even bother to vote in the other categories. These have unfairly been called fake and/or fraud votes, but they aren't. It is allowed, encouraged and stated that this type of soliciting for votes is one of the main reasons for the contest.

Since there is really no way to determine who is or is not sticking to the one person one vote rule, you can't really determine which votes might actually be fake or fraud. People with a lot of tech savvy can certainly and easily manipulate such a system and all it takes is one such tech person over zealous to win for themselves or for a friend to tally up ever how many votes it takes to win--(just one of many good reasons to have the vote count hidden during the voting--more on that in my suggestions post).

Okay, so what of the "already" members. It is their entries, the presentations of their creativity, knowledge and skills that are being used to lure the new members to the RPF. So I don't think they should be completely voiceless in how the contest is conducted--no participants, no contest or just a few participants, a lackluster contest.

So, what can you do to get new people to join up and join in but at the same time not alienate the established members to the point that they stop participating? I'm not real familiar with all the costumers here, but I don't think we had a lot of repeat entrants from the last two Halloween costume contests.

Just HOW do you pacify everybody, well that's impossible, but HOW do you reach a happy medium for mostly everybody?
.........There are a LOT of smart people on the RPF, many who probably deal with these types of conundrums everyday. I know there are equitable solutions to be had! So let's hear 'em people!!!

My suggestions in a following post because, like my previous post in this thread, this one is getting a little long winded.......

Shylaah

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

I don't know if this has come up but - there should be a category for a long term costume builds and a month or two month "Halloweens only" builds. There has got to be something said for both ends of it, sometimes there are really cool costumes that come out of a few weeks or days of building. Then there are people who have a costume that the have been building for years, cool nonetheless but obviously it puts it in a different category. Also it seems to me that one of the women's costume entry was the same as last year, it just looks that way, Im not going to say which one but it looks really close.

Isn't there a time or post limit on using the junkyard or for sale section, if the entrant solicits post maybe there should be a vistors voting section or something along those lines.

o and maybe a separate section for Iron Man costumes.

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

First of all I should mention that I was one of the prize-winners, and thank you very much to everyone who gave me their vote.

I do have some feedback on the competition.

Firstly, I was under the impression that registrations were closed during the voting period, and it wasn't until it was a day out from the end of the contest that I discovered people could register and place a vote. As a member of the 501st Legion and Rebel Legions I asked people on those sites as well as those whom I am facebook friends with if they could log in here (as I know a large number of members from each legion have accounts here on the RPF) and support me as a fellow SW costumer. It was never my intention to get 'new recruits' signing up and giving me a vote for the sake of getting votes, more a case of raising awareness that I was competing and asking for their support as fellow SW costumers and RPF members.

I agree that the vote totals for each contestant should be hidden from view until the end of the voting period. It just makes things seem more fair that way, and takes some of the hyper-competitive edge off the contest.

Perhaps a little photoshop for particular effects or props could be allowed under certain circumstances? As an example I had the lightsaber blade photoshopped to look like it was glowing in my entry photo. No one seemed to raise any issue with it, and it was the only thing that was photoshopped in the whole image.

I put a lot of effort into my build thread, and was a bit disappointed to see that a few of the other competitors had quite short or undetailed threads. There's not much I can really suggest here since I know it can be difficult to do a build thread for something that you've already constructed, and not many people take 'in progress' images (Aayla is one of my only costumes where I actually took 'in progress' shots). Perhaps a minimum word count for build threads if the entire build is put in 1 post? Not the best idea though, and not sure if there's really anything that could be done so long as the entry criteria are all met.

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Nominate a panel of judges, and have a vote for them.

The judges can have the score anonymously, but each contestant can get the score cards so they can see what they should improve on.

Each judge will have a score card with criteria; Something like this.

http://www.faccs.org/assets/PDF-Documents/Competitions/JFA-Art-Judging-Sheets.pdf

1st Best overall
2nd Best Craftsmanship
3rd Popular vote

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Well, I'm about to head out for some rest-of-the-weekend pre-Thanksgiving hoopla before the real Thanksgiving hoppla later in the week

......but before I go I wanted to torture you with........er......I mean, eh....post my final thoughts on contests and voting and all that jazz........


........all my comments here and in previous posts in this thread applies to all the contests held on, for and by therpf.com not just this year's Halloween Costume Contest..........

IMO
I have always been against the open voting, since I arrived here in the waning days of closed registration. Of course your "friends" and communities where you invite people to come vote for you are going to come vote for YOU. I just don't think the contest should be based on who can get the most begged votes.

Don't know how you could even do members only or "already" members only voting now either without some special programming or some extremely diligent overseeing!? Still I am in favor of any and all of the contests here being Peer to Peer, and not diluted by an influx of new members in a recruitment drive.

I think the contests can still be advertisement and vehicles for recruitment without basically just giving the contest over to the new recruits, which is what the open voting in effect does. In this year's Halloween contest 7 of the 12 prize winners were new members who joined since the end of July 2012, with 4 of them since Oct. 28, 2012. All the first pirze winners were new members. This is great for the new members, yes, but what of established members?? Maybe we can have a Veteran Members contest of some kind or Old Timers Day!??

I know business and service companies of all kinds use New Customer Incentive enticements to lure and hook new customers. It's pretty much a standard business practice. But companies also have Loyality Programs that strive to retain their existing customer base.

All I'm trying to convey is that it would be nice to have some middle ground where neither the established members nor the new members have to come away feeling shafted.


Okay, about the voting part.......

If you do these contest for more than fun and some personal satisfaction of making the thing and sharing with your fellow members, you're pretty much setting yourself up for a let down IMO because obviously not everyone can win the few prizes. But I guess everyone has their own reasons for entering, and it's not always all about the prize--easily as many reasons as there are entrants and all are valid.

I think it should remain a voting contest and not become a judged contest or half and half, because pity the poor judge/s who would undoubtedly be accused of every kind of bias under the sun by some of the disgruntled over not winning--favoritism, elitism, nepotism, stupidism (made that one up!). Unfortunately, juried contest do always seem to smack of those things.

I think it would take away a lot of the fun factor for us not being able to vote. Voters have their own criteria for voting and it is not always or even mostly for the technically perfectly executed, most creative, looks like it took butt-loads of work, but probably most often comes down to simply "that's the one I like". So that kinda levels the playing field for the varying skills and abilities levels, which I think is a good thing.


A few suggestions for next time....

The one thing I wish for most of all--find a way to hide the number of votes being received during the voting. If you don't trust Art and the mods to present the real count amounts, then what are you even doing here, don't enter. I think having the vote tally showing during voting leads to a feeding frenzy of some of the more zealous entrants and the feeding frenzy annoys everyone else. I think knowing the vote count affects some people's decisions, you know like in elections and stuff, those who want to be seen as, known as, having voted for the winner, or those unable to decide so they vote for whoever someone else they admire voted for--that sort of thing.

The other thing I would like is for the contest to be more "advertised" across the RPF site. There was the encouragement to enter banner but there was no encouragement to vote banner, so I think very few "already" members voted. Not sure now if the banner showed up on all the site's pages or just the costuming forum/s.


A couple of other suggestions for consideration about New Members, Recruitment, Prizes, etc. .........

Have a NEW MEMBER category just for the new members--entrants AND voters, again, back ever how long one might consider NEW to be.......3 months, 6 months, 1 year.......? Maybe replace the Groups catagory with a New Member catagory as groups had the least amount of enteries this year and half of those were members with more than one kid. Those could easily go into the kids catagory and the other groups likewise into the male or female catagories. Then by the next year, they'd be established members!
and/or
Have a RECRUITMENT prize. Those who can get the most new members to sign up during the contest period, not to vote, but just to sign up.
and/or
Even better, have a Recruitment Drive contest some time outside of and not in conjunction with the costume contest or any other contest, so everyone-- costumers, and propers and modelers and sculptors could all participate and recruit members for ALL the areas of the RPF instead of just costumers for the costuming forum.
and/or
A NEW MEMBERS CHOICE award
and or
Lower the prize amounts, especially for 1st place. Maybe the vultures only after the money would not want to swoop in for a lesser prize, whereas many, if not all, of the established costumers here would probably do it for the glory/bragging rights alone.
and/or
Change nothing, keep things as they have been and let the grumbling and complaining wax and wane as it will do anyway lol

Shylaah

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Thanks everyone for their comments so far, and Shylaah's novel. :lol

When I get a chance I'll be replying to every point. Don't have time for that large a post right now though! lol

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

I agree with abelugo and shylaah. Especially with abelugo about the difference in builds which are done quick and purely for halloween(or any other kind of fest you have because 'we' don't really celebrate it) which I call speedbuilds and the builds which takes years.

The seperate Iron Man category... sounds fun, but it's also showing a rather 'sad' truth. It's not exactly sad, because people making costumes is what it's all about, but the amount of Iron Mans is too damn high (I HAD to make that meme. Sorry) I enjoy looking at them though, but sometimes I get lost in all the red and gold glory. :lol

I do think last year there was also the suggestion about the difference between sewn costumes and armor/foam/sturdy costumes... to me, sometimes these are hard to compare and decide. Something which looks awesome as an armor (ie Clive's Unicorn Gundam) would make me insane of joy. But there are also very well sewn costumes.(ie fevereon's Assassin's Creed works) And as someone who makes both, it's definitely something to think about...if possible.

And I'd like a panel of judges too. Maybe not as the entire conclusion, but they will review them. Maybe as some kind of judge winner and public winner? Or how do you call that?

My two cents.



(we don't have 1 and 2 cents anymore though.)

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Sorry if this was mentioned I just grazed the responses but will just put in my opinion and please take it with a grain of salt.

Votes from the same IP address should be restricted.

I agree.

There should be no photoshop allowed in gallery pics.

I completely agree

New members should not be allowed to enter/vote.

I personally think they need to have been a member for a minimum amount of time or have a certain set post count. This might help with just the hit it and quit it folks and get more long standing members

Entrants should not be allowed to change their gallery pic after the deadline has closed.

I agree fully.

The entry rules were too strict, lighten up. OR I saw you let "so and so" get away with something but not "so and so".

Nah I don't think they were strict.

Entrants shouldn't be allowed to solicit votes on other sites.

This falls back on the new member question

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Orange_Blend said:

New members should not be allowed to enter/vote.
I can see why people would ask for this but I think this is one that won't change. So far as the RPF is concerned contests are a great way to attract people to the site. Some noted that 99% of people that visit to vote likely never come back, that still leaves 1% that stick around and could potentially become contributing members.

Click to expand...

you did a great job in moderating this years costume contest....you handled it well and did an amazing job...

i think this year ended in controversy again....it seems unavoidable since the rpf is using the costume contest as a way to promote the site and try to gain new members.....i understand completely why they do it....i think the current members and the rpf want two different things....

members want a fair costume contest that awards are given to the people that deserve to win.....and not the ones who market themselves to their friends on facebook and twitter.....even though the rpf wants a fair costume contest...the rules they set make it impossible to have a fair contest....the votes on some of the winners this year and last year show how important it is to market themselves constantly on various websites and forums...a big win for the rpf cause it gains a lot of traffic and membership.....but a big loss to current members....


it is a big loss for the rpf as well....as others pointed out....99% of new members that register to vote dont come back.....while the 1% stay.....is the 1% really worth all of this trouble? is the 1% worth putting a sour taste in members mouths when amazing costumes lose to mediocre costumes.....it kills morale of several members....some been very vocal in the contest thread and other threads....and some remain silent...the rpf is hurting itself...

maybe a way to eliminate some of this tension is to create a new category.....eliminate a third place winner....and create a judges category....first two winners will be based on votes from current and new members...third winner will be based on a judges panel...a panel of unbias members excluding moderators, forum leaders, and contest mod....members like alan costillo, pharchivist, and hydin...this way its a win win situation for both sides...the rpf gets their traffic and member participation and the current members get a somewhat more fair contest....if the judges panel chose the same winner as the voters...maybe it can be an added bonus prize...


you basically covered this already.....but photoshop should be eliminated....most of the photoshop was awful.....some of the costumes were very misleading due to photoshop...

build threads....make them optional or get rid of them entirely.....about 16 out of 130 build threads have more than two pages of replies.....the other 114 barely have comments and views....the site is becoming more difficult to read and follow...the build threads for the purpose of entering in a contest is just adding more fluff to the site.....i used the search button and ended up with 6 pages of build threads for this contest....kinda defeats the purpose of the build thread

votes should be private......

do you know the percentage of returning contestants from last years costume contest?

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Just speaking off the top of my head:

I completely agree with not allowing PhotoShop-ed pictures. I'd hope that as the contest is about the costume that people will look at the actual costume rather than the setting, so changing backgrounds should be pointless. As for special effects etc imagine if someone made a costume with lights and gooey bits whereas someone else just photoshopped them in. Undoubtedly PhotoShop makes better photos if done well, but is this contest about the costume or the picture?
Which leads me to the build thread - itd help to have nice big obvious links to build threads if possible - perhaps on the preview page rather than the individual photo pages. Unfortunately I wonder how many people looked at enough build threads to make a fair judgement. Or we could have some stats for each costume to help people judge - say, cost, time, % scratch-built, etc - people are more likely to read this than a full build thread. Then again, to ensure the entrants are real long-term members, it could be that only entries with pre-existing build threads are accepted, though this would be a problem for Halloween speed-builds.
As for builds that took a week against builds that took a year, I don't quite agree that they need to be segregated. I've had builds last a year because I do an hour a week, whereas builds that take a week are only that quick because I don't sleep - seperating them would seem like punishing people for being too busy to work on a costume or for having enough spare time
I also like the idea of a judges choice to ensure its not just based on who has the most friends willing to sign up here.

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Yeah ER points out some good points. When the first costume contest happened I admit I was a vocal stinker because of how the person won the first time using just a store bought costume. ER pointed out to me it just wasn't worth it.

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Yeah, not worth it for me either.

When you've been a member for at least a couple of years, and your thread has 10+ pages of praise, your build thread gets featured on RPF's Facebook feed, and someone who registers the day before the contest gets a suspicious amount of votes with no vote history? Yeah, it stinks.

What is more important to you: Pleasing the community you've built, or throwing them under the bus for new members who won't stick around?

As it is now, none of the members in the male contest were members before the contest. How is that a showcase of the best RPF has to offer when these people aren't even members?

Hiding the voting results will help at the minimum. Creating a judging panel and doing away with public votes might be best - People will still have incentive to enter, but established community members will have a better chance.

Changing up categories and rules won't change unless the public voting goes away.

A minimum amount of quality, real posts in order to enter would help to. It doesn't deterr anyone from entering, just makes sure they make their presence known.

...also this might make me unpopular here, but the Hulk that won used a store bought mask! AGAINST THE RULES HE SHOULD HAVE PAINTED HIS FACE!

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Categories:

It would be nice if the kids category were divided into at least two age ranges -it is very difficult to decide between an adorable toddler in costume vs a detailed costume on a 12 year old.. The "Group" category also had this problem..

Photoshop:

I think a lightsaber blade or a background is ok -and having a build thread with various progress photos helps to clarify what the costume is. There shouldn't be any question as to what is costume and what is photo-shopped.

I also like the idea of having the voting totals hidden until after the voting period.

It would really, really be nice to have more than one vote per category -it would make the voting process much easier.

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

I think that in comparison, members of the RPF have a much stronger bond and personal investment in their costuming endeavors (which brought them to this site to begin with), and would rather participate in a contest based on merit than who can get the most people to join. To pretty much force us to promote our entries to remain even remotely viable (because others certainly will), instead of our work speaking for itself is really frustrating.


Though there may be a level of favoritism within the community, I think most would be more satisfied if the outcome was decided by our actual fellow peers and not by who has the most friends outside of the site.

Unfortunately, if its a publicly promoted contest (as in participants are encouraged to promote it), its not going to be any different than any other contest on the internet.


Votes from the same IP address should be restricted.

I agree, though IP restriction can easily deal with some potential cheaters, different IPs can easily be spoofed through proxy servers, which would be the first thing anyone with smarts would consider if they planned to cheat n' run on a forum.


There should be no photoshop allowed in gallery pics.
Oy.. most of those made me pass. I know some don't have access to good photographers, but Photoshopping it isn't going to make things better. I found that a cheap bedsheet or 2 from walmart makes for a decent backdrop if background is a potential issue.

Entrants should not be allowed to change their gallery pic after the deadline has closed.

I didn't know this was going on til the complaints, but yeah, no photo changes.

The entry rules were too strict, lighten up. OR I saw you let "so and so" get away with something but not "so and so".
would rather have that than find entries popping up here that were stolen from friends lol. Happened constantly to myself and friends this year, it was ridiculous. But hey, something to win!

New members should not be allowed to enter/vote.
Entrants shouldn't be allowed to solicit votes on other sites.

even if there's a rule in place, that really can't be stopped unless membership is frozen, which theRPF does not plan to do.

as a promotion tool and costuming showcase, it did its job. It promoted and showed costumes. As a "costume contest", highly debatable.

maybe rename it "halloween promotion contest"?

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Alrighty, pardon me in advance if I do this in multiple posts to keep things simpler (and smaller!)

Shylaah said:

Too many rules and people will lose interest or get so fouled up their entry might not count.......but I do think some things need changing and some tweaking done..........

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Agreed. :thumbsup

I liked that a build thread was required. What I always liked best about all the completions here at the RPF is the build threads that follow and it was great to see all the build threads for all the costumes.

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Yes. Although it was a bit of a pain to run around the forum finding/approving them all most of them did actually add to the content of the site which was the goal.

I liked the layout of the picture Gallery and liked how the images sifted order each time you went there so you weren't seeing the same costume popping out at you at each visit. I think we could easily lose the Dimensions tag on the tumbnails page, seemed more of a distraction than a help. Wish clicking on the member name would take you to their RPF profile instead of where ever it goes to some Gallery profile. I think the build thread should be automatically linked, but if that's not possible, then should be required to be the first thing posted by the entrant in their comment that show under their larger image.

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Agreed on all accounts. I'm not sure what the options are regarding the software that runs the gallery but definitely something to look into.

The actual voting process, clicking the blue text VOTE under the image, maybe the text should say CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR THIS ENTRANT or something or have an actual vote button icon, or something across the page that says YOU'VE NOT VOTED IN THIS CATEGORY YET and when a vote is successfully cast says YOU HAVE ALREADY VOTED IN THIS CATEGORY. Along with that goes the suggestion to not have the comments and the votes show up in the same list. This confused a lot of people. Some posted comments and thought that was their vote and then didn't "really" vote by clicking the blue VOTE text. Some thought they had accidentally and unintentionally voted for the wrong choice because it looked like the comment counted as a vote..........either way it surely skewed some of the results.

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There already is a "You have already voted in this category" displayed at the top of each when you vote and I think having a "Click here to vote for this entrant" under each pic would be really distracting. Perhaps the solution here is for me to be more clear as to how to vote?

As for the names being displayed as to who voted for whom. First of all I'm against the number of votes being shown during the voting period. With the open anyone can register and vote policy, showing the number of votes just leads to a feeding frenzie as the contest nears the end and IMO really, really skewes the votes. But if the names were eventually shown......I don't know that it serves to deter cheating if that was the intent, and maybe some people don't want others to know who they voted for. As an entrant, it's kinda nice knowing who voted for your costume, but I don't think the suspense would have killed me had I not known. Sticky situation if you want to vote for a certain costume but your friend is expecting you to vote for them which may not be the costume you'd choose if your name wasn't being taken down!?

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I agree with you here but again, I'm not sure if the software will allow anonymous voting. I must admit, I thought it would be. Something to look in to.

Which brings up another point, I was glad that the rules said we could photoshop the background ONLY because not all of us have access to some wonderfully photographic venues or to even a good photographer either, but some did full blown photoshopping that they had to know was way over the top and way off from the intent and spirit of the allow.

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Definitely. I'm not sure if it'll be a complete ban on photoshop or there will be some exceptions (such as lightsabers). Honestly, I'm leaning towards no exceptions. If one person can light their saber how is that fair to the Iron Man that wants to light their eyes?