Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread - FINAL SUGGESTIONS IN POST 65

[TVsRobLowe]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Would it be possible to eliminate the 1st, 2nd, and honorable mention and instead have three types of contests with one winner in each type?
1. Public vote - no registration required to vote. Still brings visitors to the site, maybe more because registration isnt needed. Also has the lowest value prize.
2. Member only vote - highest prize value, voting limited to members registered before the contest.
3. Judges Vote - panel of judges vote. This is the contest that the dedicated and higher skilled costumes have a higher chance of winning.

Run them as three different contests, but allow entrants to enter all three if they choose.

 

[Doh2]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

I like Rob's idea of tiered voting, if not 3 separate contests. I'd be curious to see how many long-term members voted for which costume vs. how the newly registered voted. Then also a Judge's Pick.

If the voting is going to be open to the newly registered, how about a requirement for voters to have to vote in ALL categories (Men, Women, etc.) or their votes won't count? That will eliminate somebody joining just to vote for their friend. Don't know how much programming this would take.

Love the build threads. That was a good rule to put in place... plus, it was informative to see what people went through.

Even though I PhotoShopped my background, go ahead and forbid 'shopped elements in the gallery pic. Any elements.

Overall, I thought this year's contest was more successful than last. There seemed to be a lot less bitterness this time around.

 

[NormanF]

So I finally watched an episode of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" to see what everybody has been talking about. Anyway, they showed her at one of her "pageants" and judges chose the winner and runner up in each group and then there was a peoples choice. Then they brought out a pet pig, I don't know what that was about. While I was watching that I thought we could organize the voting the same way: For each group judges pick top two and then have a peoples choice. And them someone brings out a pet pig.

Sent from my Etch-A-Sketch

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

This contest definitely needs a pet pig involved! thumbsup

Will post my recommendations tonight.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

ALRIGHT!

Based on the input I've received here is what I will be suggesting for next year's costume contest.

Although I will be using definitive language in these rules keep in mind that this is my WISH list and is by no means approved yet. Once we see what we're capable of we'll see how many of these actually get enacted. This should serve to reveal my mindset though.


RULE AMENDMENTS:

1. No photo editing will be allowed to gallery pics. This includes things like lightsabers. Feel free to photoshop all you want in your build thread pics.

2. Votes will be limited to one per IP address. Although this doesn't make it impossible to cheat it does make it more difficult/laborious.

3. Entrants will not be permitted to change their gallery pic after voting has started. Preferably we'll try to physically lock it to prevent this.

4. Votes will be anonymous (ie: your username will not show up in the votes)

5. Build threads must have a minimum of 2 "in progress" pictures.


CATEGORY AMENDMENTS:

A stab in the dark here but I suggest changing the four categories to:

- Men
- Women
- Children (under 12)
- New Members (less than 1 year)

Controversial but I think this would ease the minds of a LOT of entrants. We've lost the Group category but as many have said it was the smallest one and had some issues being mixed adult & children. In this situation anyone who has been a member for under a year (or perhaps 6 months instead?) would have to enter in the "New Members" category whether they be male, female, or a child's costume. The way this is geared is so that you only have to enter in that category once then you're set for future contests to compete with the rest of the membership.

At first I was really wary about this idea but the more I thought about it the more I think it would help a lot of things. We'll see what the admin think.


PRIZE AMENDMENTS:

Prizes for each category will be (based on the $ values this year. $ subject to change):

1st Place (Voted) - $200
2nd Place (Voted) - $100
Judges Pick - $150

Judges will be appointed by the RPF staff and will be members of this site with strong reputations in the costuming section. They will not be permitted to enter the contest of course as they will be judging it. They will be asked to judge based on skill, imagination, and execution.


I hope these suggestions will greatly reduce the controversy next year while keeping it so that everyone can play in all aspects.

 

[TVsRobLowe]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Sounds good to me. A simple fix that solves a lot.

 

[Guri]

Wow! Great job sorting through all our jibber jabbering and coming up with a rules that make sense and touches on everyone's concerns! (everyone's that I could see, anyway)

You should win an award for diplomacy, Orange_Blend!

 

[Doh2]

I like all the suggestions!

 

[kialna]

This is great! I'm all for it.

 

[TONKA1675]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

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?

Are you speaking solely of the winners? I was in the male contest and I've been a member since someone told me about it at Dragon Con 2 years ago and I had to wait for an open registration period to become one.


And I also think that those are some great changes Orange!

 

[TVsRobLowe]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Are you speaking solely of the winners? I was in the male contest and I've been a member since someone told me about it at Dragon Con 2 years ago and I had to wait for an open registration period to become one.


And I also think that those are some great changes Orange!

Yeah, it was a typo. Sorry about that.

 

[TONKA1675]

No problem, I just wanted to make sure I was on the same page!

 

[ziffa27]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

Sound good to me and well done.

 

[Amish Trooper]

I especially like the new member category the most. Kudos OB for pushing through and doing a great job.

 

[aeryn]

changes sound good! and, as much as i love competing among you guys (seriously, who doesn't like to be running among the best?), i'd love to be a judge! i judge at the denver comic con, but i'm not sure my presence on the RPF is strong enough to be in the running for that. i've got 10mo to work on that though. i love geeking out about others' costumes as much as making my own.

 

[Bigdaddy]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

I just finished reading this thread (3 pages but BIG posts :lol )
1st: Thanks to OB so much, I think the contest was handled really well, and all his work is appreciated (what have you done with him Micheal?!!)
2nd: I found the RPF while looking for help making my daughter's halloween costume this year. I have not been doing much costuming since she was born 10 years ago, so I'm not really part of the community on or off-line. After letting her checkout some peoples props and costumes here (thank you for keeping this site clean ) she asked if I would enter her in the contest.

Keep in mind that one of my most strongly held beliefs in regard to this community is that if more people just KNEW about what we do, they would want to be here and it is only because they don't know that such things exist or are possible that we don't have more people participating as a part of this community. What we do, as a community, is infinitely cool. We reach into a movie screen and pull clothes, costumes, props and models from celluloid into the real world. How freakin' awesome is that and who hasn't wished at some point in their life to own SOMETHING from a movie or TV show? What we do has MASS appeal, but a limited reach. Most of our efforts center around extending that reach and that is what a contest like this is good for to us as a site.

That is excactly what I discovered through participating in the contest, and as long as I can keep on Art's good side I plan on sticking around the site and contributing what I can. So I am an example of the 1% ers (not the political kind!)
I can't help but notice most if not all of the folks making snarky comments about the "recruitment drive" and "popularity" contests don't seem to have premium memberships, so everybody wants this awesome FREE community to interact in, but then launch into complaining about how the contest is run? Its FREE! Get it? :facepalm Don't like the rules?:cry Easy answer : Don't enter.
I don't do social media, the RPF is it for me, so I couldn't promote my daughters costume for votes, but I really had no expectation of winning, neither she or I have ever been in a contest before. Regardless it was a great time, and very exciting for her, she was very pleased with her 14 votes .
I like the changes Micheal is suggesting but would like to see the group catagory stay and have a chance to grow, there is potential for people here to do some really cool stuff with that! I don't like the idea of a NOOBIE catagory, just because somebody joined less than 6 months or a year ago (that will be the next thing complaints will be about! whats a noob?) dosen't mean they are new to the hobby.
Also the mythical 1% number being used, I count 132 entries, we only need 1 more noob that sticks around and we can put this made up number to rest :behave
Maybe have a Members only (not the jacket) contest before halloween?

Off topic but since this is page three without a pic I'm putting one up! :love
Thanks Art and ALL the Mods for making this such a fun site!

 

[aeonpulse]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

2. Votes will be limited to one per IP address. Although this doesn't make it impossible to cheat it does make it more difficult/laborious.

This is a must, in my opinion. This will hopefully silence the endless complaints of people supposedly creating multiple accounts to vote for their own costumes and all that.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Costume Contest Rules Discussion Thread

This is a must, in my opinion. This will hopefully silence the endless complaints of people supposedly creating multiple accounts to vote for their own costumes and all that.

It won't. But it'll mean there are less of them.

Glad folks are liking the proposals. Mods are busy with other stuff right now but hopefully we'll be able to try a couple of these on our next contest and keep working through them until the next Halloween one. :thumbsup