Going to go through this one point by point.
These contests get worse every year and I predicted exactly who would win because I know how these contests work as they are too easily predictable. They are nothing more than popularity contests, I could get about 2,000 people to vote me for too from Facebook but I have too much pride to win a contest based on friends voting. As I said in previous years only older members here should be able to vote period, not people joining just to vote for friends. Secondly just because a costume is very complex and expensive to make does not necessarily make it the best costume. My costume was not easy to make and also not really cheap, but I do not have the budget and time to sculpt an entire costume just for this contest as I am too busy making costumes for others usually. I could make a full body suit costume that I could barely move in as well, but it "looks great" even though I can't move and can barely see it might still win. But how practical is it to wear? I could make a statue look great too and say it is a costume.
Your criteria may be different from any other individual. Fact is that voting and judgements are based on a photograph and a build thread. If this was a contest in which all contestants were in a room then mobility may matter, but it doesn't. Also, we can't limit voting to older members, once we enable voting in a gallery all members can vote. So instead of developing code we simply let everyone know that they're on the same playing field. Have 2,000 friends on Facebook that would have voted for you? Get them. You would have beaten the highest voted costume in the contest by 1,950 votes. That's right, the highest voted costume in the entire contest just got 50 votes. Hardly an indication of vicious recruiting. Also, if you "figured out" the key to this contest is to build a statue instead of a costume then build one. Quite frankly, I don't see any of the winners, voted or judged, that look like statues. I see very carefully crafted costumes, and in many cases, professional photos to show them off. Top prize here is $250. Hardly a sum that people would build something completely impractical for. These are all costumes.
That should not be necessary to win a contest. Also as usual and as predicted, the judges took the easy way out and voted for the 3rd highest voted person as the winner, which they did before and are simply agreeing with the voters. Sorry but that is CRAP and makes the judges pic worthless.
What this indicates to ME is that the voted picks were very fair. For the record, in the New Members category the judges picked 17th place. For the Men's category Biniccr was the runaway winner with three of the four judges giving him a perfect score. It was hardly a "let's pick third place" decision and there was disagreements from the individual judges. I'm not going to defend their picks because I don't have to. I look at all the entries and can't say that I'd make a significantly different call if I were a judge.
That being said all of the costumes were great and I am not saying anything bad about them, but the contest, judging and rules are still horrible and flawed and favor popularity,
Any vote, by definition, is a popularity contest.
and complex sculpting builds in every way and those who already have enough money anyway.
Time and skill will trump money any time. However just because a person had money doesn't mean that they can't enter a costume contest. This is a contest, not a charity.
Votes should be made by members here who have been around a year or more and because they want to, not just to help a friend win.
Members here that know each other won't vote for their friends? Nonsense. Many will vote for the costume they think is best, but some will vote for people they like. Happens in any voted contest and I'm sure it happened here as well. However again, looking at the winners there isn't any situation where someone in a cardboard box ran away with the vote. This seems all on the up and up.
As I said I predicted this all would happen and this is why many did not join this year as stated, and if these current set of rules stay in place this was my last contest. I win plenty of contests that I go to in person anyway and I don't care about the prizes, but I am not going to waste time entering every year when I know exactly who is going to win and that the judges are going to jump on the bandwagon and pick the 3rd highest voted so they are "safe", and I refuse to "beg for votes" just to win.
Well, for starters we have approximately the same amount of participants as last year (we would have had more but I had to remove some due to not completing all the requirements). And again, I call BS on your assessment of the judges as stated above. If you don't care about the prizes, and you self admittedly don't have the time to make something that you feel could win, and you're not going to try and get people to vote for you... Why enter? You're coming off as sour grapes. I'm glad you win lots of costume contests in person, you didn't win this one. That gives you three options for next year: Step up your game, try and campaign for votes, or don't enter. Don't be sore about it, learn from it. If you think you know how to "game the system" then do it and prove me wrong. I'm calling you out. Of all 12 winners this year you know how many repeat winners we have?
TWO. Neither of them taking first place. The rules are fair and if they were easily played you would see more repeat winners.
You see most of the voters only come to vote for their buddies and then never visit again. That is BS, and the the RPF encourages that because all they care about is getting new members, even if they are gone after the voting. You should not have to ask anyone to vote for you your costume should speak for itself. So make that one less entry next year.
Looked at the votes for the winners, go figure, I see a LOT of established members in that voting list. Again, calling you out. Your predictions are bogus as are your facts. I'm cool with one less entry next year.
