Community Competitions Poll

[Mellow Ezlo]

Hey everybody!

With community competitions slowly making a comeback at this forum, I wanted to take a moment to find out where the general interests of the community lie in regards to these competitions. I want to get a consistent schedule made, but I wanted to first do this so I have an idea of how to structure it and which competitions tend to garner the most interest. Currently, we are rotating the competitions so we never have two running at the same time, but the schedule has been rather inconsistent and sporadic up to this point.

So, the main question I want to ask is what kind of schedule you would all like to see. Currently, the competitions each run for 2 weeks for submissions, with a 2 week voting period afterward. The options are:

• Do one round of a competition and then start the next one when the voting stage begins. Ex: One round of the writing competition goes by, then the drawing competition begins once the writing competition enters the voting stage. Then when the drawing competition enters the voting stage, the music competition will begin. This option would allow the competitions to rotate really quickly, but it could be difficult for people who want to participate in more than one different competition to balance them.

• Do one full round of a competition (entry plus voting) and then begin the next one after, meaning each competition would last for 4 whole weeks before another one begins.

• Do one full round of a competition, then wait a week or two before beginning the next one.

• Do one round of a competition, then begin the next one a week into the voting stage.

• Begin a new competition every week. The cycle will go by really quickly in this case, but activity would be a definite concern.

As of right now, we have three competitions active: The Writing Competition, the Drawing Competition, and the Music Competition. Other options include the Graphics Competition, and the MS Paint Competition. Please post below which competitions you are most interested in participating and/or voting in, and I will make a schedule according to interest. For example, if it's clear one competition garners more interest than the others, then maybe that one will run twice in a rotation instead of once, or will come up more often than others.

Please try to keep your own activity into account while voting above. And please post in this thread whether or not you are interested in participating in any of the many competitions we run here. Thanks everyone!

For information about the Writing Competition, Click Here.
For information about the Drawing Competition, Click Here.
For information about the Music Competition, Click Here.
For information about the MS Paint Competition, Click Here.

 

[Jirohnagi]

I think it's more a case of staggering the ones we do have, each one of those mentioned once a month but 7-8days apart from one another

 

[AncientPoe]

I like the idea of a monthly art one. 2 weeks to produce, two weeks to judge. 12 a year seems manageable.

 

[YIGAhim]

We need more Writing competitions. I loved participating in the 2 I was in

 

[A Link In Time]

My vote goes for starting a competition round every four weeks. Anything less and people havs too little time to submit. Anything more and interest is lost over time. Four weeks allows people to have time to look/read/listen to the latest submissions before people move on to the next round. That way no one gets overlooked.

 

[CynicalSquid]

I would like some time between competitions so things aren’t really rushed so I think 4-6 weeks would be best

 

[Doc]

I think something like three or four weeks is a good period of time. It gives enough time between each competition, and creates long enough gaps so that people or competitions don't get burned out.

 

[Alita the Pun]

I’m a music guy so obviously I want more music competitions. Other than that I’d like the rotations to be in two week intervals so your first option sounds great to me!

 

[Azure Sage]

Considering voting only needs the time it takes to press a button, I don't think that would be a big concern to handle while another competition is starting, as long as we have people available to tally the votes and run the other comp at the same time. Me personally, the Graphics and Writing competitions are most interesting to me, but I can barely motivate myself to do anything creative outside of my own head these days, so don't take that as an assurance that I'd participate in all of them.

 

[Princess Niki]

We should bring back gaming competitions again like Smash Bros and Pokemon. We could even add Mario Kart, Splatoon, and Arms to the mix.

 

[Nicolai]

I don't think that having voting rounds overlapping with entry rounds bogs things down, since it only takes a few minutes to decide on a vote. I don't have a preference on frequency. Maybe 3-4 weeks per.

I really liked the pumpkin carving competition. Perhaps we can have a competition having to do with arts and crafts, or maybe a card castle building competiton.

I think the music competitions should have a longer entry period than the other competitions. I could be wrong compared to those more dedicated to art and writing than me, but in my experience, a drawing takes an hour or an afternoon, and a paper takes maybe a few days, whereas a composition can take days or weeks. I'm worried right now about the current competition, seeing the prompt late and with only 9 days to go.

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

I think the music competitions should have a longer entry period than the other competitions. I could be wrong compared to those more dedicated to art and writing than me, but in my experience, a drawing takes an hour or an afternoon, and a paper takes maybe a few days, whereas a composition can take days or weeks. I'm worried right now about the current competition, seeing the prompt late and with only 9 days to go.

Written works can sometimes take days, depending on the person and the type of work. Two weeks is generally enough time to prepare something for all the competitions, and we don't want the competitions to last more than a couple weeks so that we can keep the cycle moving.

But with that said, I'm more than willing to extend the current deadline if necessary, but I'd generally prefer not to. Having a tight deadline adds to the challenge, which imo makes it more fun and rewarding.

And on that note, since the poll is so close, we're gonna try running a competition every two weeks from now on and see how that affects activity. If they're rather inactive, we'll try having a bit of a break in between them so people have a chance to catch their breath if they intend on participating in multiple competitions. Thanks everybody for voting and giving your input, it gives me a pretty good idea of what the community wants with these competitions. I'll keep the poll open for a couple more weeks anyway.