Guys...please...not too much discussion of who won and how many times? It makes me feel rather insecure about the integrity of my judging style. But thank goodness somebody sees what I'm at least attempting to do:
At least Strop is judging the idea, creativity and way the creativity comes out, instead of favoriting the ones that draw better than others.
Can't say I'm perfect at all (and this DM idea might be running out of hand a little), but I did think it was
pretty evident.
Actually you know what, screw political correctness, I'll make the comment that has to be made. I do place a lot of stock on the idea and how that idea is brought out. If I were to judge based on technical merit alone, the list of winners would be very narrow, very narrow indeed, as was the case in the previous competitions.
This is perfectly fine when the competition is relatively small. But I noticed pages upon pages of comments accumulated about how so-and-so
always won the contest. In any competitive pursuit, there is fun but there is also the potential for jealousy and resentment etc. etc.
Because this is a community activity, I have a number of things in mind, even while keeping the integrity of the art in this thread in mind. I want to foster the competition as interest in it grows, since I have the
community in mind. That's not just a personal agenda, but also a duty I have as a moderator. I also want to foster as many individual talents and efforts as possible, without appearing discriminatory or excluding anybody. I expect that not everybody will be happy with what I do and I'll listen to objections/complaints as much as possible but I can only do so much.
Furthermore I would like to point out that the range of winners (and placegetters)
has been quite narrow lately. I believe this is linked to the general attitudes and the quality of the ideas that are being submitted lately- different approaches will have different effects depending on execution but some people are naturally inclined to approaches that will appeal to me.
Zophia, you won the Halloween contest because both your idea and execution I found superior, simple as that really :P Nothing to do with insulting me! For...the most part... c.c Looking over your previous entries, you're more than capable of articulating ideas well, and now you appear to have keyed into what makes me tick, it remains to be seen how you'll respond.
Cenere has won multiple times due to, well, what I'm going to call "whole greater than sum of parts" phenomenon, otherwise known as "x-factor". Because that's not clear, just look for trends in my commentary.
Gantic wins because Gantic is on a mission to explore the boundaries of expression and relevancy and sometimes things just click and create deeply throught-provoking pieces coupled with unique execution.
Cholokid won because at the time his use of Chuck Norris lulz was extremely fresh for the Art Contest. Since then Cholokid has formed a trademark humor which is great fun but generally less likely to win you that merit. Provided you're going for the merit.
So that's my thought process currently. See what you make of it.
I dunno Strop because I haven't seen Strops work
Most weeks I slip a "guest" post into these threads...I tend to neglect my own thread because of the community-oriented activities that I run, including this and the poetry contest.
