Discussion: How to improve contests

**Neonimage** · 10-24-2006, 01:25 PM

Thats good and also if they have hosted other comps and to give links to the ones they have hosted previously so we can see if the're ended

**angele803** · 10-25-2006, 04:13 PM

Okay, I am getting ready to request a couple of rule changes. However, I want input from you designers (and even contest holders). I mean this is YOUR forum and I want to make changes that you think are positive. Let me know what you think.

1. Mandatory Watermarking - I will remove posts and send a warning to designers when a watermark is not on a design entry.

2. Mandatory Closing Date - (contest can be extended, but a new closing date must be announced before original closing date has passed)

3. Listing Template - we talked about this earlier and I think we came to the conclusion that the following would be a decent template. If you have more to add or want to remove something, let me know...
1. Type of contest (logo, banner, web design, web design with code, other)
2. Website/Location where graphic will be presented.
3. General Description of design requirements
4. Preferred Colors
5. Size
6. Closing Date
7. Prize
8. Desired file format(s)
9. Is this contest runnin at any other forum? If so, list those forums.

I would also like to see a feedback/rep system. I know we have talkupation, but I would really like to see a more robust form of this at least for the contest area. I would like the winning designer and the contest holder to receive a point when a contest is successfully completed. I would like comments made from each party to be available for other designers and contest holders to view. This way, we can form some trust among members. Contest holders can see that desingers have delivered their files, and designers can see that contest holders have paid the designers in previous contests.

Deposits, Listing fees, and pre-payments are items that are up in the air and I am not sure how to handle them. I believe the above changes will improve the contests, and we might not have to worry too much about deposits, listing fees and prepayments.

Anyway...discuss. I want to make this proposal soon, but I want your feedback.

Thanks!
Stephanie

**Captor of Sin** · 04:50 PM

Great job! Everything looks great to me.

I would say try this out for the time being before incorporating paid listings. This may cut out the scams and nonsense.

**woosh** · 10-26-2006, 06:03 AM

Just another thought, contests have been a big letdown lately with all the problems of scams and the like lately how about some friendly competition between ourselves, one to get work circulating so people who are interested in obtaining work can see our design skills and two to maybe give each other a bit of a morale boost lol. Maybe we can have someone submit a design comp based on the new ideas and recieve a big whack of talkupation for the winning entry and maybe one for each participant, maybe this can be decied through a poll at the end or something, I dunno lol just an idea.

**Critizin** · 10-26-2006, 08:37 AM

Woosh i love friendly competition good way to get ur work out there

Heres my thoughts

1. Mandatory Watermarking - (Perfect) Very Good Thing To Have.

2. Mandatory Closing Date - Does this mean a contest holder cant just close a contest when they find one they like? even if they do have a closing day for example what if i was to post another contest and. i say the contest will end oh how bout oct 31st

lol... but if find one i abosolutly like on oct 28th... can they end the contest then?

3. Listing Template - we talked about this earlier and I think we came to the conclusion that the following would be a decent template. If you have more to add or want to remove something, let me know...
1. Type of contest (logo, banner, web design, web design with code, other)
2. Website/Location where graphic will be presented.
3. General Description of design requirements
4. Preferred Colors
5. Size
6. Closing Date
7. Prize
8. Desired file format(s)
9. Is this contest runnin at any other forum? If so, list those forums.

^ Template is awsome..

And heres an idea that can go with woosh's For the friendly competitions we can jsut make a monthly sticky with a theme for the contest to be held and the winner gets oh i donno... would be better if we had a point system cause talkupation doesnt really do anything... but for now winner gets like a certain amount of talkupation for winning.

If we were to do one rite now you could make the theme: Halloween Webmaster-Talk logo etc etc just a suggestion..

And just a note i still havent seen any new competitions....

**Captor of Sin** · 10-26-2006, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by woosh

Just another thought, contests have been a big letdown lately with all the problems of scams and the like lately how about some friendly competition between ourselves, one to get work circulating so people who are interested in obtaining work can see our design skills and two to maybe give each other a bit of a morale boost lol. Maybe we can have someone submit a design comp based on the new ideas and recieve a big whack of talkupation for the winning entry and maybe one for each participant, maybe this can be decied through a poll at the end or something, I dunno lol just an idea.

That's a great idea. Maybe angele803 could set it up and be the judge or assign a couple people to be the judges.

**woosh** · 10-26-2006, 09:08 AM

Oooo Halloween is my favourite time of the year i did see a comp in another design forum to create a halloween postcard which looked like fun

and yea no comps lately am bored lol

**Critizin** · 10-26-2006, 09:38 AM

Halloween used to be my favorite time of year... but its not now cause im 17 cant go trick or treating anymore and im not quite old enough to be handin out the candie to the little kiddies as i find that to be a really boring job so i just go out wif a couple of friends egg a few houses here and there break a few pumpkins etc etc... lol

**woosh** · 10-26-2006, 09:42 AM

lol i'm wiccan so i celebrate it still

**Neonimage** · 10-26-2006, 10:51 AM

I think that there should be a max limit of the deadline line they can't say oh next year, I'd say a fair deadline would be like a month? Anyway another idea is if you post a thread under the comp thread then it automaticlly subscribes you to the thread (without you having to tick a box) so this means holders keep getting reminders send to there email everytime a new post is made so there less likely to foget AND if there are fakeing it im sure it will do well to annoy them xD

**liljon28** · 12:04 PM

"If someone want to post a contest there should be other regulations other than 20 post. This will drive potential clients away. They may not want to be going around the forum posting about things they don't like or want to talk about just to get 20 post.
Something like insurance will be better. Even if it is $3.00 to post a competition.
Just a thought casue it would be a shame to see this go downhill. WebMasters Talk is a very useful thing for upcomming computer artists (coding is a art too

"

like i said in another psot there should be a small fee to be paid for posting a contest. not jsut anyone out of the blue hosting a contest. I would of recodmended for the money to be devided among the designers but alot of designers will join the contest so it wouldnt make much sence instead.

Webmaster talk keeps the money and every month the money they got they use it to have a inter competition among. Like WebMasters Contest - Logo themed on web 2.0 and the best artist gets the total money collected for the month.

Just a thought anyway
Johns

Edit: The contest should have a maximum deadline as no more than a week.. either 5 working days or 7 with sunday and saturday included.

**angele803** · 10-26-2006, 12:22 PM

wow! Lots of feedback today! I am happy about that. I really like the idea of a friendly competition. I am going to set something up in just a little bit.
Thanks for all the input.

**Neonimage** · 10-26-2006, 02:10 PM

lol like that contest but how are we gonna vote and make sure u don't vote 4 ur self??

**angele803** · 10-26-2006, 02:22 PM

Im not sure. I haven't decided for sure if we are going to have a vote on it of if I will just pick a winner. I think it would be great to have the community vote for the winning design, Im just not sure how to do it. I am open to suggestions! lol!

**Neonimage** · 10-26-2006, 03:40 PM

When the contest ends we could send u a PM of who we think deservs to win and then becuase there PMed from us you will know if we say our self. So that might be a good idea

**CannonBallGuy** · 10-26-2006, 08:08 PM

Can we have a "Use correct grammar, punctuation and spelling." rule, please?

**liljon28** · 10-26-2006, 11:43 PM

dont this forum has polls enabled if it does we wont have to worry about voting foryour self

**angele803** · 10-27-2006, 01:03 PM

Quote:

From LogoMaster -

how about this suggestion angele

a rule saying that if a contest is done so there must be a winner
contest holder should pay a part of the prize first to the site till the winner selected he give the rest of the money and the site pay the winner the money they took

for example:
i am a contest holder will give a prize of $50 to a winner
before making the contest i have to pay $20 to the site, then when a winner selected i only pay the winner $30 and the site give him the $20 they took at the first

i think this a good way to gurantee, the contest holder will have to pick a winner so that his money is not gone for nothing

please tell me what do you think about that

Your suggestion about a contest holder being required to choose a winner is good. I have been thinking about this. The problem though is that I am afraid it will drive away contest holders. Our design community isnt that big yet, and a contest holder may only get 1-2 entries. However, if we allow them to extend the contest, they may receive more entries. Hmmmm. When our design community grows, we definitely can require that a contest holder choose a winner. I think if we continue the "friendly contests" and everyone participates, we will form a nice "webmaster-talk designer portfolio", and we can show contest holders that we are very capable of creating designs worthy of the prizes. I would like to see what other members think about this.

Your suggestion about paying a part of the prize up front is really good in theory. The problem comes into play with the execution. First we have to agree on a payment system (paypal probably). And though paypal is probably the most widespread payment system, it isnt available to everyone. Then there is the issue of fees. Not everyone here is in the US and to be able to transfer money to other countries, you have to sign up for an account that charges a fee on EVERYTHING. So if someone transfers money to a webmaster-talk account, we will lose money in fees there, then we will lose money when we transfer it to the contest winner. So for a $20 deposit, the winner will receive closer to $15 when all the fees are done with. Then there is the problem of getting the staff to keep up with everything. I am willing to do this. Right now we dont have many contests and it wouldn't be too difficult, but if we grow we will have to have more moderators. I think that if we incorporate the things in my proposal, we might be able to avoid a deposit or fee for contests. Will you tell me what you think of my proposal and give me some ideas on any changes you think I should make to it? It is post #62 in this thread.

I would like to hear other members thoughts and ideas on LogoMaster's ideas too. So please post on it.