If you have an idea,

[jimmy1012]

If you have an idea for a competition, or a new kind of competition (i.e. templates,3-D renders,etc.) don't hesitate to post it/them here. This thread is a safe thread, no idea is a bad idea. No idea bashing.

[enigmatic]

maybe something on nature and our place of living enigmaitic

[zapphnath]

How about finding some ratty, old, dirty, stained, ripped, peices-missing type of photo and having people do a restoration/colorisation project with it.
(Since most Photoshop "contests" on most sites seem to deal with fantasy, make-a-bug-look-like-a-Transformer or put-George-Bush's-face-on-Madonna's-body -type manipulations, something like this might help people learn some of the more "real-world" applications of this...uhh...application).

[enigmatic]

Thats it something real something borrowed ???Few cuts and tucks...

[ParaSnake]

why can't we have programming competition?

[JcR]

how about a 2d art contest

[bedlam123]

Originally Posted by jimmy1012

If you have an idea for a competition, or a new kind of competition (i.e. templates,3-D renders,etc.) don't hesitate to post it/them here. This thread is a safe thread, no idea is a bad idea. No idea bashing.

Let's try not to be too limiting or exclusive. What I mean is, if the competitions become events that only advanced or intermediate users can feel comfortable joining, then we are losing a part of our member base that needs recognition.

We want newbies and beginners to be able to participate, show their work, and still feel good about what they do, but if all the competitions feature works that require higher user skills our newbies and beginners won't feel comfortable displaying their works, make sense?

[jimmy1012]

How do you do such a thing bedlam? If 100 people enter a contest, 99% of them lose. There is no way around that. Maybe we could just have the contests as something to do, like a creativity work out.
I thought that if we had more kinds of contests and more contests there would be more winners, and it could help people find out what they want to do.
Ok reading your post a second time I understand more. How should we go about it though?

also, Parasnake. The idea sounds cool but I would have no idea how a coding comepetition would work. If you want a coding competition you would have to write up the rules and send them to me for posting.

[bedlam123]

Originally Posted by jimmy1012

How do you do such a thing bedlam? If 100 people enter a contest, 99% of them lose. There is no way around that. Maybe we could just have the contests as something to do, like a creativity work out.
I thought that if we had more kinds of contests and more contests there would be more winners, and it could help people find out what they want to do.
Ok reading your post a second time I understand more. How should we go about it though?

also, Parasnake. The idea sounds cool but I would have no idea how a coding comepetition would work. If you want a coding competition you would have to write up the rules and send them to me for posting.

You are heading in the right direction I think. Having more than 1 competition ongoing at the same time. The 3D modeling just opened up, how about a photography competition, perhaps a freeze motion only. The photo must catch a subject in motion and freeze it, by using the camera, not PS or other graphic manipulation. Or some other aspect of photography that will display a competency and yet be competitive.

What about a competition that provides you with some graphics/photos and you must create a poster/flyer/announcement that allows free use of creativity only in limited areas, such as text elements, or a background.

How about a competition to design an advertising page for Biorust?

People always need avatars. Why not allow creation of 10 ( or even more) original, new, avatars, which will be available to use?

You are correct, of course, in a contest there will always be at least one participant that does not win, but, we want enough variety and different levels of skill that all will feel capable of participating.

I hope this makes sense, maybe my viewpoint is slightly off and you should just ignore my comments. But, I think we can arrive at a good solution.

You are doing a great job, this is an area that is not easily navigated, you have my support in whatever way you require!

[enigmatic]

Originally Posted by bedlam123

Let's try not to be too limiting or exclusive. What I mean is, if the competitions become events that only advanced or intermediate users can feel comfortable joining, then we are losing a part of our member base that needs recognition.

We want newbies and beginners to be able to participate, show their work, and still feel good about what they do, but if all the competitions feature works that require higher user skills our newbies and beginners won't feel comfortable displaying their works, make sense?

This seems to need some thinking.maybe if like. 3d art then only those that do 3d....because thats the levels of the skill set...area.So maybe set 4 of areas in clude tools rankings...another way around this is have one set object as main core and have rule, no melting down object and create theme for it..so it can be for all art in all areas.Though still the grading of works is a hard one? Maybe ?????I don't know that place.."I am an artist"....Thats aways been judged...Art is'nt built on ego's any way.Enigmatic

[bedlam123]

Originally Posted by enigmatic

This seems to need some thinking.maybe if like. 3d art then only those that do 3d....because thats the levels of the skill set...area.So maybe set 4 of areas in clude tools rankings...another way around this is have one set object as main core and have rule, no melting down object and create theme for it..so it can be for all art in all areas.Though still the grading of works is a hard one? Maybe ?????I don't know that place.."I am an artist"....Thats aways been judged...Art is'nt built on ego's any way.Enigmatic

Been researching some of the competitions on the net. Very limited. Not a lot of diversity being offered, at least not thru forums.

Did get some other ideas.

One example would be a competition that limits the graphics to primitive elements only, such as, circles, squares, rectangles, etc. with use of only specified colors.

Promotional flyer for a Hockey league. Specify some sort of required text, such as (this is just an example), "You Got The Puck."

Coasters for a bar/pub featuring their logo, maybe Firehouse Bar & Grill or Firehouse Pub.

A custom tailor promotional piece, billboard,mag ad.

Develop product packaging for a bakery. Use on folk art type graphics and must be readily adaptable for 4-5 different products from the line (such as multiple types of cookies, or breads).

By limiting and/or allowing some things the skills level required can be tweaked.

Another train of thought would be to simply request that more advanced/intermediate users not participate in specific competitions.

As Enigmatic says,the grading of work is difficult.

[zapphnath]

The way some sites do it is to have beginner to advanced categories. To use Worth1000 as an example, if someone does well in a set amount of beginner comps, he/she is no longer allowed to enter - must move on to intermediate beyond that.

This, actually, led to me leaving Worth1000. When I brought up the subject, I was attacked by people saying how wrong I was and using things that I had already said as a way of proving me wrong.
For example:
Me: "People should, of course, be allowed to enter whatever contest they want to, but..."
Typical response: "You're wrong. People should be allowed to enter any contest they want to."
The point I was trying to make, at the time, was that people should be encouraged to enter the beginner comps, at first. I found far too many examples of people entering the advanced comp on their first try, doing poorly, and never returning to the site. To me, this doesn't convey "community", it only forces discouragement.
The whole point of the "community" aspect of a site like this is to help our fellow artists. Help them learn. Help them become better. While contructive criticism is a good thing, anything that makes anyone feel bad about themselves or want to give up is not so good. (I remember one comment I had read on someone's work at Worth1000 - "If this is the best you can do, you might as well quit", or something to that effect). (On a more personal note, one of the site's moderators posted, in an Introductions-style thread, "Welcome. If you want to see a mediocre Worthian, go here - LINK", and the link led to my homepage. I wouldn't say I was mediocre - I ended up in second place in the second comp I'd entered. Sure, I was still a noob, at the time, but I consider myself to be far from mediocre. Suffice it to say that he, as well as the site's owner, recieved a nasty message from me, right after I deleted every post I'd ever made in the forums and right before I quit. You know what they say: "With friends like that, who needs enemies?).

[enigmatic]

Though pondering on this subject some more..All artists perhaps like challages, even newbies.So maybe give credit where credit is due.So we set rules..ArtistTry this one for bread why not pair up 1 newbie 1 oldie.set the rules and go for it split 50 50 and draw straws...

[bedlam123]

Originally Posted by zapphnath

The way some sites do it is to have beginner to advanced categories. To use Worth1000 as an example, if someone does well in a set amount of beginner comps, he/she is no longer allowed to enter - must move on to intermediate beyond that.

This, actually, led to me leaving Worth1000. When I brought up the subject, I was attacked by people saying how wrong I was and using things that I had already said as a way of proving me wrong.
For example:
Me: "People should, of course, be allowed to enter whatever contest they want to, but..."
Typical response: "You're wrong. People should be allowed to enter any contest they want to."
The point I was trying to make, at the time, was that people should be encouraged to enter the beginner comps, at first. I found far too many examples of people entering the advanced comp on their first try, doing poorly, and never returning to the site. To me, this doesn't convey "community", it only forces discouragement.
The whole point of the "community" aspect of a site like this is to help our fellow artists. Help them learn. Help them become better. While contructive criticism is a good thing, anything that makes anyone feel bad about themselves or want to give up is not so good. (I remember one comment I had read on someone's work at Worth1000 - "If this is the best you can do, you might as well quit", or something to that effect). (On a more personal note, one of the site's moderators posted, in an Introductions-style thread, "Welcome. If you want to see a mediocre Worthian, go here - LINK", and the link led to my homepage. I wouldn't say I was mediocre - I ended up in second place in the second comp I'd entered. Sure, I was still a noob, at the time, but I consider myself to be far from mediocre. Suffice it to say that he, as well as the site's owner, recieved a nasty message from me, right after I deleted every post I'd ever made in the forums and right before I quit. You know what they say: "With friends like that, who needs enemies?).

Sounds like you ran into a bunch of real 'nasties', glad you found your way here. Enigmatic is right, we all like challenges, the push to be better, do more, learn more. Competitive teaming is an idea I had not considered.

Structuring the competitions and moving users/competitiors from one level of participation to another would also be a good way to work the contests.

We don't want things to become so complicated that it takes lots of oversight to run.

A lot more input from other users would help.

[Man1c M0g]

Originally Posted by bedlam123

Sounds like you ran into a bunch of real 'nasties', glad you found your way here. Enigmatic is right, we all like challenges, the push to be better, do more, learn more. Competitive teaming is an idea I had not considered.

Structuring the competitions and moving users/competitiors from one level of participation to another would also be a good way to work the contests.

We don't want things to become so complicated that it takes lots of oversight to run.

A lot more input from other users would help.

OOOoh, this conversation is filling me with a sense that i'm definately doing something right! You see, I've designed a battles system for BioRUST, being coded by Scrowler, that is nearing completion. It will have beginner/intermedia/expert level categories, but you wont be restricted in the categories... at least not to the extent that you will be banned from entering certain categories once you win lots. Its gonna be a 'positive encouragement' thing, in that the duels/small-group-battles will clearly show who you are competing against BEFORE you accept... and anyone with expert abilities trying to compete in beginner categories will probably have nobody accepting their challenges. Competing in higher level battles will, of course, also be worth more biocredits.

Still, only time will tell whether this system works perfectly... I hope to have it all up and running by the mid-to-end of February.