[Saga]Lets talk about the Saga banner 'contest'

And I say 'contest', because its more of a sham.

The thread for the original submission is here.

The thread for voting is here.

Now, the contest was started on the 11th of June. Banners were submitted until the 27th of July. Thats around 6-7 weeks.

The voting was started, and for some unknown reason, jacemathem was allowed to be voted on, despite having an unfinished banner.

Now, the vote goes along, and at the end of voting, Zoe has won. But Spike isnt around, because of internet problems.

So the new 2nd in charge, Dashy, extends the contest, for some unknown reason. But he changes it, so all previous votes are nullified.

Then that vote ends on August 11, and jace is declared the winner, even though he hasnt even finished the banner , a full 2 months after the contest began.

He hadnt finished the banner 2 months after the contest began, and he was allowed to win it.

Now, I pointed that out, and Dashy came into the thread and said that we werent allowed to publically discuss this issue. Why is that? Why cant the public discuss this crock of a contest?

Now, another week and a half later, and the banner still isnt finished. Thats 2.5 months after the contest started.

Jace gave a weak excuse of a recent problem in the family. Bummer that, but that doesnt excuse 2.5 months.

It has to be the most puzzling forum banner contest I've ever seen. And it reeks of dodgy work by Dashy.

And if Dashy wont allow public discussion, then we must come here.

Now, dont chicken out of this. I want discussion about this 'contest'. Surely an unfinished banner shouldnt be allowed in the contest? Surely the winner of the contest at the end of legit voting should have the banner uploaded. Surely if the 'winning' banner isnt ready 2.5 months after the start, it should be scrapped.

What does everyone think of this.

And if the mods dont allow discussion, then it'll tell everyone more than enough.

 

Well, I think that the an unfinished banner shouldn't be allowed to enter the contest, period.

 

um, yeah, I remember the competition, and I actually voted on this one. Some excellent work, but IIRC jace's wasn't actually completed at the time of the competition (although it was starting to look good).

Surely there's a rule against submitting partially completed work in a banner competition ? I remember that jace's wasn't finished, but I figured he'd have it up within a few days, or certainly before the end of the comp. But to win a competition without actually having a completed entry just doesn't sound right to me.

It looked like a very popular submission, and was certainly getting the Lion's share of the votes, but I really don't think it should have been there.

Sorry if there's been some real life troubles that have come into play, but surely thats time to withdraw rather than get an extension - especially seeing as there were so many excellent entries into the competition.

To take matters to the extreme, could I submit a blank 764x110 and say "to be completed" ? It really must be a kick in the teeth to the other artists who put in time and effort into the other entries.

 

Sounds like a crock to me. I've ran banner comps in the past and I only ever included fully completed works in the final votes (well, at least to my knowledge). An unfinished banner shouldn't have been allowed in the contest since it is just unfair to the other banner designers who actually completed their banners on time.

 

It looked like a very popular submission, and was certainly getting the Lion's share of the votes, but I really don't think it should have been there.


Actually, at the end of the contest, Zoe won. Jace did NOT finish with the lions share of votes.

But people voted after the deadline, and voted for Jace. People being newbies that have hardly posted at the JC, and people that havent posted in Saga. Hardly forum regulars.

 

Yeah well, hate to say I told you so but.....

Saga shouldn't be run like every other Community forum here because rubbish like this happens.
If the current mods don't have the cajones to put their foot down when this happens, someone should be appointed who can. This is a text book case of vote rigging, considering the majority of votes for his (clearly unfinished) banner came from outside the forum, from people who had never posted in the forum in the first place.

Very disappointing turn for what could and should be an increasingly "flagship" forum for this site.

 

Actually, at the end of the contest, Zoe won. Jace did NOT finish with the lions share of votes.

yeah, sorry, I didn't read the thread properly. The original competition ended 7/31 with Zoe leading Jace by 1 vote.

People being newbies that have hardly posted at the JC, and people that havent posted in Saga. Hardly forum regulars.

But you can't eliminate them because they are not regulars. I thought that part of the idea of a banner contest was to stimulate interest in the forum and get non-regulars to visit and see what goes on there after being linked to the forum through MS Updates, Banner thread etc.

However, they should be eliminated because they voted after the original deadline.

 

The force is telling us to keep the old (bad ass) saga banner up.

 

^

Damn straight

 

Hey, if you have no respect for what I have on my plate then fine, disqualify my "entry" and vote again or whatever.

And to add more drama to this "sham", I never actually even SUBMITTED my banner, I was only posting my work in the thread in stages to get feedback. But Spiegel through it in with the lot when he made the voting thread.

So choose what you want, I really don't care which way you guys decide.

 

Jace if you have time to post in threads then you have time to complete a banner which was supposed to be finished 2.5 months ago.

As I have said before, just keep the old banner, it is one of the best on the site. Why change perfection. Keep the old banner.

-Seldon

 

Jace if you have time to post in threads then you have time to complete a banner which was supposed to be finished 2.5 months ago.

I'm currently at work. The computer at home has all my Photoshop and Painter material on it. And at home is where I am dealing with things that have a higher priority than a banner on a messageboard.

I'm not pushing either way on this banner contest situation. I'm just trying to set some facts straight about me.

 

I'm going to take this opportunity to address the situation and explain things from my perspective.


I received a PM from Spike on August 9th discussing a few issues related to Saga. In this same message, Spike informed me that he was having problems with his phone service and would be unable to access the internet from his home and would not be able to do so until the situation which resolved, for which he didn't give a definite timeline. He asked me to take care of the banner contest and gave no specifics on what needed to be done at this point nor the status of the contest overall.

The contest was originally scheduled to end on July 31 at midnight board time. At this point, I was reluctant to trust the voting that had occurred in the thread since I was not there from the beginning and I wanted to insure that it was legitimate. It was because of this that I extended the vote and made it a PM vote with the intentions of A) Giving the vote legitimacy since several votes were cast in the thread after the original end date, in addition to prevent anyone from voting multiple times with a sock and B) Allow anyone who may have missed the original vote to do so. I posted a notice of the new PM vote in the thread twice with reminders of the deadline (8 PM board time on 8/11) and even edited the title to reflect the current state of the thread: Saga Banner Contest Voting Thread. Vote Now!!!! (Updated - Please Read).



As I have understood, it has always been standard procedure to not allow unfinished banners into a contest and I do not know why an exception was made in this case. I cannot speak on behalf of Spike nor explain his actions, however I can and do accept responsibility for my own. My actions were legitimate and in the interest of maintaining the integrity of the contest. I will be the first to admit that I have no experience with banner contests and perhaps that was reflected in this case, but not once did I manipulate the outcome of the contest or do anything to jeopardize the results.

Edit: Grammatical correction.

 

I never actually even SUBMITTED my banner

Then it should have been disqualified. If not then, then now.

Dashy:
The contest was originally scheduled to end on July 31 at midnight board time. At this point, I was reluctant to trust the voting that had occurred in the thread since I was not there from the beginning and I wanted to insure that it was legitimate.

Everything in the contest was public. All posts could be checked for socks. There is no excuse for 'thinking it isnt legit'.

You're the mod now, given Spike isnt around.

Are you going to just sit there and do nothing? Jace said he didnt intend the banner to be entered. Everyone here says it shouldnt be in there. Jaces banner didnt win the original vote. Jace still hasnt finished it 2.5 months after the banner contest began.

You're the forum mod. Make an executive decision. And incase you are afraid of going over Spike head, he called for Jaces banner ASAP. That didnt happen. I doubt it that he would leave things alone.

Neither of the two original forum mods would have done this dodgy work. Live up to the sort of managerial skills that have previously been brought to the forum. Deal with the issue, rather than sitting on your hands.

 

Jace gave a weak excuse of a recent problem in the family.

The point in which I stopped listening to your argument.

 

Turin:


I can appreciate and understand your concern for the situation, but I hope you will ease your concerns because the situation isn't as dramatic as you're making it out to be. I'll be the first to admit that this contest was obviously botched due to a variety of reasons, including mistakes on behalf of the moderators. I really think your acccusations, for lack of a better word, are baseless and have no merit. Mistakes are bound to happen in every forum and they cannot be undone, but instead be learned from. It is for that reason that I have decided to void this entire banner contest and I will take it upon myself to organize a new one which should start sometime within the next few weeks. Hopefully that will take away the bad taste left by this last contest and give everyone some time to come up with some new concepts for the forum design.

 

Alright, well it's clear that Jace has removed his banner from further consideration.

So what now? Are we going to wait for Spike to come back or are we going to accept Zoe's as the winning banner or are we going to leave the current one as is and put this debacle behind us?

 

Don't yell at me - just some feedback here. It seemed to me, as one of those who voted late and voted for Jace's banner, both publicly and via PM, that the mods were looking for more input, as only a handful of people had voted by the original deadline. I missed the first one entirely, as I wasn't reading the Saga for a day or two. Secondly, Jace's graphic was at least 5 rungs better than the others, and really captured the feeling of a Saga. I didn't care that it wasn't complete with the extra images (like those silly brackets for adverts WebWasher blocks for me anyway). I thought the best banner won, but it sounds like the whole thing could have gone more smoothly...

 

Jace gave a weak excuse of a recent problem in the family.

 

Anyways, Turin, why did you feel the need to log in with a sock to post all this?