Goonhub
01-02-2025, 11:36 PM
I wanted to reply earlier, seeing as I've run the most recent contests, but I've been busy. Still, it's better late than never. I have a lot to say, but the gist is this: I'm open to brainstorming, I feel doubtful about but not opposed to a contest for contest themes because I have particular criteria, and, for now, I can't stomach six contests a year.
Yes, it would be great to hear other suggestions for contest themes. I'm not facing a shortage of possible themes, but it doesn't hurt to hear other people's thoughts.
I have a particular philosophy when picking contest themes. I prefer that they be simple, accessible, and doable by anybody. I did fall drinks and in-game movie posters for previous contests, because it's not too hard to come up with a list of chems with a fun theme or draw a single piece of pixel art with a simple perspective. However, I would never have people do, say, clothing, because clothing uses multiple sets of sprites and requires people to pay attention to perspective and color palette. Because of this, I'm somewhat skeptical of a contest to decide contest themes. I'm not opposed to the idea on principle, it's just that in my view, such a contest would need to meet these guidelines.
My current plans are to run a contest for each season, so four times a year. The last two contests have been seasonal as well, which I do not think I have conveyed very well. The movie poster one was meant to be summer-themed, referencing summer blockbusters, and the fall drink one was for autumn. I do plan on continuing the theme by doing a winter or winter-adjacent theme for January, but I'm not indebted to this plan. If life circumstances eat into my time for a potential January contest, or if I do not have the energy for it, I have the freedom to put the winter-themed one closer to the end of the year.
To give some insights into what it's like to run these contests, I mostly do these by myself, but I do ask other admins for feedback on announcements and such, and I definitely do ask if there's an entry that's just too cool not to implement. Unlike with rule changes, we, as admins, don't vote to do a contest at such and such time, in such and such intervals, or something. Usually, the contests occur when an admin wants to do one.
As lefinch has alluded to, there's a lot of work involved: writing the threads and announcements, combining entries into a vote thread, coding the winning entries, giving medals, etc. Making polls is actually fairly easy, but it proved quite onerous during the fall drink contest. I attempted to streamline the poll by putting the entries in the poll itself, but because MyBB only shows part of the poll option, checking each entry and correcting mistakes was quite arduous. That's partly why in previous contests, the poll options were just a bunch of numbers, and the actual entries were in the thread itself.
That brings me to a key point. Running these is definitely fun, and it really warms my heart to see people come up with clever/funny entries and generally have a good time. However, I also feel very tired afterwards, and I don't want to do anything contest-related for roughly a month. Ergo, I hope you see why I'm weary about running one every other month. I chalk this up to my workflow; I mostly act alone, working in bursts, and there are definitely some places where I could delegate tasks or split them up into more manageable pieces for a sustained pace. I would prefer to go at a light pace and work on the workflow, rather than jump to a demanding schedule
Yes, it would be great to hear other suggestions for contest themes. I'm not facing a shortage of possible themes, but it doesn't hurt to hear other people's thoughts.
I have a particular philosophy when picking contest themes. I prefer that they be simple, accessible, and doable by anybody. I did fall drinks and in-game movie posters for previous contests, because it's not too hard to come up with a list of chems with a fun theme or draw a single piece of pixel art with a simple perspective. However, I would never have people do, say, clothing, because clothing uses multiple sets of sprites and requires people to pay attention to perspective and color palette. Because of this, I'm somewhat skeptical of a contest to decide contest themes. I'm not opposed to the idea on principle, it's just that in my view, such a contest would need to meet these guidelines.
My current plans are to run a contest for each season, so four times a year. The last two contests have been seasonal as well, which I do not think I have conveyed very well. The movie poster one was meant to be summer-themed, referencing summer blockbusters, and the fall drink one was for autumn. I do plan on continuing the theme by doing a winter or winter-adjacent theme for January, but I'm not indebted to this plan. If life circumstances eat into my time for a potential January contest, or if I do not have the energy for it, I have the freedom to put the winter-themed one closer to the end of the year.
To give some insights into what it's like to run these contests, I mostly do these by myself, but I do ask other admins for feedback on announcements and such, and I definitely do ask if there's an entry that's just too cool not to implement. Unlike with rule changes, we, as admins, don't vote to do a contest at such and such time, in such and such intervals, or something. Usually, the contests occur when an admin wants to do one.
As lefinch has alluded to, there's a lot of work involved: writing the threads and announcements, combining entries into a vote thread, coding the winning entries, giving medals, etc. Making polls is actually fairly easy, but it proved quite onerous during the fall drink contest. I attempted to streamline the poll by putting the entries in the poll itself, but because MyBB only shows part of the poll option, checking each entry and correcting mistakes was quite arduous. That's partly why in previous contests, the poll options were just a bunch of numbers, and the actual entries were in the thread itself.
That brings me to a key point. Running these is definitely fun, and it really warms my heart to see people come up with clever/funny entries and generally have a good time. However, I also feel very tired afterwards, and I don't want to do anything contest-related for roughly a month. Ergo, I hope you see why I'm weary about running one every other month. I chalk this up to my workflow; I mostly act alone, working in bursts, and there are definitely some places where I could delegate tasks or split them up into more manageable pieces for a sustained pace. I would prefer to go at a light pace and work on the workflow, rather than jump to a demanding schedule