2022 Cel Contest?

[tarakatsuki]

The cel contests were always fun to enter and do. Curious if there is still interest in holding another one at all? I'll probably handle all or some of running the thing. But granted since it's been several years since we've had one, things would probably need to be done a bit differently to keep up with the times. Since people tend to be far more active on FB rather than forums like this, I figured more posting would have to be done there, and maybe just have it open to anybody and not necessarily members that are registered on this site? And possibly go over the other rules from the old contests and tweak them as need be? Thoughts?

[Frysende]

My only thought is that I for one would love to go toe to toe with you cel-ebrities and show off my small hoarde in competition. You're right that there's not a whole lot of activity here, but something can be done between Facebook and maybe submitting images via Dropbox or a Google drive type situation where we submit entries gallery style with a brief description.

I know it's a lot of work for one person to take on, so just let me know if you want to brainstorm or need a pair of hands.

[tarakatsuki]

I've run a few of the contests in the previous years so I would plan on it being run in the same fashion for the most part (some of those posts were made from my old account that I no longer use). To keep things fair and anonymous, submissions were always received via email. That way people can't see what's already been entered as they decide what to submit themselves, or know who submitted what. You can see the submission process in some of the older threads to get an idea of how the information on the entries is collected.

Thoughts on changes to keep up with the year 2022:
Old contests required entrants to be registered on Anime Beta. I figured there would be more interest if that rule gets scratched, since FB is far more popular than forums and gets more activity. Also people aren't going to want to sign up for a site they aren't using in the first place and would be less likely to enter. The flip side is that if you do keep the requirement of being registered on AB, it might drive more traffic here, at least just short term?

The rule regarding previous winners no longer eligible to be entered in the contest: It's been 6 years since we've had a contest. Lol. Cels were permitted to be entered again if they changed hands for ownership. I'm sure cels have changed hands over the past few years, so should we either stick to ensuring cels that won in the past aren't submitted again, or say screw it and just start over fresh as if this were the first contest ever? Honestly that's a lot of cels to go back and look over and keep comparing to incoming entries....And there's no way I can possibly do that part myself and not miss something so a volunteer will be necessary for that part

Number of entries per person: Limit it, or just allow people to enter one per category if they wish?

[Frysende]

I think it's been long enough that old winners can go back in the running. If there's a 6 year gap in an annual series, I think the latest entry necessarily has to be a reboot/refresh rather than trying to carry on the exact form as before. If you feel strongly about checking entries for fairness, I can volunteer for that.

Number of entries per person: Limit it, or just allow people to enter one per category if they wish?

Now this is where my gerbil brain gets spinning. If we get the Facebook crowd involved, we can build some incentive here. One entry per person for non-members, one per category if you're a member of A-B. That way it's not a barrier to entry so much, but it could help spike some traffic or at least pique curiosity among the uninitiated. Again, it could be another gimmick where if you join A-B you get to vote on the final category of the cel contest... so maybe a bit before opening the contest for entries, we pose 3 or 4 categories (I'd have to look back but surely there's been some categories or topics that came and went) and A-B members can vote for which one they want to see in the final spot. People do like polls and voting, and that could bring a few interested parties aboard.

[tarakatsuki]

I think it's been long enough that old winners can go back in the running. If there's a 6 year gap in an annual series, I think the latest entry necessarily has to be a reboot/refresh rather than trying to carry on the exact form as before. If you feel strongly about checking entries for fairness, I can volunteer for that.

Personally I don't really care, I have cels that have won and I don't even remember which of mine I've entered or which ones won anything.
I just figured some people might.

Number of entries per person: Limit it, or just allow people to enter one per category if they wish?

Now this is where my gerbil brain gets spinning. If we get the Facebook crowd involved, we can build some incentive here. One entry per person for non-members, one per category if you're a member of A-B. That way it's not a barrier to entry so much, but it could help spike some traffic or at least pique curiosity among the uninitiated. Again, it could be another gimmick where if you join A-B you get to vote on the final category of the cel contest... so maybe a bit before opening the contest for entries, we pose 3 or 4 categories (I'd have to look back but surely there's been some categories or topics that came and went) and A-B members can vote for which one they want to see in the final spot. People do like polls and voting, and that could bring a few interested parties aboard.

Hmm. I don't want to make things too complicated, since it will be hard for people to know what's what and follow the rules. That's usually hard enough when they're simple LOL. I wouldn't want to discourage people from doing it because they felt like they were being forced to sign up or being limited just because they didn't want to sign up. It definitely isn't active enough on here anymore to do a cel contest though strictly for AB. I was thinking though if we have 20 categories, then limit the number of entries into any category to 10 cels total. Just in case there's a category everyone wants to enter and then we have like 30 entrants for a single category. I believe the rules from past contests allowed each person to submit up to 12 categories.

[jiangdc]

Even though I can come up with many reasons not to start one. It doesn't hurt giving it a try, maybe it will end up with lots of fun.

[tarakatsuki]

Even though I can come up with many reasons not to start one. It doesn't hurt giving it a try, maybe it will end up with lots of fun.

What reasons would those be?

[cutiebunny]

I might be interested if shikishi were also included, as that has long been a focus for me.

Awards are a lot of work. They also tend to bring out a lot of bad blood. I'd like to hope that people have matured a bit but seeing the FB page makes me realize that that is not the case.

[MoiAlmathea]

IMO it would be really fun to have a contest again.
Indeed some people are not mature enough to not hold a gridge if they don't win. Is it any reason to "punish" all the ones who are mature enough to play fair? I don't think so. We all like to show our best pieces from time to time.
Now doing it on FB will probably bring more people. But quantity doesn't immediatly says quality. So I'm up for one or the other.

[cutiebunny]

The biggest problem with the awards is that everyone wants them but few, if any, are willing to do the work to make it happen. I've run a few of these in the past. They're incredibly time consuming. They are not fun for the people running them because it is nothing but complaints, accusations and, if something needs to be clarified, participants asking why you get the final say in the decision. You then get to deal with petty bickering, cheating accusations, etc. All this while hoping someone in the community is willing to take some time out of their schedule to design and personalize awards in the form of image files with that participant's name on them.

It is a thankless job for those organizing and running the contest.

This thread has been around since the end of June. It is now August 15, roughly 1.5 months after this was suggested. Do you notice how many people have volunteered to run and/or work on this? Exactly my point. A grand total of 5 people have posted on this topic, two of which have actually worked/run previous contests. I don't think that remaining members who have posted on this thread were Anime-Beta members when the last contest was held, so they were not around to see what an absolute fiasco they were. Delve into some of the Beta Award threads of years past if you need proof.

[tarakatsuki]

IMO it would be really fun to have a contest again.
Indeed some people are not mature enough to not hold a gridge if they don't win. Is it any reason to "punish" all the ones who are mature enough to play fair? I don't think so. We all like to show our best pieces from time to time.
Now doing it on FB will probably bring more people. But quantity doesn't immediatly says quality. So I'm up for one or the other.

Honestly I think it would be crazy and amusing if anybody actually holds a grudge, because it's completely just for fun and it's not like you're getting any real prize here. But I do agree that a large amount of people entering doesn't mean the contest itself will turn out better.

The biggest problem with the awards is that everyone wants them but few, if any, are willing to do the work to make it happen. I've run a few of these in the past. They're incredibly time consuming. They are not fun for the people running them because it is nothing but complaints, accusations and, if something needs to be clarified, participants asking why you get the final say in the decision. You then get to deal with petty bickering, cheating accusations, etc. All this while hoping someone in the community is willing to take some time out of their schedule to design and personalize awards in the form of image files with that participant's name on them.

That was not my experience when I ran them. Maybe you didn't enjoy the ones you ran, but I did when I helped with the last few. The only frustrating thing I had dealt with was some people not submitting in the requested format to make it easier for me to log the information on the items.
As far as awards go, I already have someone who is willing to do them. He just doesn't use AB. We chatted about it before I even made this post.

This thread has been around since the end of June. It is now August 15, roughly 1.5 months after this was suggested. Do you notice how many people have volunteered to run and/or work on this?

I did originally state that I would be willing and capable of running the entire thing myself if needed......
The entire purpose of the post was to see if people were interested in entering. And to discuss thoughts on the potential changes. I thought that was pretty clear.

I also did say that I would accept the help if anybody wanted to help, and did get one volunteer. There's no rush on this sort of thing. I had also been holding out on putting a post up on FB since I was hoping that jiangdc would elaborate on the reasons to not have a contest. It isn't helpful to say that something won't work without discussing why you feel something won't work.