That is a terrible judging system. It was much better to have a large group deemed as judges, rather than the community. Its like letting people under 18 vote in America.(Though there really won't be a difference in outcome)

I reckon REAL people should Judge these competitions instead of being randomly checked by a computer

If this thread is locked, could it be possible to set up a more serious one (and in the right place) to discuss the pre-selection process? Obviously, a lot of people seem to be thinking that it is flawed, so perhaps a creative discussion could help finding a better method?

Inb4lock

But yea, locking would be a good idea :3

Around 3 site moderators posted on this yet none lock it.

i feel as if you have annoyed the Studnicky

@CreeperCarole, as long as they get rid of the stupid algorithm and have actual people choose the finalists, I don't care how few people make the cut.

Also, I do agree that the criteria be stricter.

I agree with you, CreeperCarole, except for the "fewer top entries" part.

I think that automatically selecting only the top 10 entries will cause important bias towards high-level members, especially if the entries are hidden until the deadline: people with more subscribers will automatically have an advantage, whereas low level members will still struggle to get views. Therefore, a top 10 will likely consist of only high-level members, as opposed to a top 50 that might give a better chance to talented newcomers.


One way of dealing with the issue could be to keep the names hidden even during the judging phase: if all entries are anonymous and cannot be linked to their creator, then no more subscribers bias!

(but of course, other problem could start to appear ...)

ok, I'll weigh in with a couple suggestions of my own then...

Poor sportsmanship: if an entrant is "raging all over the comments of the listed entries on the first page of the thread" I suggest his/her entry be disqualified. Ditto if they're slamming someone's entry in chat or the forums. As well, if they rage at the judges/moderators.

I think there should be FEWER entries in the finalists, not more. Judging projects requires a lot more time than judging skins, as you have to download and play through each entry. Judging is going to take ages as it is. Lower the finalists to say the top 10.

I like the idea of hiding the entries until the judging phase, as well as hiding names. I think that's fantastic. Say, give all entrants 30 days to create their masterpiece, allow them to upload it THEN (not before) and give 2 weeks for membership judging to select the top 10. THEN send it to final judging.

Be stricter with the criteria. A mud hut on the beach is not a beachhouse resort. That needs to be DQed.

Some people simply don't have the skills required to create epic videos of their builds. That puts the people who do at a major advantage. Doesn't mean the video-impared people are making builds of lesser quality, just means their computers can't handle the video software, or they haven't got the time/skills necessary to do the video. Ditto the hand-drawn schematics. Not everyone has a scanner to show off their work. The projects should stand on their own without fancy advertising/photoshopping/etc.

Cheaters should be banned from entering any further contests. Ever. So if it says "no previously created schematics may be imported" if that is discovered to have happened, boom, no more contests for you. EVAR. (I highly endorse this for skin thieves as well.)

The trick is not to make the contests harder to enter... it should be to make them simple to enter, but harder to WIN.

I know this is a little off topic but the guy who posted this thread is raging all over the comments on the listed entries on the first page of the thread.

A possible solution to decrease the impact of early/late submissions could be to use the means instead of the total number of views/diamonds/favorites/comments. That way, a really good project has only be posted since a couple of days would hopefully be at the same level that a good project posted since a month.

For example, imagine a really good project (X), only posted 5 days ago, that has therefore "only" something like 25 diamonds, 200 downloads, versus a good-but-not-as-good project (Y), present since 25 days, with 100 diamonds and 800 downloads.

Using the values only, project Y is clearly the most popular, but using the means, project X becomes the best (6 diamonds/day and 40dl/day for project X vs. 4 diamonds/day and 32dl/day for project Y)


Of course, statistical analyses being notoriously difficult to work with, there may be other variables/models more useful than the mean, but it could be a start...

StudnickyIt's not like you paid to enter. The contests are supposed to be something fun to give the site some more life, not the end-all-be-all of Planet Minecraft membership.

*Sniff*... You're right... I got a swelled head... I have become corrupted. I have to admit, I did have fun making it...

11volt11
I really think the system, algorithm, whatever the crap it is should be fixed. I only got 5 diamonds and 200 some views, but this other guy who made the cut got 4 diamonds and 700 some views.

So you feel that the downloads/faves/votes/comments should be weighted differently? I'm honestly not exactly sure what the values are right now.

11volt11Unless they fix the system, I assure you, I will never enter another one of these contests ever again.

It's not like you paid to enter. The contests are supposed to be something fun to give the site some more life, not the end-all-be-all of Planet Minecraft membership.

SafetyMooseThe Automated system is supersilly because it gives people who spend a long time on the work a disadvantage over people who spend the entire allotted time creating something good.

I agree and have felt that way since the automated system was introduced. However, given that the skin contests often yield several thousand entries (even after removing stolen/remixed content), there is simply no way that a judge team could rate each by hand. I feel like hiding submissions to contests from view until the submission period is over would alleviate that issue.

Yeah it does, kinda what happened in my case, and it all ended up as a massive waste of time and work . Hopefully this will Change the way contests are done in the future, as for the admins and moderators, if there happens to be any way of putting me in, let me know I will do just about anything to get in, if not, I understand, somethings you just can't undo, thanks for all of your help, suggestions, time, and support

The Automated system is Shit because it gives people who spend a long time on the work a disadvantage over people who spend the entire allotted time creating something good.

Here would be a great solution. There are some problems with it though that I 'll explain at the end.

Okay, we could do it like the skin contest and you leave a download link (Not adfly or anything that gives you money) and judges go and Judge it. Like this maybe

Creativity:
Building Skill(Means how good the building(s) was):
Followed the Theme(How much it followed the Theme...DUH):

Maybe a couple more but, I'm lazy. Now the bad side to this is that it could end up like the skin contest and Judges don't show up. Also, THAT'S A MILLION F***ING POSTS!!! THEY CAN'T DOWNLOAD THAT MUCH!!!! And there we go. That's why it's all about advertising. No complaining now....ever

Dang :,/ okay I guess I'll just re enter next time around

I was quite upset today that I didn't make the cut (btw consolation would be greatly appreciated).

I really think the system, algorithm, whatever the crap it is should be fixed. I only got 5 diamonds and 200 some views, but this other guy who made the cut got 4 diamonds and 700 some views. According to my calculations, if my project hadn't been locked away from public view (well, it seemed like it was anyway), maybe I would have gotten 4x as many diamonds, if diamonds are so important in the first place.

Unless they fix the system, I assure you, I will never enter another one of these contests ever again.

noosesSad that contest are about how well you advertise and not about the actual work.....

This should be the testament for a change in the way contests work. Sure, it may be hard to judge them all, but the ones who are judges are judges for a reason.

C'mon man, chill listen to Bob Marley, maybe next year. "Don't Worry, Bout a thing, Cus Every Little Ting, it gunna be a'ight *DUH DUH DUH, DUH DUH, Duh*

I don't have the ability to do that, and I don't think it will happen.

See there are alot of good sudjestions on how to make the judging and entries fair for everyone disregarding your level, name, or the time you post your entry, I can tell contests will be alot more equal for now on and people will feel better about entering in these competition if they Are new to this sight. But I have one more question, is there any possible chance of my world getting into the top 50 or is the current 50 the final 50. And don't want to ruin someone else's day buy taking their place but some of them I talked to and they even said they were confused how they made it and I didnt

I just thought of another suggestion. How about there are rules for how you upload it? Like pictures that you post?

Some people photoshopped their stuff to heck, and it made average builds look awesome. There should be guidelines to that stuff, like you can only post with the default texture pack or 16x, no shader mods, no fancy water, etc.

This would level out the playing field a bit, I think.

Every judge has too look at all the submissions anyway so having more judges would mean longer wait times and just would be unnecessary. Also you want the community to play a large role in this too.

I'm particularly fond of the randomise one and the hide names one since i see how they can be pretty helpful and elimate alot of popularity and can make exposure fairer.

Alot of people have thought i won the skin contest and I believe i've gotten alot more attention than most of the other entries just because my skin is the first one you see in the top 100. If it were possible to randomise the skin contest too that would be good.

Studnicky

StrikerjacobIt's not a popularity contest, they should pick the best for top 50 not computerize it for the most popular. Sometimes I think PMC is getting stupider.

Strikerjacob
Well 1000 out of 10 judges, 100 each, thats not much XD.
Also if that is too much get more judges.

Ooh, but we are getting more judges. EVERYONE is a judge.

The way it works out is that the entire site act as the preliminary judges, then the assigned judges make in-depth decisions based on the results.

StrikerjacobAlso that popularity thing is stupid because people like Sneeze7 Halucid or Sumpopulis would always get in.

This is why names would be removed from the judge's scoring panel. I can understand your confusion at not knowing all the details of the process, but your suggestions are just not helpful.

Yeah, thanks but I still think it should not be based off of popularity.

mathguy196A MESSAGE TO CYPREZZ OR ANOTHER SITE ADMIN:

One obvious error in the contest that I saw is that when you click the "View current entries" button, it shows the EXACT same ones every time at the top, giving them incredible publicity that nobody else gets. The system needs to be changed so that wen you click "View current entries", it randomizes the projects and shows a random selection, with each one having an EQUAL chance of showing up.

I would hope that members scroll through at least a few pages, but I agree that a random system would be better. It might still not give the same publicity to all projects (or skins) though.

mathguy196Also, I think the site should choose 75-100 submissions to allow for other projects that were submitted close to the deadline and did not have the chance to get lots of view. Or, the algorithm take into account the amount of time the project has been posted. For example, a project with 10,000 views that has been posted for 2 weeks would be about equal to a project with 1000 views and 40 diamonds that has been posted for 4 days. My numbers might not be plausible, but you get my point.

If all contest submissions were hidden until a specified review period were started, then this would not be an issue at all.

mathguy196Suggestion 3: If there was a project that did not get into the top round (like top 50) the first time, then the community could vote to get a few extra projects in. Kind of like the "wild card" factor on TV shows like America's Got Talent.

The community already votes on which get into the top 50. That is an integral part of the elimination process.

Would it be possible to make some sort of ranking system to judge the submissions by? Rank 1 would be people in levels 1-5, 2 would be levels 6-10, etc. You could use popularity as a way to judge skins within each rank and then once you've got, say, the three most popular skins per rank, those would be your finalists that the judges would then judge.

A MESSAGE TO CYPREZZ OR ANOTHER SITE ADMIN:

One obvious error in the contest that I saw is that when you click the "View current entries" button, it shows the EXACT same ones every time at the top, giving them incredible publicity that nobody else gets. The system needs to be changed so that wen you click "View current entries", it randomizes the projects and shows a random selection, with each one having an EQUAL chance of showing up.

This would greatly improve the accuracy of the selection process.

Also, I think the site should choose 75-100 submissions to allow for other projects that were submitted close to the deadline and did not have the chance to get lots of view. Or, the algorithm take into account the amount of time the project has been posted. For example, a project with 10,000 views that has been posted for 2 weeks would be about equal to a project with 1000 views and 40 diamonds that has been posted for 4 days. My numbers might not be plausible, but you get my point.

Suggestion 3: If there was a project that did not get into the top round (like top 50) the first time, then the community could vote to get a few extra projects in. Kind of like the "wild card" factor on TV shows like America's Got Talent.


If anything here does not make sense, I will further explain it.

Thanks for reading!

Also that popularity thing is stupid because people like Sneeze7 Halucid or Sumpopulis would always get in.

It's not a popularity contest, they should pick the best for top 50 not computerize it for the most popular. Sometimes I think PMC is getting stupider.

Yeah but people won't see it from the entry list so they don't go directly to the entry, basically they go to the one that looks best other than the name they see and the level they are

Also even if you hide names it won't stop people from announching in chat which project is their entry

Yeahhh so even if some guy that is like a level 63 grandfather nether night ( XD ) makes an entry, everyone else will have the same opertunie as him

I like both studnicky's idea about hiding names and submissions and the randomise idea if they were possible to do.

They make alot of sense, though part of the contest was too see the projects grow and update over time until the final version was submitted.

I'd also felt that names should not be attached to entries, so as to avoid the playing of favourites by the voters.

And you probably need to just highlight them and copy and past into a new tab because if you try to click it, it will try to get you to reply or quote the thread

See that is a good idea, it would give all entries an equal opportunity to get diamond and views no matter how long you worked on the world. Also just to add to that idea, when ever you finally unveil the entry's, you should randomize Or like everytime you go back to the entries, it's in a differed order again. But all of it is a good idea

The links are kind of broken.. :/

Hmmm... I was just thinking about this and asking some members in chat how they felt about it. What if all the submissions were hidden until the contest submission period was ended, then they all became visible at once for, say, a week?

That way, early submissions would not have a boost over later submissions, or vice versa. Each would have the same amount of time to garner votes and attention. Of course, a certain amount of it would still depend on presentation and advertising.

It would be the responsibility of the contestant to properly display the amount of work they had put into it. Maybe scan in your plans, and use them as a project photo?

If something good comes out of this thread, I'll bring it to the attention of the rest of the contest team for review.

One thing that would have helped was that once we updated our contest thread, it would go back up to the top like regular projects do on the site. I could see there being people just updating there's alot to be at the top but I bet there is a way to limit that. This I would think would give all the people who are uploading their final project a chance to get some views and diamonds. I am not sure if the judging time would have helped in my case because my thread was so far back, people just really don't see it. Also maybe just like one judge or something could look through to make sure something like this when a good entry doesn't get in because of a lack of views. Once an entry is in the top 50, it's all up to judges and players and that I'm fine with and think is 100% fair. And I bet there are a little better ways of doing it but at least the first suggestion could be helpful