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I've been on PMC for almost two years now, I've seen my fair share of contests and I wanted to make a clear step-by-step guide as to how to create and host a contest the right way.
This is a guide to hosting a contest! These rules don't exactly apply to events, so I will write a tutorial on that for you at a later date!
So you've now got a guide on how to make your own contest.
From the type of contest, the rules, the judging and then the prizes, you're ready to make a fun contest for people to join!
This is a guide to hosting a contest! These rules don't exactly apply to events, so I will write a tutorial on that for you at a later date!
Choosing your contest type! ↓
These are the ones I would consider most common (mostly based on skin-making, but can apply to other submissions)
-Themed Contest
-Reshade Contest
-Remake Contest
-Palette Contest
Each type of contest has its own pros and cons:
Themed contests: Encourage creativity, but can discourage people from joining if its out of their comfort zone thematically.
Reshade contests: Emphasises technique and style creativity, but limits participants.
Remake contests: Can provide you with a revamp, but generally aren't popular as they don't encourage as much creativity
Palette contest: Encourages people out of their comfort zone and challenges participants, but could intimidate participants.
-Themed Contest
-Reshade Contest
-Remake Contest
-Palette Contest
Each type of contest has its own pros and cons:
Themed contests: Encourage creativity, but can discourage people from joining if its out of their comfort zone thematically.
Reshade contests: Emphasises technique and style creativity, but limits participants.
Remake contests: Can provide you with a revamp, but generally aren't popular as they don't encourage as much creativity
Palette contest: Encourages people out of their comfort zone and challenges participants, but could intimidate participants.
Making your rules! ↓
No matter what contest you are hosting, it needs rules. Rules help keep order, not just for the participants but also for you. I've listed some of the most common rules which I believe should always be clarified for a contest.
- Don't harass participants.
- Don't steal or copy other entries or previous skins.
- Follow PMC rules and guidelines.
- Creations must be made specifically for the contest, any made before will be disqualified.
- Don't reuse parts of previous creations or bases
- Entries must be made by you and only you.
Other rules which can help to add:
- Only one entry per person.
- Use the custom tag "#(write a tag here)"
- Send contest entries on the contest page.
- Link to the original contest page in your description
To put it basically, you want your rules to clarify the things a user cannot do or things they are expected to do. This makes it clear for people entering before they join and to help any disagreements later.
Once you have your rules, you shouldn't change them especially if you already have participants. If you plan to have "flexible rules" then state that clearly before you write out the rules.
In most cases, participants don't really communicate with each-other (and chances are if they do it shouldn't really be too much of a contest and more of an event) No matter what, if users are communicating due to your contest and that causes any form of issue, that is your responsibility as a host.
If you're not prepared to manage people in that situation, or you know you will indulge in gossip I would advise that you don't make a contest which forces communication
- Don't harass participants.
- Don't steal or copy other entries or previous skins.
- Follow PMC rules and guidelines.
- Creations must be made specifically for the contest, any made before will be disqualified.
- Don't reuse parts of previous creations or bases
- Entries must be made by you and only you.
Other rules which can help to add:
- Only one entry per person.
- Use the custom tag "#(write a tag here)"
- Send contest entries on the contest page.
- Link to the original contest page in your description
To put it basically, you want your rules to clarify the things a user cannot do or things they are expected to do. This makes it clear for people entering before they join and to help any disagreements later.
Once you have your rules, you shouldn't change them especially if you already have participants. If you plan to have "flexible rules" then state that clearly before you write out the rules.
In most cases, participants don't really communicate with each-other (and chances are if they do it shouldn't really be too much of a contest and more of an event) No matter what, if users are communicating due to your contest and that causes any form of issue, that is your responsibility as a host.
If you're not prepared to manage people in that situation, or you know you will indulge in gossip I would advise that you don't make a contest which forces communication
Prizes and judging! ↓
At its core, pretty much all contests have 4 basic placings. Having rewards and placements helps encourage participants to join, and also makes your contest a lot more memorable! The places you should expect to have some form of reward for are:
1st
2nd
3rd
Participation
Prizes you can give your winners are:
- Trophies (especially for participation)
- Requests (I normally also offer trades/collabs)
- Bases
- Features on profile
- Art
- Money prizes (although its rare)
Things you can't give:
-Likes
-Subscribers
- Anything which breaks the rules/guidelines of the site.
1st
2nd
3rd
Participation
Judging entries ↓
It does help a lot to make it clear to all participants on what you are judging on. These are the basic principles I stick to for themed contests, this table shows what I refer to it as, what I look out for while judging to that criteria and the rating as a fraction.
For reshades I normally don't use a number judging system purely because of how reshades work.
You don't need to post these numbers, I normally don't as its pretty unnecessary. I would keep the results for a little after the contest in case a user wants to privately ask for their own scores for the categories, so they can improve if they wish, but I don't agree with putting that information out publicly
For reshades I normally don't use a number judging system purely because of how reshades work.
Creativity | How unique the creation is in context of expectations or other entries. If the theme is aquatic animals and the user chooses a less common animal, they would score higher than a clownfish. | 1/10 |
Technique | The shading in context for what it is, and how it fits on the player model. Having shadows in the right place and logical shading would score higher than an unshaded skin. | 1/10 |
Concept | The idea of their skin. Different to creativity as its their perception of the theme, and their translation of that onto their skin. | 1/10 |
Palette | Their colour palette. Clashing neon colours naturally don't score as high as well hue-shifted palettes do. | 1/5 |
You don't need to post these numbers, I normally don't as its pretty unnecessary. I would keep the results for a little after the contest in case a user wants to privately ask for their own scores for the categories, so they can improve if they wish, but I don't agree with putting that information out publicly
Prizes you can give your winners are:
- Trophies (especially for participation)
- Requests (I normally also offer trades/collabs)
- Bases
- Features on profile
- Art
- Money prizes (although its rare)
Things you can't give:
-Likes
-Subscribers
- Anything which breaks the rules/guidelines of the site.
So you've now got a guide on how to make your own contest.
From the type of contest, the rules, the judging and then the prizes, you're ready to make a fun contest for people to join!
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Also imgur isn't good for permanent images
Imgur deletes images over time, so for permanent images it doesn't work well.
I'm trying new methods which will hopefully work better since my experience with imgur (even with an account) hasn't made too big of a difference.