General Contest Rules Questions and Clarifications

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Comrade Gorby: This thread originally had the rules and guidelines. They have been moved here. This thread has been repurposed for answering questions regarding those rules and guidelines. Any questions about general forum rules should be PMed to a moderator or taken to the Board Issues forum.

[Zherog]

I want to clarify one of your rules, Gorby, because I'm hoping my employer will unblock this site, which will allow me to participate in stuff again.

2. Any flaming or disparagement of other posters' entries will result in the disqualification of your own entry, in addition to any other moderation required.

Does this mean that when posting feedback for somebody's entry, I can't be critical, even if I'm polite about it? I'm not asking if I can post, "your entry sucks so bad! Bwahahaha!! it's not even worth my time to help you!! You're so clueless!" Of course that's a bad thing - at least on this message board.

I'm talking about honest, constructive criticism that isn't very positive? A spell is completely out of balance, a prestige class just doesn't do things the right way, whatever.

Am I allowed to give feedback to somebody if that feedback isn't positive?

[Gorbash Kazdar]

I should clarify that, though I do feel you're reading it a bit more strictly than I have written.

Anyways, constructive criticism is of course fine. What the rule is about is, in fact, the "your entry sucks!" type posts. It can be kind of scary to post your material even without worrying that someone might come in and bash your work without any critical analysis; plus, it's just rude and I wanted to make it very clear that no one should be doing that & that the consequences for doing it are harsh. But constructive criticism is perfectly okay, as long as you are, as always on these forums, polite about it.

That being said, if you (and here I mean the general "you," not Zherog specifically ;)) post an entry to a contest, you have to expect and be ready to recieve such critiques and criticisms, and expect that they'll be in depth, thorough, and at times pointed. If someone is critiquing your entry, they just want to help you make it better (since, if they're just bashing it, they're in violation of the rules), so don't be too touchy about it.

[Zherog]

Just thought I'd check. :) I'm not shy about giving honest feedback (politely), and just wanted to make sure.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

No problem; in fact, I'm glad you asked so I could make sure everyone was clear on what the rule entailed ;)

[King_of_GRiffins]

A thought has come up that I haven't found an answer to in the above. Gijsstriders recent post has brought this to mind. What rules are there for player created contest? Are they allowed, and to what scope can they be? How many can there be at a time? Any general guidlines at all.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Comrade Gorby: This particular forum is only for official contests run by the staff of the Giant in the Playground message boards.

The Challenge threads in Homebrew are pretty much the accepted format for player-run "contests." Please check that forum for more information.

[Lord Iames Osari]

I have a question: Why are multiple entries allowed per person? It seems to me that allowing such caters to the more prolific entrants, granting them greater chances at victory through simple statistics, rather than having each entry and entrant be judged by merit alone.

I'm not trying to say that those who are prolific don't also do quality work, I'm just saying that it seems a little bit unfair.

[Mike_Lemmer]

That and it adds more entries to the pool, which makes giving all of them a good read much harder.

[Fax Celestis]

Take a look at the last contest. How many people actually entered more than one organization? One, maybe two.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Doesn't matter. It's the principle of the thing. If we have a rule in place now, it can prevent abuse later on, even if we don't think we need one now. It's analogous to the League of Nations and the 1st Geneva Convention (adopted in 1864) saying to themselves, "We don't need to make a rule that says you can't go around rounding people up in order to rape/kill/enslave/burn them. Nobody would be evil enough to do that!"

And then Japan invaded China and Korea. HAH! Not the example you expected me to use, was it?

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Well, it was pointed out to me this way and it makes sense.

If they introduce two, any votes that would otherwise be used for one can now be spread across two, meaning they are likely to get even less votes than if they had only submitted one.

Seems more like shooting themselves in the foot to me.

[Elvaris]

Trust me, submitting multiple entries isn't an advantage. It just splits the time you have to devote to any one entry. And at some point you are competing with yourself.

[Mephibosheth]

I'd also like to point out that the only two people who submitted multiple entries (Vaynor and myself) didn't win anything. So, while I totally understand why it might be reasonable to forbid multiple entries and I don't oppose adding that rule at all, it didn't result in Vaynor and myself cleaning up on all the awards simply because we had more chances to gain votes.

Mephibosheth

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Well, the thing is, though you are marginally more likely to get votes, these votes will be spread out, hence making it less likely to win despite the fact you may have personally got more than the others.

I'd consider it more a 'do at your own risk' type venture than anything that need be outlawed.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Comrade Gorby: Folks, this thread is really for questions to clarify the rules or about issues that are not (or appear not to be) already covered by them. It isn't really for discussion of the rules.

Anyways, allowing multiple entries from a single contestant has not proved to be a problem yet. Unless and until it becomes a problem, I see no reason to bar them.

I should note that anyone voting should be judging the entry on it's quality, not on who wrote it. This isn't a popularity contest. If someone is capable of writing multiple quality entries for one contest and the voters feel they deserve to win different categories, then I see no problem with that.

As for increasing the entry pool, trust me, the number of double submissions rarely makes a substantial increase in the total. And personally, I'm always for more quality entries than fewer.

Lastly, this issue is certainly not analogous to any war crimes and conventions designed to prevent them. It's a forum contest; it isn't even in the same league, let alone the same ballpark. (Besides, Japan wasn't a signatory to the Geneva Conventions & didn't agree to abide by it until 1942, and ignored the League of Nations' censures for its actions.)

[Enlong]

Real quick question about one rule.

6. Under normal circumstances, all entries must consist of the work of one contestant. In other words, team entries are not allowed unless specified otherwise for a particular contest.

Does this rule mean that I cannot use work that I put into the main Homebrew Forum for criticism?

(I have a feeling it's okay, I just want to be sure)

[Poppatomus]

Real quick question about one rule.



Does this rule mean that I cannot use work that I put into the main Homebrew Forum for criticism?

(I have a feeling it's okay, I just want to be sure)

I'd just like to renew Enlong's question.

[Roland St. Jude]

As long as it's your work, it's fine. The fact that you've posted it in Homebrew (and perhaps even gotten comments on it) is irrelevant.

Now, if someone on Homebrew took your idea and rewrote it, or you've incorporated so many of their suggestions that you are more like co-authors of the end product, that would violate the no joint authors rule.

[rollfrenzy]

OK quick question along the same lines.

If all the ideas are mine, but I have less artistic ability than the average adolescent slug, Can I describe and have someone draw for my entry maps, ilustrations etc?

[Roland St. Jude]

That's fine. As long as there isn't a judging component for art, things like illustrations, maps, etc, are are just window dressing.

[MattKatt]

What exactly are the rules on contest entrants voting?

[Lord Iames Osari]

What exactly are the rules on contest entrants voting?

It's not forbidden. Voting for your own entry in all applicable categories is frowned upon, though.

[AKA_Bait]

I realize that this may probably be necromancy, but since it's still on the first page...

So, I guess my question is, is this forum dead? The last post to it was like 2 and a half months ago.

[Kellus]

Agreed. Any chance we could have another contest?

[Enlong]

Where are the "chat" threads for the current contests? I've heard them alluded to, but I can't seem to find the buggers.