Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-25396609-20160302042815/@comment-27447621-20160310025500

SpiritedDreaming wrote: Guys, guys. Okay, everyone stuffed up a little bit. Phantom should have posted the rubric, Hookshot could have asked for help (my wall is always open. Baja comes to me quite often for help as well, and I extend that offer to you, Hookshot, though I know this is really late and probably doesn't make it better) and looked at the preious competitions for clues.

How about we instead focus on ways to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen again?

I have two proposals for the perusal of everyone:

First, new competitors who have never been in an OC competition before get a bonus 10 points after their score has been determined, if their score is 70 or less. The veterans usually average between 75 and 95, so this at least gives the new competitors a chance to at least compete with the veterans, but if they already have a decent amount of skill that allows them to compete with the veterans without the bonus points, then they do not get it.

Second, judges must post the scoring system within the first 2 days of the competition going live. This allows the judges time to think about how they wish to score the competition in line with their theme, and also allows for fluctations from this like bonus themes and bonus points to be determined by the judge. The scoring system must be put in either the competition announcement post, or the template post.

Shall we discuss these proposals? Sorry, Spirited, I was typing up my previous response when you posted this, so I kinda cut you off.

I think that these are both awesome ideas that could really even the playing field for newcomers. I think that the rubric should be put near the top of the contest thread, so that everyone will read it instead of just looking for the shiny blue hyperlink and just clicking on it. Both ideas give newcomers a good platform to stand on without giving them enough that they can post a deliberately terrible OC and get third or fourth place (barring instances with only 3 or 4 competitors).

And as for going to your wall for help, Spirited, I didn't know what cheating entailed in this contest either, besides "They have to be your ideas" and "They can't be in the 2 most recent threads", so I was tentative. I'll come to you for help more in the future, if you're sure you want me around.