We want you all to know that we value your feedback and that we are open to listening and making corrections when it’s deemed necessary. We want these contests to be the best they can be for the entire community, and as such, we’ve been reading through all the responses to Eljay’s post, talking about it extensively between ourselves and other community heads, and we have decided to allow @MaskMaker to resubmit his masks. In addition, any 3D modelers in the community have until the beginning of the Helryx contest to either grant or withhold permission for their models to be used.
This does not mean that our opinions on the matter have changed, merely that we acknowledge the various points of view raised and we’re gonna put the greater good of the contest first. What I implore you all to understand is that the reason we didn’t want people to change their stances back-and-forth is to preserve the integrity of the contests. We’re doing unprecedented stuff here, and there’s a ton of moving parts… our desire to allow 3D printed pieces stemmed solely from a place of wanting to respect the community and acknowledge the boundless creativity of everybody in it, but we had extensive discussions with the team at RSG and others who expressed concerns. Giving the mask creators the ability to give or withhold permission was our compromise to allow them to decide their own path forward on a case-by-case basis based on what they believe to be best.
When that choice is changed and the decision reversed, it casts the integrity of our contest plan and our ruleset in an ambiguous light. If people don’t know what the rules are, how can they follow them? How can they start planning their builds? How can they be expected to know what pieces they can and can’t use if people keep changing their stances on a dime? I understand that this is the only time it’s happened so far, but the only reason Eljay laid down the law in the manner he did was because we do not want to appear wishy-washy or indecisive. We want to have a clear and consistent message going forward so people know what they’re expected to do, and we don’t want to set a precedent that the rules mean nothing because they can be upended at a moment’s notice.
That being said, Khing never spoke to us on the matter, so we never got to hear his opinions and have that conversation with him. There’s plenty of 3D modelers we haven’t spoken to about this, but I promise you, we’d love to! If you have any concerns, questions, or comments, we encourage you to talk to us. We’re always available, and we want to have that conversation. We intend for these contests to be the best they can be, and for what it’s worth, I still firmly believe that allowing 3D printed pieces is the way to do that.
With that all being said, for the purpose of public knowledge, I’m going to reiterate the following to any 3D modelers in the BIONICLE community, and will be adding this to the main post:
You have until June 1st, 12:00 AM EDT, AKA the beginning of the Helryx contest, to revise your stance on allowing 3D printed pieces. If a public statement hasn’t been made by that date stating that your pieces are allowed to be used in contest entries, they will be presumed to NOT be allowed. Once the clock strikes that time, you won’t be allowed to change your stance. We’re not trying to be jerks with that, but we are trying to conduct ourselves in a consistent manner, and maintaining a clear message and ruleset is a part of that.
Thank you all for continuing to give feedback and participate in the formation of these contests! We appreciate it more than we can say, and we’re looking forward to getting started.
