*INHALE……*EXHALE……
Ok, Deep breaths
So about 4 months ago I got suspended from this site for two reasons. Or I should rather say one clear reason and one questionable accusation.
Over these 4 months I have reflected over my actions and the actions of those around me in the related discussions that led up to my suspension and it got me thinking. Now there is no denying that all of those conversations got heated not just by me but other people involved in those conversations as well.
Why was that? Well I think that most of us at the time were all a bit on edge at that point. Dead silence from TTV, unnecessary debates that went on for far too long, delays and most important of all heavily contrasting opinions on the subject matter. Somewhere in the middle of it all I found myself caught in the same pent up frustration as many others at the time coupled with a feeling of not being heard or invalidated for enjoying this theme we all like in a different way from most. Which led to some less than desirable outcomes for everyone involved, Aggressive post and retributions, heated discussions, rude and disrespectful behaviour towards others.
All of which I would like to apologize for, what I did was not fair and maybe over the line at points(I don’t recall how bad it got, haven’t read my replies in a while) and it was not okay for me to act in such an inhospitable way towards other members.
Now to address the second reason all I can say is that if the affected members of the staff want to reach out to me about what happened there and explain how what I did affected them as well as what exactly I did and how I did it constantly. I’m more than happy to make a formal or casual apology to serve as some sort of closure for the affected parties. Because if the above behavior is not okay certainly this behaviour is definitely not okay and all I can say at the moment is that I don’t really have a clue what it’s about but some clarity on that would definitely help me to give some closure if necessary. However, that’s for the TTV staff to decide how they want to respond to this.
*phew…
I made it through the hard part now let’s go back to the more lighthearted stuff and I want to preface this by saying that the following things I’ll say is meant as constructive criticism of this contest and is in no way intended as a dis or attack on any individual involved in them. I know I sided with the team anti-contest earlier this year and while my position has not changed drastically here are some things I feel the contests can do to be better for everyone involved.(And no it has nothing to do with parts restriction or asking people to stick to g1 anatomy or proportions or whatever. just felt like making that clear) I also want to be clear that somethings I say in hear is gonna feel hypocritical you’ll notice which ones rather quickly though so take them with a grain of salt if you like however people have been given similar feedback so there may be some merit there but maybe not necessarily that merit can be found in my reply, lol
First address some of the major issues that have popped up after the results of the Hagah moc portion:
A moc that clearly went under TTVs radar and won despite breaking several rules being allowed to still be the final result.
The mishandling or lack of proper vetting of entries.
Since both of these pertain to rules I feel like they are the biggest two issues at hand with these contests.
For the first one, breaking the rules of any contest should be grounds for disqualifications no matter when in the process they were found. That should be common knowledge. (Exceptions can be made before the entry period ends or when voting begins through proper vetting)
This one I can see being a hard fix to fix now considering its gone so far since they let Prototype jr off the hook, However what I suggest for future contests is just more enforcement of the rules. Because like many others I do not find a contest very fun if I know that entrants can cheat or break the rules to win. Because at that point the contest no longer feels fair.
Proper vetting should be the basis for all contests like this to ensure that they are fair and that everyone has a fair shot at entering.
This one should be quite self explanatory but to further clarify take your time with vetting (I know that sounds hypocritical but I acknowledge that I’ve been impatient before). Just make that clear and give a more reasonable time frame to work within and most people including myself will wait. If said goal isn’t reached within that time frame please update people as soon as possible.
Secondly I want to address some things regarding communication and moderation that should be considered.
Have all updates presented somewhere and in the same place when they happen.
For moderation please consider finding people to help with vetting or to moderate conversations.
I’m gonna address the moderation point first as I think it’s the most important one (and it is also the one that doesn’t make me sound like a hypocrite).
It’s a shame that Hawkeye left the moderation scene earlier this year and how that has affected the contest has really been shown. Which makes me all the more certain that some sort of staff surrounding the contest for moderation of entries is required. This is clearly too large of an endeavour for Eljay to take on alone and it shows.
However I’m sure there’s plenty of people who would help out in said moderation if they were asked too. If it’s not other council members, I’m sure there are still plenty of people from the larger community that can be entrusted to help out with these contests.
Having updates posted to several platforms around the same time would help to better let everyone know the current situation of the contest but more frequent updates and consistent updates would be appreciated. As well as logging updates would help go a long way.
I think right now the biggest thing going against these contests is the transparency and lack of communication on TTVs end. However there is a solution that’s pretty straight forward which would be to just communicate more. You don’t have to partake in active threads or discussions to stay away from biases but communicating what you are thinking of doing and how far in your executions you are will go a long way. Above are just some examples of what can be done to communicate better. While on the note of communication if you guys at TTV want to make the contest a yearly thing where winners are announced on bionicle day by all means do so but make that clear pretty early on. I feel that in retrospect a lot of things that transpired this year could have been easily avoided if that had been established at the beginning of the year instead of a funny remark about how Meso forgot about the post over winter break. While a valid excuse it does not really instill confidence when similar delays crop up but with next to no information for the rest of said year and it makes the contest feel sloppy which is a problem in of itself. However I’m getting sidetracked.
Lastly I want to address an issue that TTV can’t really do much about but I feel like I have a neat enough idea for what they can do to counteract that as much as possible. Now there is no rule against vote brigading and as the staff has said before there does not need to be one for this contest however another issue has cropped up very closely related to this I think.
This is that a lot of people only vote in the semifinals and finals of each contest because they do not care to keep up with the contest.
Keep in mind none of this is TTVs fault and that’s not what I want to say. I know in the past that TTV, more specifically Meso and Eljay, has wanted to highlight the creativity of the community through these contests. So keep this in mind as you read along, now what’s the problem with people only voting in the finals and semifinals? and what are we going to do about that?
To answer those questions we can’t do much to stop people from voting only in the final or semifinals but the main issue I see is not necessarily that people do this but that it’s affecting the goals of these contests. By having only a small percentage of people vote in the earlier stages makes for unreliable results while also hurting smaller content creators. There is no denying that well established mocist or artist are gonna have an inherent advantage in contest like these. The problem however is because of the small percentage of voters most votes in the early contest goes to these larger mocists and artist earlier effectively shutting out lesser known creators and highlighting just the same mocs that every other platforms highlights which makes the goal of featuring community creativity redundant because only a small percentage of the entries will actually be shown to the large amount of casual participant and that being mocs from creators they are already familiar with so they have no incentive to really vote for anything else but that which they know. Which in turn means that community creativity is no longer focused but how much you can ride on your mocist/artist career. Don’t believe me we can see this already happening where lesser known creators models are already forgotten in the public eye or never there to begin with because the votes are naturally skewed but also because the early voting isn’t big enough to make any lesser known creators model stand out.
How can we change this then? I think the easiest and most effective way to highlight contest entries would be by doing moc and art spotlights for the contests in a slideshow format similar to the format of the recent self moc spotlight TTV made on their channel. Why? Well first of its free advertisement for the contest letting people know they’ve started. It’s also a good opportunity to simultaneously vet entries and make sure they are all following the rules. Models that slip through the cracks could more easily be pointed out before the voting starts officially. More lesser known creators works get featured and maybe reach a new audience it couldn’t before and in doing so fulfilling the purpose of these contests. It may also split up votes from larger creators and could lead to less biased results in turn making the contest more fair to all participants.
However this is just my opinion and thoughts on the contest so far. If you have something to add feel free to do so, if you have anything against the opinions and criticism presented please respond to them in a respectful manner.
If you have anything to add or say to my apology please contact me in dms as to not clog this topic and TTV please don’t ban me. I’m really trying to be respectful here and give constructive feedback to you guys.
Until next time 
//Tarkur