State of the Contests Update

LEGO BIONICLE
116

Edited for clarity.

No, he got banned for actively baiting the mods to pull him up on relatively minor rule violations. The things he did wrong were, by themselves, not really banworthy, true. They’re not even really worth paying attention to. But he was basically going “HEY, ELJAY! LOOK AT MEEEEE! I’M DISREGARDING THE RULES, ELJAY! LOOK!” And that gets the boot, IMO.

Besides. They’re letting his victory stand. If they didn’t want him to win, they could easily use his ban to justify DQ’ing the MOC now, and passing the win off to Kodiak (whose MOC was better IMO anyway), but they’re not. He gets to keep his “trophy”, and the one he got for Helryx. He just gets told to not bother again.

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117

Never said anything about excusing behavior. My comment was towards your lack of understanding on why people were toxic.

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119

You know what else is based. The Fanmade poll that exists already for the contests. It’s simple and easy to use. No drama, no frills, all content.

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I know, just throwing my 2 cents in that’s all. :slight_smile:

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122

It is all right, everything is all right, the struggle is finished. I have won the victory over myself. I love the TTV Message Boards!

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Section 17 of this ridiculously extensive Reddit post that I found summarizes the reasons that people might be upset with Double. I cannot verify the accuracy of the information myself, but, if it’s true, preventing Double from entering further contests seems more than reasonable:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/kks2pd/lego_building_bionicle_canonisation_contests_or/

The phrasing here is important. While it is true that Double’s victories caused events that led to his ban from future contests, you seem to be implying that TTV is banning him simply because they don’t like his entries.

If Double didn’t win the Helryx Contest, he wouldn’t have done what he is said to have done in the Reddit post above; if he didn’t win the Bomonga Contest, no one would have cared about the shield position or the height comparison.

In both cases, Double’s behaviour likely would have gone relatively unnoticed if not for his victories, but that does not excuse the behaviour.

I’ve had this feeling for a while, but I’ve never been able to articulate it; you’ve put it perfectly here, though. A ban from a particular community hub should not equate to a ban from a community-wide event.

That being said, in relation to the above discussion, I still think it’s reasonable to ban someone from the contests for infractions of contest-specific rules, just not TTV-specific rules.

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125

What is up with Waggle and Kakapo, two brand-spanking-new accounts, inciting controversy on behalf of Double? :thinking:

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I love the TTV message boards!

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127

The Associates™

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130

I mean, if you managed to be banned from BZP during their contests, that was the end of the line for you, too. Those contests were conducted during BIONICLE’s run, so I don’t see why this one necessarily needs to be more liberal with entries. I philosophically agree with you, but precedent speaks to the contrary.

Also, anyone trying to engage with @Waggle is wasting their time with an obvious troll, and should stop. He’ll be pruned from the community in due time, so there’s no reason to waste your effort trying to “reason” with someone who is literally just playing you for a laugh.

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133

“Well I know it’s wrong, but that’s just how we’ve always done it!”
:middle_finger:

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137

IT WAS NEVER ABOUT THE CONTESTS. IT WAS ABOUT THE [Relevancy]. A PLATFORM ON ITS LAST LEGS LOOKING FOR SOME SWEET [Freedom Sauce]. SOME THINGS DESERVE TO BE [Left In The Past].PERHAPS THE [Organization Running These Contests] IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS.

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138

Yes, very based

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I don’t really think that attitude is necessary. It’s something that’s being policed with a heavy hand, so I’ve heard recently. I was just pointing out that past “community contests,” more directly sanctioned by LEGO, have operated this way.

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I think it’s also fairly obvious these contests have taken their toll on Eljay. He very clearly does not enjoy these contests. Just look at his twitter feed whenever one takes place. He always seems to be drained. In fact, he left the r/bionicle discord server over HIS OWN CONTEST and then vaguetweeted about it. It’s ridiculous. None of this is worth the hassle, especially if a few “detractor groups” can throw a wrench in the machine, yet they won’t be named.

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150

There were campaigns on all sides for that one, to be wholly fair. There was a botting campaign against Hoseryx in round 2. In finals, only one of the entries didn’t get botted at all, which was King Marshy’s.

I don’t feel like people should be above reproach for their actions just because they made a cool action figure for a contest. People should still have to play nice with others, and should still get hit if they don’t.

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153

For the love of god do not make me ask for my mod powers back solely to deal with this. Y’all need to grow up. There are legitimate issues that can be discussed here that are being discussed as though it’s a bunch of 5 year olds on a playground.

You have an issue with something, then lay it out. This is only gonna get a bunch of people suspended or banned and that doesn’t serve anyone’s agenda.

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154

I agree that if such a minority of people can take such a catastrophic toll on, let’s be honest, an e-celebrity whose job description includes receiving hate mail now and again, the contests should be suspended entirely, for his own sanity as much as ours.

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169

I’m going to be honest

The way this is being handled, both by Eljay and Meso, as well as a large majority of the fans, is downright pathetic. I’m not afraid to use this harsh language because, quite honestly, these contests have estranged me from the TTV community. I really just don’t want to interact with anyone here anymore because most of you are acting like children, regardless of how old you are.

Stop making such a big fuss about this. It’s a contest, for a toyline, that is no longer running. I’m fairly certain that this should be a fun, light-hearted, unifying experience that everyone can enjoy.

So what, someone slipped through the rules a little bit and won? It doesn’t matter in the long run. You’ll probably forget about this in a few years as you’re moving forwards in life. You have better things to do than whine about how someone shouldn’t have won. Again, it’s a contest for a toyline about fictional biomechanical robot action figures that’s been out of commission for years. Not that big of a deal.

Now sure, some of you might argue that you’re superfans, and it’s your entire life, and you love it so much, bla bla bla.
And to those of you who say that, I say, look at yourselves. Why waste this energy hating on something, instead of using the energy for something good? Maybe making your own entries to compete with the ones you dislike? Stop being destructive and start doing some good.

As for the folks running the contest, Kini had some excellent points. Most of what I’m going to say agrees with him, so listen to what he said and start fixing issues instead of just complaining.
I will say that there are plenty of competent contest-runnners out there that haven’t encountered nearly the amount of issues as this. Take a look at Bio-Cup, for example. While that’s not vote-based, and has a panel of judges, it’s run really well and it’s been a successful contest for years on end. I’m not saying you should make those guys do the work for you, but maybe take a look at how they work things and learn a few lessons about contests.

Also, maybe it’s just time to stop the contests. We’ve had what, three? And it’s gone over the course of at least a year or so. I can’t even remember when it started. Obviously, each contest merely brings more chaos, division, and frustration to the residents of TTV (both users and mods/staff alike), so I think it’s time to step back and think about whether this is really worth it or not.

(While I recognize that this may get me warned or even banned, I want to make it known that I no longer care. These contests, like I said, have sucked up the will to even open the site anymore, and being banned would hardly be a bad thing to come from this post.)

Have a good day.

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173

ya know I like the idea of these contests and the life they breathe into the community (we may be arguing but at least that means we care awwww) and want them to go well with minimal chaos dumb stuff and fandom flamewars but I have very little faith in that actually happening

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