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lol optimistic with the entries ne? somehow... urgh maybe im just being a pessimist >.<; lol

are all the people involved (i mean here) going to vote? or only "admin"

knock out tournament... any ideas for that? we already chatted about perhaps not making this battle / fight themed.. war of words?

Eh, I say knock out half each round, or it'll be far too many rounds. I mean, even as it is...

80 -> 40 -> 20 -> 10 -> 4 -> 2 -> 1

I wouldn't want this even to take more than a month or two, really. Because at that rate, we'd be losing interest really fast. And we'd drop players out of boredom, not because they were actually eliminated.

@Woe: I'm fine with knocking half each round, but I don't think a month or two would be enough time. Most art contests go on for months, and if I'm not mistaken, OOC was from July to Jan?

So when you said we'd be losing interest, would that be us as the hosts or the players themselves losing interest? If it was the former, I personally wouldn't, but I understand if some might.

@Kim: Bigger + scarier = a challenge for us! I do like a standard entry form, which levels the beginning standards. Maybe those selected for the next few rounds can then link us to existing customised profiles if they feel that there's more that needs explaining?

We certainly can wait till we've got the number of apps in place before deciding. Though I still think we could draft a structure depending on number of players.

What we could do is assign judges to 4 groups, so they don't need to read all 80+ profiles. And then among each group, they do a vote themselves and top/bottom get through/eliminated. Preferably I'd like at least an artist, an RP manager, an admin/events person, and a few more staff to make up the vote per group.

When I say "losing interest," it includes me. Lol.

I don't think you can use art contests as a measure of this OC contest. Because they can be assloads long, but a last-minute entry is a last-minute entry. An artist can put in a week or a month or an hour, depending on how they feel. Because this requires several rounds and thus - sustained attention - it should be shorter. The first OOC would have been shorter, the bottlenecks occurred during last rounds.

For me, long contests are a turnoff. I don't enter them... I don't like being carrot-on-a-stringed for so long. It's insulting.

I'm personally a pretty quick judge of what I like, lol. I could probably make it through 80 entries in a week, maybe even a day... >.>; *is a b***h*

I'd like to say that I think the initial round should be far the longest - I seem to remember the OOC had three rounds? Or maybe four? That was enough as far as I'm concerned.

That said, I don't mind reading lots of entries, like Woe I kind of know what I like quite quickly. XD I'm a fast judge of the things that I think make a good and a bad OC. But I wouldn't want to read and judge all 80+ entries nonetheless. O_o

I'd really like to encourage entries that are not just text based - in the OOC the initial entry was a page with colour and pictures and text and things, which I remember that I did read most of them (even though I didn't have to because I was an entrant, not a judge) because they were easy on the brain and the eyes. XD Obviously there needs to be text but I don't want to have to read 80+ profiles that are ten pages long each. And in the initial stage I would really like to have a cap on the amount of information they can feed to us anyway, either by saying 'must fit onto one page at text size 10' or giving them a template of some kind? Maybe in the style of a Meme? Just some thoughts. :3

Bolded for emphasis. Good point. heart

Trying to accommodate everyone's thoughts;

4 rounds, halving each (or scaling depending on number and quality of entries) and then choosing a final winner. 2 weeks for the initial round to give them time to explore the world, 1 week for subsequent rounds. This should give enough time to address the problem with coordinating judging.

(I shall be using the knockout tourney format for another mini-event, possibly an RP one given it looks like I may have to run the neutral grounds)

So given an entry period of a month, that makes it about 2-3 months given delays. Perhaps we could have the main contest end there to boredom, and those who are in the running for the RP contest can continue a bit longer till we get a winner.

So for artists like Woe who'd prefer a short contest, her prizes can go towards the main one, and those who don't mind a longer period, can pool theirs for the RP ones?

Entry forms: I agree with a template of sorts, with a leeway for customisation. And to avoid 100% reliance on literacy and good writing skills, we'd need to add in scenario questions or something that can gauge how interesting the char can be.

Prizes: I don't think it should be that big of an issue, as we're not asking for art, which makes it a bit easier. But yes, obviously not a 1m pot.

@Kim: Yes, please do ask Sirenz if she's interested. Really, spread the word to anyone you think would be up for it. We really need more artists and RP managers to be honest.