Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hey all! We hope you're enjoying the festivities! And happy summer!
We hope to have our first annual Custom Pokemon Contest soon, but we wanted to get your feed back on a few things!

Primarily, this poll is to receive feedback on the voting system that we'll use to determine the winners of the contest. For those of you who have been with us for a while, you know about the previous voting method, but for those who are unfamiliar, here's a link to the previous Custom Contest : )

Now, we do plan on tweaking a few things, particularly with the specific categories, so that there will be a section for personal opinions [so that the other categories won't be influenced, ie "I voted less on creativity because I had an imaginary friend when I was little, and this reminds me of it", or "I don't really like the typing so I took points away from practicality", etc], but overall, the system will remain largely the same.

We've had some feedback on this, so we wanted to do a poll. If you dislike the system, please make a suggestion, otherwise we won't really know what needs to be changed. Please note, however, that we will not simply be allowing you to vote for who you choose. We've heard some recommendations on this, however, it can be too easily abused. If five more people vote an average of 7 for entry 3 than entry 6, but entry 7 has received 10's, then entry 3 could win even though 7 has been receiving higher votes from those that vote for it, simply because it's total tallied higher. Similarly, people could sabotage an entry by not voting for it. Given the importance and rarity of this event, and the weight of winning, we're unwilling to risk using a system that could so easily be taken advantage of, especially when the only argument for it is an unwillingness to put the effort into voting for all the entries.

As long as a proposed method has no such loopholes, however, we will try to take it into consideration [though be advised we may adjust it if necessary], and put the final voting options up to a final vote before the custom contest, so that the guild, as a whole, may decide which option they prefer.

Please keep in mind, though, that we will only do this if the majority decides that they are unhappy with the current system.

Well, if opinions are asked for, I might as well give mine, and what mine is is the idea that maybe the positions of the entries should be calculated by averages instead of just by their cumulative scores. It wouldn't get rid of all sabotage, but then again, nothing will. There's nothing stopping someone from voting and giving all entries save the few they actually like all 1s or even 0s for each category and just giving a short explanation that might not even be a legitimate explanation. Like giving someone a low score in creativity and saying that they gave the score because the creature is blue and they happen to not like blue. But that's just my two cents because the actual suggestion I'd want to give is the one that is stated to not be viable and this would only be a step in that direction.

And as for why I would want it the way that is said to be non-viable, I will at least grant explanation. I was able to determine who the creators were of four of the entries just by looking at them when they went up and could guess at another two. I was incapable of being impartial because two of the ones that I knew off the bat were also the two people I had a character interacting with at the time. Not wanting to reopen old wounds or anything like that, I'm just saying that if I were to write down reviews for all of them, I doubt that things would have gone smoothly for the remaining time as I... Well, I held my tongue at the time, but I was having an impossible time keeping my comments in each category to just one paragraph for certain entries. And little of it was praise. It was either alienate multiple people that, outside of disagreeing on the way their fakemon were done, I got along with fine or keep my mouth shut and not vote at all. I am not naive enough to assume that my opinions on the fakemon would not cause friction later and the situation in the OoC after the contest finished up justified that view.

Anyway, I apologize for that rant and do not mean it as mean or cold towards the voting system in any way. It is just my reason for feeling that even if I do eventually get an entry submitted, I likely won't vote at all. I know how people can get and the last thing I want is to drive away people that would otherwise like to interact with me just because I didn't like something they came up with.

One of the things I really planned to try and fix this next go around was to make a better explanation of what each of the categories are for, to be more specific so that there's no confusion on what comments and critiques should look like. I will also try to monitor the scores to make sure that people will use the system correctly, but it's hard to balance the fine line between differing personal opinions and actually voting on a category incorrectly. I will also make a point of mentioning that people should be consistent, as well as fair in their voting, because you're right, consistency is also important, because you can't critique one entry harshly that didn't have something, but then turn around and give another entry with the exact same issues the full points. >w<

Now, there shouldn't be scores based on the art alone, because this is not an art contest, and not everyone has the talent to draw or sprite their pokemon. Not to mention that art is even optional as long as you have a through description of the fakemon. The only exception would be in terms of originality, because basing your pokemon on someone else's art could be considered by a judge less original than if they had just used a description, otherwise art should not be a critique.

I do apologize for your negative experiences from the last contest. The behavior after the contest ended was noticed by us as well, and we do plan to address that in the rules of the next competition. As we’ve said before, this guild was made with the desire to have a positive, encouraging atmosphere. Everyone is indeed entitled to their own opinion, and no one is required to be happy with the outcome, however, we do want to clarify once again that just because someone feels upset or angry, doesn’t mean that complaining or blowing up the ooc with negativity is okay.



Averaging is an option for future scoring certainly. It does curve out the score and make things more fair, however it also runs the risk of creating many more situations in which there are ties.

As far as your issues with wanting selective voting due to knowing the identity of a few entries, I am sorry you felt that pressure. I do sympathize with your situation, but we have our reservations on the idea of picking and choosing what entries to vote on. Regardless of whether we used accumulated points or averages, not voting on an entry and voting on other entries does have an effect on the outcome of all the scores, so it’s hard to make a system like that fair. However, If this is really just a matter of wanting to vote on entries and feeling your critiques would drive potential RP partners away, do you think perhaps anonymous voting would have helped that issue? It was brought up as a potential idea, and I was thinking of doing it this last contest. It helps those sorts of pressured without running the risks that arise from selective voting.

We were considering a system where critiques could be PMed to the contest host, then immediately posted by the contest host as well, the PMs saved and screencapped as evidence that there was no tampering with the votes. Of course, anonymity will not excuse rude, abrasive, or negative critiques either, we will still ask that all critiques be constructive, but that doesn’t mean your comments have to be filled with sugar and praise, they just have to explain why you voted the way you did, and perhaps, if you felt so inclined, give a suggestion on how you think this issue might be resolved.

Your opinion does not seem cold or harsh, it is well thought out and greatly appreciated. You make many good points c: Your issues have been a concern of ours, because no one wants to step on toes or cause issues because of an honest opinion. I hope that perhaps this anon voting might help you feel free to vote next contest if we do put it in place.

Honestly, since everyone knows Lucifer is re-entering Draginal (and, even if we didn't, we would still know), protecting the identities of the participants....Not that important a task this time around. I'm not disagreeing; I'm just saying it's a moot point.

I agree with Lia about having anonymous voting via PMs. I know it could be possible to deduce someone by how they write, but I'm pretty bad at that so I wouldn't be able to tell, probably.

I think an enhancement to the criteria could help people vote impartially, for sure.



Honestly, I probably could have been a bit more consistent too. I'll probably hold off on sending in my voting next time so I can look it over a few times.

Ah, yeah, that makes sense. I kinda like to give credit for people coming up with their own drawings/sprites/descriptions. I can focus more on the other stuff in the future though ^w^

Thank you, I appreciate that~



Hmm, I can see what you're saying (about the anonymity) but I think it's a good thing to keep around. I wouldn't want people discouraged from entering again because they don't have anonymity compared to others, but I think it's helpful. Also, if someone wishes to remain anonymous for a re-entry in the future, they can refrain from revealing which one was theirs after the event is over.

At Hidden Legends, I actually entered Lupup and Lunine in the contest there (Lunarch wasn't invented yet) so everyone who came over from there (probably) knew it was mine. It was the same with Nyxup. Not sure if that mattered though- what did/do you think about it? Since that was an example of what you're talking about already happening.

So I just had a thought- what do you think of holding off allowing people to submit votes for a day or two (or longer) after the entries have all been added. People could of course begin making their votes, but I feel like giving everyone time to think over the entries before posting could be good. I dunno if that's a "good" idea or not though