3 ideas that I had for this forum.

I think it would be better if posts in the open contests area...

1) are monitered before they are posted.
Because I feel as if some of the contests posted there are a bit underthought,
and if they are monitered and checked before being posted like at sims2community forum, then we can prevent people from posting non detailed contests. this will give them a chance to go over the rules, look at current and past contests to see how to organize one correctly, instead of rushing head first, yah know?

2) Limit the number of Open Contests there can be at one time.
Alot of people will look at what I suggested and think that it sucks, but if you think about it, it could really be beneficial to the forum. This way, people dont join more contests then they could handle, therefore having to drop out of some that they joined. Also so that people who put so much hard work and determination into starting good contests, and people not joining them just because they had already joined too many contests, therefor causing that contest to be shut down.

3) I also think that having prizes for the winner could be benificial. Not necissarily custom content or anything, but like site recognition. Like maybe have a model of the month, where people on the forum could vote for the best model who has won a contest that month. Maybe that winner could move onto having like their own banner that month, and some other site recognition site stuff. This winner can not have dropped out of any other contest. This would encourage people to join contests and stead fast to them, and it also gives them something big to work for, yah know?



Just ideas, dont be TOO hard on me if you dont like em. Lolz.

2) I don't like the idea of a max on the number of contests open as how many that will join a contest vary very much around the year, so it would be hard to get a fair number also with the very long opening periode we have (one month) - so if anyone are interested they will proberly join within that timefream. Also if you are looking for a new contest it is nice to have something to choose form - unlike over at S2C where there are often only one modeling contest, so if you want to join then, then that is the one you can pick.

3) I kind of like the idea of voting for the best win in a periode of time a month is proberly to short a periode as we only have 3 or 4 winners in a month but perhaps per season. The vote should include pictures form the winners. That could be cool.

It would be really cool if the contest used the posibliety to get their banner in the topbanner - they just have to post it in the topbanner topic inhere or send it to me. It could be a cool challenge in most contests.

I agree with you in your argument about limiting the amount of open contests. But at the same time, if someone would like to get into contests, and have to wait a one month waiting period to actually start, they might lose interest, or not join at all because they dont feel like waiting at all.

Maybe limiting open contests isnt the way to prevent this, but someway to make it so that these contests arnt dragged out so long yah know? So that people can get into it when they want to, and not have something come up down the line.

Perhaps the open time should just be shorter like 14 days or something?

I do not like the first two ideas. S2C sucks. Their over-bearing rules are the main reason everyone left the forum back in the day. If we got rules and procedures like that, I can guarantee that most of the active people would leave this place.

The model of the season thing sounds pretty cool, though.

Yah, I think that would be nice. I dunno what other peoples take on this issue is though.

Like we should have a set open time instead of it being whatever people desire.
Atleast Thats how I feel :)

We do, one month which is about 30 days, say if it starts Jan 4, Feb. 4 it has to be done casting. Some contests take a long while to cast, you really can't limit time any less. Some contests may never get off the ground otherwise.

I agree with Cody, I don't like 1 or 2, but three sounds good :)

Model of The Month I really would like to see happen.
I think one month would be enough to vote for model of the month.
since there are 3 or four winners per month, i think that would suffice.

And maybe each year there be a model of the year?
And maybe each 10 years there be model of the century!
Lol

Joking about the century, but am serious about the year.

Like i just feel like there should be some type of payoff, or like prize
for contest winners and voted models of the month yah know?
Recognition, maybe contract to agencies, modeling opportunites
on the forum and on websites of members from this forum, yah know?

Everyone who wins my contest gets signed to an agency, but it doesn't really seem exciting. You can't force people to do prizes though. Yes donations or whatever are nice, but not everyone can get them to give out.

I think banners saying that you won are ok prizes as well. And uniqe costume content is allways nice. Many people will donate some of their work if you ask them.

im not talking about like, donations and custom content as prizes. Im just talking about like, some kind of forum recognition, and reserved modeling opportunities.

Like, maybe the same way we do member of the month, we could do model of the month, and allow the model to have her own banner at the top of the site. And maybe reserve some modeling opportunities for her on some of the websites of members on this forum. And feature her modeling on that website on this forum.

Mass recognition really would drive people to have their models win their competition, and make everything overall, more exciting, yah know? :D

I still think there is too few people winning every month, but I like the consept

i was actually wondering if we could have a winning sim portfolio section that's separate from the general sim portfolio section we have now- one where to have your sim's portfolio posted there, they have to have won at least 1 or 2 contests already on the board.

Agreed, maybe bi-monthly would be better.

Bi-monthly would be cool.

And then the GRAND yearly.

This sounds cool.

Maybe each month the sims who had won in the past 30 days' contests could be pooled together, their owners could choose their sim's best picture, and they could all be put up for a vote for model of the month.


I also think the need to have contests approved is a really good idea, but I don't see any need to limit the number allowed at one time, really. But it's been noticed lately that there are so many newbies randomly starting up contests, and that just junks up the Open Contests thread. So I think it might be a good idea to have to have your contest approved. Or maybe a requirement on the number of posts you must have before you are eligible to host.

Amen. :lol:

I do agree about the newbie part. There are some contest with like 2 posts, or from "hosts" who post and are gone. Some of them don't even make sence at all.

Yup, yuppers.

Definetly think moderating open area would be a plus.

Not really, because what if you wanted to post a contest and you had to wait for it to be approved. You have hosted them before, why wait? It is just the new people who shouldn't be able to do contests right away. A 1000 post count or something could work, but then they could spam. Or maybe you have to complette two contests or something like that would be good.

1000s post is really a lot. I hosted my second contest here then I had around 100 and it went really will. I think perhaps 50s post would be more right. Right now I "only" have 2500 post and I have hosted 10 contest here - all but a 2 has been big succes

I think to filter the newbies in that area, a like 50 post minimum would be good.

I don't know if there should be a post limit. Seasoned members know the risks of entering noob-hosted contests. And, most people understand that you should get to know the forum and its members before starting a contest. Sometimes, people who are well-known elsewhere in the community and start a successful contest without posting a lot here.

I've noticed that if two or three of the older members join a noob's contest, others will follow their lead.....

edit.
And, Kaydiddy, your new avatar is really cool - Geri looks incredibly gorgeous.

I don't really see a need for 1 or 2 right now because I dont think the open contest seciton is That cluttered. I mean it's not even at two pages most of the time. The contests that aren't as detailed just slide to the bottom anyway, and I don't see a reason to limit newer people from hosting at this point. Because you never know, someone who has lurked for awhile might really come up with something fantastic. And if you start having post initiatives, you kind of invite spamming. Just in my experience at least.

As for model of the month, i think it would be cool if all the winners who are on the banners for the seasonal wins could compete for a banner just for their winner, that would be a cool contest!

I have to agree with you Rita - I don't like the idea of limiting the open section - I think that is part of what makes this place so great - that there is room for the younglings as well as the seasoned members.

Alright, you make a really good point there. But still. Some of those open contests could stand to be deleted.

I do agree with you there :lol:

Maybe we could vary the casting times allowed, based on how long the member has been hosting. That way anyone can post, but contests that are a little on the less detailed side would get graveyarded faster. And/Or we could make some hosting guidelines that lays out some important information that has to be included.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't like the idea of making more rules...

I mean, people can decide not to enter badly made contests. And, hosts with bad ones will realize that they should change something. It wouldn't be a bad idea to write some suggestions for a well-made contest, though.

One of the problems with new people is that they register, start a contest, and forget to come back. That's something that disrupts many people's experiences here.

I had one host cancel on me because she was "too busy" to run the contest right then, and i watched as she immediately entered three pretty major contests herself. I'm not saying that we need more rules, but we definitely need SOMETHING!

Also, how is it that certain people keep hosting contests and abandoning them time and time again, with no visible reprimand? :bs:

Well then I think it's safe to narrow it down to 2 things...

1) Model of the Month! Definetly seems like everyone agrees with this.
- But Also, I think having Official Sims 2 Contest Contests on this forum wouldnt be a bad idea, like over at Mod the Sims 2. Maybe an official contest for model of the year. Have their own banner, featured on poster to advertise website. Things like that

2) Someway, somehow, limiting newbs open contests abilities?
-This is a bit loose tho

I too am not really fond of making more rules but what has to be done has to be done.

Anyway, I really do like the model of the month thing. It probablly doesnt need to be as drawn out as the member of the month we have, and I personally think model of the month should be voted by the public. And like what Kaydiddy said, an official contest would be cool too. Only problem with that is getting someone to host it. I dont know, maybe all the mods could host that contest together, if we agree to it of course.

I dont like limiting on noobs though, we do need them and we were all newbies at one point and it takes time to prove yourself. Plus hosts are already allowed to pick and choose who they want in their contests and even long time members drop out of contests too. And like Rita said, having a certain post count to enter contests would highly promote spamming and also lots of unfairness. That could be something difficult to keep track of and I forsee some newbies getting into contests when they dont have the right post counts (just by being able to slip in), because honestly who really checks that number? ..plus the amount of work it would be for the mods to go through each thread.

Well I have an idea for the open contests thing. We should put a warning in the Open Contests for Newbies. And have it say that if they're going to make a contest, it has to have a lot of thought in it, and first get a feel of how our contests are run. and if they make one and totally abandon it, they get a warning? And if you abandon 3 contests(hosting wise) you get banned.

Also, I like the idea that to be able to host a contest, you have to have been in say 3 contests. That way we know that they understand how people run them here.

And for the mods having to look through all the threads, they wouldn't have to since if someone abandons their contest, someone can PM a mod.

I meant that for the post count suggestion that was made.

But anyway, thats an interesting suggestion...maybe instead of having to join 3 contests, I think 1 would be enough because 1 contest can last for as long as 2-3 months and your first contest is definitley the biggest learning experience. I think this really is something worth looking into though.

Yay! I'm glad I could help :D

Err.. because the reprimand isn't visable. But it is there. The mods pay a lot of attention to stuff like that :ph43r:

I think Jillie's suggestion is probably the best one so far... in fact it's exactly what I was thinking before I read the remainder of the thread. I don't think post count / time is a good thing to set as a limit because due to varying factors these will be very different for new members (i.e. it might take one member only a couple of days to make 50 posts, whereas another might take a couple of weeks) but I do totally agree that newbies shouldn't be able to just come on and start contests immediately without thinking things through.

I think having to go through a contest (just one) before they are allowed to host one of their own is a good way to go :) It gives them a good idea of how things work here, how comments, eliminations, photoshoots etc... can work, or how they might like to do things themselves. It gives them time to get to know the other members and vice versa too.

I think if you're going to enforce a rule for Open Contests, that's a great place to start.

Oooo.... something else that has just come to me. Maybe you could also have something along the lines of "no more than xxx number of contests by the same host at any one time" or something like that, to prevent Open Contests becoming too overrun...

I don't think I like that idea. There are people who can host several contests at once without abandoning anything. Will comes to mind. And, I don't think the Open Contest forum being flooded is a bad thing. I like when there's a lot of choices/variety.

I like the idea of having to enter x-amount of contests before hosting one of your own.

I have to agree with you on that one Cody - as I run more then one contest most times then I run contests, Rita does it to, but not many others and I don't think any of us that chosse do host more then one contest has a problem doing that.

I see where Emma's coming from. I see that more being a rule to newbies. There should be like if you did X a number of contests(hosting) then you should be able to do more than a few contests. As Mac and cody mentioned Will, Rita and mac do more then one contest at a time, but you guys know what you're doing. Vrs someone who hasn't hosted that many contests.

Double-standards will only alienate and deter newbies. Whatever rules are made should apply to everyone equally.