Contest Section

I don't consider losing inspiration for a contest doing something wrong though. I don't consider something coming up that prevents you from judging doing something wrong. Why punish someone over something so trivial as a Mibba contest?

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I believe i saw sparks. suggested that users could only be able to create x number of contests at once, and before they can make another one, they'd have to complete an old one. That may help with abandoned contests, if the host is literally unable to make a new one without judging the old ones.

@ Kurtni
Like I said, I don't think it should be an issue if it happens occasionally, but if someone is always entering contests and NEVER turning in entries, I think it's an issue that should be addressed. And I don't think it's trivial because the issue of contests is something a lot of people get pretty steamed over.

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but Ladyschrei's post made me think of this: contests hosts should be able to delete their own contest threads (or take down their contests - if writing contests will no longer be hosted in the forums or as threads).

I think this will at least keep down the clutter of so many inactive contest threads being up.

Perhaps some kind of time limit on contests could be imposed, which allows them to automatically be deleted after some time of inactivity.

I'd have to agree with Dru in that I don't see the point in creating an entirely new section for contests if it's not going to stop all of the issues with the contests in the forums now. I mean, I don't necessarily like the idea of punishing people for not judging their contest or not turning in an entry, but it's obvious that something drastic needs to be done to get people to follow through with their commitments on both ends.

It's just that I'm constantly seeing hosts from contests I've entered in the past creating multiple new contests when they haven't judged or handed out prizes for the last contest of theirs that I entered If I say something to them about it like, "hey, i joined your last contest and never received my prizes," I constantly get the excuse of "oh, I was busy" or "oh, I forgot," and I'm sorry, but I have a life too, and if someone has enough time to make ten new contests, they should have time to judge the ones they've already created.

At the same time, it's also frustrating to work really hard to get an entry for a contest finished on time and then be the only contestant that turns in anything, so either way, the contest doesn't get judged.

@ Audrey T
I like that idea. As long as the host is messaged first that the contest is being taken down because of inactivity.

I think maybe after the contest is judged, it should be taken down maybe a week or two after the judging, and again, the host would be alerted about it being taken down.

Also being allowed to delete contests by the host for whatever reason is good too.

@ Kurtni
I think that would work, yeah. One or two contests at a time, and can't make new ones until they're completed or deleted. I think it's fair.

I dunno about deleting them. A lot of people write their stories and put "Written for this contest" in the summary, with a link to the contest, and people click on that link after the contest has been finished for many reasons. Maybe we could inactivate or prevent people from posting/joining or have them in a "Completed" section or something, just so people can still refer back to them if they need/want to.

If we did a contest section, would there be anyway to make it so when you create a story, you can select what contest it belongs to and that shows up somewhere? It would also be cool if, after the judging, the winners got that automatically posted to the story as well.

^ That would be awesome.

@ darkfallenangel
Maybe, if contests were to be deleted, there could be a way to get it so stories have a medal on them on their info page if they win a contest? I don't know how that would work.

Either that or encourage hosts to either make a cute little medal IMG to give to entrants to put on stories, or the staff or other users could make some generic ones and post them on the site that hosts could send the URL to winners? Lol.

@ dru's hammer.
I'm confused by what you mean, posted to the story as well?

And going off about creating a story, maybe like, when you're creating a story there could be a list of contests you're entered in and that story could be placed in there? Kind of like how we do with deciding what collection a story goes in, characters, etc.

Either that, or when entering a contest, there could be a drop-down list that lets you select the story(ies) being entered.

And like, when creating the contest, the host could put a limit on how many stories each entrant can enter, so that way if it's one story per contest, on the drop-down list people couldn't select more than one story.

@ darkfallenangel
I'm just think something small, up top with the status bar. Maybe ribbons for the winners so it's just a tiny image.

@ ladyschrei
I was thinking sort of like the collections/layouts drop down menu. I was thinking we could have a drop down menu with the contests a user is entered in. Then when they select that, it says on their story it's for that (which is generally a contest requirement) and it automatically gets posted to the contest page/sent to the host/whatever gets done with entries.

@ dru's hammer.
Where would that appear on the story though, where it says the contest it's entered in? Like in the summary or...? Maybe the Info page? Like underneath where it says Completed, there could be Contests: and then a list of the contests it was entered in?

@ ladyschrei
I was thinking up toward the top near the status bar, actually. Just so it's small and out of the way.

@ ladyschrei
Just having a medal (or ribbon, or whatever) wouldn't do much in the way of someone referring back to the contest to see the prompts, who hosted/judged it, the prizes, the other entries, etc. I think in terms of that, they shouldn't be deleted.

I do think it would be cool, whether it's just on the Info page or up the top where it has "Layout, Subscribe, etc", to have some sort of recognition for doing well in a contest.

@ darkfallenangel
Maybe once a contest is judged, it could be moved to a separate part of the Contests... section?

Like, there could be a list for current open contests, a list for closed ones/ones being judged, and a list of those already judged? That way it wouldn't be too crowded and trying to find open contests would be easier, and then everyone can be linked back to the contest(s) won.

@ dru's hammer.
Maybe we could do like darkfallenangel said and there could be a clickable link that leads to a list of contests, or the contest, the story was entered in, and what place it won, if it did?

@ ladyschrei
But if the contest pages are going to be removed eventually, how would that work?

@ dru's hammer.
No, I'm saying instead of deleting them, just move them to the appropriately placed category - open, closed/judging, already judged.

@ ladyschrei
I guess it'll depend on what gets done with contests.

@ dru's hammer.
Yeah.

@ ladyschrei
That's what I was meaning by this part of my earlier post:

darkfallenangel:

Maybe we could inactivate or prevent people from posting/joining or have them in a "Completed" section or something, just so people can still refer back to them if they need/want to.

I just don't think deleting them is the way to go, even though it would help it keep it tidier, but so would sections for, for example, Completed, Active, Inactive, Judging, and maybe even Popular or Featured or something like that.