Ientering in SOTW because it was fun

-please let it be known this is my OPINION and if you dont like it tough, it is not an accusation or a person bashing of any kind, just my OPINION-

But recently it has been dull, first with the SOTW that lasted a month because someone wanted to get more entries because only like three people entered, then the current SOTW that's going on a month now because lord knows why....
Used to like
I think that if trap17 wants to run little contests or if they want to request banners like for the 06 trap17 awards, or the domain name banner for computinghost, then they should make a different topic instead of screwing up SOTW....

AND THEN, someone smart came up with the idea of giving credits for winning SOTW, then someone bashed that and it's not happening anymore... that would have made it allot more fun, and more entries most likely. but someone,decided to cancel it...

basic point: sotw=down the drain in my OPINION

This post has been edited by Albus Dumbledore: Dec 10 2006, 01:04 AM

I offered credits for this SOTW, although I planned on only keeping it up for two weeks, I was told it would stay until nominations are over so that was done. I figured it would have been over by now even. Have you asked anyone to close it though? Ya I agree it's dead and that's partly my fault but that's not the only way of signature competitions. There are battles you can do as well.

For a statement insists that it's not a bashing of any kind, it sure looks to be a bash of some sort...



This is why initially I requested no awards to be given out by anyone. But to draw more attention to SOTW, one of GFX Crew heads decided to involve admins whereby offering hosting credits to winning. Because of the dominant maturity level of this forum, a reward can be a deadly poison to pure self-motivated intellectual exchange of skills--I think I am allowed to VENT here since it is The Vent section. Simply put, if one conditions another with reward for a proud behavior, that proud behavior will not repeat unless another reward is present.

So where are my GFX Crew members? What happened to all moderators who are in charge of GFX section? What about the original members who requested GFX section to be made in the first place? Where are the mods whom I promoted to take care of GFX section? And with this kind of responsibility another promotion of rank was requested??

Since SOTW was slowing down and all those who were appointed to SOTW were not on as frequently any more, I have decided to hold longer SOTW grace period. If this upsets you because SOTW is not "like" before I took it over or I messed up the spirit of SOTW you will just have to blame me because I can't wait until GFX Crew are either decide to come back or relinquish to admin.

Maybe I should restructure my moderating team. Because obviously there's been frequent uprising to admins decisions and instead of moderators and GFX Crew doing their own job, admins are picking up the rest of the shift. There is lack of respect for admins because mods are not respected or respecting admins.

Hey, we all have lives. Anyone understands it. All they had to do was float me a message saying, hey I will try to be supportive in coming few months/years, would have been fine. In fact, the very people who promoted that we have our own "check in" section are the ones who have not checked with the rest of moderation team. Lack of proper communication, demonstrates to me, that Trap17's responsibilities are not taken seriously to some. And the ranking system completely divided the forum to two pieces--moderators and members. Members are waiting moderators (that's including admins, too) to cultivate the forum and moderators are not actively seeking to cultivate the forum. This is EVERYONE's forum--not just for moderators. Treat this forum as your own and initiate the first "action" instead of waiting for someone else to take care of it.

I urge and request EVERY member of Trap17 to be the contributors of this forum--not just a back seat driver. This is a community. This is not the place for he said, she said, I am better than you etc. Believe me, I get swamped with hate PMs and junk PMs that tells me this is a terrible hosting place and how much they are better than I. THIS IS NOT A HOSTING PLACE! Let me make myself clear. HOSTING IS JUST AN ICING ON A CAKE. This is a FORUM place first. It's the big almighty place to discuss and be rebuked for an idea presented to each topic. Hosting is provided at free of charge in show of appreciation for participating in this forum.

So if members choose not to participate on SOTW there's nothing you or I can do. But it should not deter the rest of us from staying the course. So what only few people have participated? If the SOTW subject and criteria seems to be too high for the rest of designers, lower it. If you don't have an idea for the next SOTW discuss it out in the open! Ask people to submit ideas. If you feel that SOTW can do better, submit a suggestion.

Take charge: don't be a back seat driver. That's all I ask.

I put that there to clarify for you that it is not an accusation or a bashing, but my opinion, and if i were bashing i would mention the names, but i dont know them, i just know that they/someone did.

I believe that the credit reward was given out for what, two SOTW's? and during that time i did not see any rash behavior in the forums in regards to the idea of giving credits out. All i saw were cool! and awsome now we get credits for doing good with out graphics.

I believe that if you want something to be successful you should reward people for the excellence that they do. In a business community, you don't see people doing good, then the managers/owner of the company saying good job keep it up, ok well you do see that, but after so many they get a raise, a raise as an award for doing excellent work. this may not be a business community, but i think that if you want to be sucessfull with the graphics section, and the forums that you should offer rewards for excellence to make people feel good and motivate them to do more, and to keep up the good work.

This credit thing for winning SOTW was barley given a trial run. I say that we give it a trial run if SOTW ever returns to normal status and see how it blows over




I have asked people to close it yes, but it was only for the Domain name advertisement SOTW, i asked the maker to close it multiple times and i kept getting the same response of something along the lines of "I am going to wait until we get some more entery's" until i finally asked SM to close it an make the next SOTW and he did instantly. I havent asked anyone to close the Trap 06 awards because I've kind of given up on SOTW/in a way sig making also

This post has been edited by Albus Dumbledore: Dec 10 2006, 08:28 PM

Over 5, to be precise. I counted about 7 before i decided to stop counting.

---

Many who used to be (very) active in the GFX forum are barely or no longer active (due to something personal, or just got bored with GFX, etc). Some come in just to show off their latest work(s)—that's about it; even then, it's a bit rare for them to show off. It's easier to get voters than contestants.

ok so it looks like there were more than ten where credits were offered.... but still, i didn't see it cause a bunch of chaos....and it's not like 100 credits should be given out, I'm thinking like 10 for first place 7 for second and 5 for third that would take maybe 3 posts to get on the forum, so it's not like it's that big of a differense in their credit count

On the few forums I've been on which are not totally graphics related, (i.e. have a GFX subforum where sigs are etc) the SotW tends to start with a lot of initial interest, but as it wears on gradually slows down and has difficulty attracting sufficient numbers of participants. For a site which is not frequented by the largest number of signature designers, I think the fact that it has lasted so long is a feat in itself, and that scaling it back to something like signature of the month would not be all that detrimental.

I have to agree with Albus in saying any sort of incentive for entry would help incite some sort of interest, especially if it were to be a permanent thing (with perhaps larger prizes for tournaments or several wins in a row). To be honest, while Trap17 doesn't have the best designers, most of the people who do post their work have truly put effort into their designs; it has not been a matter of creating a sig to simply gain credits. I think you have to give some of the forum members some credit (no pun intended).

Anyway, I have to apoligize for being so inactive also as one of the older, I believe original, members of the GFX team. I certainly would encourage a revival of sorts of the section, though.

Well i do agree with the comments about sotw but i only believe it is due to people not entering. BuffaloHELP has done what any other mod/admin would have done. I mean sotw could have just been stopped when people stopped entering.
Anyway if any help is needed to get it up and running again im more than willing to help seen as im a keen gfx lover.


Also very well said. I mean im sure thats what trap17 was all about anyway. Expressing ones view and contributing to the forum as a whole. I agree compleatly. Rarther than people complaining we should all be coming up with ideas to improve it.

Also i feel that the reason most people are not entering is because recently most of the sigs been posted are by people either using GIMP or people new to Photoshop. If these people are not sure if they can win or not i am not sure. Also i believe all the GFX crew should be more involved then what i have seen recently.

This post has been edited by God-Of-Earth: Dec 12 2006, 11:33 AM