Sotw Is Dead

[Albus Dumbledore 0]

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 Xisto wants to run little contests or if they want to request banners like for the 06 Xisto awards, or the domain name banner for Xisto - Web Hosting, 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

Edited December 10, 2006 by Albus Dumbledore (see edit history)

[Plenoptic 0]

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.

[BuffaloHelp 24]

it is not an accusation or a person bashing of any kind, just my OPINION-

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

I think that if Xisto wants to run little contests or if they want to request banners like for the 06 Xisto awards, or the domain name banner for Xisto - Web Hosting, 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...

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 Xisto'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 Xisto 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.

[Albus Dumbledore 0]

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

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

Have you asked anyone to close it though?

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 Edited December 10, 2006 by Albus Dumbledore (see edit history)

[truefusion 3]

I believe that the credit reward was given out for what, two SOTW's?

Over 5, to be precise. I counted about 7 before i decided to stop counting.[hr=noshade]
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.
[/hr]

[Albus Dumbledore 0]

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

[Cool_Freaker 0]

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 Xisto 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.

[God-Of-Earth 0]

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.

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

Also very well said. I mean im sure thats what Xisto 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.
Edited December 12, 2006 by God-Of-Earth (see edit history)

[Albus Dumbledore 0]

Rarther than people complaining we should all be coming up with ideas to improve it.

whose to say i am complaining? to me this is a complaint as well as advice for something to improve the graphics section of this site.

[Mich 0]

And the eldest SOTW competitor raisers her hand to be heard. Anyone on here can vouch that I am not out to bash anybody; so here goes.

 

I appreciate that there are occasions when graphics are needed for the sight, speaking proudly as the winner of the Xisto - Web Hosting SOTW and appreciating greatly the honor of its use on this site. I do, however, feel that this should have been a separate contest. There are many more skilled graphic illustrators on this forum than I, who just aren't into such things as animation, text renders and plain simple renders that don't require much manipulation or artistic ability.

 

When I look at the Showoff section, I am amazed at some of the creativity used with effects, renders, blendings, colors, uses of brushes and layering. I feel that many of these would be entered in the SOTW contests if there hadn't been a departure from its original intent. It seems that after a while we kind of run out of ideas for new themes. I don't have a quick solution to this problem on a continuing basis, but how about starting with the alphabet? Perhaps we could make the theme be any subject matter that can be construed to be associated with each letter, in order or not. The competitors should have to explain what the connection is when they submit their entry. This could be as simple as A is for A---whatever. With all the sigs in Showoff, I am sure some people wouln't even have to create new sigs as long as they hadn't entered them in a previous contest. This challenge could possibly take up the next 26 weeks, and get us started up again. I feel that the SOTW contest should be just that, a sig competition.

 

If one of the staff could teach me how to run the SOTW, I would be happy to oblige, if it would help things out. I could manage this with a little help during my times away from the forum, as I do travel and only work from a desktop puter at my home.

Edited December 13, 2006 by Mich (see edit history)

[Avalon 1]

SOTW seems to come and go in waves. I remember not so long ago I was trying to revive SOTW, and with the help of others we did for a while. But like any project, it needs to have a team (or at least 1 person) driving it along. This is where I personally have failed and I apologize for this, I made some grand statements about getting SOTW back on track but failed to follow through with a consistent effort to ensure it keeps on track. Over the last few months my level of contribution has been very poor. Buff's words have now stirred me into action, and I will try to put some life into the SOTW.I don't think the prizes are necessarily the answer, we tried that and I don't think it made a lot of difference, even though I was a supporter of the idea. I think communication will help, frequent posts in the SOTW section to keep it in people's minds and encourage them to participate just for the fun of it.I like Mich's idea of using the alphabet for choosing SOTW themes, but there are many other things we can use for themes. Stay tuned!