2013 Cel Awards: A tentative start
Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 10:08 am
star-phoenix and I agree that some start should be made toward renewing the annual cel awards. However, neither of us is especially tech-savvy, and so we also agree that the framework of the awards should be kept relatively simple. On reviewing the start-up thread from 2012 (hosted by iceman, with active support from D123 and Yupa and dithering provided by me) I can see that there are quite a few issues needing to be resolved from the last one.
1: the setting. The old mode was to create a Rubberslug gallery for the purpose, which is within most Betarians' limited technical knowledge. That was admittedly clunky and prone to problems.
This was improved by zerospace's site code, which made the process smoother from the submitter's end but requires a certain amount of website knowledge that many interested parties don't have. And it proved to have vulnerabilities that created the impression that even more tech-savvy parties could manipulate it to their benefit. (I don't want to revisit the issue of whether such parties did do so, only affirm that this issue created doubt about the validity of the results and some serious rifts among long-standing members.)
zerospace offered to rewrite the site code to close these wormholes, saying
If not, then I'm probably capable of creating and designing a Rubberslug page for the purpose, though again I'd appreciate support from a volunteer from a previous contest who could review my work and gently point out my errors.
That leads to
2: Volunteers. As I read the thread from 2011, the contest (somewhat smaller in total participation than previous ones) was handled by a team of four. Iceman served as overall supervisor, hosted and designed the Rubberslug site, and also created the trophies. D123 and Yupa processed submissions and uploaded them to the website. We all counted votes and double-checked the results with each other. D123 notified winners and Yupa modified the website to make the results visible to everyone.
It was, as I recall, a bit of an overload for these two because the schedule put much of the work in the busiest time for academics (between Thanksgiving and Christmas) and I had limited time to help them out. I think we should have a somewhat larger staff this year to prevent this overload, along with a clearer set of understandings from the start as to what will be required.
If we use a self-designed website in the zerospace mode, then I'd say the staff will need to be enlarged on the technical side as well.
Finally:
3. Rules. While the 2011 contest simply copied the 2010 rules and followed them for simplicity and speed, there probably are issues that need to be revisited and resolved: categories that should be added/dropped/revised, the issue of where rilezu can be submitted, the number of prizes given when the total number of entries in a category falls below four in number, etc. I can see that some of these discussions got brushed over in the name of moving the contest ahead, and this led to several negative comments and (possibly) lower turnout in submissions/votes.
So with that background, let me ask:
1. Is there genuine interest in reviving the cel contest in 2013?
2. If so, which format would be best?
3. Given the answers to 1 and 2, who would be willing to help out to make it all happen?
4. Do we want to begin with a thorough revisitation of the rules? (I'll copy these in the next post for reference.)
1: the setting. The old mode was to create a Rubberslug gallery for the purpose, which is within most Betarians' limited technical knowledge. That was admittedly clunky and prone to problems.
This was improved by zerospace's site code, which made the process smoother from the submitter's end but requires a certain amount of website knowledge that many interested parties don't have. And it proved to have vulnerabilities that created the impression that even more tech-savvy parties could manipulate it to their benefit. (I don't want to revisit the issue of whether such parties did do so, only affirm that this issue created doubt about the validity of the results and some serious rifts among long-standing members.)
zerospace offered to rewrite the site code to close these wormholes, saying
Is there enough interest in returning to this format to negotiate with zerospace for a new improved version? If so, then I would need to have a volunteer on the team who was involved in one of the past contests who could manage the website end of the contest.zerospace Wed Nov 09 2011 wrote:I am willing to work on what would be the future version of the site with the input & assistance of Anime Beta members. What I mean is: I'd be willing to re-develop it with what you guys want in mind. If this is something you all would like to see happen, speak up. Otherwise, I'm probably going to let this thing die, as it has caused me enough headaches already.
If not, then I'm probably capable of creating and designing a Rubberslug page for the purpose, though again I'd appreciate support from a volunteer from a previous contest who could review my work and gently point out my errors.
That leads to
2: Volunteers. As I read the thread from 2011, the contest (somewhat smaller in total participation than previous ones) was handled by a team of four. Iceman served as overall supervisor, hosted and designed the Rubberslug site, and also created the trophies. D123 and Yupa processed submissions and uploaded them to the website. We all counted votes and double-checked the results with each other. D123 notified winners and Yupa modified the website to make the results visible to everyone.
It was, as I recall, a bit of an overload for these two because the schedule put much of the work in the busiest time for academics (between Thanksgiving and Christmas) and I had limited time to help them out. I think we should have a somewhat larger staff this year to prevent this overload, along with a clearer set of understandings from the start as to what will be required.
If we use a self-designed website in the zerospace mode, then I'd say the staff will need to be enlarged on the technical side as well.
Finally:
3. Rules. While the 2011 contest simply copied the 2010 rules and followed them for simplicity and speed, there probably are issues that need to be revisited and resolved: categories that should be added/dropped/revised, the issue of where rilezu can be submitted, the number of prizes given when the total number of entries in a category falls below four in number, etc. I can see that some of these discussions got brushed over in the name of moving the contest ahead, and this led to several negative comments and (possibly) lower turnout in submissions/votes.
So with that background, let me ask:
1. Is there genuine interest in reviving the cel contest in 2013?
2. If so, which format would be best?
3. Given the answers to 1 and 2, who would be willing to help out to make it all happen?
4. Do we want to begin with a thorough revisitation of the rules? (I'll copy these in the next post for reference.)