Anti-Trolling rule needs to take affect more?

[MaboroshiStudio]

I think I have to agree, clamping down on the freshness rule a bit (6 - 8 months) seems to be the best happy medium I can see for now... I have had a 6 month freshness rules on several of my contests of my any years and I have had quite a few videos DQed for that reason. You do however have to stick to your rules on this one as a several contestants did not even know about the rule, and then there were those that argued with me, for example, that their YouTube posting date was wrong!

AND a selected few have argued that they had such a small amount of hits on their video so did consider it to be publically available (really?).. So yea, some of the stories I have had are quite interesting, but the rule has worked on flushing out people that keep sending in stuff for 8+ months.

For Sakura-Con, the freshness rule will be 7.5 months as the deadline is early in the year and Nov & Dec are a write-off for a lot of editors in making new stuff so, yea you do need to be aware of the "off season or slow time too.

Vlad

I guess I want to do something that will handle both ends of the spectrum... I am thinking 8 month (don't want to do 6 month as MTAC is in April) + 6 award max and anything within the past 12 months (no award limit) will go into a 2nd contest that will have the top 10 AMVs. I was thinking of showing the top 10 contest before the showing of the main AMV contest winners. Still just thinking it out and will be discussing with John Wendel who will be working with me this year...

[BasharOfTheAges]

There's more to it than how it will effect your contest. Max award rules are harmful to OTHER CONTESTS too, especially smaller ones. They're antagonistic. They say, don't risk supporting the small cons, because when you win, you DQ yourself elsewhere. This is hostile behavior. If all the big cons followed the example set by Otakon in this regard it would be toxic to the hobby.

Otakon has a 2 max rule and anything outside of this is not eligible for anything... this is not what I am proposing. I think that is far too restrictive...

I am trying to find a happy medium / middle ground and again it will only impact a select AMVs which as I said would still be eligible for awards in the way I want to do it. I also think variety is good... and I am not advocating that all contests should have freshness / award limits.

The thread itself is a meta discussion, though. It's about everyone. Is it fair to say some cons should be able to implement a maximum, but others can't? If ANY cons do it, other cons (again, the small ones who struggle to get by) feel the impact. Otakon was just the most extreme example. Rules like that establish a commons in the contest space. We choose to pollute that space or not.

[Vlad G Pohnert]

I guess I want to do something that will handle both ends of the spectrum... I am thinking 8 month (don't want to do 6 month as MTAC is in April) + 6 award max and anything within the past 12 months (no award limit) will go into a 2nd contest that will have the top 10 AMVs. I was thinking of showing the top 10 contest before the showing of the main AMV contest winners. Still just thinking it out and will be discussing with John Wendel who will be working with me this year...

Will be interesting to see how that works out for you...

For me I don't really need the second contests as most of the cons I run or help run the contest I also run an AMV room so I already have an outlet in showing older videos (IN FACT, that is why I came up with the freshness rules at the start many years ago originally so I could play older, but not too old videos in the AMV Room)!

At Sakura-Con, the room is bigger them some Main Event Room so at 800+ seating having your video played during prime time is just like having it in a contest anyways as a lot of people get to see it..

That is my happy middle ground... But I can understand not all cons have that much dedicated time for AMVs

Vlad

Vlad

[MaboroshiStudio]

I guess I want to do something that will handle both ends of the spectrum... I am thinking 8 month (don't want to do 6 month as MTAC is in April) + 6 award max and anything within the past 12 months (no award limit) will go into a 2nd contest that will have the top 10 AMVs. I was thinking of showing the top 10 contest before the showing of the main AMV contest winners. Still just thinking it out and will be discussing with John Wendel who will be working with me this year...

Will be interesting to see how that works out for you...

For me I don't really need the second contests as most of the cons I run or help run the contest I also run an AMV room so I already have an outlet in showing older videos (IN FACT, that is why I came up with the freshness rules at the start many years ago originally so I could play older, but not too old videos in the AMV Room)!

At Sakura-Con, the room is bigger them some Main Event Room so at 800+ seating having your video played during prime time is just like having it in a contest anyways as a lot of people get to see it..

That is my happy middle ground... But I can understand not all cons have that much dedicated time for AMVs

Vlad

Vlad

Sadly no AMV room... last year I had little to no time for anything other than the contest and showing the winners. The con space for MTAC last year was so limited...

[ngsilver]

I'm just randomly spitballing ideas here, but... consider throwing away the typical competition concept. Do something crazy like giving every entry a ridiculous award right after it's shown. Make it something fun. Give Piece of Toast the "Longest Spreadsheet" award. Give "Anime 101" the "Innovations in Anime Mathematics" award. Give some crappy drama AMV the "Most Dramatic Macroblock" award.

Hey man, that's MY Stichk
Well, except for the every entry part....

[XStylus]

There's more to it than how it will effect your contest. Max award rules are harmful to OTHER CONTESTS too, especially smaller ones. They're antagonistic. They say, don't risk supporting the small cons, because when you win, you DQ yourself elsewhere. This is hostile behavior. If all the big cons followed the example set by Otakon in this regard it would be toxic to the hobby.

This. So very much this.

Since Otakon is such a large event with a large amount of pull, that rule does a great job of encouraging creators to not risk sending their new AMVs to smaller events just prior to Otakon's deadline, so a few will often make it their first stop in a vid's year round tour. Granted, AX isn't affected by it since our event takes place after their deadline, but it's toxic to AMV events that take place just before Otakon's submission deadline. Only an outright exclusivity rule would be more harmful.

Secondly, I think it perpetuates the soccer mom'ish everybody-deserves-to-win mindset. "You've got your award from Chibi-Podunk-Con, now go away. It's little Timmy's turn to be a winner."

[MaboroshiStudio]

Secondly, I think it perpetuates the soccer mom'ish everybody-deserves-to-win mindset. "You've got your award from Chibi-Podunk-Con, now go away. It's little Timmy's turn to be a winner."

I disagree with this big time... often crappy pandering videos win and the quality amvs don't. You are implying what wins is always the best video. It isn't an even playing field to begin with unless we want nothing but fan catering / pandering videos. So excuse me but your soccer mom comment is a load of BS if you ask me Troy. Lol

[irriadin]

Secondly, I think it perpetuates the soccer mom'ish everybody-deserves-to-win mindset. "You've got your award from Chibi-Podunk-Con, now go away. It's little Timmy's turn to be a winner."

I disagree with this big time... often crappy pandering videos win and the quality amvs don't. You are implying what wins is always the best video. It isn't an even playing field to begin with unless we want nothing but fan catering / pandering videos. So excuse me but your soccer mom comment is a load of BS if you ask me Troy. Lol

I agree with MaboroshiStudio.

I like Otakon's rule on trolling, because it keeps the contest fresh and makes it an event that I (and many other editors) prioritize for new releases. The anti-trolling rule isn't to let other videos have their chance or whatever. Does this cut down the number of entries? Certainly. But it gives Otakon a unique flavor as a contest, and also adds to the prestige of participation.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Secondly, I think it perpetuates the soccer mom'ish everybody-deserves-to-win mindset. "You've got your award from Chibi-Podunk-Con, now go away. It's little Timmy's turn to be a winner."

I disagree with this big time... often crappy pandering videos win and the quality amvs don't. You are implying what wins is always the best video. It isn't an even playing field to begin with unless we want nothing but fan catering / pandering videos. So excuse me but your soccer mom comment is a load of BS if you ask me Troy. Lol

I agree with MaboroshiStudio.

I like Otakon's rule on trolling, because it keeps the contest fresh and makes it an event that I (and many other editors) prioritize for new releases. The anti-trolling rule isn't to let other videos have their chance or whatever. Does this cut down the number of entries? Certainly. But it gives Otakon a unique flavor as a contest, and also adds to the prestige of participation.

If all it did was cut down on the number of Otakon entries, people wouldn't care. It does more than that. It harms other contests.

[irriadin]

If all it did was cut down on the number of Otakon entries, people wouldn't care. It does more than that. It harms other contests.

By the same line of reasoning, Akross, Japan Expo and AWA Pro hurt other contests too. Part of what makes these contests special and / or competitive is that you can't send your normal entries to these contests, you've got to send something new or exclusive. Do you think they should change their rules too?