The JCAs 2010: Rolling it the right way

[inthesto]

Okay, I know the JCAs more or less crashed and burned this year due to overwhelming amounts of dissent and drama. I'm not here to talk about any of that. Seeing as how Kionon abandoned his post, I'm here to pick up the pieces and see that what could become a tradition on the Org doesn't get lost in the dust. In other words, I'm a jackass with too much free time, so I have the patience and energy to put up with irrelevant bullshit on the internet.

In past years, the JCAs have been meant to complement the VCAs. While the VCAs are designed to be democratic, the JCAs are run more in the fashion of a republic. A select few judges who meet the criteria are chosen to pick the videos they feel excel the most. While the VCAs award videos that have inherent mass appeal, the JCAs exist to shine attention upon the videos that appeal to the trained and discerning eye. Not to say that one style is better than the other, but these two contests should co-exist. This is why I feel somebody has to pick up the JCAs, and it might as well be me.

That said, the judges have already been chosen and confirmed.

I know this is going to upset a lot of you, especially given how much drama there was in choosing judges. However, since I have noticed that Kionon gave up on the JCAs a while ago, I have been working behind the scenes to gather editors, both current and retired, that represent the editing community at large. The judging panel consists of five editors, all of whom are sworn to secrecy and are unaware of any of the other judges' identities. Just to assure you all that this was not a monopolized effort, I snaked through many editors' opinions to help compile my list and help me pick out a final line-up. Again, just so nobody thinks I'm attempting some kind of covert circle-jerk, none of the people who helped me organize judges are on the judging panel, nor am I on the judging panel. The judges will be revealed after the JCA winners are announced, and I am confident that while there will be plenty of complaining, the number of outright rejections will be at a minimum. Actually, I shouldn't say that. The internet is a great place for anyone to be a hater.

Also, seeing as how much trouble there was over deciding categories and we do not have time to iron this out, the JCAs will merely use the same categories as the VCAs. While this may not sit well with everyone, it is a sensible decision for two reasons. The first is that it cuts down on the organizing that the judging panel has to go through; they can merely pull the list of videos off of the VCA finalists. The second is that because the JCAs are designed to be a complement to the VCAs, we can run a direct compare and contrast between JCA and VCA categories. While I'm sure there are drawbacks to consider, given the current situation it is the best choice all around.

All that said, I think I can mostly remove my serious cap for now. There's really not much room left for user input, which is extremely unfortunate. However, I believe that even a JCA with a tightly run ship at the last second is better than no JCA. Plus, this kind of removes all the drama bullshit to which you people seem so prone, which I don't think anyone is going to object to. That said, gear yourself for the results sometime next week (as much of a slave driver as I am, I can push the judges only so hard), and let's all have a good 2010 JCAs.

[CrackTheSky]

Good job buttface

[godix]

It'll be nice to see it done. Be even nicer to not be the coordinator or a judge and have to deal with the god knows how many videos there are.

[LittleAtari]

Honestly, for something organized last minute. This is fine and I'm glad to see someone picking this up.

The only thing I'm confused about is, are you having the judges pull the winners from the finalist list? I was going to recommend going with at least the semi finalist list since that's a bigger pool of videos. It still provides a comparison to the VCAs because it throws in the possibility that semi finalist can surpass a finalist in certain categories, which could be interesting.

But I'm interested in what will happen with videos categories in which videos were 'misplaced.' For instance, the 'Acid Star' collab in the MEP section or 'Eureka Sunlight' being in the No Effects category when it clearly uses effects.

[CodeZTM]

Little sad about the lack of voting for judges [I've always wanted to judge one of these things], but I'm just glad to see it rolling and I can honestly just accept it.

Awesome work Inthesto, glad to see it up and running.

[Infinity Squared]

The only thing I'm confused about is, are you having the judges pull the winners from the finalist list? I was going to recommend going with at least the semi finalist list since that's a bigger pool of videos. It still provides a comparison to the VCAs because it throws in the possibility that semi finalist can surpass a finalist in certain categories, which could be interesting.

Actually, I was thinking the same thing... wasn't it from teh semi-finalist pool the other years or not?

[Ileia]

Thank you.

[Nya-chan Production]

The rules:

- (left out)

- (left out)

- The pool of videos to be judged will be the VCA semi-finalists. Since not all videos were qualified for the VCAs judges will have the option of adding one video of their choice to any category. Each judge will view these videos and rank the top five in each category, assigning 5 points to the best down to 1. I then added up those points per category and, hopefully, post the winners right after the VCA results are announced.

- Judges will not allowed to vote in the categories they're nominated in.

- In the event of a tie I will act as a tie breaker, otherwise I will not be involved in the judging.

- The judges will remain anonymous during the voting process, it will be announced who they were once the results are posted.

- Judges will be asked to make a few brief comments on the videos they select. Some of those comments may be used publicly (EG, in the results thread) but will not be attributed. To address something that came up last year, I will not attribute any comments and will not release how individual judges voted. If the judges themselves choose to do that then they're certainly free to.

- (left out)

- There are no prizes other than bragging rights.

I would be for keeping these rules - there isn't much more in semis anyways. Of course... it's up to 'sto and the judges anyways.

Also, great work, sto, I think you just did a great job (b><)b

And I better win at least one Award at least here! ;____;

[Bauzi]

me likes

[Knowname]

yeah what the hell was the dif between a collab and an mep. that was/ is stupid.