Weekly Contest Suggestions

Nana, I've been having a similar issue. I'll be looking forward to your next poem when you share it with us. We haven't chatted in a while now; hopefully we get the chance soon!

"not sure if mods could take away their voting rights for that week if that would help?"

^Colm, I initially had the same thought. We do have the ability to demote judges and could do so at a certain time every week. In relation to the 3 judges rotation, I really like the idea of having a timetable, it would make the process a lot easier. These are some great thoughts.

Go ahead, Nana.
I want another 'Fleeing Sands', and I will nominate it blindly lol :p

Another change the weekly contest thread ... we must have had about 20 of these in the last 5 or 6 years....

The quality of the poems on the front page is wholly determined by the quality of the judges. Now I'm not picking on the current judges, this is just a generalization. But the main criteria for being a judge these days is whoever is willing to put their hand up and do a three month stint week in week out gets the job... as there is always a shortage of judges willing to come forward..

For those that have done it its bloody hard yards when there are 40 to 50 poems to read and judge every week

We need to cut down on the number of poems that are nominated to stop judges getting burnt out, which will in turn attract better judges to offer their services.

My suggestion is this, nominations are hidden by everybody but the judges and there must be at least two or three nominations before the poem is eligible for the weekly contest

if we can get back to say 10 poems, the quality would be better, the judges would be less stressed, pluses all round

Long live the Nicko!

Edited: Oh Mel, just realised you answered me, haha. It's not midnight here but I am sleepy, whatsoever.

First off, good luck with your essay.
Secondly, by taking action, I mean if members complain about certain things especially this quality issue and the majority agrees that the winning poems aren't deserving, mods should reconsider their choices of who to judge or how to judge... I am not pointing fingers here at anyone, I have been unsatisfied with the way the contest has been run in the past few months, and I stayed silent. But as long as this is an open thread for opinions, I am gladly giving mine. Will say it again, I am against the current judges.

I suggested once, but no body said anything, that we change having 3 nominations to ONE only, knowing that a poem can only be nominated ONCE. This lessens the number of nominated poems, I think.

My suggestion is this, nominations are hidden by everybody but the judges and there must be at least two or three nominations before the poem is eligible for the weekly contest
^^^

I disagree with this totally...friends nominate friends right now as we all know so this is just making sure that they waste their nominations to make sure their friend gets into the spotlight...if you know what I mean...

Ugh.

Get over it, Hellon.
Why are you annoyed by friends nominating friends? And... why are you even generalizing?

Errr...not generalising...stating facts...and Ugh..right back at you!!!!! Friends vote for friends right now? You don't see a problem?..Well I'm just voting this poem because she's my friend/club member....doesn't matter that A over in the corner's poem is better...won;t read it..don;t know her...do you get what I'm saying.....when you were in school you were in the popular crowd or you weren't and....sadly this site is going exacty the same....

I don't think you state facts. Have you forgotten what you said abooooove? lol.

Anyway, everyone is free to nominate whatever he/she wants. Isn't this the freedom of expression you call for? ;)

Hellon
these facts are spoken from your point of view so they aren't exactly facts

I would say you are thinking about favoritism too much for reasons I don't know but I for a person many times nominated poems for people I don't know cause that poem felt good for me after all I am not the judge so when I see this poem is good enough for me I nominate it and it isn't a crime to nominate a poem I like by a friend of mine maybe Mr.A's poem is better in how it was written but I didn't like it so I didn't nominate it

see my point??

Nicko I like your idea, but I see Hellon's point too, you could have people saying 'I'll nominate yours if you nominate mine' or people nominating their friends if nobody can see the nominations page or who nominates. Also, there is no guarantee that the best poems will receive multiple nominations, more popular/well-known poets are likely to get more notice. Especially if people can't see the nominations page, they won't be able to see poems up for consideration. What are the chances of little known poet's poems getting multiple nominations when most people read through their lists or nominations pages to find good poems. The friends nominating friends thing isn't much of an issue if every nomination is considered for the win, but if it needs multiple nominations then that comes more into play.

I do agree though, 50 poems seems a lot. Maybe cutting down the number of nominations a person has, to 2 or 1?

Friends nominating friends is what happens now, it's all transparent scratch my back I'll scratch yours

Make it anonymous and make it three votes may cut out some of that, maybe not all but I think most of it...

Edit I do agree about the poets that are not well known getting three votes, it has to be fine tuned but there could be a nomination category for unknown poets maybe?

Yeah I like that Idea of cutting them down to 1 that will make less poems go out there and also people will think more about nominating a poem than now

Edit:Nicko don't you think categorizing people would make a problem worse??

"scratch my back I'll scratch yours"

^ Nicko, you cannot generalize. Of course friends nominate each other. But what if their friends are really talented????? like mine... my closest of friends here are Karla and Noura and Liz, etc.... and I nominate lots of their stuff, not because they are my friends, but because they are really talented, and no one can deny that.

And at any level, no one is supposed to interfere in what others nominate.

Yes, it happens now but its not much of a problem because once a poem is nominated once or 100 times, it will be considered equally for the win by judges. If a poem needs 3 nominations then I can see well-known people with the most friends and most exposure being the most likely to get them, via favouritism or not.

Edit: Sorry Nicko just saw your edit, I had edited my previous post too and should have put an edit beside it. It could be looked into, personally reducing the amount of nominations a person has might be a better way of reducing the workload, not sure how a nominating system for less known people would work, I hope Janis is around to make any of these potential changes

Oh, btw, cutting it to 2 nominations is good for judges. it won't be that tiring.

My suggestion:

Instead of having a weekly contest make the monthly contest... The winners of the monthly contest will represent the site. Those who want to be in the front page will participate in the monthly contest that way the judges will have to judge base on guidelines. And there will not be any favoritism. Or friends nominating friends etc...

Or... let's remove this thing from its roots... remove votes... remove nominations.... and let's enjoy reading and commenting on poetry only.

this way, everyone would be comfortable, and we wouldn't nag a lot on boards.

I still think anonomous is the way to go. Maybe 1 nomination per person

Everlasting I like your idea of having a monthly contest but still with nominations

And LP who said I can't generalise? I wasn't pointing my finger at anybody but I can if you like....!

My suggestion...remove the whole contest.

Edited: Abed you did beat me to that! I had the same words.

I wish I have a facebook tag option over here to tag Darren!

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Quoting Jane:

It's funny how some of the same few topics get recycled in this forum. This topic has been discussed a hundred times. Same examples. Same rebuttals. Same results.

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XD

No bet Mel :), and hold me to that Boudi

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Also, I'm with Nicko! 95 %, sounds good.

Why remove it?

When we can make the weekly contest come from the site contest...

Ah... Okay

For instance, each month someone host a challenge and each week they have a their set of judges who will pick the winner... Those who win will go on the front page..

Everyone who wants to go in the front page will participate and will have to adhere to the rules from the contest held...

So no swear words... Will be one.

The poems will be monitor by everyone per se...
And more people might participate on those contest.

Now I haven't think this through but that just jumped to my mind...

I mean that way... The poems that are personal and that comes from other contests held in the club will not be involve and there won't be any problems withthem. We will just enjoy them and read them and comment on them.

I don't think we need to remove the contest, people would miss it when it is gone I would imagine, it's not THAT bad, just needs ironing out in my opinion.

I often thought of a monthly contest, maybe where members could each submit one poem via pm (not post it on their profiles) and it be judged anonymously that way. I agree with Nicko anonymous would be ideally the way to go, only thing is how to make it anonymous.. Once a poem is posted to the profile people know its yours, maybe there is some way around that. Maybe if we were doing a monthly contest there could be a 'submit to contest' option beside 'submit poem' it would go from there to an anonymous page that only the judges could see when the deadline is up? Could this be done on top of the existing weekly contest?

Yes but that will miss those who don't frequent the forums, or who don't like contests

Still like your idea about a monthly not weekly winner though

Yes but that will miss those who don't frequent the forums, or who don't like contests

^^
That's where a 'submit to contest' button would come in handy possibly, it'd be available to all members?

I am up with Nicko's and Colm's idea

That's PERFECT, Colm. I AGREEEEEEEEEEEEEE

People would submit their own poems, ONE each month, without posting it on their profiles. COOOL

Hmm true...
I didn't think about that..

But mods have the option to send a massive amount of message to everyone .. They can invite them to the contest..

So of it's a monthly one... It could work like the contests that are now held..

For instance the winners at the end of mr. Lary's contest will be the ones on the front page. But that will mean that the last round will have to be a bit restrictive.

Edit:
Hmm I didn't read the part about don't like contests...

Then idk

And those that don't push the button ?????

1 anonomous vote per month..... For a monthly winner....

People would submit their own poems, ONE each month, without posting it on their profiles. COOOL
^^^

I would never submit my own poem....I just wouldn't do that!!!

I think it'd be better to be have a normal contest where you just submit one normal/open poem and not 3/4 poems based on criteria with rounds, restrictions, etc.

But you guys have to take into consideration if it's even possible for janis to make the changes...

I guess you are right,

One normal one, two weeks to submit and two for judging?

That way judges will have time to choose winners? Or how do you picture it?

Ok,

I have been tagged, woo hoo

Nana i feel sorry for you, you work so dam hard...then all this.

Ok, my ten peneth worth.

How about you can only nominate 1 person from your club?

Just a guideline or suggestion,

Also i admire hellon's spirit, she is entitled to voice her concerns, as a fairly newbie i think jumping on hellon's views has become a sport partaken by the usual gang.
Or if nationalities is an issue then when three judges are selected, ensure they are from different areas, ie 1 from europe, 1 from asia and 1 from america, etc.
That way we have the broadest spectrum of views.
I love the weekly contest, to win with or without foul and abusive language is an honour.

Mel, i would be tasting soap as well tbh.

For a monthly contest, I would propose something like 3 weeks (until 21st of each month) to submit then a week and a bit to judge. Janis being around might be the problem with it. I still think the rotation idea of 5 judges with 3 voting each week is best for the weekly contest and it wouldn't require Janis. I'd like the idea of making it anonymous, although don't see how it can be in its current format when somebody has to post the poem for it to be nominated. Not sure if anonymous nominations would be much advantage, but a reduction in the amount of nominations would be a good idea to reduce judges workload/poems nominated.

Darren, that sounds fair in theory but probably would be difficult to carry out (getting 5 judges from different continents each time) and still people could cry favouritism e.g. 'the american judge is voting for american people all the time' etc. There will always be that problem, there will always be shouts for favouritism, I don't think it depends on where the judges are from (so long as we don't have all judges from the same clubs for example, try to have a variety of tastes). Each judge should be unbiased and objective (as well as knowledgeable) and selected on this basis rather than on where they are from, what club they are in, etc.

Would the monthly contest be judged by the same set of judges or another one? I think that if you had two seperate set of judges it would give each set time to do their job and the monthly contest might actually give new judges an idea of what it would be like to judge, without having to do it 4 times a month, but rather figuring the whole thing out. Although I do not mean for it to sound as though it was less of a commitment.

Hellon, may you honestly tell me if you think my poems are win-worthy or not (those that did win)? I have not once been a judge, the mods can assure you of that and since you have an eye on who nominates who, I'm positive that you've realized that I usually get in and out fo the week with my three votes, without having used them(I rarely do). Maybe it is a serious concern of yours, but it's easy for you to say being clubless.. I never got why people are being accused for liking what their club members write, if they happen to nominate it, then so be it, it's not like it would win then... if it did win because of favouritism, then I do think it is wrong.
Sorry I could not help but say it here, also added something relating to topic up there, not to waste a post. If you prefered answering in PM, feel free to do so. :)

I'm contemplating the idea of Janis not being around.

That's why I suggested my suggestion of the Monthly site contests.

That way, whoever is hosting the contest will received the poems via PM, and the one hosting the contest will send the poems to the judges to be judge so they won't know who wrote what poem. And no one will know who were the judges. ( edit: may be only the one who hosted the contest and may be the mods will know who are the judges)

Once the contest is over, everyone will post the poems in their accounts, So then someone can send those poems to the nomination list and the Mod's team can vote so that those "Three winners from the Monthly contest" can appear in the front page.

Now, Everyone would still have the bottom to vote and send poems to the nomination list, I guess.. . So the mods will have to not take them into consideration, in case people still nominate poems.

OR the judges from the weekly contest can choose from the ones still being nominated by people, the ones they like to highlight and write an honorable mention along with their comments.

So pretty much, I'm saying the winners from each round of the Monthly contest will go into the front page. And the ones from the whole site will have an honorable mention. ( and there might be a problem with favoritism and etc.. but the poems from the front page won't have that issue, I believe.)

And I say from each round because, we will still have the weekly contest.. until or if it is possible, for Janis to change it to a monthly contest.

EDIT: If people still have a problem with those poems from the Whole site not been given the opportunity to go in the front page.. Then let's ask Janis if he ever logs back in to Add 2 spots more.

And let's have 5 winners. 3 from the monthly site contest which will be stricter, they will have their set of judges who will rely on guidelines, and 2 chosen by the judges of the weekly contest... who will only be required to judge base on what they like to hightlight from a poem. And lets not forget that there will still be some honorable mentions.

Annoying, had just typed something up.. another long question, but will try to sum it up as I accidently returned to the actually thread rather than delete the letters I wanted to...

However, will the poem that wins the monthly contest be revealed with the author as it reaches the front-page? That would give the author credit though it might be tough to implement... a poem not showing up at ones profile, but the at "monthly-contest-poems" and eventually showing up in their profile... not to tough now that I think about it. Could just be "hidden".

Other thing, would a poem that won the monthly contest be able to win the weekly one? (Might happen if we had two different sets of judges who also wanted to highlight that poem for their reasons)... but probably unlikely..

Something else would help, having faith in those judges! Rather than implying that they are biased. A little of trust would do everyone just fine. Judges are changing, nothing is fixed, no one.

I completely Agree, that faith in our current judges is the best solution for me. But it seems that not many agree on that. So if they feel that this should be discussed to arrive to some other solution then its good too.