Ideas: Holding a (popular) Screenshot Contest

[Maltz]

I just learned some useful experiences about how to hold a (popular) screenshot contest. In that one we had 21 participants and 95 pictures. Here are some of the award-winning pics:

http://ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2012/stw2...012_pic/23.jpg by [LONG]LZ
http://ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2012/stw2...012_pic/20.jpg by ElderBK
http://ccc-ccc.ca/tmp/temp_2012/stw2...012_pic/01.jpg by [LONG]cxtbbb

I think we can try an ORG-wide screenshot contest despite the recent tragedy of the story/AAR contest. (as that only tells us we should try another contest). Here goes the forumla:

(1) Offer instant rewards for participation

I respect that the ORG does not wish to have a score/currency system in order to encourage sincere postings. Maybe we can design a special little counter/badge for "ORG contests joined"? Just so people feel their participation is appreciated.

(2) Open to more participants

We can open it up to ALL TW games. We have to make very clear guidelines on what kind of modification is allowed or not. For example, if we allow all modifications, we will receive more beautiful pictures but less entries (as people would think they cannot beat Photoshop gurus). So I suggest we restrict modifications to the most basic, such as image size, cropping, and maybe moderate brightness and contrast, etc. We should allow any kind of MOD since many people use them.

(3) Open-to-all voting (without the need to register)

Instead of resorting to judges, we simply let popular vote deside the winner. This creates more buzz and gives more of a party mood. Since only about 10% of forum users actually bother to login (most might not even have an account), in order to increase voting turnout, we will have to find a voting method that allows anyone to vote. There are free online votes out there, some even have a capacity to prevent cheating.

(4) Randomly numbered entries

To promote fairness, while voting, all entries' authors will not be displayed. Each entry receives a random number. People will vote by the random numbers.

(5) Multiple votes

There will be dozens of good pictures. One vote is too few. So we do multiple vote. Each voter can vote for multiple entries. As long as someone likes a picture, he or she can cast a vote to that picture. If people like every picture, simply vote for every picture. Since most people are not familiar with multiple votes, we have to state it very clearly everywhere, and encourage people be generous and cast multiple votes.

(6) Awards assigned not by ranking, but by reaching a threshold of popular vote

When we hand out awards, we award every entry that exceeds a certain threshold. Experience shows that 20% of popular vote is a good threshold. In other words, if one in five people like your work, your work deserves an award! We can give special award to pieces that receive very high percentage of popular vote.

As for the actual awards, virtual badges would be good. For anybody who has any entry that reach the award criteria, he or she will receive a badge! There will be an ORG announcement and running banners to promote the award-winning pictures.

(7) Controlling number of entries

Experience show that 3 or 4 entries MAX per participant is about right.

(8) Advertisement

To increase awareness, we can design a temporary banner that temporaily replaces the "ORG" above.
Staffs and moderators are strongly encouraged to join.

Welcome discussions and happy hollidays.