CCSLC COMPETITION COUNCIL 2.0

[crashcarson15]

Hey everyone,

A common refrain that comes up whenever I talk to people about the status of the boards is that the concepts forum "isn't what it was" in the past and for some that it's a reason that they have left the site.

Over the past few weeks, we've engaged in a lot of actions meant to better the concepts forum and make it a more enjoyable place. Cutting down on plagiarism, unproductive C&C, and keeping quality, original, new concepts at the top of the forum.

To further the efforts to better the concepts forum, I'd like to reintroduce the CCSLC Competition Council to the board. Those of you that have been around a while will remember the first one introduced some eight years ago. The aim and operation of the new council will be different but at the same time, it takes inspiration from the original.

The CCSLC Competition Council will have three goals...

1. To sanction concept competitions put forth by members of the CCSLC not on the council.
2. To run its own concept competitions with the goal of ensuring that competitions become regular fixtures of the subforum.
3. To promote the concept competitions on the CCSLC.

The council believes that regular, well-run competitions are an integral part of a strong concepts subforum and looks at its presence as an opportunity to better the CCSLC community.

There will be an application process for those wishing to run their own concepts sanctioned by the CCSLC Competition Council. It is as follows...

1. Send a PM to crashcarson15 stating an initial inquiry or idea for a competition.
2. From there, I will consult with two other members of the council and give either a conditional approval or disapproval for the competition.
3. If your competition idea is given conditional approval, you will then be asked to put together a formal proposal for consideration by the entire council. This proposal should include competition format, the rounds to be held (if more than one), the judges or voting procedures to define winners, the proposed timeframe for the competition, and the awarding of prizes in the competition.
4. Once completed, the formal proposal should be sent in a PM to crashcarson15. From there, the proposal will be considered and given either approval or ​disapproval.
5. If the proposal is given approval, the council will work with the user to schedule the event as so that it doesn't overlap with other competitions.
6. The council will assist where necessary with the running of user-generated competitions.

Membership of the council is subject to change from time to time, both now and in the near future. Membership to the council will be decided by the current members of the council. Solicitation of a spot on the council will result in the user being banned from participating in and running competitions for a two year period. For the time being, the councilmembers are...

• BrandMooreArt
• CAB
• crashcarson15
• creativelysain
• drdougfresh
• GFB
• mattwilcox
• raysox

I am leaving this thread open for any questions that members of the community might have about the council.

Thanks guys, and we're really excited about some of the competition ideas we've got coming for you in the near future!

- Alex Carson

[NOppenheimer]

Great! Can't wait to see more competitions here!

[T-ROY]

What kind of awards would be awarded? To get an idea.

[crashcarson15]

What kind of awards would be awarded? To get an idea.

Traditionally it's an image to put in a signature or use as an avatar. Nothing of real significance.

[BBTV]

Solicitation of a spot on the council will result in the user being banned from participating in and running competitions for a two year period.

Wow. Why not send them to jail or execute them too. I think people are taking this thing a little too seriously. In the heyday of the forums, there was no "high council" and it worked fine. There was no problems with Logolympiad, Iron Crossovers, etc. anyone with more than x number of posts or that's been a member for a year should have enough common sense to run a contest.

[crashcarson15]

Solicitation of a spot on the council will result in the user being banned from participating in and running competitions for a two year period.

Wow. Why not send them to jail or execute them too. I think people are taking this thing a little too seriously. In the heyday of the forums, there was no "high council" and it worked fine. There was no problems with Logolympiad, Iron Crossovers, etc. anyone with more than x number of posts or that's been a member for a year should have enough common sense to run a contest.

A few responses...

1. With the exception of raysox's soccer concept series, I'm struggling to think of a concept competition in the past couple of years that really made me go "wow, that was a good competition." I'm sure there's been one or two that I can't remember but there's not been many of them recently. That's the major point of the council—to run strong concept competitions because they're just simply not happening right now that often. We think an easy way to turn the forum around is through these competitions.
2. During the heyday of the forums, there was, in fact a "high council" by way of the original Competition Council. That's where this whole idea came from.
3. Sorry that we don't want this turning into "please add me to the council!" We want to focus on making sure that well-run competitions are going strong.
4. We trust that most members that have been a while are able to run contests. But we want to go through the approval process to ensure that contests aren't run over top of each other and to make sure that we're running high-quality competitions on the forums.

[BBTV]

I was a member for two years before the first council and it seemed like there were more good contests. Could just be a perception thing though. Still doesn't seem like something that requires regulation. Hell if anything people should be encouraged to start contests, not be subjected to "conditional approvals" and pleading.

[McCall]

If you've spent anytime in the concept forums lately, you'd be singing a whole different tune. There is so much amateur looking junk and fellow amateurs encouraging with posts ranging from "that's kewl" to "wow send that to the team now" for stuff that wouldn't pass the rough sketch stage of some of even the more mediocre yet knowledgeable artists. It's why a lot of the better artists have stopped posting here.

Even if it's just for competitions at this time, there needs to be some time of clean-up in this forum. This is at least a good start.

[IceCap]

Vet, you seem to have an awfully long list of complaints lately.

The fact is that this will allow our more celebrated contributors to the Concepts sub-forum have a hand in how that sub-forum is run. I'm excited about it, personally. We've got a great, talented list of members and I'm eager to see what results from all of this.

I was a member for two years before the first council and it seemed like there were more good contests. Could just be a perception thing though. Still doesn't seem like something that requires regulation. Hell if anything people should be encouraged to start contests, not be subjected to "conditional approvals" and pleading.

We've been around for about as long, so I get where you're coming from. Still, the pre-council days weren't all they were cracked up to be. While we had a lot of quality contests we also had people who seemingly used contests as a creative means of soliciting requests. Fact is that by regulating it we'll be able to ensure that contests are run with the best of intentions.

[nas1787]

So does this mean that unsanctioned competitions will be deleted by moderators?

Also, on the topic of improving the concept forum, can we clean up the number of pinned topics? Actual concept threads are getting buried on the 2nd page faster than ever as half of the first page is taken up by pinned topics.

I do look forward to more quality competitions though!

[TorinK92]

^Seconded, no matter how bad things are surely we don't need two threads on the rules of this forum. And maybe some merging of the template threads would help down the clutter.

[derschwigg]

I really like this idea - I've always thought competitions were a great way to cultivate talent. Especially when it comes to abstract thinking/subjective criteria like logo design/identity. I'll be looking forward to see what challenges await!

[IceCap]

I've looked over the pinned threads and I see no need to merge or delete any, save maybe the New Users: A Guide to the Concepts Forum thread.

Each pinned topic has a clearly stated purpose. I don't see how reducing the number of pinned threads will do anyone any good. It won't suddenly make people think twice about bumping their own thread or posting a rushed concept that adds little to no value to the boards.

[1clkgtramg]

I like this idea, I've only seen 4 competitions and only 2 have been well done - both were hosted by Raysox. I think this is a great way to ensure a competition is completed and runs smoothly, it also encourages big name designers to join rather than the "i've never made logo before, but I'll try". I honestly don't see whats wrong with it being done this way as competitions are rarely hosted anyway.


Also, I would like to agree on the pinned topics, although they may have purpose, its too bad they couldnt be in a sub folder of pinned topics (although I understand why, people would just over look them). If only people weren't so lazy and would just select the option to view more at the bottom of the page.

[nas1787]

I've looked over the pinned threads and I see no need to merge or delete any, save maybe the New Users: A Guide to the Concepts Forum thread.

Each pinned topic has a clearly stated purpose. I don't see how reducing the number of pinned threads will do anyone any good. It won't suddenly make people think twice about bumping their own thread or posting a rushed concept that adds little to no value to the boards.

Really? I think reducing the number of pinned threads will absolutely lead to fewer bump posts, as people will be much less inclined to do so if their thread is still on the main page.

Also, how do you see value in keeping a templates thread that is closed and has not been updated since 2005? Why do we have one thread called "New Concept Forum Guidelines" and another "New users: A Guide to the Concepts Forum"? There are now two Competition Council threads, surely the previous one can be unpinned and allowed to move down the board. While I am as big a fan of Conrad's fonts as anyone, is this a thread that needs to be pinned? Particularly now that everything now sits on his own website?

These are simple fixes that will immediately improve the user experience of the concepts board. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

[derschwigg]

I've looked over the pinned threads and I see no need to merge or delete any, save maybe the New Users: A Guide to the Concepts Forum thread.

Each pinned topic has a clearly stated purpose. I don't see how reducing the number of pinned threads will do anyone any good. It won't suddenly make people think twice about bumping their own thread or posting a rushed concept that adds little to no value to the boards.

Really? I think reducing the number of pinned threads will absolutely lead to fewer bump posts, as people will be much less inclined to do so if their thread is still on the main page.

Also, how do you see value in keeping a templates thread that is closed and has not been updated since 2005? Why do we have one thread called "New Concept Forum Guidelines" and another "New users: A Guide to the Concepts Forum"? There are now two Competition Council threads, surely the previous one can be unpinned and allowed to move down the board. While I am as big a fan of Conrad's fonts as anyone, is this a thread that needs to be pinned? Particularly now that everything now sits on his own website?

These are simple fixes that will immediately improve the user experience of the concepts board. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

The root of the problem with "bump" posts (guilty.) is the sheer volume of content, good or bad, being added to the Concept forum in general. Everyone wants to get their content seen, otherwise they wouldn't post it. Maybe we should be preaching more about patience than attempting to cull the herd of relatively important topics?

[NOppenheimer]

Well also whenever someone new comes up with an idea we shoot it down immediately....maybe newer members should also be allowed to host contests.

[jdp]

Well also whenever someone new comes up with an idea we shoot it down immediately....maybe newer members should also be allowed to host contests.

I would consider myself still new and would love to host a contest, but I would have to disagree here. I'm not ready for that (nor do I have the time), and most new users aren't either.

Also...

I would have to agree with nas1787 about merging some pinned topics. To that end, although I'm proud to have been pinned, feel free to merge whatever is deemed worthy from New users: A Guide to the Concepts Forum into the more-official Forum Guidelines post. Not that you need my permission, really, but just throwing it out there, as the New Users thread was previously mentioned.

Can't wait for some new contests.

[derschwigg]

Well also whenever someone new comes up with an idea we shoot it down immediately....maybe newer members should also be allowed to host contests.

Well also whenever someone new comes up with an idea we shoot it down immediately....maybe newer members should also be allowed to host contests.

I would consider myself still new and would love to host a contest, but I would have to disagree here. I'm not ready for that (nor do I have the time), and most new users aren't either.

Also...

I would have to agree with nas1787 about merging some pinned topics. To that end, although I'm proud to have been pinned, feel free to merge whatever is deemed worthy from New users: A Guide to the Concepts Forum into the more-official Forum Guidelines post. Not that you need my permission, really, but just throwing it out there, as the New Users thread was previously mentioned.

Can't wait for some new contests.

LoGo had a pretty good run, I think.

[drdougfresh]

Merged pinned topics looks much nicer, guys. Thanks for doing that!