I just thought of something yet again. I'm sorry if I'm getting a little bit stubborn but why don't we have contests here on EC, for all people to join? Like drawing, composing, writing etc. contests here with a certain theme that could be done maybe every quarter of the year or any length as long as it'a manageable? I guess it could heighten the closeness of EC together during those times like it's a festivity^^ It could also encourage creativity and inspiration to others. __ I see someone encouraged a contest before but t was about pictures and it was a year ago.^^ I just thought that maybe I may have just repeated something that I should have not.
Hey, I'm not really sure what to tell you really. There's certaintly nothing stopping members from organising their own contests if they wanted to, but beyond that the staff couldn't really do much more. I would assume that such contests would be decided by the members, in which case all you really need is a member to organise it all. If you can get interest for it then I can't see any reason that the staff couldn't help by raising awareness to the contest, but beyond that it's something for members to do themselves. Although I'm not sure I have much right to judge peeps drawings. I can't even draw a stick man without him having limbs missing, so any drawing that can connect lines together is a winner in my eyes. Martin.
Well if members want to do contests that's cool. I really like the idea. Though if someone wants to organise certain ones I would give a suggestion: I think maybe for a thread for organisation of the contests first so you can get opinions of what people would look for in the contests an what not. Then get people who have some experience in that area and get them to start the overall contest. ie Drawing: someone who has art critique. Writing: Someone who can write and does it for fun and has excellent spelling, grammar, and for some short stories can write a good plot line. Do you see what I mean?
Heeder13, with all the ideas you come up with one would wonder what you actually do with your day LOL but that aside, i think it's a really neat idea... maybe we can use that game we talked about, organise contest around that, say for example a contest to come up with any type of race/character then a contest to come up with a particular architecture for buildings, then maybe a context to come up with unique story lines within a certain criteria... a contest to come up with music and so on. This way we can find out what people like and not. Those that are say the top 3 or so, their stuff will be used and their names go into the credits as part of the development team... You see now we are truly bringing the whole of EC's community together to make that game! truly having a came that came out of the closet... EC's closet that is LOL
I think why we dont really see that many contests on EC is because for allot of people this is a place for acceptance, and support, where as a contest is often contrary to that support. In a literal sense you are trying to prove you are better than everyone else, and EC is less about devaluing people, and more about building positive social morays.
I think you are missing the point here. The whole idea behind the contests is to just bring the people here closer together. If people feel they are closer together, they tend to open up more on what's bothering them. They will be less afraid to ask a question and be more supportive to one another. It is true that each and every contest can only have one winner but to make it as broad as possible you can expand on the amount of winners and or categories... for example if it's a painting contest, you can have several categories, like landscape, animals, people, love, hate, environment, abstract etc. This is not to devaluate people. this is to BUILD them up. Good critique also help developing people's skills. This can be a platform for them to showcase their skills without the harsh critique found anywhere else. It will help them hone in on their skills. After all this is all about what EC is for... To help people become a better version of themselves, to be free from the closet and take the world on. A good community of artists in any way and or form is for example deviantART: where ART meets application! It is almost like EC, but instead of a sexuality form its an art from. There is no contests there, but one can buy art directly from the artists
Maybe my type-B personality is showing, but I have to agree with TyRawr here. I've never seen a contest bring people together unless they are competing together, rather than against each other. That's not to say I'm going to say they shouldn't happen; live and let live, as I say. I just don't see how they bring people closer together. I can't disagree with you more about deviantART being a good community for artists. However, my experience with the site is limited, so I asked one of my friends (who's more active on it than me) what she sees as the flaws with the community. Here's what she had to say: She also told me that the DA community considers criticism (even constructive) tantamount to trolling or flaming (an expansion on #3). I know that might seem like a tangent, but I bring that up to say that if we're going to have contests on EC to foster a certain kind of attitude towards art, it should most definitely not be the attitude that deviantART takes toward art.
About how these proposed "contests" could bring people together, remember that values education lesson where we're taught to be sport? Let's say we had a contest like "EC Idol" which is about singing. Some may experience defeat and some may win. About whoever wins or loses, we don't know who it is; it depends on the judges' standards. Say, A joined along with the other letters of the alphabet. A won along with B and C while the others lost. D may not have won and wasn't as good as the three, but it may be possible he would get inspired by the three's great skills. Then right after that, a friendship may start. That's what we can call the "closeness" that could be built. But sadly, this exposes another difficulty, the making of "fame" between members. Some may become too proud of themselves and this may start some arguments. To prevent this, there should be no big prize. No big prize in the way that the people who won don't get anything big to boast, like proofs of winning or any special awards. I theorize that a person only becomes boastful if the prize he claims is big enough to boast. With this thought, it could be possible to think, " A, B and C won and eventhough their prizes aren't that great, at least they have won and they look cool^^." Well, that's what I think anyway. My voice won't be that big to make such a great big change anyway, but at least I've expressed what I feel to be good for EC.^^ ___________________________ @thylvin: Really, thanks for the support. I appreciate it very much~
@Gamer I Am: I know the faults of DA, that was not what I meant, what I was pointing out to is the vast categories they have. This ensured that any person doing any kind of art can participate. That is basically the whole idea to bring the community together, each one can participate in the area or areas they are good at or want to improve on. @Heeder13: I do agree, lets say for example, the price is maybe a picture in a separate page of the EC website. One can also add the runner ups. Make it like a separate blog, each time the competition is launched, it is done on a separate blog. That way one can always browse to the previous winners of previous competitions. It's not a big prize, and gives even the runner-ups in each category the chance to be show cased.
Just to put my opinion out there being one of those people who's been around here for a while, I don't think that it's been tried before while I've been here, but I think EC isn't really the right place for it. There are hundreds upon thousands of other forums out there, but EC is special. There aren't really any other forums for GLBTIQ youth and the wider GLBTIQ community that are really support focused. I feel that the whole idea of competitions contradicts the point of EC. This was also my view when it came to the Arcade really. A community surrounding EC has existed for a long time, but it's generally pretty transient. EC helps people come out and people tend to float away after they're comfortable with their identity and how their identity is perceived. You also might have noticed that the mods have a reasonably low tolerance for threads that start to turn into flame wars. This is because they try to keep EC a safe space for all, free of judgement as much as possible. Whenever it comes to something like a competition on artwork, there's evidently going to be judgement. I'm not normally particularly conservative at all, but I'm really happy in general with how EC currently functions and the services it provides, almost to the point where I don't think I could make many reasonable suggestions to improve it. Anyway, the gallery features of EC are pretty sufficient if you want to show your art off. There is also the stickied Album Alert thread if you want to alert people to it. I don't really see the purpose of competitions on here particularly when all they do is make more unnecessary judgements.
There are a LOT of contests on Mibba and I going through them there isn't any arguing or anything. I know that can be hard to believe but it's true. The thing is though they laid down a pretty good lists on rules saying things like No bashing anybodies stories, did you like the first thing you wrote? Was it good? No not necessarily. They are putting themselves out there so please be nice and respectful. and The person who has control over the contest has the final say, it is their opinion on what they like and what they believe is the winner, no arguing this fact. Those are a couple of the rules, I believe that what sort of holds the peace on Mibba
I belong in another forum (about manga) and from what I've seen, even though people there bash each other every other post, when it came to the debates and contests, people were very civil. *shrugs*
