The Purpose of Card Contest Section?

[Kanashimi]

Okay i have been lurking around the forum quite a bit, and i felt the need to bring this up.

A bit of backstory for those who don't know, Card Contest is a section where you can make a new thread, for a certain event or competition, and people/members who are interested on said competition can participate within the time that has been announced. Competition here of course, in regards to Custom Cards, especially Yu-Gi-Oh. These competition consists of certain criteria, e.g 1) Theme of the competition 2) Some uses requirements/fee to participate (optional) 3) Participants send their creations for the competition 4) Scoring, judging the participants card 5) Lastly, prize for the winner, or top contestants (optional)

My issues are:

> As for whatever happened to the forum, formerly we have a points, some kind of number/numerical currency where we can spend to buy in the shop, give it to others, etc, basically like digital money. This is essential part for Card Contests (main prize), although, not entirely, contest creator can also give the participants a different prize or even if you don't give the participants a prize, sure, people have fun making a card anyway, and acknowledged as a winner of a certain contest alone, is probably enough to make them happy.

> As of lately, well first of all, i want to say thanks for those who creates a competition in this newly reborn YCM, and make the sections, kinda alive, but some lacks of a few main criteria of what card contests should be, as per the sections rule itself (e.g theme, deadline, creativity, aforementioned above prize although optional, also scoring/judging), after a few checks on the thread, it derails into a Create a Card game? with no final phase of scoring judging. Some contest creators also leave the thread altogether without any further notice or information, in which how the contests end.

This leaves us to some choices and my questions regarding it, 1) Do we need to enforce the rules of that section? But doing so also reduces the traffic altogether, potentially killing the section 2) Restore the currency (points)? But i am not sure if that is a viable solution given the situation 3) Merge the section with Card Game Workshop/Card Game Workshop divided into a new section, formerly known as Card Contest? 4) Leave it all be like this? And just, let it goo~ 

I mean, 4th question/option is fine for me (leave it be like that), my main reason of why i am doing this is, to hear what you guys think about the section in general. Because it is not an issue so dire/urgent that needs an immediate solution, but rather, that section is created for a purpose, and it's derailed so much, that it's purpose are forgotten.

[Tinkerer]

If I were to choose one of the solutions, I'd choose 2, but that's not something that any of us can control. Points would provide a natural value to contests that it currently lacks, giving both incentive to participate as well as regaining some of the formality it has lost.

Unfortunately, we haven't had points in... about 2 years now? And I think the shop had been broken for longer than that? It seems unlikely that YCMaker would devote himself to re-implement it.

Option 1 has an active detriment to it. I (personally) think that the detriment to activity would outweigh the benefit. Option 3 doesn't really change the situation, just pushes it somewhere else (furthermore, Card Game Workshop tends to have a ton of misplaced traffic anyway... Wouldn't want to add to the confusion).

Unfortunately, that leaves option 4 which kinda sucks for all the reasons you said.

Perhaps the best way to change things would be from the inside?  i.e. Showing people how contests should be run properly. That way there's an example to follow.

[The Nyx Avatar]

I too would like the revival of a working shop and Points system. It'd give users more incentive to post. And give an opportunity to give out something as a prize for contests and events.

My only gripe with the section right now is when users start a topic and never bother posting in it ever again. I'm not talking about any of the regular users, or any who have multiple posts. I'm speaking more of the ones who stuck their head into the forum a grand total of once or twice, and never post again. But hey. That's also how I've felt about Introductions. That's why I was thankful for Tachyon Dragon's actions. User resurfaced, and concluded the contest.

[Sleepy]

@YCMaker

2 birds 1 stone: if the restoration of a point system on itself is not a possibility, is there a chance something using either the badge system or the reactions system can be done to create incentive?

 

I mean something that can only be given out at a contest as a host. It probably wouldn't need to serve any other purpose ( although it'd be nice if a shop could be reinstalled with those "lock/unlock your thread", "change name/banner/avatar/etc." options, but I know that's a bigger stretch).

 

I remembered the reactions suggestion and thought maybe this could be a way to implement some of it. Idk how much of a programming hassle it'd be but would be cool xD

[YCMaker]

I think there is already a point system in place with the new ranks. You can "reward" someone for a post by giving them points. I haven't looked too closely at how it works yet but if we can extend it to work better for contests and shops, I'll give it a shot!

[Sleepy]

25 minutes ago, YCMaker said:

I think there is already a point system in place with the new ranks. You can "reward" someone for a post by giving them points. I haven't looked too closely at how it works yet but if we can extend it to work better for contests and shops, I'll give it a shot!

I'm pretty bad with mobile mode but for now, for what its worth I could not find a way to interact with my badges or tamper with my points. I'm guessing it might not work like the old system where you could donate some of it to members (even if it caused a rank / badge reversal).

If there is a way for that system to be used, I think that's pretty cool. I'll give it another shot when I get home on my laptop but something tells me maybe there's some setting locked somewhere or something xD