[me and the sky]

In recent years we have noticed a decline in the boards participating & art being made in the Holiday Fan Art Competition. While we understand the past two years have been tough on many of us, we thought it would be a good idea to ask everyone if they have any thoughts on if we should make any changes to the competition to support greater participation.

Some suggestions we have already received include: allowing more time to make art by starting the board sign ups sooner; allowing boards to sign up into December; opening the competition up for more art forms; and providing a support thread to discuss where and how to make the holiday fan arts.

Please share your thoughts on the ideas above as well as sharing some of your own


ETA: Information for the poll which has been added -

The options:

Two parts of the competition: Icons & Wallpapers
The wallpaper part of the competition will remain the same. We will also have a part on the Fan Art board where icons can be submitted. Both art types will be voted separately as we don't believe you can compare an icon to a wallpaper. You would be able to submit a holiday-inspired set of 3-5 icons into the following categories (one icon set per category):

General
DC & Marvel
Female Celebrities
Male Celebrities
Music Artists
TV Shows - Present
TV Shows - Past
Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Although these categories are the same as our categories on you will not be restricted to only submitting topics which has a board on .

The first round of voting for the icons would be icons in each category against each other (similar to how round 2 currently works). We may then do a second round where the winners of each category are then put into one poll to determine an ultimate winner. With another round of special awards awarded according to various categories (similar to how round 3 currently works). These details are yet to be discussed fully/decided upon. Please feel free to share your own thoughts on this to help our decision making



Icons Only
The competition will be run in a similar manner to how it is run now, however instead of submitting wallpapers (or art from the following sizes: 400x300px, 800x600px, or 1024x768px) as you do now, it would be 3-5 icons (100x100px). Every board will have the opportunity to sign up, as they do now. You will be able to submit a set of 3-5 holiday-inspired icons per board. Round 1 voting will be the same as now, on each individual board (any board with only one submission will automatically go into round 2). Round 2 will be held on the Info Center board with each category having individual polls (same as now). Round 3 will be the same as now, with all icons submitted eligible for the various special categories.

In both suggestions usernames will not have to be added to the icons since they are smaller works of art. They will be included in the OPs with the art.

[Elle]

Thank you for the feedback thread!

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone who puts this on every year. I know how much work and dedication it takes, and we all appreciate you so much!

The only feedback that I might suggest, and this could be totally anecdotal to me is something I tend to notice that makes me hesitant to submit smaller boards.

If a smaller board only has one submission, a graphics team member will come in and submit, which is wonderful and makes all of our small boards feel the love The only issue that can pop up is the graphics team member usually slaughters the other submission (mine ) Completely understandable, and absolutely deserves the win! Y'all are great at arts. That being said, might be (and I could be totally wrong) that could discourage some smaller boards.

A possible amendment to the rules in subsequent years maybe could be if there is only one submission, that could be the winner to go on to the next round? I'm not at all totally sure how that would work, and a lesser art would probably get voted out anyway, but it could foster more participation.

[me and the sky]

Originally Posted by Elle (View Post) A possible amendment to the rules in subsequent years maybe could be if there is only one submission, that could be the winner to go on to the next round? I'm not at all totally sure how that would work, and a lesser art would probably get voted out anyway, but it could foster more participation.

Thank you for your suggestions Elle! We will gladly take them into discussion.

I just wanted to say that all boards with only one entry in round one have been automatically added into the polls for round two No board left behind!

[crash landing]

It was so hard to vote in a lot of the 1st round and most of these 2nd round again was hard

Really wished more took part in it

[shinebrighterxx]

Thanks for startong this Kate

Thanks Elle for your feedback. I do agree there may be a concern over different levels of skill competing against each other but I am not sure how to support that.

Generally the arts coming in are not from the Graphics Team members themselves but from posters on the Fan Art board who keep a tally on the arts & try ensure all boards get at least one art. You may also find some people make art for things they are fans of but don't post on the board for various reasons. Personally I dont think we can do anything to solve that as we can't control who makes art for which board. We could however stop doing the tally & if artists want to help out boards still it is up to them to look into it. This may result in more boards having 0 submissions though but we could always try it next year to see what happens. No one who makes an art for a board is doing it to upset the posters on the board or discourage people from participating, but I can see how it can look & feel too.

As Kate mentioned, all boards with 1 submission already do automatically win. That is the current rule. Then all art submitted are eligible for round 3. But my concern there may be that some may not believe that or think again that you are slaughtered by the GT since you don't see that round. You just are stuck with taking our word on it not being the case. Perhaps we can see if there is a way to be more open for that final round?

[Elle]

As Kate mentioned, all boards with 1 submission already do automatically win. That is the current rule. Then all art submitted are eligible for round 3. But my concern there may be that some may not believe that or think again that you are slaughtered by the GT since you don't see that round. You just are stuck with taking our word on it not being the case. Perhaps we can see if there is a way to be more open for that final round?

I hope I didn't come off salty I wasn't totally sure how all that worked, I guess I was just giving you my normie non-graphical view of it

I'm totally fine with not showing votes or knowing how many ahead the winner is. It was just some feedback bouncing around in my head from earlier in the day.

All that being said, I love entering each one, no matter if I win or lose. I was just thinking about maybe some ways to get more boards to jump in.

[shinebrighterxx]

It didn't. It echoes some concerns I have. I hope my post didn't come across that way either.

In past years there has been a push for all boards to get two entries so often there may have been that swooping in on boards. This year many were busy so we were lucky for some boards to even get one. So it may be more unknown that those boards with one entry simply just proceed to round 2.

I think some boards also don't participate because they don't think they will get entries as they don't think they have artists on their board. But there may be artists in the fandom who simply don't have the time to post on that board.

All that being said, I love entering each one, no matter if I win or lose. I was just thinking about maybe some ways to get more boards to jump in.

Exactly & that's what we want people to feel, but you bring up a strong reason why some may not. They may not feel the same. It may also be quite disheartening to constantly be beaten out which could discourage people from participating

[Elle]

Exactly & that's what we want people to feel, but you bring up a strong reason why some may not. They may not feel the same. It may also be quite disheartening to constantly be beaten out which could discourage people from participating

I very much understand this. I entered 3 boards, all with two artists, and lost 3 boards I'm very much okay with it and everyone's arts are beautiful! But I could see that maybe killing future participation.

My only thoughts on that would be relax the rules on the art? But I know that keeps things streamline and easy with running such a large annual competition

[shinebrighterxx]

I think the best solution there is to stop doing the tally & if artists still want to help boards they can look around themselves, or boards can always ask for entries if they want to.

What are you thinking by relaxing the rules?

[NOLA504]

and providing a support thread to discuss where and how to make the holiday fan arts.

I think this could help a lot like a basic quick tutorial on making holiday art.

Maybe the winner of each Category gets a custom title? or letting the winner change their User ranks icon..( cause I like the little lightning bolts icon and wouldn't mind changing to that for a month)

another extreme EXTREME idea the winner gets their art made into the Banner of that board. and it's up there for a month. I know this would never happen tho

I'm just thinking of things that would incentivize people to join. lol

[shinebrighterxx]

I like your ideas

another extreme EXTREME idea the winner gets their art made into the Banner of that board. and it's up there for a month.

I think it would be too hard to do the art turned into the banner as that's whole different size* & it would make the arts look weird. You wouldn't see the faces most likely either so temporarily you wouldn't see the cast or celeb, ect. properly. It is a cool idea but I don't think it is feasible. Would be nice if the board could showcase it in some way though

* the banners on the boards are 230x100px while the thumbnails for the competition are 200x150px

[NOLA504]

Thanks for responding Chelle. Yeah I kinda figured that it wouldn't be feasible

Would be nice if the board could showcase it in some way though

This basically what I was trying to get at just wish there was a way to highlight the winners art more.

[- eternal sunshine -]

Is the decline due to the rising cost of creative programs? Or the presumption that you have to have photoshop? If you go back a few years (a lot now) there used to be more free options or one off payments, but now there are subscription fees for programs like Adobe Photoshop which can be off putting. Even programs which are one off payments such as Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Paint Shop Pro are in the $100-150 price range which can still be quite an expense for many (however for the challenge a simple free trial may be an option and I believe both offer a full month for their trials). Free programs, such as GIMP, may be lesser known or harder to use which may be off putting too.

opening the competition up for more art forms

It is restrictive as it is now; however it may also be that a wallpaper itself is intimidating. Especially when you can see the skill of some of the competitors to use that space. You may not even wish to attempt a smaller size due to that as you may not feel it can compete with the larger size and/or talent. However I would also question how you can put different art forms up against each other. It would be a larger ask to put an icon up against a wallpaper; and they cannot compare. If you were introducing different art forms it would depend upon how you did it and if you opened up voting into different art form categories as well.

providing a support thread to discuss where and how to make the holiday fan arts

This sounds amazing. A thread like that could allow people to share ideas and inspiration to support each other to not be so afraid of the larger space. It may allow people to consider something they may not have thought of before and learn new skills.

[Artemis]

The availability of programs has definitely got to be a factor. Having a resource guide in the OP or linked to find free options may help people.

[Tina]

Maybe make the competition from wallpapers to icons? Not a lot of people use wallpapers anymore and it's a big space to fill if you aren't used to making artworks. A lot more people make icons here. Just a thought.