I like this idea, but I agree with a "qualified judges" system rather than voting system; bc of the popularity contest and subsequent uncomfortable competition (this kind of occurs on LINE sometimes). I'd like to keep the unified community feel but maybe have a bunch of judges from a variety of artistic backgrounds to evaluate the comics on different parameters rather than create something that might cause animosity between members on the site. : )
i think thats the point of having a group of judges from different backgrounds, because its very unlikely all of them would play favorites.
as nice an idea it is, I can't help but disagree with it. Frankly, it's already annoying enough seeing 20000 threads about how someone's newly made comic isn't already super popular and how they can fix that - I can't imagine how many more would be made that's just "I didn't get picked for this award for my comic that i made a few days ago - what am i doing wrong?"
Unfortunately there's no such thing as a perfect system where bias and playing favorites isn't a possibility. It either becomes a popularity contest or risk judges being bias. (I mean, of course they're going to be judging based on their own criteria, because that's what they know best) A good way to avoid that might be trying to make sure all your judges come from different walks of life, have different areas of expertise, and don't know a damn thing about each other besides maybe seeing their work around occasionally. But that's really be easier said than done. But even if you had this perfect system people might still accuse the judges. Art's just waaaaaaaaaay too subjective, and not something that can be measured, so no matter what you do there's always going to be that one guy calling foul.
Iunno, it's tricky. I personally don't like contests a whole lot in the first place, because I've seen more feelings get hurt over them and negativity stir up over winners than I have people being positive and supportive so it's left a sour taste in my mouth. I don't like the whole "but the thing I liked best didn't win therefore everything that did win sucks and the winners should feel bad". It sucks and ruins the whole point in the contest in the first place, which was to show off stuff you might not have known about and make people feel good and get recognized.
Like @heterodont said, it's a nice idea. I don't think it's a terrible one at all, despite anything I said previously. If I trusted people to stay positive and not knock themselves down and feel bad over artificial measurement, I'd think a contest could be pretty fun. But it's just the negativity that every contest I've participated in had that kills it for me. If you wanna put the effort into setting one up, I think you should go for it. I may not participate, but I'll gladly be everyone's cheerleader from the sidelines.
What would the criteria even be? If it's just straight numbers, then the popular and trending categories already have that covered with their algorithms. If there are judges, then it's still going to be subjective. Where will these judges come from? What makes them qualified to judge? Just things to think about before launching any sort of contest.
We're mostly against this idea because its so hard to make it unbiased and non-hostile. Look at LINE for example and the whole down voting issue. We do not want to see Tapastic become LINE where there is so much competition and negative vibes. That just detracts from our site and community as a whole.
If people are looking for a way to "grade" themselves against other series, go with subs numbers. And concerning the whole subs numbers thing there's already enough competition and angst as it is. Do we really need more of that?
Maybe people are thinking if they won a competition then wow they would get tons more subs . . . but if there was a competition that is judged, then staff would handle that, and guess what, staff is judging us every day. Those competition awards are called, "Spotlight", "Staff Pick", and "Daily Snack." Note how certain series end up in Daily Snack day after day after day? We can name over a dozen that have been featured 3+ times already, some even approaching 10 times since the DS was revived. Do we really need more of these competitions? Staff will just pick the same winners. After all, everyone is biased to some degree.
Finally, any sort of internal Tapastic competition is only going to draw more internal subscriptions. We've had this conversation already in the past with a heavily featured series and there comes a point when something on Tapastic has maxed out what it can do as far as internal marketing. At some point all the people on Tapastic are already going to know about your series and have subbed already or not. Winning a competition of any sort that is Tapastic only is unlikely to make a significant difference.
Which is where we suggest Tapastic creators try to external market their series instead. Go for competitions outside of Tapastic. Advertise outside of Tapastic. If everyone did this just a little Tapastic would grow as a whole and everyone would benefit.
At some point creators have to bring external subs to them rather than expecting Tapastic to provide all the subs internally.
If you wish to help external market Tapastic at your local convention scene or with another idea you may have, make sure to contact Josh (hello@tapasmedia.co) w/ Attn: Josh, External Growth. He is in charge of that and will likely appreciate the help.
hmmm.
in theory, id see this working through surveys posted to the forum to collect votes - and then, we could send off the data to the tapastic staff, showing 'hey this comic has won by us, could you reflect that some way in the site' to make it more useful. so like, then winners would be put in popular to staff picks (less likely) or spotlighted - it would give the site more democracy, without the staff having to make the move.
I don't know why some are conflating the idea of holding awards and a contest or competition. Personally, I like the idea of healthy competition, but that's neither here nor there, because giving out awards, which I think should be annually for prestige value, is just a way of acknowledging excellence after the fact.
People could nominate comics to predetermined categories, which could then be judged by the staff.
It could just be a little thing you can put on your work, like 2016 Tapastic Gold Medal for Sci-Fi or something similar. Just some nice extra recognition for all your hard work.
I'd love to see it happen. It would give people something to strive for. A 'one day' goal to keep people motivated and to create some much-needed buzz.
Good luck, I brought it up a while ago and no one seemed very interested. Let's hope people change their mind and the staff like the idea.
The reason why it's so opposed I think is because of the fact that it is a competition, and it's not a competition based on any fair or even quantifiable criteria. It's as frustrating as when you're playing a game and there's a "limited edition" item that you want and technically have a chance of getting...but that chance is random and so tiny that you might as well accept the fact it's never going to happen. It frustrates, even when it's just one thing and doesn't really make a material difference.
This really bothers a lot of people. A lot. And for good reason. It can even become resentment -- and again, justifiably -- when people work very hard, they do a good job, and someone better liked by a specific person or group ends up getting the gold ring, maybe with less effort or care. It doesn't make them a bad person, but it does tend to cultivate bad blood between people, and that's not really conducive to a healthy or positive environment.
I've won awards in my lifetime, been nominated, been finalist, and all steps on the way. Pretty much no award ever really means anything; they're just arbitrary distinctions and whoever's organized the award might as well just say "this is a bunch of people we liked enough to give an imaginary distinction," but you know what? I recognize that being passed over for awards makes people feel bad. It makes people feel like they're not doing something, but they never can figure out what that is they're not doing, and that is one of the most frustrating things in the world for any creator.
Even though awards usually don't help a person's career (in fact, statistically speaking, "major" awards are more likely to kill a career), they're still enviable because everybody does like being recognized for doing good work. And yeah, we've got enough distinctions around here that people aren't getting, what with the staff picks, snacks, and so forth. I just don't think it's a good idea to present any further that would just make people upset, or feel unhappy about their work, and the like. It's hard enough creating on one's own terms, whether one wants only to express one's creative voice or one intends to profit off it.
The thing about site-wide, all-inclusive awards is that people don't have the ability to say "please don't bring me into this" and there is benefit in greater exposure to a wider audience, so they probably wouldn't anyway since it's staff. It's much better if it's an independent series of awards and nomination is voluntary, either by someone wishing to recognize the work or by the author.
Ultimately I think, if you want to give out awards, go for it. But don't make it "official Tapastic awards given out by staff" because we already have those distinctions, as arbitrary as they may seem. If you want to give out awards, do the heavy lifting yourself: organize a group of judges, set up an array of criteria, learn critical analysis, and assess any nominations you can elicit from those who wish to participate. It will mean much more and, most likely, be far more positive than something people couldn't really opt out of. It's different when it's a group of people doing their own thing and doing it to help and have fun...and when it's the official staff of a place picking favorites.
Wait, which thing are you talking about? I had assumed @keii4ii was talking about Donathin's thing, 'cause we DO know the judges for that, and there wasn't a popularity contest aspect because the judges panel chooses the best comic for the different awards, not anyone else.
Here's the thing, though -- we've talked before on the forums about the idea of creating a way for readers to nominate comics to be recognised on the Tapastic site, so that there could be more diversity in things like Staff Pick, and the response from staff was basically "we don't have the manpower to sort and judge reader recommendations." I feel like trying to get the staff of Tapastic to judge a contest would be similar ... like, you're welcome to ask! They might like the idea! But it also might be something they don't really have the time or resources for.
I like the idea of excellence awards, but I do feel like if you want to set up awards, it's either gonna be a lot of work to put together a meaningful selection process, or, if you don't put a lot of work into it, submitting your comic to the Fantasy Award for November is gonna be roughly the same as posting in a "share your fantasy comic!!!" thread.
This is very much the case with Tapastic. Case in point, the recent Trick or Treat coin give away. People were given random amounts in the thread but in the end everyone received 1,000 coins because it was much easier to do a blanket reward than to give out specific individual rewards. Something minor like that shouldn't take much time . . . yet staff opted for something faster even if it cost them more coins. That just shows that they don't have the resources right now to focus on non-core issues. Think of the time and resources to do some official Readers Choice Awards or what not. . .
Another way to look at it . . . should Tapastic spend its time growing and improving the site, getting more and more readers for everyone as a whole, or should they concentrate on promoting a handful of creators so that handful of creators can benefit at the expense of everyone else? Because really the situation right now with their limited manpower is they only do one thing or the other, not both.
We're not against doing this ever, but right now does not seem like the appropriate time when staff is still trying to get major things done in terms of growing the readership and developing more features for the site. Something like this is better initiated, promoted, and executed by volunteer creators.
That said if creators want to get into competitions that would make a big impact for everyone, they should look into nominating their favorite comics for important external industry awards like the Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic/Webcomic. A Tapastic series ending up in the five finalists, not to mention the winner, would be a big score for every creator here in terms of new traffic and increased legitimacy.
Sorry if my still semi-foggy, waking mind meandered a bit.