[CONTEST] How can we make future contests BIGGER and BETTER and MORE EXCITING?? 💥

[F1stzz]

@Mister Phes I'm deeply sorry about all these unfortunate circumstances you had to face initiating both of the contests & sincerely wish you a speedy recovery from the bump your mental health took after trying to organise things all by yourself. I want to thank you for everything you've managed to conduct flawlessly within the event, given all the IRL problems you had to face, & for the next time I'd suggest trying not to bite more than you can chew and actually delegating some of the responsibilities to the preemptively appointed moderators, so the whole process wouldn't be as chaotic & random as it was this time around. I guess this is the most important conclusion to be made out of everything that's been discussed so far 

[Marooned Marin]

2 hours ago, F1stzz said:

delegating some of the responsibilities to the preemptively appointed moderators

Dear @F1stzz I firmly hold that you are reasonable individual. I hold that many other members who shared their thoughts for the improvement are likewise reasonable. Your suggestion, as all other suggestions, are all good and well intended.

Mister Phes did not choose this one-man approach to this contest because he likes to micromanage things, nor because he thought he could manage all this by himself. Far from it. He is the happiest person in delegating work and tasks to others. Believe me.

The trouble is, there was no one to delegate tasks to. Allow me to shed some light on that matter.

The topic for organising the Pirate Contest was created in the early months of 2023 where all staff working behind the Pirate scene (known as The Shipyard) was invited to chip in their thoughts. Month after month passed with not a single constructive comment. 

Why? Simple.

The backstage of this beloved Pirate community is run and maintained by a few overstretched volunteers. Two moderators are heavily involved and oversee BoBS, LEGO Pirates and Pirate-MOC forum. One of them is also overseeing the C-P Flickr group and Discord section. We have few outstanding members moderating the C-P Facebook group which surpassed 10,000 members not so long ago. Two thumbs up for them. The amount of spam is kept at minimum there thanks to these fine Facebook pirates. One fantastic individual posts week after week Pirate-MOCs on the Frontpage, for I think 18 months, without missing one week. And I will not even start going into details of Mister Phes role and work he does, which is absolutely staggering by any chart. And that's about it. That's all of us.

With the regular influx of tasks and responsibilities to keep the show running, nobody showed any initiative to make the contest happen. When the deadline rang, Mister Phes decided to single-handedly make things happen, even at the risk of his health and mind. Then he had that 7-country voyage thing - I believe we all here know that story, which left us where we are. And where are we?

Name of this topic is How can we make future contests bigger...better...exciting

Plenty was said in this topic, but we are approaching the point when someone needs to execute all of that good advice, do some heavy lifting, and make things happen. Who? Mister Phes?

One conclusion we can all agree on is: we need to have more people helping out anyway they can. Not only during the contest, but all the time.

This topic proves there is a number of people who care and support the Pirate theme, have good intentions and would like to help. Moreover, there are several individuals capable of writing their thoughts in a clear and constructive manner, and their names pop-up regularly. These are the most wanted.

It's never late to join the adventure and help make things happen, and what better time then now.

[Mister Phes]

21 hours ago, F1stzz said:

@Mister Phes I'm deeply sorry about all these unfortunate circumstances you had to face initiating both of the contests & sincerely wish you a speedy recovery from the bump your mental health took after trying to organise things all by yourself. I want to thank you for everything you've managed to conduct flawlessly within the event, given all the IRL problems you had to face.

Thank you for all your feedback regarding statistic and reporting!

 

21 hours ago, F1stzz said:

I'd suggest trying not to bite more than you can chew and actually delegating some of the responsibilities to the preemptively appointed moderators.

Well, that's the entire point of this topic.  Not to dwell on the inadequacies of the recent contest, but to find solutions so I can avoid over exerting myself managing future contests.

So to quote myself from the very first post of this topic:

On 9/23/2023 at 2:22 PM, Mister Phes said:

Certain aspects of the contest could have be managed better, ultimately, the largest shortcoming was insufficient personnel to organise and manage the contest. So the two question posed:

• How can we make future contests better? 
• Who would like to join the Classic Pirates Crew to make it happen?

 

[bingowaldorf]

Thanks to everyone who organized this contest! I used to check this website when I a wee lad and I remember having a blast looking through the wonderful entries for the pillage the village contest. I decided to check back in when the new Eldorado Fortress was announced to see if there was a review and I found the contest, which I could not resist entering! I apologize that my entry was outside of the rules, I did not realize there was a certain style needed to be maintained to be considered a remake, I just kinda winged it until I was happy with it.

On another note, I think that banning digital designs would be a mistake. Lego is an expensive hobby and I'm sure that not everyone has a huge collection of parts that they can just pull from on a whim; many of the entries that I voted for were digital and I am glad to have seen them! I also enjoyed a lot of mini entries and seeing what they were able to do with so few pieces. If there were another contest I think a mini build contest would be a real hoot.

Thanks again!

[Mister Phes]

On 10/4/2023 at 7:22 AM, bingowaldorf said:

I used to check this website when I a wee lad and I remember having a blast looking through the wonderful entries for the pillage the village contest

Oh them were the glory days!  

On 10/4/2023 at 7:22 AM, bingowaldorf said:

! I apologize that my entry was outside of the rules, I did not realize there was a certain style needed to be maintained to be considered a remake, I just kinda winged it until I was happy with it. 

Yer did fine all the same and thank you for taking the time to provide feedback!

 

On 10/4/2023 at 7:22 AM, bingowaldorf said:

On another note, I think that banning digital designs would be a mistake. Lego is an expensive hobby and I'm sure that not everyone has a huge collection of parts that they can just pull from on a whim

Ah yes, the challenge of making the contest accessible to those who may not be able to afford large quantities bricks. 

So rather  than ban, would it be better to separate digital and physical builds into two different categories?  With each category having its own prize?

 

On 10/4/2023 at 7:22 AM, bingowaldorf said:

I also enjoyed a lot of mini entries and seeing what they were able to do with so few pieces. If there were another contest I think a mini build contest would be a real hoot.

Another barrier to entry is time, so the Mini Set category allows people to enter who couldn't afford to spend many hours building a larger creation.

 

[Yperio_Bricks]

7 minutes ago, Mister Phes said:

So rather  than ban, would it be better to separate digital and physical builds into two different categories?  With each category having its own prize?

Having seperate categories for digital and physical entries seems practicable  Then there also should be the rule that the same build can not enter both categories because surely people will come up with this "creative" but rather absurd solution (as was discussed before in this thread).

 

9 minutes ago, Mister Phes said:

Another barrier to entry is time, so the Mini Set category allows people to enter who couldn't afford to spend many hours building a larger creation.

The Mini Set category was a great success, so we should definitely keep it  Lots of fun entries

[Captain Pirate Man]

I would be willing to be more involved with not just contests, but Classic Pirates as whole. 

In case some of you are unaware, but I am a YouTuber that specializes in Lego pirates. I also have a FB group with 2,000 members, discord, etc. 

 

If I am given enough advanced notice, I can assist in the planning and judging. I am also willing to make content to help spread the word beyond this forum. 

Lego Pirates IS and will always be my first love. Anyways I can help the Lego Pirates community grow and flourish, I am willing to do. I don't always post on this forum a whole lot anymore, no.  But I post on Classic Pirates FB pretty regularly. 

So I'm offering my services, just let me know. 

 

 

I'd also add, I'm not "up" on what the controversies regarding the last contest were, but I'd like to add this two cents... Just be grateful that we have some kind folks that are even putting in the work to make these contests happen. You might not be happy with every little aspect, but we should be happy that it's even a thing. Cheers. 

Edited October 7, 2023 by Captain Pirate Man

[Yperio_Bricks]

42 minutes ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

I would be willing to be more involved with not just contests, but Classic Pirates as whole. 

In case some of you are unaware, but I am a YouTuber that specializes in Lego pirates. I also have a FB group with 2,000 members, discord, etc. 

 

If I am given enough advanced notice, I can assist in the planning and judging. I am also willing to make content to help spread the word beyond this forum. 

Lego Pirates IS and will always be my first love. Anyways I can help the Lego Pirates community grow and flourish, I am willing to do. I don't always post on this forum a whole lot anymore, no.  But I post on Classic Pirates FB pretty regularly. 

So I'm offering my services, just let me know. 

 

 

I'd also add, I'm not "up" on what the controversies regarding the last contest were, but I'd like to add this two cents... Just be grateful that we have some kind folks that are even putting in the work to make these contests happen. You might not be happy with every little aspect, but we should be happy that it's even a thing. Cheers. 

Hear, hear

[Mister Phes]

8 hours ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

In case some of you are unaware, but I am a YouTuber that specializes in Lego pirates. I also have a FB group with 2,000 members, discord, etc. 

Mighty fine YouTube channel, with great coverage of both pirates and other LEGO themes.

Everyone should definitely subscribe!
https://www.youtube.com/c/MikeyJProductions

 

8 hours ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

If I am given enough advanced notice, I can assist in the planning and judging. I am also willing to make content to help spread the word beyond this forum.

We're certainly excited to have you involved!  Whether that be just for contests, or something more ongoing in your spare time.

We can discuss possibilities to find something that suits...

 

8 hours ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

Lego Pirates IS and will always be my first love. Anyways I can help the Lego Pirates community grow and flourish, I am willing to do. I don't always post on this forum a whole lot anymore, no.  But I post on Classic Pirates FB pretty regularly. 

So I'm offering my services, just let me know. 

Since you're active in the Classic Pirates Facebook Group we could always use another  Group Moderator as the group is growing rapidly and we need to keep marauders from infiltrating!

But beyond that, did you have anything in particular in mind?

[Captain Pirate Man]

4 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Mighty fine YouTube channel, with great coverage of both pirates and other LEGO themes.

Everyone should definitely subscribe!
https://www.youtube.com/c/MikeyJProductions

 

We're certainly excited to have you involved!  Whether that be just for contests, or something more ongoing in your spare time.

We can discuss possibilities to find something that suits...

 

Since you're active in the Classic Pirates Facebook Group we could always use another  Group Moderator as the group is growing rapidly and we need to keep marauders from infiltrating!

But beyond that, did you have anything in particular in mind?

I'd be happy to be a mod for the FB page. BTW, I have seen some of the marauders infiltrating the chat over there... So ya, lol. 

 

As for involvement purposes, I'm sure you are not planning another giveaway in the near future, so that's probably a moot point. But if you see some creations or creators that deserve special recognition or what not, I'd be happy to spotlight them. As of now, I tend to focus on Pirates, Castle and LOTR. We also do Harry Potter (because my wife loves it), as well as themes like JP because my kid is into it. 

As I said in my video, Pirates is first love though. So when I see a Lego Ideas submission for Pirates that is really good, I make a video about it already. So what I'm saying is, Lego Ideas I pretty already have covered, lol. 

 

Having said that, I see a lot of people make some really great things that don't end up on ideas or in a BL designer Program. So putting a shine on some of these creators could be a good thing. I don't see as much as you do though, I'm sure. 

 

I'm not against some sort of "official" or "semi-official" role either. Or at least listening to ideas on how we can work together to spread Lego Pirates love. When I read that you were a little "over worked" during the contest, I just thought maybe I could help??

[Mister Phes]

2 hours ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

I'd be happy to be a mod for the FB page. BTW, I have seen some of the marauders infiltrating the chat over there... So ya, lol. 

We especially need someone to moderate the chat -  so if you're active there or at least check the group messaging feature, you might be the ideal candidate!

2 hours ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

I'm not against some sort of "official" or "semi-official" role either. Or at least listening to ideas on how we can work together to spread Lego Pirates love.

The most important things are:

a) we find something you enjoy doing
b) something that works with your schedule

But step into my office and we can discuss the possibilities further...

[bingowaldorf]

On 10/7/2023 at 7:19 AM, Mister Phes said:

 

 So rather  than ban, would it be better to separate digital and physical builds into two different categories?  With each category having its own prize?

I think that could work if it makes things easier! But in my humble opinion ones creative vision is neither hampered nor helped by digital building. So I would be fine having them all together as well.

[Yperio_Bricks]

While browsing through the Brick Train Awards winners list and pictures i found that they also award teenage fans of Lego. (I already read about it in the previous years but completely forgot about it.)

I wonder if we could do that as well? We saw some entries by younger fans of Lego in our own contest and having an dedicated category for the young moccers would be great!

The only problem i see is, how can we confirm that people are eligible to enter the contest and how could adults be prevented from entering this category?

[Mister Phes]

9 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

While browsing through the Brick Train Awards winners list and pictures i found that they also award teenage fans of Lego. I wonder if we could do that as well?

Our greatest limitation is the total number of prizes we can allocate - under the current support package from the LEGO Group we're able to send prizes 5 different addresses.

So it becomes a question of; how do we make those prize winners go as far as possible?

Therefore, the more niche we define our categories, the smaller the entrant base.

I assume there are significantly fewer TFOLs than AFOLs who are able to enter building contests, primarily because TFOL have lower earnings (or no earnings) and therefore cannot afford as many bricks.

But I'm happy to be corrected on that matter, so if there are any studies or data to provide an insight into the number of TFOLs versus AFOLs, I'd be interested in reviewing them.

[Yperio_Bricks]

4 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Our greatest limitation is the total number of prizes we can allocate - under the current support package from the LEGO Group we're able to send prizes 5 different addresses.

So it is generally not possible to have more but smaller prizes?

5 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

I assume there are significantly fewer TFOLs than AFOLs who are able to enter building contests, primarily because TFOL have lower earnings (or no earnings) and therefore cannot afford as many bricks. 

That's what people say in favor of digital builds.

5 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

But I'm happy to be corrected on that matter, so if there are any studies or data to provide an insight into the number of TFOLs versus AFOLs, I'd be interested in reviewing them.

Of course there is no data and no scientific paper has been published about this topic

[Mister Phes]

15 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

So it is generally not possible to have more but smaller prizes?

If our prizes are provided by The LEGO Group's support package allocation to Eurobricks, then no.

The other options is to provide our own prizes, but generating funds is no longer as easy as it once was.

 

[Mazin]

I wanted to ask about this a bit earlier, but things turned differently in this thread and i kinda forgot my idea, but i was thinking that maybe, just maybe, there would be a way to raise the number of prizes by giving away keys to digital products? Lego games on Steam/Epic/GoG come to my mind as first. I admit, I have absolutely no idea if Lego group can even give them away, and some of those games might be actually more expensive than regular Lego sets, still, it seems that allowing access to digital products for more people might be somewhat easier for them than processing all the adresses-local shops-delivery related problems. I might be wrong on this, but by logic i think it would be just faster, easier and cheaper for Lego to award those games ( or other digital products ) for free to more people, rather than giving away even few physical products. And a digital game is still a prize many would opt for.  

  

[Yperio_Bricks]

But not everyone has a modern pc or console that fit the needs of modern games (or even older games) whereas everyone can build a Lego set prize.

[Mazin]

6 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

But not everyone has a modern pc or console that fit the needs of modern games (or even older games) whereas everyone can build a Lego set prize.

Yeah, me included ;) I have some Lego games, but i've been unable to play them do to problems with equipment or lack of it ;) Still, it's always a way to give more prizes and one that could be taken under consideration. IF it would be gelally and technically doable of course... 

[Mister Phes]

7 hours ago, Mazin said:

 Lego games on Steam/Epic/GoG come to my mind as first. I admit, I have absolutely no idea if Lego group can even give them away, and some of those games might be actually more expensive than regular Lego sets

Back in 2011 The LEGO Group gave us a copy of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean...

Absolutely nobody wanted it so we couldn't even give it away, let alone offer it as a contest prize.

[Mazin]

18 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Back in 2011 The LEGO Group gave us a copy of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean...

Absolutely nobody wanted it so we couldn't even give it away, let alone offer it as a contest prize.

Wow :o that's solves it then ;) I'm surprised that people were so reluctant tho, says a thing about our members ;) I was sure that since so many people use software to build from bricks they would like to play games too :/ Tho, 10 years is a lot, maybe something has changed since then. Still, turning down a chance to win anything is weird :/ 

[Mister Phes]

6 hours ago, Mazin said:

I was sure that since so many people use software to build from bricks they would like to play games too

Without conducting a survey we cannot be certain of the video game interests of current forum members.

Regardless, videos games are not included in the current support package arrangement with The LEGO Group.

[Yoggington]

On 10/22/2023 at 6:11 AM, Mister Phes said:

Our greatest limitation is the total number of prizes we can allocate - under the current support package from the LEGO Group we're able to send prizes 5 different addresses.

Aha, this is what I was looking for before. If this is a lock (and assuming there's no way to get hands on digital keys or additional funds), then I would think the best way to break down categories would be;

• Large build - 1st place & runner up prize (>1500 parts?)
• Medium build - 1st place & runner-up (100-1500)
• Small build - one prize only (<100 parts)

This would restrict making any further divisions like digital v physical, or TFOL v AFOL, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

 

I think the next crucial piece of info then would be how often prizes can be available, e.g. how often can a competition happen - every two months? Every six, once ever two years? This would dictate how exactly you would want to theme each competition, what lead-in time builders have, how strict or loose the general ruleset could be (and how often it could be re-iterated)

[Yperio_Bricks]

Just came across this rule for digital entries from the Brickscalibur contest.

Quote

Digital Only? Yes, Please!

Digital entries are welcome for every category! However, digital entries will be judged separately and will not be in the running for the respective category prizes. Instead there are two separate prizes for the two highest-scoring digital entries.

– You are free to use any software of your choice, and there is no restriction on what elements or colors you can use nor if your build is actually physically possible.

Sounds reasonable to me. So you can build a full blown digital moc that matches the contest categories but digital entries will be judged seperately due to their advantages. What do you guys think?

[Mazin]

38 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Just came across this rule for digital entries from the Brickscalibur contest.

Sounds reasonable to me. So you can build a full blown digital moc that matches the contest categories but digital entries will be judged seperately due to their advantages. What do you guys think?

I wanted to mention this earlier, but honestly, during the Contest i didn't even know whether some entries were digital or built. The sole idea for a set and delivery were far more important to me. It's like with drawing and painting realy, these days a lot of people constantly differentiate between digital and "real" drawings, and i don't get that. I don't care if it's done with a pen and paper or if it's done by computers, if it's done with left hand or right hand, if it's done with teeths or feet, it's final "product" that counts. And same goes here... Plus a lot of those digital dudes ( and dudettes ) actually wanted or tried to handbuild those sets later on. Obviously digital builders had an advantage of using unlimited pieces ( or did they? ) and could pull all sorts of magic with photo composition and lighting, packaging etc, but it still not so easy to construct anything with those programs, it requires tremendous amount of skill and time to do what they did, so i'm not very eager to separate them from real-bricks-builders. It's all like looking for differences in the community to me, rather than being happy of all the new possibilities that we have thanxs to those renders. And i remember that a lot of those digital ideas actually even failed to be constructed according to builders' original intentions, because of some limitations, as we've seen it even in one of the winning imperial sets, where both sail and mast in a pirate boat had to be so thick because the Builder couldn't do them differently in his/her software. Same goes for the hungarian guy who did an amazing amazing skull island, but had very uninteresting minifigures, because again, he had problems with doing them in his software. And it'sobvious in both those cases it did cost them losing some points in the ratings, even tho they were still quite popular... 

Besides, digital build or real, it's not really hands or software that gives anyone an advantage in those contents, it's the ability to create great final presentation - photography, box design, background design, catalog design, web comics etc... all those factors were important in collecting points for many of those entries as it was clear some entries were ignored because of their unattractive presentation, bad photography and lack of any staging, while other got popular because of all the fancy stuff they came with. 

So if we are realy separating real bricks from digital builds, then it's probably as important to talk about those other factors as well. But does it lead to anywhere?