[CONTEST] The Infamous Steve - Creative Critic

[Mister Phes]

THE CONTEST HAS ENDED!

Check back soon for the Winner Announcement!

The Creative Critic has ended!

We understand not everyone is a builder... nor has the space or parts to participate in the contest's Building Category.

But as the old saying goes, "Everyone's a critic"

So here's THREE different ways to WIN PRIZES by providing brief constructive feedback to contest Building Entrants or helping to Nominate a Creative Critic!

Now you can participate from the comfort of your phone... anywhere... anytime...

What Is Creative Critic Feedback?

Your mission is to write conversational style Posts of around 1-3 Sentences that provide observations and feedback to Building Entriants.

There is no requirement to write an entire review or analysis in a Single Post!

In fact, it's better if you don't!

If you're able to write multiple paragraphs of feedback, spread it out over multiple Posts containing  1-3 Sentences.

Provide Building Entrants the opportunity to respond to your Critique before continuing your feedback.

The Creative Critic is meant to be a friendly discussion between Participants, not a comprehensive review from Critics to Builders!

Just Posts 1-3 Sentences in length are sufficient.

How to Enter

The Creative Critic has ended!  Please vote for the Creative Critic Winner.

 

First create a quick post in the Creative Critic Registration topic and introduce yourself.

Then browse the Building Entries Index and unleash your creative writing skills in each of the Building Entry Topics!

 

If you have any questions or feedback please post them in this topic.

Prizes

Creative Critique
June 15 - Aug 17

First place winner will receive 10320 Eldorado Fortress (or set of their choice equivalent of 215€ value)

Please ensure you've read and understood the Creative Critic Nomination Rules.

Nominations
Aug 18 - Aug 31

WIN prizes for helping to determine the WINNER!

Everyone who nominates a Creative Critic goes into the draw to WIN a 25€ LEGO set of their choice.
(including Creative Critics who Nominate).

Please ensure you've read and understood the Creative Critic Nomination Rules and Participation Prize Rules.

Challenges

To make the Creative Critic more fun so we're offering more opportunities to WIN more often!

The objective is simple:  Reply to Building Entry Topics and WIN Prizes...

The Critic Challenge is open to anyone who Registers for the Creative Critic, providing their Critique Posts meet the requirements.

Please ensure you've read and understood the Prize Rule and Participation Prize Rules.

How to Enter

The Creative Critic has ended!  Please vote for the Creative Critic Winner.

 

First register in the Creative Critic registrations topic.

After MOC entries have been posted in LEGO Pirates MOC Forum (June 15 onwards), reply in the Building Entry Topics and dazzle us with your creative writing skills and charisma.

You have until August 17 to stimulate the discussion and provide the builders with suggestions for how they could make their entries even better!

How Will the Winner be Determined?

The selection process for the Creative Critic has been completely revamped - this time participants of the contest will decide!

So Building Entrants, Creative Critics and Casual Observers will have the opportunity to Nominate their preferred Creative Critic.

And what's more, you will be incentivized to Nominate with the opportunity to WIN Prizes and receive Bonus Points.

Please read the Creative Critic Nomination Rules for more details.

Frequently Asked Questions

Must I write in perfect English?

No.

We acknowledge English is not everyone's native language so we'll grant leniency if your spelling and grammar isn't perfect.

However, your prose must be legible, so we must be able to understand what you're attempting to communicate.

Also, if you create posts containing only emojis, write extremely short responses or post off-topic, you'll be disqualified.

Critiquing should be quality over quantity!
 

How long do Creative Critic posts need to be?

At least a sentence.

Replies which are short few words, emojis or unrelated imagery may result in disqualification.

Do I need to register?

Yes.

Registrations provide us with a convenient summary of everyone participating

 

Do I need 10 Posts to participate in the Creative Critic?

No.

10 Posts are only required to Vote or Nominate.

To Participate in leaving Critic Creative Feedback, all you need to do is Register by posting in the Creative Critic Registrations topic and you're good to go!  Your Post Count is irrelevant.


Can I participate in the Creative Critic AND submit entries in the Building Categories?

Yes.

Can I register after June 15?

Yes.

You can register as a Creative Critic any time before August 31.

However, you have a higher probability of providing useful feedback and stimulating the discussion if you begin participating when entries are first submittedd.

 

Do Building Entrants have to consider Creative Critic feedback?  

No. Builders may choose to ignore the Creative Critics - but it's probably not the best strategy:

• If Builders reply to Critics' posts they're probably more inclined to vote for you in the future.
• Builders who Nominate a Creative Critic will receive Bonus Points to their overall score for each entry they submit.
   

The more engaged Builders are with their audience, the more advantage you will have.

Why would you offer such a large prize for this?

Because we want people to engage with builders, each other, and the entries.

We don't want entrants creating entry topics and then only receiving a couple of short replies.

So we're offering YOU a HUGE incentive to invest the time to provide detailed responses.

But I want more Building Categories with prizes!

What makes you think we won't announce more building categories with prizes in the near future?

There are currently two building categories:

1. Small Building Category
2. Large Building Category

Terms & Conditions

The Terms & Conditions can be found in the Participation Rules, FAQ and Terms & Conditions topic.

Ask Your Questions:

Do you require further clarification? Did we miss something important? Do you have feedback to provide?

Please create a new post in this topic clearing detailing your question or feedback...

[SevenDeadlyStreamers]

On 5/18/2024 at 4:03 PM, Mister Phes said:

Creative Critic

We understand not everyone is a builder nor has the space or parts to participate in the contest's Building Category.

But as the old saying goes, "Everyone's a critic"

So here's another chance to WIN PRIZES by providing constructive feedback to contest Building Entrants!

Now you can participate from the comfort of your phone... anywhere... anytime...

May I register to be a Creative Critic and also submit builds? I have a small and large build in mind however, I do not want to disqualify myself by requesting to be a Critic.

[Mister Phes]

28 minutes ago, SevenDeadlyStreamers said:

May I register to be a Creative Critic and also submit builds? I have a small and large build in mind however, I do not want to disqualify myself by requesting to be a Critic.

Yes, you may participate in both the Creative Critic and submit entries to the Building Categories.

[SevenDeadlyStreamers]

Thank you, I thought that was the case but just wanted to be sure!

[Mister Phes]

5 hours ago, SevenDeadlyStreamers said:

Thank you, I thought that was the case but just wanted to be sure!

You've done well to ask!

No doubt others will have the same question so I've incorporated it into the FAQ.

[Fraunces]

Very interesting. Kudos for setting this up!

[Mister Phes]

4 hours ago, Fraunces said:

Very interesting. Kudos for setting this up!

Yer most welcome!

Are you going to take a stab at the Creative Critic?

[Math Wizard]

What was the stipulation about having to have made 10 posts on eurobricks? ... I read it on one of these pages but I'm not sure where. I'm new to the platform and a little busy right now, but I may try to take a stab at Creative Critic

[Mister Phes]

4 hours ago, Math Wizard said:

What was the stipulation about having to have made 10 posts on eurobricks?

That stipulation is in regards to Voting for Building Entries or Nominating a Creative Critic.

You can enter the Creative Critic with less than 10 Posts.

All you need to do is Register by posting in the Creative Critic Registrations topic and you're good to go!

[Math Wizard]

3 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

That stipulation is in regards to Voting for Building Entries or Nominating a Creative Critic.

You can enter the Creative Critic with less than 10 Posts.

All you need to do is Register by posting in the Creative Critic Registrations topic and you're good to go!

Sounds good! I'll probably have at least 10 posts by the end of creatively critiquing , so does that mean I'll be eligible to vote by then, or do I need those posts by the start of the contest? 

[Mister Phes]

2 minutes ago, Math Wizard said:

Sounds good! I'll probably have at least 10 posts by the end of creatively critiquing , so does that mean I'll be eligible to vote by then, or do I need those posts by the start of the contest? 

You need to have 10 Posts by the start of Voting which is August 18.

So you've got more than 2 months to make 4 more posts - plenty of time!

 

[Math Wizard]

Quick question about the first to 25-- how is that counted? I thought I read somewhere that only posts made after there are 5 entries are counted and we had to keep track ourselves, but I can't find it now. If so, do those 5 need to be by different members?

May I ask why the 5 entrant restriction exists in the first place? It seems rather contrary to tell people to comment, but then impose a limit that it doesn't count until a certain point. 

 

[Mister Phes]

3 hours ago, Math Wizard said:

Quick question about the first to 25-- how is that counted? I thought I read somewhere that only posts made after there are 5 entries are counted and we had to keep track ourselves, but I can't find it now.

There will be an official announcement when the First to 25 Challenges commence to remind everyone of the important details.

But the complete rules can be found here.

To quote the infomation you're seeking:

Quote

 

When do these challenges begin?

The First to 25 Challenges will commence after 5 different Building Entrants have created one Entry Topic each.

The Timestamp on the first Post of the fifth Entry Topic will be used as the Commencement Time.

Posts made prior to the Commencement Time will not be included in your Objective's Reply Total.

 

Currently we have 4 different Building Entrants.

3 hours ago, Math Wizard said:

and we had to keep track ourselves

I'll be keeping an eye on things... but I can't check the forum 24/7 so its advantageous if Entrants are also monitoring their own progress.

[Mister Phes]

On 6/20/2024 at 11:03 AM, Math Wizard said:

May I ask why the 5 entrant restriction exists in the first place? It seems rather contrary to tell people to comment, but then impose a limit that it doesn't count until a certain point. 

To give people advanced notice of what's about to happen.

it takes time to create Building Entries, and when the contest starts, we have no idea how fast the entries will be submitted.

So imagine if only one Entry was submitted in the first few weeks - that Entry would win the First to 25 by default and there wouldn't be any competition!

[Math Wizard]

Will the first to 25 for critics also be cancelled if we don't get 10 critics in time or just the overall award? 

[Mister Phes]

1 hour ago, Math Wizard said:

Will the first to 25 for critics also be cancelled if we don't get 10 critics in time or just the overall award? 

Just the Grand Prize / overall award.

The First to 25 Challenges close July 6.

You're 7 Replies away from a 35€ Prize so I'm sure you can achieve that goal within the next week.

In fact, you could probably get that done in a single, 15 minute sitting if you put your mind to it!

[Math Wizard]

52 minutes ago, Mister Phes said:

You're 7 Replies away from a 35€ Prize so I'm sure you can achieve that goal within the next week.

In fact, you could probably get that done in a single, 15 minute sitting if you put your mind to it!

By my count I've only posted 8 or 9 replies since creative critic opened.  Also I'm going to be away for a few weeks, so probably won't have any more posts after Monday until mid-July. 

Also, one other question not related to the critic, but I'm already typing here so I guess I'll ask-

Are we allowed to submit builds here that we are also submitting to other contests elsewhere? I built something for another contest that I think could fit this one too with some tweaking of minifigures

[Mister Phes]

10 minutes ago, Math Wizard said:

By my count I've only posted 8 or 9 replies since creative critic opened.  

Have you not read the First to 25 Progress Report? 

There have been a couple of rule changes to make the challenges less challenging.

 

11 minutes ago, Math Wizard said:

Also I'm going to be away for a few weeks, so probably won't have any more posts after Monday until mid-July. 

Then you better write 7 more replies within the next 24 hours!

Really, this isn't it hard.  The replies only need to be 1 sentence long.

[Mister Phes]

9 hours ago, Horation said:

I have in the past been quite adversarial in my communications, so I forced myself to stop, hopefully I will be better this time around.

The good thing about the First to 25 Challenges is amicable communication and etiquette aren't so important.

You just need to post 25 Replies first and you WIN the Prize!

[Horation]

21 minutes ago, Mister Phes said:

The good thing about the First to 25 Challenges is amicable communication and etiquette aren't so important.

You just need to post 25 Replies first and you WIN the Prize!

When's the latest update on scores coming? Who's in the lead? 

[Math Wizard]

@Mister Phes I believe I'm the first to 25 for the critics! (I'm going off of your count saying I needed 7 more posts, and assuming @Horation didn't beat me to it while I was away. ) Had some internet problems or I would've posted earlier...

[Horation]

I also reached 25, but I haven't checked who did it first. So it will come down to a first-past-the-post contest. When did you have internet problems? (So we can check and see if it happened before I had reached my 25th post)

[Mister Phes]

39 minutes ago, Math Wizard said:

@Mister Phes I believe I'm the first to 25 for the critics! (I'm going off of your count saying I needed 7 more posts, and assuming @Horation didn't beat me to it while I was away.

It appears @Horation has beat you to it while you were away.

He reached 25 Posts around 8 hours ago (at the time of writing this post) - here's a screenshot of the three posts that got him over the finish line:

 

Nonetheless, you can count the posts for yourself:

• Math Wizard
• Horation

 

[Math Wizard]

6 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

It appears @Horation has beat you to it while you were away.

OK, thanks for verifying. I was still holding out hope since technically the rules said you had to make a post declaring that you reached it and I didn't see one

Maybe next year  

[Mister Phes]

3 hours ago, Math Wizard said:

OK, thanks for verifying. I was still holding out hope since technically the rules said you had to make a post declaring that you reached it and I didn't see one

The rules state  "While the Classic Pirates Crew will be monitoring, we cannot guarantee 24/7 coverage."

So the declaration is to ensure you victory is observed ASAP, but not mandatory to secure a prize.

 

3 hours ago, Math Wizard said:

Maybe next year  

If there is sufficient interest we might have another challenge in a few weeks.

But you might still be away.