NEAR Contest Feedback

NEAR Contest Feedback === :::warning :bulb: My **honest feedback** for the **#ChristmasIsNEAR** contest judging. ::: [**Judging 101**](#rules)  🍀  [**Acknowledgement**](#acknowledgement)  🍀  [**Request for Improvement**](#request)  🍀  [**Closing Remark**](#tldr) ### <a id="rules">:four_leaf_clover: Contest Judging 101</a> #### 🚩 I. Contest vs. Free-for-all <hr/> A contest needs to be taken seriously. It cannot just be for fun. Otherwise, it should not be announced as a contest with rules. Newcomers to NEAR will view a contest as a contest and not as a free-for-all. #### 🚩 II. Know the name of the game <hr/> Become familiar with the contest rules from the start. It's confusing and disappointing to contestants when they learn that rules were created not to be followed. Judges cannot judge properly if they don't know and/or don't care about the rules or instructions. Get judging right the first time and the team won't need to spend more time afterwards settling complaints, reevaluating submissions, and reassigning winners... #### 🚩 III. No takesies backsies <hr/> Once winners are announced and prizes are awarded, the decision is final. It is unprofessional to revoke a winner when the mistake lies solely in misjudging. By doing so, the judges are basically announcing the winners, getting their hopes up, and then going 'PSYCH! 🤪' ... avoid pulling an uno reverse card at the end. Choose winners carefully. #### 🚩 IV. Proper deliberation <hr/> Take time to carefully review every entry. Some pieces might not be obvious at first glance, but they pass the requirements and should not be disqualified off the bat. I saw at least one submission that was supposedly disqualified for not including the contest theme even though their work clearly fit the day's theme 🤷🏻‍♀️ Were the judges attentively reviewing every entry or quickly glossing over? #### 🚩 V. Fairness, Consistency, Transparency <hr/> Judge by the rules, and keep the game fair. If we're playing by the rules, then some winnings and rankings were questionable. Let's take a closer look at the official judging criteria for the #ChristmasisNEAR contest 🧐 :::info **The top 3 entries based on creativity, talent, effort, and following instructions** ::: * What does **creativity, talent & effort** mean to NEAR? 🤔 * What does **following instructions** mean to NEAR? 🤔🤔 <img src='https://c.tenor.com/FMY9jCXbsJUAAAAC/tuzuki-confused.gif' width="120px"/> <img src='https://media1.giphy.com/media/TPl5N4Ci49ZQY/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47m90ss5uoftf4detv0mstfig5w2oieiiojrja5dbx&rid=giphy.gif' width="140px"/> <img src='https://c.tenor.com/XJxuWmW3ragAAAAi/confused-cute-puppy.gif ' width="120px"/> What 'other aspects' were the judges 'taking into account' besides 'following the rules'? What other criteria influenced the team's decisions? Why were they not included in the announcements? How come this smells real fishy? 🐟🐟🐟 <hr/> When contestants asked for direct feedback + reasoning behind the decisions, NEAR team's response was that some of the designs were nice 'but didn't follow the rules'. That would be reasonable and all *if the chosen winners had followed the rules*. But somehow that part was overlooked. Then, the team pointed to an entry, and gave a reason for its disqualification that wasn't even valid 😑 Repeat winners were awarded top 3 + random multiple times (at least 1 individual exceeded the max # of winnings permitted) even when some entries disregarded the rules (which others were keen to point out) and paled in comparison to other creative works (i.e. in terms of "creativity, talent and effort"). This leads one to wonder what 'criteria' NEAR judges are judging by. * Is NEAR's judgement clouded by bias? * Are random winnings verifiably random? Judging for each round should be independent of all other contest rounds. Eliminate human bias by anonymizing submissions so that you are judging the creative work by the content, not by the creator/submitter. Hold every piece of work to the same standard. And then stick to that decision. If judges want to judge by a different set of criteria, that's fine. There's no stopping the rule-maker from changing the rules of the game. However, the printed rules must be updated to reflect any changes. And these changes ought to be announced with advance notice given. Otherwise, disparities in results and judging criteria will only raise suspicions among participants. #### 🚩 VI. Word Choice <hr/> The wording of instructions is important. Technicality matters, especially with contest rules. Spell everything out so that there is no room for ambiguity or confusion. Treat it like you are writing or reading a contract. **Example Rule 1** :::info **Entries into the current contest must have 10 Days of #ChristmasIsNear theme** ::: Day 10 contest instructions were misleading. If judges are expecting text, then the text needs to be in " ". The rule should have been this instead: > **Entries into the current contest must include the text, "10 Days of #ChristmasIsNear"** 10 days of #ChristmasisNEAR not enclosed in " " will be interpreted as a recap or wrap up of all contest themes combined. So, of course, most submissions would include ALL 10 days of the #ChristmasisNEAR contest themes. If the judges fail to understand the instructions correctly, then that's a lot of hard work gone down the drain for many contestants. But, more importantly, if the majority of contestants have approached the contest from one angle, the judges should ask themselves, "why?" 🤔🤔🤔 <img src='https://media0.giphy.com/media/xUPGcz2H1TXdCz4suY/giphy.gif?cid=790b76116a880410560ecf1e69fa52fc2c139a7ea3c90e4e&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g' width="200px"/> And then, perhaps, they will ponder, question their own judgement, and realize, "perhaps it wasn't the contestants but NEAR's judges who misinterpreted the rule" 🤔 ➡️ 😲 ➡️ 😱 In this case, only one person understood the assignment correctly, according to the judges. But you gotta ask yourselves, what are the odds that ***everyone else*** was wrong? Even the 1st place winner had interpreted the instructions like the rest lol... the winner just so happened to *also* include the text, which was apparently *the only thing* the judges seemed to care about 🤦🏻‍♀️. Judging an entry by how creatively it has incorporated all 10 themes doesn't lower the barrier to entry imo; it raises the barrier, since that requires a whole lot more effort than just throwing in a line of text. Furthermore, if the team sees that most contestants have not followed a certain rule to the judges' interpretation, then it doesn't hurt to clarify the rule before the deadline approaches, especially when y'all know that most entries will later be penalized for it. Adding text to an image/video is simple enough to do. A few minutes added to many hours of work is nbd for most folks and can be a total game-changer. But they can't make the necessary changes if they are unaware. Btw, I didn't even participate on Day 10. I quit the contest early on, thank gosh 😂, so this isn't me being bitter about not winning or w/e. I'm just judging the judges' judging of the contest objectively as an outside observer 🥸✌️ **Example Rule 2** :::info "Include **a** properly displayed NEAR logo (proper shape, color, and rotation)." ::: The article **'a'** is singular. So as long as a creative work contains **one** logo of the proper shape, color, and rotation **at minimum** (note: *not* all logos), then the entry fulfills that requirement. But the judges completely disregarded this rule anyway, which rendered the rule pointless in the end 💀 Let's pretend for a moment that judging did include this rule though. What would that entail? I'll use one of my entries as an example: <img src='https://i.ibb.co/W0PgM5b/gift-of-near-framed-blue.jpg' width='550px'/> What do we see here? Three NEAR logos are colored #FFF at 75%-80% opacity, and two of those three logos are *tilted*. They are not of the proper color (#000) or rotation (0/360°). Alright, well that goes against the rule 👮‍, so to the trash it goes, right? ⮑🗑 🤓 Hold up ✋, not so fast ☝️. If we look closely 🔍, we'll see that it includes four other logos that *are* of the proper shape, color, and rotation ✔️. So technically, this submission cannot be disqualified for failing to meet the specified requirement. Possibly eliminated for another reason? Sure. Disqualified for breaching this requirement? Nah. ___ ### <a id="acknowledgement">☀️ Acknowledgement ☀️</a> Of course everyone has their eyes on the prize, but with only a few winning spots available, the majority will come out as losers in every contest. Don't they deserve some sort of recognition for their work as well? It would have been nice if the judges could have reacted with a comment 💬 or emoji 👍 ❤️ ✅ to let us know that our work was seen at the very least. Even a 👎 is better than nothing. :::warning **🖱 1 click that only takes a second but can make a 🌏 of difference 👌** ::: **Personal Thoughts** Speaking for myself, it was like my creative entries were thrown into a black hole... I couldn't tell if they were counted for the days of the contest I had submitted to or included in the raffle at the end. No idea at all how my work was received. <img src='https://media3.giphy.com/media/l2R013mIf1ZXdvoyI/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47nrr74gxb2q7trilrs6s0rf7gxunhg216i9j7sqel&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g' width='150px'/><img src='https://media1.giphy.com/media/mG7xN3NU7WeUUGiKjM/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47oz0xq5fffu6cfb8pqi75x0h639qjczdfhuzcazib&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g' width='150px'/><img src='https://64.media.tumblr.com/4006b2e0ccb660b7021c63de014986d0/tumblr_p2ig7wtv4A1uuvpt3o1_500.gifv' width='150px'/> Any sort of individual acknowledgement or feedback (neutral, positive or negative) would have been appreciated. So much time and effort spent with no response in return is real discouraging. My participation in the contest felt like wasted time and effort that meant nothing in the end. ___ ### <a id="request">:four_leaf_clover: Request for Improvement</a> I didn't sugarcoat anything because I want to see improvement in the way NEAR conducts judging. Please take judging more seriously for future contests. #### MetaBuild and Beyond NEAR has an ongoing hackathon with 2,000+ interested participants. I would hate to see efforts wasted for a contest at this scale. Many contestants will be putting in days to weeks of hard work, and pouring their hearts & souls into their projects. It would crush their spirits if they discover at the end of a month-long hackathon that judging fell short of expectations. I'm not saying that this will happen, but if judging for the hackathon is conducted in the same manner as the #ChristmasisNEAR contest, then there is reason to be concerned. I just went through a hackathon where judging was not conducted fully, fairly, or according to the rules described. It hurt the company, the contestants, the winners, and anyone else involved. In the end, they had to reevaluate and award additional prizes, on the company's time and dime 🕒 + 🪙. It was a disheartening experience for many of us, and I really don't wanna have to witness it all over again with MetaBuild 😒 From a participant's POV, it's hard to reignite that spark once it's gone. Proper judging can turn the tide in winnings for a few lucky ducks 🦆🦆🦆. For the rest of us, there is simply peace of mind in knowing that we will be losing with grace 🩰⛸ <hr/> #### The Tipping Point If actual submission count > # of expected submissions, to the point where judges cannot properly review all projects within the allotted judging period, then please consider extending the announcement deadline and/or adding more judges to the panel. If you find yourselves having to choose between: **(a)** rushing through judging and/or cutting down on project submissions to meet the deadline **(b)** carefully reviewing every project with the deadline extended I implore NEAR to **please choose option (b)**   <img src='https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ShallowColossalBudgie-max-1mb.gif' width='90px' /> <img src='https://c.tenor.com/gqfa8X1-SWcAAAAd/please-begging.gif' width='85px' /> If you go with option (a), then please reach out to participants whose submissions were excluded from judging to let them know why at least. It's not fun to get the short end of the stick only to be left in the dark about it. <hr/> The good news is that NEAR has time to prepare for MetaBuild judging 💪 <img src='https://media3.giphy.com/media/s9Y0czwWdTtB7U6d5I/giphy.gif' width='200px'/><img src='https://c.tenor.com/NqhZNESuzusAAAAd/worried-sweat.gif' width='256px'/> ___ ### <a id="tldr">:four_leaf_clover: Closing Remark</a> I wish I could say that I had more faith in NEAR's contests + judging... But sadly, I cannot... <img src='https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/021d964d-a8b4-4c94-8360-bc42de1bfba3/d8mnfnz-aa062bcc-a2c6-48cc-81b5-19892700330c.gif?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzAyMWQ5NjRkLWE4YjQtNGM5NC04MzYwLWJjNDJkZTFiZmJhM1wvZDhtbmZuei1hYTA2MmJjYy1hMmM2LTQ4Y2MtODFiNS0xOTg5MjcwMDMzMGMuZ2lmIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.scZBvTPUvtL_0eQhCNjztzpQjpKVmCK4YFRT0Jkq-K0' width='60px'/> ... until the team strives to do better <img src='https://c.tenor.com/tF-QaaAk_wIAAAAi/tuzki.gif' width='70px'/> <hr/> Thanks for reading, I hope you'll take something out of this 🙏💖