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[CCOS] CHANGES POSSIBLE, what are your thoughts?

Sir ArmaMalum·8/28/2015, 4:38:06 PM·3 votes·532 views

Hey all, I hope your Friday is going well!

On the off chance you haven't seen, this month marks a year for the CCOS running since I decided (quite impulsively I may add) to host a champion concept contest. I've seen a lot of amazing concepts and sincerely hope to see many more, but I'll be the first to say that the last year has been a learning experience for me. I'm always looking for ways to make the CCOS better for everyone involved. Judges, entrants, and yes also myself. However if I change something every month people will get hopelessly confused. As such, I try to save a bigger slew of changes for good points in the year. Like, say, a one year anniversary! But naturally I'd like to get get your all's take on the problems I'm trying to fix.

What are these problems you may ask?

http://media.giphy.com/media/dXICCcws9oxxK/giphy.gif

Problem: The second week of a month is awkward, but I also don't want to conflict with the MCCC (which is on the first week of the month)

I've been considering, or rather a few of you have flat out told me, to simply take entries in the last week of a month to make entries in month easier. The only real con is that the results will be announced in the middle of the next month, which may confuse a few new people. Good idea or no? Thoughts?

Problem: Animated gif backlog

Anyone who's won a CCOS in the last 3-4 months has yet to receive the medal .gif they rightly deserve and that's 100% on me. The way I make these gifs is by rendering the HD animation in Blender --> GIMP --> Imgur. And while these gifs are perfect prizes (reproducible, easy to distribute, one-of-a-kind), my very ineffeicient process (and not studio-grade GPU) makes these things a 12-14 hour time investment, and I haven't been able to spare my computer for that long in a while.

While I do plan to finish the ones that have been on the backlog I've been considering this next year to have similar but less.....3D gifs for the simple sake of time. In other words, you guys okay with pixel art? I can do pixel art.

Problem: Champion concept posts, as well as CCOS posts, are being overtaken by skin posts. Making it hard to find them.

Not gonna lie, this is half the reason I started the CCOS. To help CC's get better visibility, which will always be an issue. But this problem is reaching a new height because even the CCOS posts get buried in moments underneath all the skin posts. I've spoken to a few reds about this but haven't gotten any solid results as you can probably guess. There are a few strategies in the meantime I can do to help this though.

--- I can start a twitter account for regular updates and post alerts, as well as maybe even little shout out and other such things. Would anyone actually be interested in this (would this be worth making an account for?)

--- I can give bonus points to entries who give a link to the main entry post, as of right now it's just a request.

--- I can fix the bonus category to reviewing another concept that month, which means no new bonus additions but more visibility for everyone. Thoughts?

Problem: Attendance and Judge count

If you haven't notices already, CCOS attendance has been steadily dropping, with this august being a very welcome break in the trend. Judge attendance has also been dropping, with the last few months having only two including myself. Anything you guys would like to see to help out attendance? (No I cannot give out RP via cards or Red contacts, that road has been exhausted)

Problem: I don't get that much feedback

Every conceptor here knows getting feedback is annoyingly difficult, and the CCOS is no different. To the few who have given me constructive feedback: THANK YOU. I've been attempting to follow though with any and all suggestions and critiques to make the CCOS better but I really would love to hear any ideas or things you would like to see me add/alter/delete. Anything from scoring to scheduling is on the table right now. Don't hold anything back!

1 Comments

BowieTheNifty9/2/2015, 1:39:00 AM1 votes

With everything comes problems of some sort. While I have only been apart of the CCOS for a sort time, I want to see if I can help find a solution for some of these issues. Unfortunately I don't have things in mind for all of them listed.

For when to start the CCOS I honestly can't think of a good time. Time windows for these sorts of things can be quite an annoyance. As of right now why not start in on a certain day of the month that best fits your schedule? Like say if you likely are free on Friday's for example then post it up on the first Friday of the month. While starting the next months CCOS at the end of the month seems to be confusing. So personally I would try to begin things earlier in the months ahead.

Any sort of plaque is nice to have as a reward. It doesn't have to be 3D or anything. Pixel art would be a nice easier way to give out a prize. You can even have these pixel arts color coordinated with the month or the role for the champion that won. Just a thought.

Yeah there is going to be nothing we can do about the boards. Everything gets washed away by the skin concepts. Though having a twitter, or even a social media site in general to help guide traffic might be a good way to go for updates. So I would stick to that idea.

Judge count is sad to hear about. I know that it would be awesome to have more judges on the table. Adding an incentive to being a judge may be a good start. While RP would be good in some way, perhaps a different kind of reward is in order. Hmmmm that is a tough one, because you would need something enticing. I would personally like to be a judge every other month if I can to at least to help.