The Problem With Bbc Contests And Other Random Stuff
Entry posted by bonesiii
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I've been debating on and off whether I should do yet another random stuffish entry or the What Most Fans Want entry today.
This won out because of the first random stuffish thing below. WMFW will be next week's entry.- Bionicle Paracosmos Epic #3: Captain of Treason will begin early next week! Watch the Epics forum for it!
Background for those who don't know -- epic is already written, just not published yet, and it takes place after the RPG. I was going to wait until we could get the RPG skeletal version up, but I'm getting impatient. Also, we are very very close to a skeletal version going live of the RPG. There are some spoilers from the RPG in the epic's later chapters, but I'm not going to worry about the timing of it.
- I finally decided to enter my own S&T contest (lol) with the Lightstone Rifle. Wasn't sure if I was going to enter since I generally think it's unwise for a host to enter his own contest. Decided to because 1) there will be multiple winners, more than any previous S&T contest , and 2) I got in the mood to actually draw the thing, figured I might as well give it a shot. (And of course, members will vote -- I have nothing to do with who wins -- and I and the helpers don't have anywhere near as big a role as S&T2.)
BTW, there are a few appearances of it and a modified version of it in the later Epic 3 chapters (though with purple lightstones).
It was actually that section of the epic when I was writing it that inspired the original idea for the S&T contest.
- Someone suggested having more winners in that category due to me entering. I haven't ruled it out, but the problem is, there are way, way fewer entries in that category than most of the others. I want to keep the math of how many people win consistent -- right now Description and MOC may very well get more winners, but not Art. So if you guys want that, you have to enter a lot more Art: Computer entries.
Note, however, that top winners will still be chosen in each category (except Art). So there will be a top winner in Description, for example.
And I doubt I'll win anyways. Entered mainly cuz I'd like to have it be in the Expanded Universe. I'm pleasantly suprised to see a lot of people like it though.
- By now you're probably shouting at the screen for me to get to the thing about the BBC. Here tis. Put simply, the problem with BBC contests doesn't exist anymore, lol. Two things I mean by that.
- One, I had a problem with them for a long time similar to a problem a lot of people have with Bionicle -- I just didn't have the time to follow them due to the Dreaded Real Life plus all the BZP duties I had to put on hold. In reality, it's a problem with me, not the BBC, just as it often is with Bionicle fans who have been bogged down by other things demanding their time or have aged a lot since their first year, etc.
Thankfully I'm finally starting to be able to follow BBC contests again lately, and lemme tell you, you guys are amazing. I'm sure this is old news to all yall () but IMO the vast majority of MOCs that enter and win those contests are better by far than official sets. I know sounds weird from me -- I love Bionicle sets, don't get me wrong. Not an insult towards them. It's a compliment towards you guys. :-D
I've missed being able to follow 'em, and it's good to be back in the swing of things. - Two, I've agreed with Tufi's comments about the overuse of humanoid MOCs. I can enjoy those fine, don't get me wrong, but personally the really fun part of MOCing is being able to break out of the mold of what we look like and imagine characters or creatures nobody's ever seen before. Obviously part of that went into my current Beasts MOC blog contest.
Now, here's the point I wanted people's takes on -- coming back to BBC contests, it seems to me that the too-many-humanoid-MOCs problem (from my POV anyways) has been largely fixed. I remember a lot less inventive MOC shapes back when I used to follow MOCs. What's your guys's sense on that, if you've been following BBC contests more than me? Agree? Disagree? Whonot?
Is curious.
- One, I had a problem with them for a long time similar to a problem a lot of people have with Bionicle -- I just didn't have the time to follow them due to the Dreaded Real Life plus all the BZP duties I had to put on hold. In reality, it's a problem with me, not the BBC, just as it often is with Bionicle fans who have been bogged down by other things demanding their time or have aged a lot since their first year, etc.
- Artwork Forum too -- you may have noticed I'm posting more art again now. I'm also finally able to actually pay more attention to other people's art topics and comment, etc. That was a hugely missed part of my life when I was so busy, and I sincerely hope I can keep it up and get more into it, etc. I'm two things principally -- a writer and an artist -- and I've felt like I was starving without this. Also, I always feel guilty when I post an art topic but I don't go around posting in other people's topics.
I want comments as much as the next guy, so I feel like I should be out there posting in others' topics. I know, I have a right to look and leave. :-P But that's not really what I'm talking about.
And fun Art contest last time!
- Requests -- I still can't seem to get into the mood to fulfill some requests I'm late on. And I really think I'm better off just posting my own artwork and doing guides to help others see how to do it themselves. Requests just... I dunno, maybe they're just not for me. They come in at unexpected times, and even when I think I can do them it doesn't usually work out. Toa Velox, I'm especially sorry yours has taken so long. It really shouldn't take that long, I just can't seem to get around to it.
(If you read my last randomness update thingy, I'm not accepting new requests, BTW. I miiiight change my mind if I ever catch up, but... yeah, unlikely.)
- Spoiler policy. Glad to finally get that off the ground. Good questions asked so far; I think most of the basic questions have been asked and answered. Of course, there will always be some people that don't like any new policy, and I hope we can discuss back and forth politely in those cases and reach an agreement on what's best. A lot of times people don't know the reasons behind the policy, so they jump to conclusions. Sometimes we didn't think of something that they did, though, so it's good to have those kinds of discussions.
And many thanks to everybody who voted in the poll and posted arguments that we used to decide parts of the policy. Some of you even made such good arguments you convinced me to go less time than the majority voted for on Serials.
- On that basic topic, the "Are the Admins Harsh" topic has been interesting. Hopefully we staff are helping to clear up some misconceptions a lot of people have about why rules are in place, why we do things the way we do, etc. I personally wanted to keep a link record of this post of mine. Basically I am using that example to explain why we don't allow discussion of banned members, and why often bannings that people think are unjust actually are. Also, Takuta-Nui's post here is very relevant. Hopefully this helps people.
For the record, "no discussion of banned members" is a rule. A lot of people are pushing it and even breaking it in there. As long as the admins are okay with the topic, I'm not going to challenge anyone for doing so, but please do realize that it is a rule.
Also for the record, I don't want in any way to be misunderstood as attacking the member I quoted in that post. He said those things for understandable reasons, and I am glad he brought it up. Obviously a lot of people don't understand what's going on in cases like that -- so I hope we can help make it clearer.
- Got tons more ideas for blog contests, so should be good there for a very long time.
- Sometime in the semi-near future, I'd like to start a blog series called "Plain English Fallacies." This would be about the list of common fallacies, and also some that I have identified that aren't "official". IMO the most important aspect of logic that everyday people can benefit from is knowing a lot of these basic fallacies. Fallacies are basically a list of ways of thinking that have been shown to be very untrustworthy. The ones I'll be listing show up all over the place. In newspaper columns, in political speeches, in conversations at a restaurant, in complaint topics here, wherenot, they are unfortunately everywhere.
Problem is, logicians traditionally use "logicianspeak" to describe them, and they have these horrible Latin names that you have to memorize. Which is fun for logicians, but for everybody else, it just turns them off. So hopefully the whole "plain English" thing will be helpful.
For now I'm assuming it will be a fallacy per entry -- and they'll be super short entries compared to most of mine.
- When you use "lol", do you actually laugh literally "out loud"? I use that all the time as a faster way of saying "that's funny!" but I usually don't actually burst into laughter. Maybe we need another acronym. lq? Laugh quietly? limh? Laugh in my head? ltych? Laugh that you can't hear? itttc? It's the thought that counts?
- And probably ten more things I forgot.
- Don't forget to entry the 2nd Chances MOC Contest: Beasts! A lot of great entries so far -- the Twisted Island epic can still use a ton more.
- Finding good photos of jungle/swamp scenes at night is freaky tough.
Wants more, for when TI actually comes around. This entry's banner and the banner of the 2nd Chances entry are the only two good pics I have. Got one more but it's CG and you can really tell. [nerdy moment]I need something more real.[/nerdy moment]
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