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MLP Forums Drawing Contest August 2015


ProjectRKA

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Let the record show I just sent my entry, with little time to spare...

Cuttin it close!

 

 

Edit: Also it doesn't seem to have sent to the poniverse.net email (Due to file size limit), the gmail one went throught though. let me know if you want me to resend it to the poniverse one, I can do some size reduction.

Edited by LiraCrown
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I feel the current way you listed the deadline is unecessarily confusing, and since understanding the deadline is crucial for even being able to take part in the contest I think you should have made sure it was a lot clearer what time the deadline actually is. Since it is too late to change now, at least please consider it for next time.

 

Your current deadline information is this:

"August 16th 2015

Please submit your entries by Midnight GMT+1

Please submit your entries by EDT: 6:00 P.M.

Please submit your entries by AEST: 8:00 A.M."

 

Ok biggest issue first. Dates.

I read this and think, alright, so midnight GMT+1 on the 16th of august? ok!

And another person thinks, alright so 6:00 P.M EDT on the 16th of August, neat!

Third person thinks, alright, so that is 8:00 A.M AEST on the 16th of August. Sweet as!

 

Except only the two people who decided to follow the AEST or the GMT+1 time are going to submit at the right date!

The person following the EDT timezone will be too late and won't have a chance to participate in the contest.

For it to all line up correctly you would have to say 15th of August EDT: 6:00 P.M. The way the information is currently presented it can not be interpreted as anything other than 16th of August 6:00 P.M EDT.

 

If it says 16th of August, why would someone assume that, nope it says 16th of August but actually it means 15th of August?

 

Personally I didn't even look at all the time zones you listed, I just picked the first one because I should only need to follow one of the listed timezones to submit my artwork on time, and I'm Swedish so that is the timezone I recognized. I was lucky that I picked GMT+1 to follow. Someone who is comfortable with EDT will look at the listed EDT time and try to follow it, and they will get the wrong information! Why would they need to cross-reference all the other time zones to make sure the stated deadline time is actually correct?

 

Anyone who planned to submit their artwork according to the EDT times have been mislead with the wrong date. I hope that it did not affect too many people.

 

 

Another issue is using "Midnight" as the deadline. Midnight could be either at the end of the day or the start of the day. What we need to know here is if you mean start of the day 16th of August, or end of the day 16th of August. That's a 24 hour difference! 

 

Please make it clear next time exactly what date the deadline is and exactly what time it is. Don't use vague terms like "Midnight". It could mean different things. Just say "start of day" or "end of day", or pick any other time at all other than midnight, and there's no problem. 

 

 

 

Instead of the list you have now it would have been much more useful with something like this:

 

GMT+1: 12:00 A.M. (start of day) 16th of August 2015

AEST: 08:00 A.M. 16th of August 2015

EDT: 6:00 P.M. 15th of August 2015

 

OR

 

Pick one single timezone for simplicity, for example "EDT: 6:00 P.M. 15th of August" And then everyone can follow that timezone.

 

This way it is perfectly clear when the deadline is. No vagueness, no confusing mess of multiple timezones and dates.

 

This is the first contest and there's bound to be mistakes and that's ok, but it would be nice if it's fixed for the next time. =)

Edited by Iris_
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I feel the current way you listed the deadline is unecessarily confusing, and since understanding the deadline is crucial for even being able to take part in the contest I think you should have made sure it was a lot clearer what time the deadline actually is. Since it is too late to change now, at least please consider it for next time.

 

Your current deadline information is this:

"August 16th 2015

Please submit your entries by Midnight GMT+1

Please submit your entries by EDT: 6:00 P.M.

Please submit your entries by AEST: 8:00 A.M."

 

Ok biggest issue first. Dates.

I read this and think, alright, so midnight GMT+1 on the 16th of august? ok!

And another person thinks, alright so 6:00 P.M EDT on the 16th of August, neat!

Third person thinks, alright, so that is 8:00 A.M AEST on the 16th of August. Sweet as!

 

Except only the two people who decided to follow the AEST or the GMT+1 time are going to submit at the right date!

The person following the EDT timezone will be too late and won't have a chance to participate in the contest.

For it to all line up correctly you would have to say 15th of August EDT: 6:00 P.M. The way the information is currently presented it can not be interpreted as anything other than 16th of August 6:00 P.M EDT.

 

If it says 16th of August, why would someone assume that, nope it says 16th of August but actually it means 15th of August?

 

Personally I didn't even look at all the time zones you listed, I just picked the first one because I should only need to follow one of the listed timezones to submit my artwork on time, and I'm Swedish so that is the timezone I recognized. I was lucky that I picked GMT+1 to follow. Someone who is comfortable with EDT will look at the listed EDT time and try to follow it, and they will get the wrong information! Why would they need to cross-reference all the other time zones to make sure the stated deadline time is actually correct?

 

Anyone who planned to submit their artwork according to the EDT times have been mislead with the wrong date. I hope that it did not affect too many people.

 

 

Another issue is using "Midnight" as the deadline. Midnight could be either at the end of the day or the start of the day. What we need to know here is if you mean start of the day 16th of August, or end of the day 16th of August. That's a 24 hour difference! 

 

Please make it clear next time exactly what date the deadline is and exactly what time it is. Don't use vague terms like "Midnight". It could mean different things. Just say "start of day" or "end of day", or pick any other time at all other than midnight, and there's no problem. 

 

 

 

Instead of the list you have now it would have been much more useful with something like this:

 

GMT+1: 12:00 A.M. (start of day) 16th of August 2015

AEST: 08:00 A.M. 16th of August 2015

EDT: 6:00 P.M. 15th of August 2015

 

OR

 

Pick one single timezone for simplicity, for example "EDT: 6:00 P.M. 15th of August" And then everyone can follow that timezone.

 

This way it is perfectly clear when the deadline is. No vagueness, no confusing mess of multiple timezones and dates.

 

This is the first contest and there's bound to be mistakes and that's ok, but it would be nice if it's fixed for the next time. =)

Thanks so much for the feedback. We will definitely consider it for the contest next month. :)

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Simply is always better IMO,

 

Buuutttt...

 

Do Artist have to wait till the last minute to send in their entries?.....no...

Was this contest announce with enough time for anypony to submit their entries.....yes...

Is this a once in a lifetime thing......no...

Do we have internet/google/information available?.....for the most part if you not broke like me >.>.....

Do problems occur and and you have to restart you whole project not once but 3 times and then you cutting of close because your stupid paint.net program keep crashing and you keep losing all your stuff rant rant rant rant rant rant........god damn was that annoying...........and you cut it close to the death line...yes...

 

Was the time mods put complicated for some? yes....

 

My answer is: something is complicated? make it simply, have you're stuff ready 2 days before at the latest send it and get it over with, don't wait till the last five minutes cause problems occur and when you get stress its where you effed up the most so.

 

Preparation is always the key to success.

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Simply is always better IMO,

 

Buuutttt...

 

Do Artist have to wait till the last minute to send in their entries?.....no...

Was this contest announce with enough time for anypony to submit their entries.....yes...

Is this a once in a lifetime thing......no...

Do we have internet/google/information available?.....for the most part if you not broke like me >.>.....

Do problems occur and and you have to restart you whole project not once but 3 times and then you cutting of close because your stupid paint.net program keep crashing and you keep losing all your stuff rant rant rant rant rant rant........god damn was that annoying...........and you cut it close to the death line...yes...

 

Was the time mods put complicated for some? yes....

 

My answer is: something is complicated? make it simply, have you're stuff ready 2 days before at the latest send it and get it over with, don't wait till the last five minutes cause problems occur and when you get stress its where you effed up the most so.

 

Preparation is always the key to success.

 

 I do not think it is unreasonable to be working on a piece until the last minute as long as it makes the deadline. Some people take longer for their art than others, and I personally take all the time that is given working on it. There's a deadline for a reason, and it "normally" does not change because it is a fixed point in time. In this situation, the deadline was not clearly presented and caused for a lot of confusion for multiple people because it cut the due date by up to 24 hours.

 

In regards to the "being safe" mentality, everyone should just turn their pieces in on the first day so absolutely nothing can go wrong (which is absurd).

 

Anyway, it's good that this confusion happened because it will just make future events much better and run smoother.

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@@Dark Heart,

Don't you think that getting rid of the core problem (unclear deadline) and preventing the issue from even arising is better than trying to find ways to work around the issue when it has already happened?

 

 

Do Artist have to wait till the last minute to send in their entries?.....no...

Since the deadline was unclear we literally did not even know when "the last minute" was. Having to submit a few days ahead of deadline just because you don't know when the deadline is, is silly.

 

 

Was this contest announce with enough time for anypony to submit their entries.....yes...

What is "enough" time? Why would we not use all the time given to us? Especially in art where you can keep on refining and editing your piece into infinity. One person might finish in a day but that doesn't mean that it's "enough" for everyone else.

 

 

Is this a once in a lifetime thing......no...

I'm not sure what you mean with that. We don't want the same thing to happen again, that's all.  It's not the end of the world that the deadline was unclear but it's not the end of the world to fix it either. And if it is fixed for next time there won't be the same problems next time.

 

 

Do we have internet/google/information available?.....for the most part if you not broke like me >.>.....

Information about what? Information on the internet may differ, and without having a shared source of reference we can't know if we are looking at the same information that the organisers of the event are following. If the intro post has clear information then everyone can follow that instead of every person having to go out to personally research what the intro post is saying.

 

 

Was the time mods put complicated for some? yes....

Agreed. And next time we can make sure it will not be complicated, and there will be no problem. We just had to explain why it was complicated, so that they understand it was an issue. 

 

 

My answer is: something is complicated? make it simply, have you're stuff ready 2 days before at the latest send it and get it over with, don't wait till the last five minutes cause problems occur and when you get stress its where you effed up the most so.

That doesn't actually solve the problem, that's just a workaround. It's a good attitude for when things are out of your control and you have to make due with what you have, but a clear deadline is not something that is out of the organisers control and it's not a lot to ask for.

 

If I know the deadline I can plan accordingly and I will feel the least amount of stress because I know what is going on and when I need to be done. Not understanding when the deadline actually is, is stressfull. This isn't an issue of poor planning by artists, it's an issue of a confusing deadline. The contest participants shouldn't have to worry about deciphering the deadline information, they should be able to focus on making their artwork.

 

 

Preparation is always the key to success.

Agreed. And preparation requires information. Information is all we are asking for.

 

 

Do problems occur and and you have to restart you whole project not once but 3 times and then you cutting of close because your stupid paint.net program keep crashing and you keep losing all your stuff rant rant rant rant rant rant........god damn was that annoying...........and you cut it close to the death line...yes...

This could have been solved by saving more often! Save multiple iterations too. Such as: Save_01, Save_02, Save_03, etc. You should never have to start entirely from scratch just because your program crashes. Save save save =) I hope you managed to finish what you wanted to do in time anyway.

Edited by Iris_
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As RKA said we will take it under advisement for the second month and going forward. That said, the deadline has since past and the topic will be closed.

 

Preliminary judging commences. :)

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