RE:
Profiles, Reputation, Contests, etc.
BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN THIS WALL OF TEXT: Tell me if you want me to condense this wall tomorrow if it's too time-consuming to read as it is now.
First of all, I want to apologise for the shitstorm of words. Also, I can wait, I mean, you're answering every day and then you apologise to ME for the "short" replies you give. Seriously? I'm the one who should apologise here. You're being too polite Joris :D Sure, I would like to hear your opinion why exactly you think reputation for example sucks, but I do not mind not getting an answer. I'm just here to give the ideas, it's up to you admins what to do with them, reject, ignore, accept and so on.
Ok, regarding reputation: Last time I wrote about why I think reputation is okay. Now since you said it's too gimmicky I decided to talk about people behaviour that follows from reputation. If it is the grinding fest you're worried about, since I didn't quite understand what exactly you meant under gimmicky, then I still think it's cool because playing Diablo 2 isn't a bad thing. It isn't a waste of time even though you just grind for items. Grinding for rep is no different. If you like it and it's fun, why the hell not? I remember when I was younger I used to care about rep (in other sites) and it gave me motivation to create stuff - textures, icons, maps for Warcraft 3 in THW. Resources. If it goes the same for art for others, then, Awesome! Later on I realized I actually dislike rep and I was just trying to prove myself to others.. huh. Still, did I make resources? Yes. Did I try to upgrade my skill to make better ones to reach the skill and rep level of the pros? Yes. So I did learn. It was worth it. The tricky thing here is to not become an asshole once you have a lot of it. To fight greed.. That depends on the person and that kind of person who is a douche for having rep would be a douche anyways, so you cannot stop him from being himself. Rep is merely a tool here, I do not think it will ruin the site's friendly behaviour between people.. but who knows, who knows. I understand your doubts about reputation. You know, the two sides of the knife - one is used for slicing bread, the other for killing people, or it was something of that sort. Does that make the knife a bad thing? Is rep guilty for people becoming greedy gimmicky bastards? Morals questions are the toughest to answer... I think there is no need to cover the Reputation discussion anymore, it is up to you what to do with it now, unless you have more to say. I am willing to listen, but I don't know what else I could reply with except repeat myself. There is no right answer here so the discussion about rep could go on forever. Just think of the pros I pointed out and the cons you think it might posses and decide whether it's worth it or not.
Regarding contests: I believe that a good contest system is Sycra's Arena - http://www.sycra.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=9 check it out. Best of the week isn't really contesty for me, because it is more like Editor's picks in Art Station (Trending or whatever it's called) - people don't aim for it, it just happens, kinda. They make good art and do not expect from it to be put on the "best of" wall... it just is some times and they're happy... and that's it. For a contest however people are competing for a prize or just for the sake of competing. But it is a competition. Me starting a random session isn't a contest, even if I got in the "Best of" list. I just started it cuz I wanted a session. There is a different thing people expect to kind of "earn" from the two things. Not saying "Best of" isn't a cool thing, I like that you keep it Weekly, active and even post it in Facebook and such. It gives movement.
Also I believe contests should be in a forum section. You can't have a contest session, like the ones we have in the Google Hangouts (just today, participated in 2), we vote different tags and draw for 1-2 hours.. but that's no contest, a contest is something which requires time and rendering/many sketches to feel like a real contest. And you can't have a 1 day contest cuz it will take at least 3-8 hours for one to draw his submission. Contests are weekly/monthly stuff. I divide them in 2 main categories: Serious (with prizes like rep, money, fame, etc. - those are the ones usually started by official people from the particular art site - not something to bother with yet I'd say, it's more for Art Station pro level stuff, not a learning site like CAS) and Friendly (competing for skill and the challenge more than the prize). Friendly ones can be divided into Study Contests - 100 Hand sketches for example in 1 week, next week, same contest but 50 head poses lets say, etc. ( http://www.sycra.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11818 ) and kind of Fun, but still Learning Contests - Draw a concept of a Jungle Temple, Sand Transport vehicle and the tags are re-voted every week (a good example is the Concept Hunt in Sycra - http://www.sycra.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12092 people get to choose from different themes every week and so on.
Sure, session contests sound awesome and probably aligning your time with the already started session won't be a big problem either but... those aren't really contests for me. As I said, it's more like a Too friendly challenge. Like the ones we have in the hangouts. When it's too short you can't really study what you're drawing. No time for making the anatomy sometimes or thinking too long for pose and so on. This type of session is a pro thing for people who already know the fundamentals and just want to present their idea. They can do it quickly. Others cannot. That is why 1 week contests are better because both Unexperienced and Pros can participate equally. The unexperienced will probably put in more time for it, thus balacing the scales between the beginner and pro. Although, I'm all in for the Session Contest thing. It sounds cool. The more type of contests the better. What I mean is, the more important type of contest (for me), weekly, is probably even easier to make. In fact, I could start one by myself right now in the Forums, I'm just not sure where to put it, General? I don't expect many people will join, but it's worth a try right? Like a test. As far as I recall, Sycra's first contests started slow as well (please excuse me for giving Sycra's forums as an example so often, but it is just too good of an example not to give).