Why is Dc reopening contests?

As you might know DC has reopened 10 of the old contests which were not finalized.

But my question is what is the point for us designers to work on a project that most likely will not receive feedback and the money most likely  will not be released?

I find it pointless unless there is something I am not aware of.

Can someone clarify if participating in these contests is actually worth the effort and for what reason.

Thanks in advance
Basil J

 

Ya, I agree with you @Jack310West....

The challenges in the online business world are always fluctuating, and I believe the DC team is always working hard to maintain what has been done so far.

My real concern is the designers, with many improper and unfair methods in contests, resulting in reduced productivity at this time (in my observation)...

The designers' contribution in producing the work desired by clients greatly affects the contest situation.

Sometimes clients need a lot of time and consideration regarding what they are looking for. !

For reopened contests, I believe there is communication between the client and DC about what to follow up, although the final result is possible as @Basilj said,

but at least until there is a new contest, what the DC team is doing is very wise in controlling the situation for the designers........

hopefully everything goes well, with many good wishes for DC.... come on designers, give your best work fairly...

I used to enter contests on a basis that is assuming competition is fair

And with time and experience I developed my own tactics and know how on when & how to approach a contest/ client to maximize win chances, and when to avoid one at any cost possible without regret nor looking back.

But you get discouraged when you see a contest with 100s of entries, or designers flooding a contest with 10s of entries (tactics of quantity over quality!)

then I only decide to not enter, simply because I wouldn't enter in a statistics race! or with bad intention. 

This, without talking about how such faster growing/wild pattern contests became for moderating more and more pain in the eyes. I feel you mods! Oh someone said how about AI's, well then here is a strong hug to y'all   mods, keep it going.

This observation has sadly become a new normal/standard, to an extent that -with all due respect of course- a CH once wrote that they will check his contest & chose a winner only after it reaches a certain number of entries! (200+, and yet picked a winner after 298 entries!). You see how your hard work art has become just another design, an abstract number who's appreciation/evaluation is approached quantitatively with units of measure! (and yes this is part of the game, no need to be anxious about it)

I went on and tried this quantity approach, on purpose, once or twice just to see how that can behave, and how a CH views it. the result? met with a CH that deletes all entries, without any comment!

I often lose hope in entering a contest when I see 10s of entries already precipitating only hours after it started.

When you see a contest with 150, 200+ up to a 1000 entries "go brrr!", you start cogitating: what would my 1,2,3 entries add to that in value, that a CH didn't find in all that number of entries ?! did he even get to see them, notice them, or just quantify them with the lot !

But let's be clear; What made this business model flourish & this kind of platforms' success is the freedom of any engagement pre-work, otherwise it would be only an regular employee but in a remote office.

So, entering or not entering a contest, which contest, is part of it.. that's the free choice;

Winning or not.. that's the risk you take; (and then you can re-use your non-winning designs to enter other contests, or sell them elsewhere etc.)

You learn to assume it.

Now that you see clearly where the problem lies, 

My proposition of a solution is the following:

Limit entries to any contest to 5 entries per designer per contest; and this is how to proceed with that:

allow 4 entries during the whole duration of the contest;

then right before contest time ends, let's say the last 24 hours (the rush hours), unlock the right/ability to submit the remaining 1 entry; this to take in consideration CH's feedback & comments if any into that ONE piece of art.

or make it 3, then 2, instead of 4,1, to allow more discussion/back and forth span with CH if they are demanding.

This won't break DC's promise of a guaranteed minimum number of entries because all designers' entries will be treated equally, at least in number-wise, and this would encourage them to perfection the design, and enter other contests, and most of that, to have enough time for it to make good quality designs, and not an n^th iteration of the same idea like it's a spam campaign.

And spares CHs the burden of skimming through 100s of "inflation" entries without a real, actionable, tangible benefit; that wouldn't happen if there was high quality designs.

A contest is generally 7 days long, and with that time, a designer who used to submit 5-20 entries per contest will have to think twice and select wisely their winning candidate, and also would have freed enough time/effort for concurring, synchronous/parallel contests. And you know this better that only one single entry that is good enough can win you a contest, if met with an objective CH who really knows what they want.

I didn't want to touch on some areas, maybe this contribution will help.

Finally, I can be just talkative,

But that's my humble take on this.

You have no idea how relatable this post is

I think giving designers unlimited entries is absolutely not manageable and puts the work that took a lot of time and effort of a designer who only submits a few design be buried under the spamming of duplicate designs or designs with very minor changes.

I feel like putting a ceiling on the amount of entries must be done, at most I think 10-15 entries is more than enough to showcase your idea and then iterate it according to the CH's request.

If the client really likes the design they can go into the finalization process to request the remaining changes.
 

I used to enter contests on a basis that is assuming competition is fair

 

And with time and experience I developed my own tactics and know how on when & how to approach a contest/ client to maximize win chances, and when to avoid one at any cost possible without regret nor looking back.

 

But you get discouraged when you see a contest with 100s of entries, or designers flooding a contest with 10s of entries (tactics of quantity over quality!)

then I only decide to not enter, simply because I wouldn't enter in a statistics race! or with bad intention. 

This, without talking about how such faster growing/wild pattern contests became for moderating more and more pain in the eyes. I feel you mods! Oh someone said how about AI's, well then here is a strong hug to y'all   mods, keep it going.

 

This observation has sadly become a new normal/standard, to an extent that -with all due respect of course- a CH once wrote that they will check his contest & chose a winner only after it reaches a certain number of entries! (200+, and yet picked a winner after 298 entries!). You see how your hard work art has become just another design, an abstract number who's appreciation/evaluation is approached quantitatively with units of measure! (and yes this is part of the game, no need to be anxious about it)

 

 

 

I went on and tried this quantity approach, on purpose, once or twice just to see how that can behave, and how a CH views it. the result? met with a CH that deletes all entries, without any comment!

 

I often lose hope in entering a contest when I see 10s of entries already precipitating only hours after it started.

When you see a contest with 150, 200+ up to a 1000 entries "go brrr!", you start cogitating: what would my 1,2,3 entries add to that in value, that a CH didn't find in all that number of entries ?! did he even get to see them, notice them, or just quantify them with the lot !

 

 

But let's be clear; What made this business model flourish & this kind of platforms' success is the freedom of any engagement pre-work, otherwise it would be only an regular employee but in a remote office.

So, entering or not entering a contest, which contest, is part of it.. that's the free choice;

Winning or not.. that's the risk you take; (and then you can re-use your non-winning designs to enter other contests, or sell them elsewhere etc.)

You learn to assume it.

 

 

Now that you see clearly where the problem lies, 

 

My proposition of a solution is the following:

 

Limit entries to any contest to 5 entries per designer per contest; and this is how to proceed with that:

allow 4 entries during the whole duration of the contest;

then right before contest time ends, let's say the last 24 hours (the rush hours), unlock the right/ability to submit the remaining 1 entry; this to take in consideration CH's feedback & comments if any into that ONE piece of art.

or make it 3, then 2, instead of 4,1, to allow more discussion/back and forth span with CH if they are demanding.

 

This won't break DC's promise of a guaranteed minimum number of entries because all designers' entries will be treated equally, at least in number-wise, and this would encourage them to perfection the design, and enter other contests, and most of that, to have enough time for it to make good quality designs, and not an n^th iteration of the same idea like it's a spam campaign.

And spares CHs the burden of skimming through 100s of "inflation" entries without a real, actionable, tangible benefit; that wouldn't happen if there was high quality designs.

 

A contest is generally 7 days long, and with that time, a designer who used to submit 5-20 entries per contest will have to think twice and select wisely their winning candidate, and also would have freed enough time/effort for concurring, synchronous/parallel contests. And you know this better that only one single entry that is good enough can win you a contest, if met with an objective CH who really knows what they want.

 

To summarize, you can break this problematic issue to its core abstraction, and then you start seeing the bad patterns, and how the dynamics of the system flow, and where it's panicking/red flags, then start solving it from there up.

Or like a traffic light as a room puzzle you need to solve.

 

I didn't want to touch on some areas, maybe this contribution will help.

 

 

Finally, I can be just talkative,

But that's my humble take on this.