7 replies to this topic

[David]

Hi everyone!

 

First of all, thank you to the large number of people who have submitted for SotW 769 in the last week! It's definitely a very nice turnout for that contest, which as been waiting for screenshots for quite a while now (over a month), so I'm very appreciative!

 

On that same vein of having trouble getting enough screenshots for the contests, I would like to announce some changes that will be happening to Screenshot of the Week. After some deliberation, I've decided that it would be best to convert SotW into a monthly contest for the time being instead of the current biweekly schedule we are on. Given that activity in general has been lower as of late, I believe (and hope) this change will help the contest not be delayed as frequently and will give everyone more time to design some amazing screens that they want to submit to the contest! If activity in the future increases, I will be more than happy to re-examine this topic and switch back to a biweekly schedule or another format as needed.

 

Logistically, I believe it makes more sense to call each contest "Screenshot of the Month" (i.e, SotM xxx) instead of continuing to use the SotW moniker. Hopefully this change in structure is amenable for everyone.

 

As a result of these changes, the following events will occur:

• The SotW 769 contest will be released tomorrow
• The SotM 190 (covering SotW 766-769) contest will be released later
• The SotM 191 contest will be released sometime in early May to allow for a full month of submissions

 

As always, please let me know if you have any comments, questions, or concerns regarding these changes! Thanks everyone.

[Shane]

Unfortunate this had to happen, but understandable. I hope we see the day where the contest could resume a more traditional schedule though!

[Jared]

I agree with this change. As times change, so do other things, and that's okay! 

 

I'm thinking we could rename SotM (the old one) to Screenshot of the Quarter, since it'll be monthly now? So then we'd have four quarterlies, which will be in place of the month.

[Hergiswi]

I agree with this change. As times change, so do other things, and that's okay! 

 

I'm thinking we could rename SotM (the old one) to Screenshot of the Quarter, since it'll be monthly now? So then we'd have four quarterlies, which will be in place of the month.

i approve only if we can call this quarter four and have screenshot of the fiscal year in july

[Hergiswi]

i don't know if this is an actual problem or just an observation, but every time we have a sotw, 90% of the votes come in within the first day, and then it just kind of sits for a week with almost no new votes or comments. i don't personally care because my screenshots are dumb, but i always feel bad for other people entering because they can generally tell within the first day or two whether or not they've won/lost. there's no momentum of people leaving feedback and engaging with the shots in a meaningful way after a few days most of the time either.

[Taco Chopper]

i don't know if this is an actual problem or just an observation, but every time we have a sotw, 90% of the votes come in within the first day, and then it just kind of sits for a week with almost no new votes or comments. i don't personally care because my screenshots are dumb, but i always feel bad for other people entering because they can generally tell within the first day or two whether or not they've won/lost. there's no momentum of people leaving feedback and engaging with the shots in a meaningful way after a few days most of the time either.

pretty much on point, and it translates across both sotw and motm formats. i'd check back on last month's motm every so often out of curiosity and the first ~15 votes came within the first week; the last handful trickled through as the month progressed.

 

i think there's a point to be made about the engagement too - it's easy enough to vote on a screenshot, but it's not exactly beneficial when there's barely any feedback. ^{although i'm glad that the era of closed corners on screen design seems to be long gone lol} in saying that, the forums are a very different landscape compared to what they were 10-15 years ago in terms of activity, so it's not going to be as simple as demanding that people provide feedback or else they can't vote; it doesn't really encourage anything positive.

 

i suppose the question is: how do you encourage that sort of feedback and engagement instead of just letting people smash that mf vote button?

 

also i'm unsure that moving the screenshot of the week format to a monthly one will arrest anything short term regarding that activity; especially if the contests are won within the first day or so. but at the same time, what do you do if you aren't getting enough submissions?

Edited by Taco Chopper, 06 April 2022 - 09:40 PM.

[David]

I agree with this change. As times change, so do other things, and that's okay! 
 
I'm thinking we could rename SotM (the old one) to Screenshot of the Quarter, since it'll be monthly now? So then we'd have four quarterlies, which will be in place of the month.

For some reason I didn't even think of this, but this makes a lot of sense to me. Instead of SotM 190 like I said, it would make sense to do Screenshot of the Quarter 1 for SotW 766-769 and then have then next ones be for each 3 sets of SotM. Thanks for the great idea!

 

i don't know if this is an actual problem or just an observation, but every time we have a sotw, 90% of the votes come in within the first day, and then it just kind of sits for a week with almost no new votes or comments. i don't personally care because my screenshots are dumb, but i always feel bad for other people entering because they can generally tell within the first day or two whether or not they've won/lost. there's no momentum of people leaving feedback and engaging with the shots in a meaningful way after a few days most of the time either.

pretty much on point, and it translates across both sotw and motm formats. i'd check back on last month's motm every so often out of curiosity and the first ~15 votes came within the first week; the last handful trickled through as the month progressed.
 
i think there's a point to be made about the engagement too - it's easy enough to vote on a screenshot, but it's not exactly beneficial when there's barely any feedback. ^{although i'm glad that the era of closed corners on screen design seems to be long gone lol} in saying that, the forums are a very different landscape compared to what they were 10-15 years ago in terms of activity, so it's not going to be as simple as demanding that people provide feedback or else they can't vote; it doesn't really encourage anything positive.
 
i suppose the question is: how do you encourage that sort of feedback and engagement instead of just letting people smash that mf vote button?
 
also i'm unsure that moving the screenshot of the week format to a monthly one will arrest anything short term regarding that activity; especially if the contests are won within the first day or so. but at the same time, what do you do if you aren't getting enough submissions?

Yeah, unfortunately that is an issue that I have noticed as well, but there isn't an easy solution here either. The main drive for changing the schedule was because of lack of screenshots, but that unfortunately will amply the problem that contests are decided in the few days after the polls release. The only possible idea I have is to not have the polls released right away when the contest goes up, and instead wait to put the polls up a week after or something, which gives people time to look at the screenshots and potentially give feedback, and then be forced to place the votes after that time. Of course, that could introduce other side effects like having less people vote in general as the topic gets older, and its entirely possible that no written feedback would be posted anyways.

[Jared]

For some reason I didn't even think of this, but this makes a lot of sense to me. Instead of SotM 190 like I said, it would make sense to do Screenshot of the Quarter 1 for SotW 766-769 and then have then next ones be for each 3 sets of SotM. Thanks for the great idea!

Thank you! I'm glad I could be of a help

 

Also what about having the poll results held until the end of the month? That way no one could know who voted until the end, where all the results are shown.

Edited by Jared, 13 April 2022 - 02:26 PM.