hmmm... I think I'm going to have to just be terse and rude. screw 'em. I didn't even know we were giving those out for these mini contests, honestly, but minis are about having fun, not winning. That's what they were years back when they were mostly held "unofficially" by members and not staff. It was ok for them to become a little more of a real contest, but now they are growing too large for it to be fun and fair/competitive. My opinion is drop all formalized competition and rewards and go back to a fun challenge event with a simple poll method of rankings.
If this were to happen the most recent 72hr contest is essentially over.
Our biggest problems are thus; With the contest having prizes we've cut off people from working on their maps after the rush. With the number of maps submitted this cut off judging process is months. People lose interest over a months span and people get burned out playing rushed maps. Speeding this up isn't exactly feasible unless we had a dedicated group of judges.
I'm largely indifferent about the prizes, all I was aiming for was a medallion, but I'd still be sad to see it all go. It would be right to assume we had entrees with the express hope they'd place 3rd - 1st. I'm positive it bloated our submitted maps.
That aside, I would like to see how many entrees we would get now, with no incentive, just a pat on the back. We were growing before and we're still growing now, especially with Crash climbing on youtube. I wouldn't call the 72hr a mini-contest anymore. It's grown beyond 'miniature' in sheer submission volume alone and I would wager removing prizes won't lower it dramatically, though I could always be wrong about that.
Perhaps dropping prizes is for the best.
If we can't find a better alternative. Practically any form of prize winning will have to be accompanied by judging, so it's up to the staff or a certain dedicated individual to see it all setup smoothly.
I'd leave it up to Idolon to decide what to do at this point, seeing as he's running the current contest.
EDIT: I forgot to mention feedback. Reading Booj's post had me realize that if someone truly wants feedback they should just make a thread, get it into a game day, and wait. There are always people floating around the forums looking to help people.
Perhaps expecting good detailed feedback on every submission isn't truly feasible with the number of entrees.
