Suggestion Writing Based Contests

[Lady Warlock]

I'm a bit disappointed that RpN hasn't had any writing contests in what feels like a very long time. There's the color palette bbcode contest going on right now, but not everyone on RpNation knows how to bbcode whereas everyone on RpNation is here to roleplay and roleplaying involves writing. Therefore, everyone here can write to some degree.

I've seen mention in a lot of places that there are a lot of contests in the works and other events of similar basis, but I'm still exceedingly frustrated that the first contest I've seen in a while is one that not everyone knows how to do and therefore, that's inherently exclusive.

I really would like to request that rpnation staff considers trying to implement some events that everyone knows how to participate in. Not everyone knows how to bbcode in an awesome way. Everyone here can write words.

It would be cool to have a writing contest or a contest more open to ALL forms of creativity. I'd even be willing to help plan contests that can be far more inclusive than a bbcode contest if I knew who to reach out to in order to help out.

 

[Fable]

Lady Warlock Writing contests are planned for the future.

 

[Lady Warlock]

I've been being told that for the past year. And I remember maybe one in the past year.

How far away is this future?

I really want to see a contest that I am actually capable of standing a chance in and I don't know the first thing about bbcode.

 

[Fable]

I cannot give specific dates as I am not involved in the planning of the contest. However, it will be sometime this year around the fall area is what they are shooting for. It could be sooner or later depending on factors.

 

[Lady Warlock]

Why did they choose to do a highly exclusive contest first? I'm still very frustrated that rpnation staff seems to be excluding everyone who doesn't know bbcode in anything fun as of late.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

Officially this contest was not supposed to happen but some of the mods decided to work in this and put it together.

The goal sometime in the future (I can't give you an exact date) is to have 1-2 contests every month moving forward. The administration and I have been insanely busy with things like hosted projects which getting an announcement between now and the next three days among other things we've been working on.

Future contest will also include writing, roleplaying prompts, art and many more topics and themes and various skills will be required. For now just be happy that someone did this one because we have been insanely busy.

 

[Fable]

The BBCode contest isn't exclusive. There are no "requirements" as far as skills go for the BBCode event. Anyone can participate. There are a few members who aren't that familiar with BBCode that are giving it a try as well, and I think it's great and impressive they want to try something that is new for them.

While not everyone BBCodes, not all may be interested in a prose contest either, or an art contest, and so on. We hope to offer a variety of events and contests, this is only the first one since being back on xF. This just happened to be the first one because it was finalized first, but it won't be the last contest or event the site will present to the community.

 

[Lady Warlock]

I just want to be able to participate in something I actually stand a chance in and I even posted a thread near identical to this one over a year ago and was told soon there would be contests. It still hasn't happened. I can pull up the thread if needed. I haven't seen a single writing based contest since very close to the time I joined the site which was almost two years ago.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

I just want to be able to participate in something I actually stand a chance in and I even posted a thread near identical to this one over a year ago and was told soon there would be contests. It still hasn't happened. I can pull up the thread if needed. I haven't seen a single writing based contest since very close to the time I joined the site which was almost two years ago.

I understand your frustrations but up until this year, the staff had been functioning with a skeleton crew for the most part since it takes time to replenish the ranks even with a site that has thousands of active users. I've found that makes it harder actually.

The last while have been rough and we've been working really hard and have only just recently caught up with all of our work and have the staff in the healthy place we wanted so we can more consistently do things like the newsletters and contests.


I promise you'll get a ton of epic ones. The goal was to begin the wave of contests in October(don't have an exact date but this is what im aiming for) which is my birthday month and that of two other admins where I'll personally kick it off by being the first judge.

 

[Cold Ramen Noodles]

The Dark Wizard Sounds fun. I'd love to participate.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

The Dark Wizard Sounds fun. I'd love to participate.

 

[Kaerri]

It's hard to give exact dates for something that's still being planned, particularly as something could happen that would require us to drop the planning and focus on something site-wide (if, for example, xF 2.0 released before we'd finished planning). That being said, we have at least three different ones that are under discussion right now, mainly the writing-centered one that Dark Wizard mentioned that is currently slated for October.

Personally, I'm really enjoying the fact that some coding "newbs" are seeing the Palette Challenge as a challenge - an opportunity to learn something new and see what they can do with it, rather than feeling discouraged because it's not something at which they were already an expert. As one of the judges, I can assure you that "complicated" isn't going to automatically win over "simple;" I'll be taking other things into account (the ones in the rules thread, as it happens ).

 

[Lady Warlock]

Personally, I'm really enjoying the fact that some coding "newbs" are seeing the Palette Challenge as a challenge - an opportunity to learn something new and see what they can do with it, rather than feeling discouraged because it's not something at which they were already an expert. As one of the judges, I can assure you that "complicated" isn't going to automatically win over "simple;" I'll be taking other things into account (the ones in the rules thread, as it happens ).

Knowing how to do it isn't the problem. The problem is that bbcode always breaks on me and since that is a contest, I can't ask for help on it at all because then someone would wind up doing it for me and then it would be ineligible to enter.

 

[Kaerri]

I'm always breaking it myself, so I can understand the frustration. Do you have the Rich Text Editor turned off in Preferences? That seems to be part of the problem for many people. RTE likes to be "helpful." >.>

 

[Lady Warlock]

I'm always breaking it myself, so I can understand the frustration. Do you have the Rich Text Editor turned off in Preferences? That seems to be part of the problem for many people. RTE likes to be "helpful." >.>

Rich text editor is as disabled as it could possibly be and has been since xenoforo came back. I still can't get a single div box thing to work without essentially having someone else do it for me.

 

[Cold Ramen Noodles]

While I personally don't know how to use bbCode and won't be participating in the contest, I don't feel excluded. The contest is just one thing as opposed to the many things I can do on here without knowing how to code. Role play, forum games, discussions, and more. None of that requires code while this one thing does. I think it gives people who do like to use code a chance to shine and have some fun. Like I said, there are so many other places on the site for me to have fun while this goes on.

And more contests are coming where other people can use their other skills. This one just happened to come first.

 

[Lady Warlock]

Is it wrong for me to want a chance to shine just like the people who know how to code are getting to do? I've been here for over two years and had no opportunities to do so. That is what is making me feel excluded.

Cold Ramen Noodles

 

[Cold Ramen Noodles]

Is it wrong for me to want a chance to shine just like the people who know how to code are getting to do? I've been here for over two years and had no opportunities to do so. That is what is making me feel excluded.

Cold Ramen Noodles

You can shine in the many different areas of the site that I mentioned earlier. Or in the many contests that are coming up. I've been here since 2014, by the way. Not everybody has to be able to do everything. I really don't want to argue, though. Just throwing in my opinion of why I think the contest is fine.

 

[Daisie]

I agree with Cold Ramen Noodles , Kaerri , Fable , and The Dark Wizard

The staff has been working their butts off to bring you what you have here. And while your frustration is understandable, there really isn't a reason to argue or blow up over it. As they said, events are planned, and all you need is a bit of patience.

And I know what you're going to say: You've been waiting two years. I also want to state the point that contests are not the main purpose of this site, by any means. You've been here two years to Roleplay. This is a website that is centered around Roleplaying. Sure, contests are cool, but they're only an addition. You came to this site to Roleplay, I assume. Not to participate in contests. The contests that the lovely staff provide are like gifts to everyone - are you going to be angry because it's not precisely what you wanted?

So please be grateful for what you have, and don't steam about something you can't change.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

Lady Warlock

If it makes you feel better, (pretending the six crazy months in ips did not exist where it all went wild and people made thousands) you've had hosted projects before and after, you were the first person to get them back, not one but two.

You are a great writer and rper, your two years have not been wasted

 

[ApfelSeine]

As The Dark Wizard said, your writing is already something that we as a site find invaluable, to the point that you've got two Hosted Projects going to show that off! While it's not exactly the same thing, I hope you know that a lot of people really like the work you do, even without a contest to showcase it in.

I completely understand wanting a contest you feel like you've got a fair shot of winning. But that's true of people who are more skilled at design than they are at writing too. Although this is a writing based site, not all players utilize detailed prose to rp. No contest is ideal for the entire site, unfortunately. That's why diversity in contests is important! And we're definitely going to have a writing contest that you can show off in in the future!

The contest running now is the passion project of one of the mods, which a few of the rest of the staff also chipped in with because it's a fun idea that a lot of effort was devoted into designing and creating. So that's why the bbcode palette challenge is happening much earlier than other contests that you might be better suited to. It's made official because it's spearheaded by one of the staff members and the admins found it to be a very fun idea. Your suggestion is a good one, but we can assure you that it's already in the works. Thanks for waiting so long and hopefully you enjoy the contest when it does come out ;3