The user will be frozen ahead of the competition. It's not like staff doesn't see them until voting starts. There's a lot of people saying they don't want submissions to get through who didn't put forth enough effort. I'm just saying I'm against that. Not about doing something about signed pieces or ones that violate rules.

This! Also, was there meant to be anonymity? Because many entries list their usernames.

Okay, going to try to touch on some of the ideas here because there a LOT of good suggestions (seriously, way to go guys).

1. I think the entries definitely need to have some minimal vetting. The flower is a joke. The stock images don't even abide by the contest rules! (Although maybe in the future it needs to be spelled out even more clearly...)

2. I don't mind the single-entry-per-page format, but I would like a counter somewhere, even if it's just "You've voted for x percentage of the entries!". I think a side-by-side "which entry do you prefer?" system would work well for this kind of contest with the entries paired up randomly and changing every time you cycle through all the votes. I don't think a side-by-side voting system would work as well for some of the crafting contests, but I think it would be a great way to go through some of these entries or HA contests. With a lot of entries, it might be more efficient to have more than two entries that you rank in order of preference. There are obviously a lot of ways to tackle the voting, but I think the staff have listened to the userbase so far, so the next contest will likely be even smoother!

3. Down-voting is such a great idea! I don't think the wording is an issue. I think of it kind of like the Subeta version of Tinder -- upvote (swipe right) for the ones you're interested in, downvote (swipe left) for the entries you're not interested in or don't like as much. I also really like the descriptions. Some users aren't artistically inclined (like myself and apparently ), but the explanation really sells me on some of the ideas.

4. I think a "flag" button is a great suggestion, especially if the staff do not have the means to vet all the entries. I also think it should be used for entries that do not follow the contest rules (e.g. include usernames which voids the whole point of having anonymous entries, NSFW, stock photos, etc.), and then once entry is flagged, it is no longer displayed for you. It would be great if a certain number of users flag an entry that the staff then check the entry to see if it abides by the rules.

5. I'd love a third option for voting for entries that are funny/clever but aren't a great fit for the site. Some of these entries are hilarious, and I'd love to give the authors some credit. Maybe the winner of this third option would get like an honorable mention or something.

6. Although these competitions favor the artistically talented, I'm okay with them being rewarded for their effort provided the prizes are also available on the site via the MC or something like that. I'm not sure how the coding works for the MC or the antique shop, but it would be nice to have a "Previous Contest Prizes" section that, although ridiculously overpriced, gives other users a shot at getting the items. (As an aside, I'd LOVE some of the old boss battle/plot wearable prizes be included in a similar format, but who knows if will ever make that a reality!)

7. I hope that with the voting lasting until November 15th that the pool of entries is narrowed so only entries with x number of votes that actually have a shot at winning are still included by the end. I like a LOT of the entries, but it's tough to compare them to each other when there are many low effort entries that don't appeal to me at all. It should be pretty easy after a week to filter out any entries that don't have a shot at winning, and I think it would make the voting easier for the other entries. A smaller entry pool would also encourage more people to vote.

Just my two cents. Well, seven cents. :)

my only worry with the 1 per page system is that people are going to give up and not finish looking through entries, and some people wont have their entries seen! so i think a max of like, 20 per page or something would be best. maybe for a design contest like this ten entries or so on a page.

i think vetting would be good for making sure entries don't break any rules, but it shouldn't be based on skill. stock images, non-anonymous and off-topic entries should be the only ones axed. i think most users would agree that voting based purely on artistic skill is a little unfair!! i voted for the ones i thought had the most thought put into them, and had the best descriptions as well. i saw some very skilled ones without ANY description and i skipped them because they didnt make sense without the descriptions (and without a description its hard to tell if something is stolen or not? the entry was very vague and could have been just taken from somewhere :/)

Totally agree with the OP, and with what has been expanded on.

I don't think the "vetting" needs to be extreme, but if staff doesn't want to look at 200 entries, not sure why you think users want to. At least going through and picking out the ones that break the rules and letting the rest through would be nice. (And was it this contest or the previous one? But I swear I saw at least one entry that said "doing this for the participation prize" and it was not even close to a real attempt. So yeah, weeding out pointless "participation prize" effort ones would be nice.)

And I didn't mind the clicking through this way, but the only reason I finished voting on all of them was because I saw a news comment where someone else reached the end, so I knew it must have not been that tedious. A counter or bar or something would be nice. Or sticking more on one page.

With picture-based entries, please please make the uploader thing auto-resize into an appropriate limit. I feel so bad for whoever had the giant stretched out picture, but I couldn't even see more than a portion of it, and that sucks for everyone.

But! I do like that the criteria for judging each one is more or less up to the voter. I voted for plenty where the art wasn't the fanciest thing I'd ever seen, but the description was nice or I liked the level of effort in, for example, making real-looking blueprints... and there were some with great art that I passed on because they made no sense (how's a goat going to get in there? kinda deal). I know I'd seen some comments about how people are "supposed" to vote a certain way, but bah. I liked voting for the ones with good thought, even if the art isn't shiny enough for some people. More variety in competitions is good. We have had a lot that are based on who can draw the best (and I like pretties as much as the next person, but you do keep seeing the same handful of people who are actually good at those sort of contests).

I think there was an entry that said "just doing this for the book" or something, but I may have been reading between the lines because that thought crossed my mind a couple of times going through the entries.

There were only a couple of stock images, and it seems like some of the entries that were pointed out by users have been removed. It would have been nice to have the entries pre-vetted, but the staff are pretty on top of removing entries that don't abide by the rules.

I know people don't want to wade through hundreds of entries when half of them are crappy, 25 second drawings for the participation prize; however I don't think there should be a quality limit that users need to hit for drawings or sculptures or whatever to be included for others to vote on. What you think someone put no effort into, they worked hard on. The only ones I had an issue with were the ones that took a picture from the internet and entered that. That is cheating.

Maybe if staff removed the participation prize people wouldn't bother to whip up some shitty drawing in MS Paint. Tbh though I don't see why it bothers people anyway. I voted on every entry and it didn't take that long. Some people act like they're getting paid to surf Subeta.

Thank you so much for the clarification. I know I was a bit confused that that one was missed as were some of the ones with usernames included. Should any entries with usernames be reported as well? Some of them were quite good, so it's a shame they'll be removed from the pool, but maybe they can be resubmitted without the username?

thanks for clarifying :D

this just occurred to me, since im having some trouble with my own entry - it would be nice to be able to see ours even while the contest was running, just so we could know ours was received correctly?

The nature of this competition in particular is less about talent ability, and more about conceptual building. You don't have to be a great artist; you can use other mediums. I've seen clay models, I think one entry used food, saw one with a cardboard box, and even one entry had a tortoise house being displayed to showcase a concept (whoever owns that tortoise, cute~).

As long as users' entries fulfill some basic necessities (shelter, food, water, functionality), that's all that is needed in my opinion. Stock photos of things that don't relate to the competition, copyright infringement, and even something as inane as the artist signing their work (an identifier, which should not be allowed in an anonymous voting setting)

Stricter vetting isn't a bad thing. It keeps the honest players honest, and deters poor quality participation.

Tell me that someone who can't draw with a great idea has a good chance against someone who is awesome at drawing eith a bad idea. In order to get enough votes to win, you really need the artistic skill

Again, I'm not talking about things that violate the rules, I'm fine with those being weeded out. I care about who chooses what gets considered "poor quality." If I have to make sure my drawing looks perfect so I don't get kicked out, I may just not participate the next time and it really makes it a lot less fun. I'd rather have a nice time submitting something I'm proud of which may look like crap to most other people, but with no worry of it getting kicked out.

(I didn't even do a drawing this time, mine is a photo)

I think the voting this time around is pretty good and only needs minor tweaks -- maybe changing "Vote Up/Vote Down" to "Like/Don't Like" just to remove the implication that voting down actually subtracts points (it was in the news post that it doesn't, but it still feels weird), and adding a counter so we know how many entries there are and how many we've voted on.

Also, do we have to vote on every entry to get that plushie, or just one, or some other amount? I assume it's just one, but I want to be sure.

It's not that it's negative, it's just that "vote down" sounds like it subtracts a point, where as "don't like" sounds like it just doesn't add one, if you know what I mean?

I may have missed it, but what about the entries that have usernames written on them? And what about all the entries that are using the official site art of Oatmeal in their entries in some way?

I definitely like the progress bar idea ^_^ I like this one at a time version better than HERE THEY ALL ARE GOOD LUCK! :D Maybe four per screen with instructions to check the box on the ones you love then click submit. And if people are attached to this skip option, two options under each, love, save for later, and if you don't check either one it's like this 'down vote' that actually does nothing but makes it so you don't see it again.

I just saw some of the stock photo/off topic ones... :/ lol Come on now, throwing together something for participation is one thing, but taking an image off the internet - that's not even throwing together, people... lol edited in case that counted as referencing specific entries

As to art quality, mine is in paint, pretty crappy 1st grade looking, but I think you can tell some thought went into it. The description talks about why I put the features I did so you can tell I tried, even if I did it last minute. And you definitely can't judge effort on quality, because my 'last minute' entry took me a good half hour or more, and someone with skills could put together something much more fantastic in 10mins. I've been voting on thought put in; did they think about what goats need, what this specific goat might need? Did it get creative? If it's excellent art of a basic box/goat shelter, I feel like that's just too broad and doesn't really make THE perfect home for Oatmeal. What's different about THIS goat, and what would (s/he? I've seen entries saying both, what gender is this goat???) need?

I noticed when I was voting that I accidentally submitted mine twice? No idea if my computer was a derp or it actually happened.

I voted for everything earlier (got the "You've voted on every single entry, good job!") but I just went back to the page and found 2 new entries I never saw before. What's up with that? Should everyone keep checking back to find new entries...?

I'd like a way to view all the entries again, maybe without any voting options? Or maybe just the ones I voted up for? There doesn't seem to be any way to overview everything once you've voted.