Signature of the Week?

I was thinking, every site I go to has this and it's a fun way to compete and a way to boost activity in the graphics section of forums. As a way to get more students/more people interested could we possibly start up a SotW? We would also need to have some people have would want to support this and help each week.

Um, this is the only site I go to. Can you explain exactly what it is? Or what people do? Or just link to one that's running at a different site?

It's basically a contest each week that people participate in, and each week is a different category (ex. pokemon, women, etc...). Then people vote and there's a winner.

Repeat.

It's basically a contest each week that people participate in, and each week is a different category (ex. pokemon, women, etc...). Then people vote and there's a winner.

But isn't that basically the entire Competition forum?

I think we should make it more specific if we do put it in, like give something like what might be found in a sig shop. Like, give a picture, text, and border color or something. Then it would be different, everyone would be headed towards the same thing, and it would relate because it would be teaching students to work with what they are asked for.

Maybe. Maybe not.

Anyways, is a week really enough time to hold an entire mini competition? Especially with the activity we have around here? How is it judged, is it the same as the other place where they put up a great big poll and tell people to vote, or are there judges?

Eh... Elaborate. Why should we put this here? Just to have something exclusively for students?

(By the way, I do like the idea. It's just a question of whether or not it'll work.)

Hey, that could be a cool idea.

I've seen this work a lot on other forums. And I've noticed that the SoI has become a lot more inactive recently. A signature of the week competition might help the activity come back.

The whole idea is to use your own creativity to come up with a certain topic. It wouldn't have to be onlyfor students, but for everyone, I'm just saying that it could help increase others interests in the contests. And the week can be more like biweekly, and if we slack, then it's just a little break, but we can have people organized to make it work, I for one would love to help and organize it. But as for the time schedule, more like 1 week to turn in entries, another week to vote, and as voting is going on, we come up with a new topic. Once the week is over, we start the new decided topic. So on...

Here is a forum that really does it well:
Signature of the Week - KHInsider.com Forums

Ooh, that looks like fun. Sure, I'd be happy to help organize. I like the rule where if you enter you must vote. Not quite sure how they count the votes though.

Anyways, sure. Let's do it. Will we need a new forum for it? Also, I think we shouldn't just go by every week or two if we want more time. We are Graphics Teachers. We are LAZY. We need to pick a schedule and stick with it if we want anything done.

Anyways, I guess the one thing that's different then the normal competitions is that the deadlines are odd. There is a set date that it ends. There is no maximum number of competitors. People don't post to say that they want a spot, which means that they can't be lazy and pull out a week later.

So sure, let's go! I don't quite get the theme of the most recent one they had on there, but the first few seemed to be run nicely. Is our first topic to be Zelda if this ever gets going?

EDIT: Uh, just remembered. If we decided that we DID want a new forum for this, it might be tricky to get. Jason was complaining that we don't seem to do very much after I complained that I didn't have a big enough inbox. Oh well. Are we planning to make it into a forum like they have, or shall we just stick it in Competitive?

Originally Posted by Wired

1 week to turn in entries, another week to vote, and as voting is going on, we come up with a new topic.

If we wanted to stick to signature of the week, we could have it so in the voting week for round A, people can submit signatures for round B, or we could make the submissions last for 3 weeks and voting for 1 week and extend it to signature of the month. I don't think a whole new forum would be needed, we could probably put it in the competitive graphics sub-forum. Maybe we could even have a stickied thread in there with a little signature of the week/month hall of fame?

Originally Posted by Panique

Maybe we could even have a stickied thread in there with a little signature of the week/month hall of fame?

That would work pretty good, just stickies.

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And DD123, the topic on there for this week was basically a style that's common, and just have fun making it, basically a free for all.

^A thread they make aswell is a discussion thread to talk about SotW and to ask questions.

So, it appears that we have enough people to do this.

So we start it with an entry thread and a discussion thread? Then next week we have a voting thread, and the week after that the hall of fame goes up? Is Pani going to sticky all of the SotW threads?

And when do we plan to actually put this in and get it going? On a Sunday?

If we've got it all sorted out I could put together the thread pretty soon. It might be best to put up a discussion thread first, to see how much interest we get, if after a few days there's been enough replies we can put up a rules and submissions thread.

It might be best to put up a discussion thread first, to see how much interest we get, if after a few days there's been enough replies we can put up a rules and submissions thread.

No. I vote we jump right in. Put them all up at the same time. We already have a few of us who have said we will help, and a few other people I mentioned it to said they'd like to see it. We have the support. We need to jump in and get it going... after we decide on an official rules set. Which it sounds like you already have.

Anyways, if we put it up and bug people to join, the thread will be getting replies and people will see it. Trust me, it works. Me and Dulcie did the same thing with Hangman in Din. No one would play with me, so I bugged her. We went back and forth with posts and after people started to notice that the game existed they all came to play. Eh, long story short, we need to get it going and get people to put up entries. If we do that others will see it and also enter.

Oh, I haven't got a rules set worked out yet. What I've gathered is that we put up a submissions thread with a theme and basic guidelines, take submissions for X amount of time, then close submissions and put up a voting thread.

Did we think monthly or weekly was a better choice?

I think Weekly is better. That means it'll keep moving. Also, that'll make it so that there is more activity. And it will also mean that if someone doesn't like/doesn't understand the theme, they don't have to wait a whole month to participate in it.

I vote weekly.

So what sorts of rules do we need?

For the discussion thread, I guess just that all talk must relate to the sig of the week competitions.

For the entries thread, keep images smaller then 400x150 and larger then 300x100, only post if you are entering, all other posts deleted, don't post to reserve a spot, have entries in by whatever date.

And for voting, do we want to do it where you just shout the name of one winner? Or should we follow what the other forum did and do top 3 choices? Or should we change that back and forth based on how many entries we get? I think Top 3 is a nice way to do it because it means that it won't be just the best people who get votes, but everyone in the contest. I also liked the other forum's rule where you have to vote if you entered something. And I guess the usual no voting for yourself rule as well.

And for the hall of fame, whenever that gets built, should we make a "No Comments" rule or just let people discuss as it goes along? I don't think rules quite matter for that one...

Eh... Any arguements? Suggestions? Ideas? Complaints? And who's good at putting things in an organized and fool proof way?

^That kinda wraps it up I guess.

Alrighty, so what day does it go up? Does it matter? And who's actually going to start all the threads?

Is the first theme officially Zelda just because this is a Zelda site?

Yeah, weekly sounds good.

Perhaps the discussion thread could also be a theme suggestions thread? Coming up with themes weekly sounds like it could be sort of difficult after the base ones are covered.

For the entries thread, I'd like to add that no old works can be used.

And like you said for voting, we could do the top 3 if we get a certain number of submissions (say, 10?). Any less than that, and we just have a winner.

For voting, there's a couple of choices. We could either do the normal way ZU does with the awards, where everyone votes for one person, or we could do a points system, where people put 3, 2 or 1 points towards different sigs, and we add them up to get the winner.

The Hall of Fame could probably be a locked and stickied thread, and I or another mod could just add the winning sigs to it.

EDIT: Eek, I posted late. A Zelda theme sounds good for the first one.

So just let me wrap up - we have a discussion-y thread introducing the signature of the week competition, a submission thread with the current theme, after this week is over the next submission thread goes up and the first week's voting thread goes up, and when the first week's voting is over (perhaps over another week?) then the Hall of Fame thread is created. Did I miss anything?

People posting the threads would have to be some people in charge of it. We know Panique will since she's the mod here, I guess I can and DD123 you can since we're the only ones discussing this. XD We can rotate if you want or if someone forgets, post it so that it doesn't get behind.

I think we should vote by just saying who you'd like, and I think voting 3 people if we have 10 or more is a good idea. The points system just seems kinda off.

That sounds good.

Ooh! Question. Are we going to bother with a "No names" rule, or not? I don't think it would matter since people have to post up their entries, so are we just going to go with names rather then trying to hide who entered what?

And... we need rules written up in some nice looking way... and I'm not organized. Sparkly banners for the threads might look nice too, but oh well.

Again, what date do we want to put this up? Today, tomorrow, or sunday? Just cause whatever day it's started on is the day it probably ends on too.

EDIT: WIRED TYPES FAST. EDITTING.

EDIT 2: Alrighty, so we're all gonna be the ones posting the threads? Should we just split it up so that someone always puts discussion, someone puts up voting, and someone puts up entry threads?

Post the names, because it's not really a secret, you're just voting for the persons sig who looks the best.