Our 2023 Holiday Event is Here!

[Firesquids]

As someone who works really hard on my event entries I'm really saddened to hear this, I've put in my votes again.

 

[faerie]

I’m saddened by the news, but I am happy to know we still have time to vote. At first I thought I had missed the deadline seeing the polls close early and I was crushed because I was still deciding and I had felt I had done the finalists a disservice. So many amazing finalists. It’s so hard to choose, know your pieces are incredible

 

[Foreverfox]

This is sad, it just puts such a damper on everything. I love these events because they push my creativity and I work hard on everything I submit, as we all do. No collectible or prize is worth ruining something for everyone and losing your integrity in the process.

 

[seliph]

bribery is just nuts definitely agree that should be disqualified. i know those wands are limited but it's been said they'll come around again, there's no need for that.

i'm kinda bummed the event is even longer now but totally understandable

 

[Flyffel]

Wow. Come on. I hope people vote honestly this time.

 

[Blink.]

big yikes
revoted!

on that note ; I like that the polls are private now c:

 

[Drawdler]

I haven’t been very active here in a few months. I’ll be honest, I haven’t been artistically motivated over personal reasons (lack of support from my now-ex mostly) so as much as I wanted to join the last two events I didn’t but… this sucks anyway. It doesn’t really affect me but lame.
Shame on anyone who was manipulating or coercing votes here, I wasn’t aware of anything like this happening in the past, I don’t hold it against the staff or look at the site differently but it does put a damper on the event. I’d be pretty ashamed if this happened to any of my entries in an event, I’m sorry to all the honest entrants. There are great entries in there and the work shines through, this community is so artistically strong and it’s a shame some people can’t just appreciate that over some hollow victory.

+1 on hiding entrant names, I think seeing the name has a psychological effect even if you could tell from style anyway.

Even though I wasn’t too invested before, I made sure to put thought in my votes here.

 

[Aniko]

That's really sad for everybody. I thought some people might vote for their friends but not to that point.

I'm also for the multi-vote idea, like our top 3 or something like that, I always have more than one top favorite and it was hard to remember for whom I had voted finally

 

[Xara]

I don’t want to touch on the vote manipulation much because I don’t really know how to word what I want to say, but I‘d personally be okay with votes being hidden for every community poll moving forward. Being nominated for staff favourites and making it to community polls is only something that has been happening to me this past year, so I’m probably not the best person to speak on this, but vote amounts being visible can be stressful for me, and I imagine I’m not alone in that. Even when I’m nowhere near the top 3/5, I still feel compelled to check how my entries are doing a couple times a day, and it can be a little stressful and even disheartening at times. I think hiding the vote amounts could help alleviate some of that stress and pressure for not just me, but others as well.

That being said, I don’t think there’s really any way to dissuade people from voting for their friends just because they’re their friends. Even if you remove usernames from entries, like has already been said, many of the artists on here have such a distinct style that you’d be able to tell which entry is theirs, anyways. There’s also the art gallery threads to take into account, as not everyone waits for an event to conclude before adding their entries for it in theirs, and that’s revealing as well. Not to mention, private PMs, groupchats, discord servers etc all exist, and it’s not possible to monitor everyone to see who’s voting for their friends, who’s asking for votes etc.

I do think that allowing more than 1 vote per poll could maybe alleviate the pressure that some feel to try and gather as many votes as possible, out of fear of being bumped out of whatever placement they’re in. I also think that everyone who asked for votes or offered something in exchange for votes should be disqualified. No one should be punished more than someone else regardless of how many people they asked, what they offered, etc. Cheating is cheating.

I’m sorry to everyone who made it to the top 5 in the original polls; I imagine having to hope that you make it to top 5 again must be stressful for you. I’m also sorry to staff for having to deal with this mess.

 

[-Blue-]

That's really sad for everybody. I thought some people might vote for their friends but not to that point.

I'm also for the multi-vote idea, like our top 3 or something like that, I always have more than one top favorite and it was hard to remember for whom I had voted finally

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great creative users here, but I feel like it's always been a popularity contest to some extent.

 

[ZeldaCrossing64]

It really sucks that something like this happened. I've gotten a PM the other day about it and I knew right away that something was wrong. Cheating is cheating and you shouldn't be asking/bribing people to vote your entries for a collectible or nomination. Many talented users spend a lot of time on their entries and it'd be really crappy if they didn't win because someone else manipulated the votes in their favor. I'm glad that the issue was brought upfront.

I revoted on most of the polls. Best of luck to all the nominees!

 

[Airysuit]

Being nominated for staff favourites and making it to community polls is only something that has been happening to me this past year, so I’m probably not the best person to speak on this, but vote amounts being visible can be stressful for me, and I imagine I’m not alone in that. Even when I’m nowhere near the top 3/5, I still feel compelled to check how my entries are doing a couple times a day, and it can be a little stressful and even disheartening at times. I think hiding the vote amounts could help alleviate some of that stress and pressure for not just me, but others as well.

Strongly agree! Ofcourse I don't mind not winning or not making it to the top, and people vote for many different reasons and art is subjective and everything, but I felt it was kinda stressful as well

If you're entry doesn't get votes it doesn't mean it's not good, there are just lots of options to choose from! But it indeed can feel very disheartening. Especially seeing the polls live.

But even besides all that, I don't really see the point in showing the results beforehand anyway? It makes the winner announcement more fun not knowing who is/was ahead, that's a fun suprise!

 

[Venn]

Wow, this was surprising. I was not expecting this at all.
Revoted

 

[VanitasFan26]

I heard there is a thing called "Vote Shaming" where if someone tried to make you vote for their favorite thing and if you didn't there would be a fallout. I don't like the idea of favoritism spilling over into voting. It should be fair and balanced. I am not sure why some people do stuff like this just to get ahead. It always rubs me the wrong way in general.

 

[Aniko]

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great creative users here, but I feel like it's always been a popularity contest to some extent.

I don't know the community here well enough to know who is popular or friends with whom, but since I won a place for my cookies and Halloween stuff once in a community vote and that I have no friend, I still have hope.

 

[jadetine]

I absolutely love these competitions and seeing all the amazing things people make. It's so crazy to me that there would be any influence beyond "remember to vote!" but I suppose life here is not separate of the real world.

Spoiler: Emotional rollercoaster

The competitive spirit pushes me to make things that sometimes I surprise myself-- I submit and step back to look at the screen and go "I can't believe I made that". Whenever I make it to a staff nomination, I'm so elated, my inner self runs circles around a track waving a flag and I get a boost to my art stamina.

The pride I have in my work shouldn't be tied to how many people vote for it, but I do glance at the polls (I'm only human). For each nominee, I think deeply about the amount of effort it takes and how creative and challenging and aesthetic the results are, and in a fair competition I would hope others do the same. I try not to discuss the nominees until I have voted.
I would love to have multiple votes to spend on all of these.

My feelings are mostly hurt because I feel tricked. I'm not social enough here or anywhere to have the willpower to campaign/rally and bribery never crossed my mind... my collectibles and art and tbt are fairly frequently given away anyway... The wands induce madness, I tell ya.

I appreciate the staff for taking swift action; y'all da real MVPs.

 

[.: Meri :.]

I'm not sure if obscuring usernames would be enough on its own, considering style recognizability and such—I think the most effective way would probably be to have everyone submit their entries privately, and not allow them to post them elsewhere until the event concluded. But then I'd really miss getting to see everyone's entries in one big thread throughout the event. And especially considering how difficult it can be to police off-site communication, I don't think there's a perfect solution to this. ;; My stance is still just that poll results should probably be hidden from now on.

 

[Blink.]

it's a shame we have to wait longer for results, it's a step in the right direction that results are hidden!
now we can get it outta sight outta mind for most of the polls.

we all put in effort differently and as efficiently as we can. so it's nice to not be able to see who thought so, too.
less strain in the brain

also yes to polls being hidden from now on,
I don't interact enough on this site as it is, yet I am disheartened and surprised by people being vocal about their jealousy (bribes, vote manipulation, PMs, and venting about how others are salty about other nominees)

 

[jadetine]

it's a shame we have to wait longer for results, it's a step in the right direction that results are hidden!
now we can get it outta sight outta mind for most of the polls.

we all put in effort differently and as efficiently as we can. so it's nice to not be able to see who thought so, too.
less strain in the brain

also yes to polls being hidden from now on,
I don't interact enough on this site as it is, yet I am disheartened and surprised by people being vocal about their jealousy (bribes, vote manipulation, PMs, and venting about how others are salty about other nominees)

Blink. I'm always jelly of your art. You can toot out something magical like that myrrh and I still worship it. (I know it wasn't a toot-- you've got years and buckets of sweat and tears in the art endeavor). I even worked extra to trade away the myrrh prompt and I am just so amazed at what you pulled off.
This is what I should've learned here on TBT; take my salt, chew on it, and turn it into renewed effort for the next round. XD

 

[Jacob]

Kudos to the staff for the transparency and further actions on correcting wrongs like this so these events remain fair! When these things turn into a popularity contest, it really just wastes everybody's time and makes it not fun. All of the entries are SO GOOD that it's not exciting when people aren't voting for who they truly want to see win.

I really like the idea of hiding voter counts. I actually tend to feel bad for the entries that are fantastic, but don't receive a lot of votes (or any, in many cases) and it becomes a publicly known thing.

This could be extreme- and maybe not fully thought out- but I might suggest reducing the amount of finalists to something like 5 or 6, instead of 13+. That could potentially dilute out people voting for friends (which will always be, sadly, unavoidable to a certain degree). Honorable mentions can always be a thing to highlight more entries!

I've revoted and happily all of my votes remained unchanged.