Important read for everyone. Please read.

[Pet]

Lately we have noticed a lot of issues with the competitions that we hold, specifically with regards to the voting, or theme interpretations.

Several of you have commented on the biased voting in the void, and while I do agree there is some bias around here, most of the members are good enough to vote for the piece that they feel should win, but with that, what appeals to them has a large part to play. If I like say Slaves art, and she is in a competition against Fork, who I am not to fond of, art wise, I will most likely vote for Slave. Is that biased? Yes and no. Slaves art appeals to me, and will always get my vote unless Fork does something totally new that peaks my interest. At that point, if I would STILL vote for Slave, then it would be biased, but I don't see that too much here. Certainly not enough for it to skew the voting.

If you want an honest opinion about 2 tags, I will analyze them to the best of my ability, and give you my personal opinion. Just be warned, you may not like my critique, I do go into detail about it.


Now, onto the theme interpretation. I know this might be touchy, but this has to go out there, otherwise it may happen again. The limits we put on the Signature of the Week are more for easy of thread creation, and to follow with our standard rule about tag sizes in your signature space. We try not to limit a persons creativity, unless it borders on nudity, or other subjects that are best left alone. Each week, a winner gets to pick any theme he wants to work with, depending on what s/he picks, and how s/he words it, can put a lot of constraint, or freedom on what you create, but everyone interprets things differently. Some examples, lets say a theme was sports. Most people will pick a fast paced sport they see on TV, like football (american), soccer (football to the crazies here ;]), but someone else might do something about fishing. Even though it isn't the commonly though of sport, it is still a sport, and fits within the theme. Now, as for the 2 themes used, that had a lot of people causing issues with, robots and black and white. For the first theme, the term robot, commonly refers to anything with mechanical workings, commonly pictured as a humanoid shape, with arms, legs and a head. So, stuff like Rosie from the Jetsons, Robot from Lost in Space are for sure allowed, now how about androids? They are robots but more human like, are they allowed? Also, how about human controlled machines like Gundams? All of these that I have listed, I would put under the very loose term of "Robot" And even, using someone in a cardboard box with air ducting on their arms as a child's robot costume. Now, Black and White, most people immediately thought about a mono-coloured tag, and that is within the theme for sure, but unless you maybe make a tag on an old black and white film, they feel off to me. Unless you really play, and get the levels right, desaturating a tag is not the greatest idea. I myself drew an Emperor Penguin, and gave him a wicked bright orange mohawk. My reasoning behind that was, the bird itself is black and white, thus fitting within the theme, but drawing just a penguin isn't the most fun for me, so I used the 1 colour they already have, and made him unique. Yes, I used a colour within the black and white theme, but the penguin encompassed the theme. Another example is an idea Slave told me. She wanted to make a picture of a black man, and a white man, but in true world colours. You understand the theme as black and white, without actually using the shades black and white.

Everyones mind works differently, and will not answer the exact same when you tell them to say the first thing they think off, and start giving them words. So, why are you going to limit people who have abstract thinking just because you didn't think of it? Theme interpretation is wide open, and unless they really have to stretch the theme in order to explain their reasoning, all should be allowed. So, please keep an open mind, if you have any questions about something, feel free to PM a moderator, we are here to help, not babysit.

[Slave]

Well said pet and I felt you explained it very well.

100% true, who the fudge likes forks tags ?? NOONE!!!
/jokes aside

That is the point isn't it. We here at void are all artists and each one of us comes from different walks of life, you are going to see major difference of opinion as to what looks cool and what looks like garbage or low quality. I myself am not into vector art, nor find it half as interesting as say Pet, so chances are if pet makes an image and has it in the lp comp next to say sirenzo, chances are I will probably lean towards Sirenzos piece (which usually is colourfull and full of texture ( which is my weakness for a good piece of art)) over pets wonderful job of vector.

I don't hate Pet ( in fact I think hes totally jawsome) I don't wish him not to win because I think hes uncool compared to the next popular name hes up against. But chances are Pet's style of art doesn't appeal to me half as often as other more textured an coloured images.

Thanks pet for putting this into great words of understanding !!!

[oNo]

+1
Your the best pet.

[oNo]

Oh and im not very fond of Forks work either just sayin

[Fork]

Oh and im not very fond of Forks work either just sayin

I feel this topic was meant to be more than just choosing who's art you like a dislike. But, I completely agree with what Pet is saying. I think when I was talking about biased voting I was talking about more so the Team your own. Let's put it this way, a few people here can't stand Midnight Marauders so I think if there were to be a battle between a member from Midnight and say King slayer's people that dislike the team in general will vote for the person not on said team, not basing it of their artistic ability. Then you have what most people are now calling "The King Of The Hill Effect," this is when people just get sick of the same person winning over and over again and end up just voting for the opposing side to end their streak. Not entirely sure if that one is true here or not. I don't pay much attention to KOTH.

[Slave]

Fork I guess I could see that, I would like to see MM loose at some point ( hey I'm on a team I wouldn't mind if they lost to us:P) But I still vote for you guys when I see you guys have got good game going. I tend to vote on the team thing more on ( have to have more than 2 tags I like) If neither team does than I just don't vote because than I am afraid I might vote on the bigger name to loose or might pick a side thats got a friend or two I'd like to see win.

IMO I hope everyone else does the same kinda thing in their minds.

If not, oh well I have pride in my work enough not to be offended when soemone turns it down. I know I have things to work on , but as I stand alone I know I tried my best ^^

[Fork]

I have my pride, but I don't care what people think about my stuff, I make it to the way I like not others. I do appreciate good artistic tips though and I take them into consideration. But about the team thing, I mean you'll never get away from biased voting, voting in it's self is biased. i'm not really a big fan of competition. I just do comps to see how far I can go I never sign up to win. I'd rather spend my time helping people. I may be hated by some and be a douche bag but I do actually like to help people if they have the right attitude. :P That might be a bit off topic.

[Dark Method]

Interesting so far.

My take on this is the following, albeit brief.

If people got along, things would work out a whole lot better. Now, let's take a look at something here shall we?

These competitions are designed to be friendly. The teams are meant to act in a friendly manner towards each other. Things are set up here for fun. There are no "prizes". There are no million dollar mansions to be won, nor do we have any free Jags or Ferraris to hand out. It's a tag, or an LP or whatever. You get a bit of recognition for winning. If you don't win, try again next time, and don't take it in such a "personal" way.

[Fork]

Interesting so far.

My take on this is the following, albeit brief.

If people got along, things would work out a whole lot better. Now, let's take a look at something here shall we?

These competitions are designed to be friendly. The teams are meant to act in a friendly manner towards each other. Things are set up here for fun. There are no "prizes". There are no million dollar mansions to be won, nor do we have any free Jags or Ferraris to hand out. It's a tag, or an LP or whatever. You get a bit of recognition for winning. If you don't win, try again next time, and don't take it in such a "personal" way.

Your fucking kidding me...I was hoping to win a ferrari...

[Nutter]

Your fucking kidding me...I was hoping to win a ferrari...

Here you go...





But on the topic of communication, moderators, comps and such, it has come to my attention that there are several people here who are unhappy with current situations and are voicing their opinion over the forum and between between other members. This has been going on for several days now and in my personal opinion, I think it's rather childish. We offered competitions, we have offered criticism, we have this site here for you guys to communicate and improve on your skills yet there seem to be a select few that have turned what should be a hobby into an ego fight to prove that one person is better then another.

In no way do you have to stay here if you are unhappy. It's Your Choice to come to this forum and post and all we do is post up the comps and control behaviour. If you think that things are Bias then there's always the Exit Door. We are not forcing you to stay and I honestly couldn't care less if someone leaves because they don't like some of the guys I work with.

Now I would love to get paid for this position, but I don't get a single cent so before any of you guys decide to talk behind our backs have a think of what we give up in order to run this forum on a daily basis... But then again, I guess some of you wouldn't care and would still hate us for no real reason.