Hey Folks,
I understand theres been frustration around how this contest has been run.
I appreciate the folks involved for taking a chance on doing something new and different, and a bit of messiness is an unfortunate downside to trying something new.
I've seen the concerns regarding the overall judging of the contest and reviewed the voting schemes and how the main winners were decided, and I don't see cause for concern there based on how votes were tallied and calculated. But I have heard and seen the issues with the Mod Picks section, where some folks picked their own clubs, or clubs they are closely related to (friends/RS) etc. which I agree is unfair.
As this was not clearly stipulated in the contest I can understand if there was confusion for the mods in question, but we do have a duty to ensure fairness as moderators and make these judgements ourselves if we think something would be unfair, and that judgement was not used here. The mods in question will not be participating in future contest judging for the next 3 months, and if we are to run a similar contest to this in future we will be adjusting the rules to make sure nothing like this happens again in the future.
There were certainly some learnings here with the new contest type, like explaining the marking scheme in advance would be helpful for all, and I do appreciate the team for trying out something new and for all those that participated here.
Let's remember this is all supposed to be about fun and fairness, so let's make sure we all come into contests like this with the best intentions.
Happy Halloween folks and thanks for your patience while I got involved here
Thank you for the post, Will. I appreciate all the advices and replies you have given from the start until the end and even the aftermath. I apologize on behalf of the whole team of judges for any and all inconveniences. Next time, we will be more careful.
