Following popular request and my own opinion, I've moved two recent failed attempts to start new comic competitions, Bad Comic Competition 1: Test Run and MINSA # 1 : Make It Not Suck Anymore, to the Fights Go Here forum.

As a general guideline, I recommend that, before starting a new type of comic competition, a stripper ask him- or herself the following questions:

1. Am I respected regular? Have I been making comics and participating in the SC community for several months? Am I generally well liked? Have I won at least one comic competition already (preferably more)? If you answer "no" to any of these questions, your efforts to start a competition are likely to fail.

2. Does the competition I am starting feature a new format? Is it a fun and original idea? Or is it just a theme that could be used in an existing type of competition? Both of the recent attempts fail this test. In fact, both have been done before. Have patience; wait until you win a contest (and if you keep making a genuine effort, I promise you it will happen eventually), then run your contest idea. If you're not that patient, just start a theme thread in Comic Showcase or RMDC, and don't present it as a competition.

3. Is there room to add a new type of competition? The answer to this is currently "no". I count at least five different types of comic competitions going on right now, and if you ask me, that's two or three too many. (To say nothing of the Photoshop contests.) Don't make people split their focus. Work on higher-quality entries and quick turnover for the existing contest types.

Possums claims the "Bad Comic Competition" was a satire of all the other new types of competitions, which is well and good. I'm not chastizing anyone, I'm just offering advice in plainer language.

I love you, evil_d.

Did you ever know that you're my hero?

How have you not been on my favorites list yet? Shame on you!

I agree completely with evil_d - I must confess, I've given up entering comic competitions now because there are just far too many different types. Call me a traditionalist, but I preferred it when there was just the original CC and the occasional Comic Cup now and again. The rest are all things which could easily be subsumed by the original CC and the presence of so many different competitions makes the Comic Competition forum unbearable to cope with.

What is more, part of the joy of entering and winning the CC was that it was *difficult* to win - precisely because lots of people entered (it being the only competition, Comic Cup notwithstanding) and hence there really was *REAL* competition. With so many different kinds of competition now, the actual 'competition' is being watered down.

I'm not saying "change it for me and perhaps I'll condescend to entering again", but I really think we ought to cut down on the number of competition types. CC and Comic Cup are more than sufficient, in my opinion.

Yeah, I agree, FTC was amusing at first because I thought it would have the same frequency as the "Serial Comic" or 'What Are the Rules to This Comic?" which was like 3 times a year but it's evolved into a twice-weekly award-me-do, then there's Begin This Contest which I've never even clicked on.

I'd like to suggest that there be two Contest Forums, I am quite willing to spend the time moving every FTC and BTC thread into another one so we've got a seperate thread for CC's and Comic Cups.

One more forum isn't going to kill us.

I'm agreeing with the Chi man here, well said.

The World's Worst and BTCs seem rather invaluable if you ask me, I'm sure they have their fun, but World Worst's could work in RMDC or Comic Showcase, and perhaps you could have an alternating BTC/FTC rota in order to compromise nicely [eg winner of FTC starts a BTC and thus winner starts FTC]. I think that'd allow all the competitions, but with more time between them, rather than a new competition starting every day.

I'd like that too - if you wouldn't mind doing it. It would clear things up a lot, if you ask me.

What should I name the second contest forum?

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I love you, evil_d.

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What should I name the second contest forum?

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What should I name the second contest forum?

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What should I name the second contest forum?

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How about 4LosersWhoCan'tWinAContestOnTheirOwnSoTheyKeepMakingUpNewOnesBecauseTheyAreLame?

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One way FTCs could be changed is that they could be made to only happen once in a while, but that all of the hosts would be required to make most of the awards new and themselves, unique to that competition. That's sorta why ftcs were fun originally.

//This post gets the award for worst use of kaddar's time

I like the comic comps. It's always fun to run your own contest, so I try to enter as many as I can.

I like all the contests myself, but I think we can condense a few.

I personally believe the reasons for the other contests cropping up is that the older contests have a tendency to play favorites and just rotate a few winners around.

Although users like kaufman have totally been changing that scenario by really paying attention to all the comics, I think the contests still fall victim to favoritism and what not.

I admit to suffering from being overwhelmed by all the contests out there. As a side effect, I haven't felt the urge to enter many, if any at all. I definitely understand the Mikey's feeling that the same folks win the CCs but I'm not sure if saturating the place with contests is the answer. It reminds me of when, a few years ago, they started making those bumper stickers that said "My child is an excellent citizen at (wherever) Elementary" for those kids that weren't honor students.

I like the different comic competitions. There's what, four of them? How in the name of Zeus' butthole is that confusing?

I enter for fun. I don't expect to win jack diddly. I just play it like a game, which is why I liked the ultimate run on sentence thread, word association, etc. I like that kind of inspiration, and thats how I use most comic contests (hence the whole reason I entered the bad comic contest). Its like those random little threads that have a single subject matter that everyone posts related comics to.

If it were to split into two different forums (mentioned before hand), why not treat the other comic contests (other than Comic Cup and CC) as games and make a separate games forum? That way, it wouldn't ruin the competition for the mainstream contests. It would also take care of the little issue with some regulars getting irritated at all the pointless little games clogging up the General Discussion forum.

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I like the different comic competitions. There's what, four of them? How in the name of Zeus' butthole is that confusing?

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They hand out a lot of medals at the Olympics, but that doesn't cheapen the validity of each seperate competition. Some of the comics competitions are better-suited to three-panel or series comics (like the CC), and some are for one-liners, blackouts, and extrapolations (like FTC, BTC, and WW). And if someone thinks that only one or two of them are really worth entering, then I don't see how the existence of additional ones that a lot of other people enjoy should affect that.

To me the whole point of a Comic Contest was to make the best comic out of everyone, winning a CC was something to actually be proud of. Winning a Comic Cup was even more rewarding because it meant that you beat several good strippers to be crowned the champion.

With the FTC's, not only are you adhering to the same rule EVERY SINGLE TIME, you are also pretty much gauranteed to win one of the 50 awards available in every contest. Ending a 2-panel comic with a joke about molestation or drug-abuse will almost gaurantee you'll be in the shortlist of winners.

If that's your bag, fair enough, but I think that the BTC, FTC and WW comics should be put in their own thread, for those people who actually enjoy that kind of thing.

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What should I name the second contest forum?

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To me the whole point of a Comic Contest was to make the best comic out of everyone, winning a CC was something to actually be proud of. Winning a Comic Cup was even more rewarding because it meant that you beat several good strippers to be crowned the champion.

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I personally believe the reasons for the other contests cropping up is that the older contests have a tendency to play favorites and just rotate a few winners around.

Although users like kaufman have totally been changing that scenario by really paying attention to all the comics, I think the contests still fall victim to favoritism and what not.

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I think we need to take this issue a lot more seriously. After all, we're making comic strips.

Hence why we should have a separate forum for the non mainstream comic contests. This is getting into a huge fight, and I dont think that a lot of the newer people like myself think of the contests as anything more than fun games anyway.

Look Chi, I am all for keeping certain comic competitions to a different forum. Totally. I agree that the current forum is saturated right now.

But while it is true that some people are consistently funnier than others, I am not the only one who notices that there can be a little favoritism. And while it is true that there are some regular users who may just always suck, I think that a lot of newbs tend to get overlooked.

FTC awards, most of them are just little pats on the back, which I don't take very seriously. Some people are really proud of their FTC awards, which is one of those shoulder-shrugging things. It's like, "Okay, if THAT's what you want to be proud of..." But I definitely put more stock in winning a CC or the creativity, silver, and zinger awards in the FTC. And to win a comic cup, well, that's probably one of the biggest honors here.

Maybe we should have an "Official Comic Competitions" forum, like the CCs, FTCs, and Comic Cups, and another "User-created Competitions" for the WWs, BTCs, bad comic comp, and whatever flotsam people want to toss in there. Any takers?

I think FTC should go into that other forum too. It's a one-rule competition which never changes, and if you're going to put BTC in with the other ones, then you might just as well sling FTC in there too (it hardly differs that much from BTC, after all).

Also - how do you think regulars become regulars? They were all newbs once, you know; I still consider myself relatively new, since I only started contributing to the forums about a year ago. If newbs are overlooked initially, then that can surely only encourage them to try harder. If they enter enough CCs, they're bound to get noticed sooner or later.

I don't understand why another forum is necessary. If the CC and the Comics Cup are the only contests you're interested in, then they're the only ones that you have to click on. Their proximity to the other contests isn't going to stink them up or anything.

Neatness, PV contests have their own forum, why not all these (in my opinion) mediocre contests? Also, my Comic Cup wont be so far down in the list.

To be honest, there's just as much of a pathetic argument to have another Contest Forum as there is not to, it's my request, others seem to agree, so why not?

I agree on a new thread, but it will be packed with a bunch of new contests that newbies will try to start.

i [heart] the new thread idea. furthermore, i remember back in the day, nearly three years ago, when i first came to the site. immediately, i had an idea for what i still think would be a kinda cool competition.

now--and here's the cool part-- rather than post it in the competitions forum, i posted in GD (there weren't really any other forums) a message asking the regs if they thought it sounded like a good idea. nothing ever came of it, but at least i didn't piss everyone off by clogging up the competition forum (which only had two kinds of comps in it).

sorry if that story was boring, but i think my point is that even regs should test the waters of public opinions before starting competitions willy-nilly. i don't think WW, FTC and BTC are really hurting anything per se--after all, CC entries haven't really gone down in number--but they are kinda gimmicky and don't, in my mind, feel as "important" as CCs and Cups, mostly for reasons already numbered upthread. i guess that's why the second forum idea appeals to me.

[/soapbox]

oh yeah--at the very least, this thread should be stickied atop the comps forum (:

The only problem I find with the WWs, BTCs, FTCs is that they encourage other "new ideas" for competitions, and naturally, these end up in the same forum that holds the CCs and Comic Cups [two things that are held very closely to the hearts of us veterans].

A second forum, plus perhaps a rephrasing or more emphasis on the matter in the FAQ, should allow us all to be mucho happy.

I am in favor of anything that makes the original Comic Contest mean something again and/or stops people from thinking they're funny when they're not. If a separate forum for the other competitions is what people want, that works for me. If it were up to me, I'd descend upon the Competitions forum in a righteous fury, cutting down all lesser competitions with my firey sword, but I guess we can't all have our way.

I am also in favor of putting some ground rules in sticky threads at the top of both competition forums, if we have sticky thread capability here, which would be news to me.

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The only problem I find with the WWs, BTCs, FTCs is that they encourage other "new ideas" for competitions, and naturally, these end up in the same forum that holds the CCs and Comic Cups [two things that are held very closely to the hearts of us veterans].

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...and/or stops people from thinking they're funny when they're not.

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first off

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I think we need to take this issue a lot more seriously. After all, we're making comic strips.

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I also agree that the newb competition is a great addition to the comic contests, and should be kept in the RMDC. I would be happy to facilitate a few if the chance ever comes up.

I think competitions should have a seperate forum, where they go through a trial. If they suck and no one enters, they stay in there. If they're wildly successful (like FTC) then perhaps they should be allowed to move to the actual comp forum.

Just $0.02 coming from a fairly old reg.

"Reg" is short for "regular", should you really still be claiming to be one?

The thing is, if you created a second Competition forum wouldnt we just see it spammed to buggery by every jack ass with half an idea as the current CC thread is. The reason Umfums newbie contest didnt work is probably down to the level of crap that gets posted into RMDC every day obscuring any sort of interest in it. If you gave everyone free reign to create contests you'll see a million "Super happy JET mega competitions" and any sort of reasonable or half alright idea wouldnt have the chance to grow before it got bogged down with crap on top. Id therefore propose a compromise, you need something like the current "Comic Showcase" forum, but in which everyone can post, but only donors can make new threads, this way you assert some limited control over the number of crap threads popping up in it. If a non-donor did win a "Punctuate this Comic" contest or whatever, they'd simply have to sweettalk a Donor into creating the next contest thread for them. Id prefer it were a general showcase thread however, so that Donors could actually post more than just contests, theres been some good threads in Comic Showcase, for example the current one about comics about advertising, which it would be nice to open up to the non-donors, but if it were placed in RMDC you'd soon see it dissappear against a background of "Im NEW... Rate my first comic and tell me Im not a loser" threads that pop up in there all too often.

Elvis_Steel, you are wise beyond your years. I agree with every point you make and I think your suggestion for eliminating that is a good one. Play on, player.

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a "Punctuate this Comic" contest

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I still vote that there be one thread for Comic Contests and Comic Cups, and another for FTC's, BTC's, WW's and everything else.

evil_d and Elvis_Steel both make awesome points.

I would like to designate myself Official Liaison for the Comic Showcase forum. I also like the idea of a contest thread for donors, because I am sure we can find a reg donor to volunteer to post entries and what not.

I am honestly just tired of the Comic Cup being pushed so goddamn far down the list.

Oh, good grief.