Contest Judging/Standard Awards

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Standard Awards

Unless I specify otherwise, all contests have the following awards:

• Overall 1st, 2nd, 3rd, to be determined according to judging guidelines below.
• Voters' Choice
• Sarah's Choice, based strictly on which doll I like best.
• Random Guest's Choice, which means that I ask some random person to pick their favorite. (My roommate, the person sitting next to me in the computer lab, a coworker...probably someone who knows next to nothing about dolls and is in no position to make a well-informed choice.)
• Early Bird Award, which goes to whoever gets their entry into my mailbox first (to encourage people to get their entries in sooner rather than later).

Depending on number of entries, types of entries, the nature of the contest, and how much free time I have, there may be additional awards.

All of these awards will consist of a little award banner and a link (you get a link anyway, as long as your work is displayed on my site). The overall 1st place winner will get a doll request by me (to be done at my convenience, I might add).

Request Guidelines

If you win a doll request, you can ask for whatever you like, as long as the subject is no higher than PG-rated. You can request a specific base, as long as it isn't bigger than one of my larger bases. I recommend looking through my dolls to get an idea of what I am good at! I love working on original characters, so if you've got one, don't be shy! (You can also choose to pass the request award on to the next place winner if you prefer.)

Standard Judging System

I will run polls, using them to determine the award for Voters' Choice, unless I suspect cheating. ;) Most of the judging, however, will be done by me, possibly with the help of various people who live near my computer if I can't decide on my own.

In order to make the judging as fair as possible, I've developed a simple system. There are a number of categories - within each category, I'll pick approximately three of best entries and assign them points. In the end, whichever entry has the most points overall is the overall winner.

I will generally choose at least four or five categories (from the "optional" list or based on the nature of the individual contest) for the judging.

For example, imagine that a doll gets second place in the poll (2 points) and I decide that it has the best hair (3 points) and the best costume design (3 points). Its total number of points will be 2*2 + 3*1 + 3*1 = 10. The entry with the most points gets first place, with the next two getting second and third. Ties are possible.

Note that Voters' Choice is weighted so that it is worth more than most of my independent judgements. In my experience so far, the numbers do tend to turn out so that Voters' Choice is a factor in determining the overall places. The multiplier makes it enough to tilt the scales one way or another if there are several entries closely competing, but it's not going to make that much of a difference unless the entry is good enough to already have a high score.

In general, the judging system is designed to give as much or more weight to creative excellence as to technical excellence. Hair and shading are technical categories. Clothing/costume design (including the hair style) and (of course) creativity are more about originality, doing something a little different (because it works artistically, not just because you can). Base use (which includes appropriate choice and effective use) and accessories combine some of each.

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