Starting this thread off (I feel many have wanted to make it, or say something about it).
The main backing in my personal perspective would be the island competitions. The island competition started off as something small in the server, although it has evolved since then. It involves more than just the staff now. The island competition is a thing in the server that engages people to go beyond just business. It something that opens up peoples creativity and makes room to give the community something to do.
I feel that judging should be something that involves the whole community though. Someone working hours upon days to make a island that turns out to be amazing, should be seen and agreed to by the members of the community.
Taking the most recent island competition into my support, congratulations to Houzo to winning. Although in my time playing on Economy (Which isn't too long) I haven't seen Houzo on once. Now this wouldn't be too big of a deal, but someone who wins the island competition on Economy should be someone who can represent it. Winning the island competition immediately makes you a face for the server. And I feel that this honor should be given to someone who the players feel represent the community well.
Taking MorayEel, just being one example. He has ran twice and I have watched him grow his island. Not only his island though, he has contributed many things to the community. He even has a free shop to help new players. Not to take the point away from the island competition, which is a showcase. But Moray has made a very good impression to the server, and would be a fabulous face to the Economy server.
Bringing it back to the point. The community members should have a say in the community competitions. Whether it be a island competition, to a head contest. Because in the end of the day, we are the ones playing and we should be able to control some of the things that directly affect our experience.

Feel free to add anything else! This would be a thread where people can cover the bases I missed. I'm not too familiar with the in and outs of the server yet, but I'm sure all of you are. Thank you for reading

 

Makes sense to have a community-based competition to be judged by....the community? Seems to make sense to me. Support!

 

To be honest,

I think it would be nice to have staff shortlist competitors and then allow members to vote on whoever is left.

That way both staff are able to play a role in the island competition and so can the community. A lot of the islands are excellent and being able to vote to choose what I like best would be very cool.

Definitely support! If in the scenario though that not a lot of people enter which wouldn’t call for a shortlist (like let’s say 3-4 people enter), it would be nice if everyone including staff and players could just vote rather than just cutting of one-two specific people, cause then that’s just sad

 

I'm not sure "community only" is the way to go, since it's pretty easy for those types of votes to simply devolve into popularity contests.

However, I'm also genuinely shocked at the choice for the February Island Competition. (I don't want to take anything away from Houzo - I do think the island is gorgeous and I love it) But I don't understand how you can view moray's right next to it and not be even more impressed? Was the competition judged simply by the pictures in the forum thread? Moray, we gotta get you some shaders!

 

I agree that the community should have the ability to vote because, whether they admit it or not, there will always be some bias from the moderation team going into the voting process, even if it is unintended. This is something they deny but is something they will not and cannot prove wrong. Nobody can convince me that votes haven't been previously cast based on who submitted an island (or, potentially, a friend on the staff team votes for an island and this sways the vote of another.) I had a negative response to my first loss, which admittedly wasn't permitted, and undoubtedly this affected the outcome of my second submission. I'd be surprised if my island was even visited by half of the people that voted.

Another side note is that it feels so lame to lose a community contest to a moderator that has direct influence over the outcome of the competition. Even if they aren't voting, they're best of friends with who is. This doesn't happen every contest, but it does happen often enough to where it makes me even question if the contests are made for the players. If moderators can't win drop party heads, how is winning any other competition different? If you want to win the contest you created and are hosting just spawn in your medals like the blocks of bedrock you got last year, nobody will bat an eye!

Awesomolocity brings up a good point. I have no shaders and if the winner is being chosen solely off of screenshots, let me know beforehand so I can hire Michael Bay to photoshop the hell out of mine to turn a rock into a diamond. Apparently making your Minecraft water look hyper-realistic is enough to make the crows caw.

TL;DR: Reduce bias in community competitions by allowing more people to vote.

 

Yeah I agree it's so laughable. Even at high school you get to vote for who becomes SCHOOL CAPTAIN HAHAHA

 

Anticipate another staff win this month
We love to see it !!

 

Coming back to this topic, I think it has been made clear that players don't only think it is the island comp that is going on with the staff. Although, I am not going to bring that up, or be the one to make the thread(if there is one made). However I was thinking about the island comp. I don't agree with this way of how the island competition is voted on. And that isn't a target to staff voting, or staff running. To make this clear, I believe the staff work just as hard as the players on their island, if not harder due to their other responsibilities. But the voting is unacceptable (imo). Because even if the staff does win it's insinuated to be bias. And it shouldn't be like that. It's going to stay like that though. Even if the said staff members running don't vote, there is still going to be a bias. Because that's your team, even if it's not blatantly just "you're my friend so I'll vote for you". The voting team will see more of the effort that person put into their island. Under no means should staff be hated on or judged for running in the island comp. But that's just how it is. I think the only way to fix this would be making a more verse way of voting. Even if the players don't completely vote, if the staff made a shortlist, as Boba said. I feel the players should have more say in it though, and I feel that it would make the experience better for everyone. Staff members that want to run, winning fairly without "bias". Players feeling more involved, and in total, everyone being heard. It's a problem that is starting a drift between the players and staff team. It needs to be fixed. Anyway, bump too I guess lol.

 

How do I view all submissions

 

Go to the island competition thread

 

Just to explain my neutral, whilst I think the idea of allowing the community to be more involved in these kinds of things is a great idea, the downfall is, it just becomes a popularity contest and people vote for their friends rather than (in the island competition's case) the best island.

It really would be nice to have more involvement, but I just don't see it going well.

Also worth mentioning, In my opinion, things like the island competition aren't all about winning, its a fun thing to show off some of the hard work people have done and people get to see more cool things on the server to explore that they might have not seen before.

 

And the staff team isn't the same? Rather than one group voting for their friends or people they like, it would be the whole player base instead. It's a popularity contest either way really. Just some people don't register the one there is now.
I feel this could also be prevented with the shortlist. The staff choose the final running and then the players vote.

 

You are assuming there is staff bias, and I'm assuming there would be more from the community, Assumptions are no reason to try and discredit a fun competition for the server to take part in. If y'all are going after bias in these things, just remove the prizes, then it really doesn't matter.

 

The difference between the two is that we have seen how the voting goes when the staff are voting. We have not seen what would happen if the community got to vote.

By no means am I trying to discredit it. I have already said that I thought it was a lovely event, and how it has given the server something to look forward to. I'm just suggesting different ways to improve it.

I've already said that the island competition has become more than the sunflower and title. It is a representation of the type of things you can do on the server. The prizes aren't what people want. It's the recognition. Believe me, I don't think any of the players are spending hours upon days to make a island for a renamed sunflower and a sparkly name.

 

And again there is an assumption that you are making that the vote was bias just because they were staff, and not because of the island submitted happened to be better in the judges view?

This will go in a circle. I explained my neutral, I don't think the community deciding will be any better, I think it will get worse. Nothing more I can say

 

I respect that, but I encourage you to go on economy do /visit houzo and then /visit Morayeel. That I why I think the community should have a say. No bias involved.

 

You're acting like luka even has a say in the island competition it is literally 0% his fault that he won

There was a thread made in the past basically about this topic and 52 who currently hosts the island competition and explains in great detail a lot of how it works and why islands get picked over other ones Skyblock Official Site | Skyblock

And to be honest Leo has a major point. Just changing the group of people that judge something will only shift the bias to other people instead, it just changes from bad to bad. No matter who picks, you will always have bias judging. And a lot of people forget that everyone has their own opinions, and just because they don't align with yours doesn't mean it's bias. I actually a lot of the time prefer cleaner less crowded builds, and again that's my own opinion. But just allowing anyone and everyone to pick these will lead to people entering crap islands with 10 blocks and having 50 people vote for them as a meme and have it win, and it doesn't solve the problem.

No Support

 

Okay, didn't mean to make it against the winner. I can respect the decisions made, and I guess you are right on the different tastes and styles.

This could be prevented with the staff shortlist. Thus not a valid point, as the staff wouldn't vote for a 10 block meme island to be in the final running.

Just to clear this up. I'm not saying that the players should have complete control in the vote. As Cal points out that valid point. What I am saying is that the player base should have more of a say in the end result. So we get a taste of everyone's style and preference.

 

Well it is a valid point considering the point of the suggestion and majority of the replies underneath want community control which is why I mentioned it

And there's also 0 point in a shortlist when it's literally 2-5 at most entries a month, one thing you can add is the votes that each island got (without names) and then take the loss or win and move on. You say it's more than just a fun island competition, but that's all it is. If people want to make it more than that, that's their problem for doing so because that's not the original intent of the competition.

 

I agree with Boba. Sometimes theres so many people who enter it would be nice for staff to narrow it down then allow players to vote for the winner. Ive never enter a competition but being able to vote on them would make me feel more involved!