👕 From the Shirt Desk: Derby Announcement!

Artist Central
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Hello, hello, hello! Based on community feedback I am writing to announce an upcoming change to the way the Derby Contest works. Effective 3/21/19, winners will be selected by editorial review. But don’t panic, votes are still going to be a big part of how winners are decided. In order to consistently deliver the best experience to all of you wonderful artists and to our customers, we want to ensure that the coveted ‘Daily’ spots continue to be a surprising and delightful experience for all who participate in the derby, artist and voter, alike.

This change will help maintain the competitive spirit of the Derby. Voting will continue to play a MAJOR part in determining the winners. The addition of editorial review to the judging process allows us to protect the integrity of the derby and maintain the highest standards for the customer experience on Woot.

To keep things exciting and the competition fierce, we will also be trying all sorts of other fun things like inviting some of you to be ‘Guest Editors’, working with outside partners (like the Do512 competition), bringing back mini Derbies like this one, and more!

We want everyone to continue to have fun in the Derby Contest and are grateful for your participation, feedback, and your exceptional talent. This change will be effective for the derby launching 3/21/19 Derby#700: Mashup Challenge - Animals & [Books | TV | Movies].

Make sure you are up to date on all Derby guidelines by reading up here!

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IIRC, this was something that a certain shirt.woot critic harped on about back in the days.

(This certainly will add a needed layer of checks and balances to those with a lot of vote-and-run social followers.)

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This is an exciting and harrowing change. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out.
@Lady5tark question: if we’re doing mini derbies again, do we still get a week’s notice for the full derby’s theme? And is the mini derby awarded differently than the main?

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Expect more edible arrangements and teddy bears from @BignellArt :smiley:

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I understand voting is a factor. Is being in the fog a factor? You may wanna toy with never publishing fog vote counts. Just a thought.

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During the time in which second and third place designs were selected by editors/guests, it wasn’t absolutely. I’m guessing that it will play a major role in selecting a design, though.

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One of the initial draws to the Derby was the blind faith that it was somehow democratic; that being a nobody could be overcome by a great design and lotsa votes. Please keep the little guys in mind. Maybe run an occasional “never printed derby” with only noob artists. Otherwise, I’m afraid you’ll scare new artists away.

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I feel like new artists are more likely to be scared off by the idea of having to get more votes than artists with established fanbases (as in the previous system), but we’ll see how it pans out. I love that this shift removes some of the incentive to cheat and (probably?) gives later entries a better shot at winning than they previously had.

Thanks for being open to trying new things, Woot! Hopefully this brings some new energy to the contest :slight_smile:

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I think this is probably a necessary change.

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This sounds great! Thank you for listening!

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Not-so-late-night-thoughts: The default sorting by votes gives an advantage to those who submit early and/or have a large auto-voting audience. IIRC, this was what that ballot stuffing family was doing before they were banned.

If the intention is to level the playing field a bit, can this change to another default – like random?

(And hurry up with the notifications to tell the voters the design printed!)

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How else do you celebrate a shirt going viral with the people who hustle on our behalf every day, @simic? #fruitandteddy (but I seriously didn’t send the bear)

We need to collab again so I have a reason to send you something :wink:

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Is there any point to the fog if woot is ultimately choosing the winners? Or if there is , would it be better to go back to the top four being the fog instead of nine? Like in the olden times!?

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Good question. Yes you will still get as much notice as possible on mini derbies. Like we did this week, as the derby schedule was a bit shaken up we tried to post updates as soon as possible to keep everyone aware as much as we could.

We don’t want to take away a really awesome opportunity to bring you guys something new though. So if an opportunity presents itself on the fly we will not turn it down while also bearing in mind that for the majority of our artists this is not a full time gig so notice is needed!

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I’m interested in the second part of acraigl’s question. Will these mini derbies be awarded differently? Will this first upcoming one be awarded differently?

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Tangent: In the derby descriptions, try crediting the originator of the theme idea. This encourages people to submit great ones.

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I volunteer to be a guest editor!

I prefer my edible arrangements without pineapple, thanks.

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Wow. Neat! Glad you’re willing to try this out.

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This is great news! I was getting a little bummed because I couldn’t get the number of votes other artist can pull in but I am glad that other factors are now considered. Thanks for listening!

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