Base Contest Announcement!

[Dusk]

24 minutes ago, ForeverLaxx said:

If it makes you feel better, I care not one bit which base was getting illegitimate votes. Those votes being illegitimate is what matters, not whether or not those votes swung who stands on the podium at the end.

 

You're missing the forest for the trees here.

 

That said, I find it rather interesting that the decision to re-vote was made and a bunch of accounts that have existed for years but with zero posts immediately found this thread to complain about the re-vote. I'm not going to make any direct accusations, obviously, but it's rather suspect in my opinion.

How many posts should I have to be legit?

[Dusk]

Less than two day old account complains about voting irregularities. Film at 11.

[Strudel]

I was kinda joking in a petty way that people should have to show up in order to vote, but I'm happy to see this idea!

 

Thanks yall for taking the time to do this and listening to the community. 🩷

[Wravis]

1 hour ago, DawL said:

.... (extraneous blathering snipped)...You admitted to (then backtracked on) having friends alt accounts vote.  

Nope. Wrong. I said NOTHING OF THE KIND. Nothing about alt accounts referred to ANY of my friends. The ALT comment was in reply to someone else who was insinuating that alts were voting (I assumed for the competition) and I was just saying do they think all those alt accounts visited all 

So you had your friends vote. Without VISITING. Not even once.  

SOME friends didn't visit. MANY DID. SOME OF THEM -  I ACTUALLY TOOK THEM THERE. I have said this repeatedly. 

You seem OBSESSED with lying about me, twisting words and outright making stuff up. 

And by the way, the emphasis is Dacy's not mine. That's the way the post is written.

I don't care who the original emphasis comes from. My point is you are ONLY focused on the request (not rule) to tour the bases, and completely ignoring the ONLY VOTE ONCE part, which quite obviously, was DEFINITELY being ignored somewhere and I was not the only one (nor the first one) to notice this or bring this up. 

 

Don't cut out the stuff I said that you can't lie your way out of and say it's extraneous blathering.

You got caught proudly declaring you did something stupid and then when everyone called you out for doing that stupid thing you added conflicting information to your story.
So you didn't tell your friends to spam votes on alt accounts. I can accept that you didn't intend to say that.

Let's focus on what you absolutely did say. You said your friends didn't look repeatedly until people called that out for being shitty.

You still spat in the face of the competition by getting people to vote without looking at ANY of the bases.

  

 

15 hours ago, DawL said:

But there's a lot of people who really aren't that interested in bases or contests but were willing to trust my judgment and screenshots to vote for a base's awesomeness!

 

15 hours ago, DawL said:

 But my friends were willing to trust my judgment because they either: a) did not have time to visit the bases for themselves, or b) had no interest in doing so but we're willing to take the time to validate MY choice because they liked the screenies, my descriptions, etc. and because they are my friends.

 

15 hours ago, DawL said:

 just want to play the game without getting involved with bases. Some don't care for RP and thus most of the features of a well-built base are lost on them. But they still have accounts and thus votes -  and as friends, were willing to support my love for my personal favorite RP destination.

 

10 hours ago, DawL said:

 Did everyone I contacted go to the bases? Nope. Many of them told me they weren't going to. Some believe bases are, aside from basic transport ones, "a RP thing" and they aren't RPers.

  

  Don't change your story. Your friends didn't look.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Wravis

[Strudel]

I'm still surprised to see such an argument over this tbh. There's no doubt that the bases are all great, and most voted honestly.

 

The problem is DawL decided to brag on a public forum that their fanbase voted blindly, without respecting one simple rule. If they really want to support their friend, they can log in, revote, and go to an RP base even though they aren't RPers, apparently. 

[DawL]

3 hours ago, SparklePie said:

This can't be real? Are you serious? ALL this fuss over this? 

And now after the fact we have this from the CR's "As to ensuring voters have visited before voting: it's not a requirement, it was a plea and a strong suggestion."

A plea. And a strong suggestion. Just like visiting the base and voting. This is an online poll. Those are not rules. Those are suggestions. And can noooo one really admit to ever voting for your friends base or work or whatever before? Of course not. No. Nooo one would ever doo something so truly evil. 

No no. That's voter fraud. "FUDGING" the vote. Strip them of their win.

And as for a burst of votes at the end. Has no one ever shopped on ebay before? That's called tactics. I saw what HammyFly was talking about. There was always an exact 1 for 1 vote match when Vault Luxe received a vote. They kept a constant 2-3 vote buffer the whole week. I can't blame the Vault Luxe team or their fans for seeing what was going down and planning accordingly.

What a joke this whole thing is. And how utterly unfair. I am not impressed.

THANK YOU! 

[DawL]

4 hours ago, Evercent said:

 

 

There was a public outcry after DawL admitted to getting her friends to vote at the last minute for her fave. It's not about Rampage losing. It's about someone dumping votes at the last second to get her favorite to win.

Wow. More lies. Tell me where I said I was talking to friends about voting "at the last second"? 

[Tanklet]

Y'all jumping down the wrong person's throat for the wrong reasons.

 

You're assigning "alt dumping" to DawL when they are NOT the person that said it.

 

DawL admitted to, at best, campaigning. At best. Guess what tho, someone else in this topic admitted to doing the same thing, but for a different base. Crickets.

 

I also noticed every time VL got one vote, Rampage immediately got 2-3. I saw that happen for days. Crickets.

 

What's more, the plea to visit the bases was just that. A plea. A request. A suggestion. Not a rule. The community voted for who they wanted using their own subjective rubric. That's what community choice is.

 

Now they're being told that doesn't count and they have to be chaperoned, and vote again. I don't log on this game for this. I'm not doing it, just to prove that I'm going to vote the way I already voted.

 

I'm sure folks will get cranky about another account that doesn't post to the forums but "suddenly found it just to whine" but oh well. This. This right here. This is the reason I stay out the forums.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Tanklet
Typo

[DawL]

27 minutes ago, Strudel said:

I'm still surprised to see such an argument over this tbh. There's no doubt that the bases are all great, and most voted honestly.

 

The problem is DawL decided to brag on a public forum that their fanbase voted blindly, without respecting one simple rule. If they really want to support their friend, they can log in, revote, and go to an RP base even though they aren't RPers, apparently. 

First - there is no "friend" to support! I DO NOT EVEN KNOW THE OWNER of the base. I just like a well-made, immersive, realistic base.  I was wowed by this base the first time I saw it, back when it first opened. 

I wasn't "bragging." I was commenting in reply to the post that was INSINUATING that ALL the votes being cast were "alts". That's what they seemed to be implying. Then a bunch of literacy-challenge folks come in and say I was admitting that the votes were all alts of me, (NOT TRUE nor did I say or even imply that) and then it just snowballs from there like a twisted game of 'telephone'. 

So oh no! Bad me for wanting to share the artistry with others. And as for my "fanbase" (WTH? I have as fanbase? Wow nice to know!) voting blindly, none of it was blindly. Everyone I talked to got to hear me froth about (and/or see) the merits of the base. Not everyone visited, but I do know several who did. Some WITH me. And everyone seems to be *ASS*uming that all this took place in the 11th hour, which IT DID NOT. I was talking to friends about the contest LONG BEFORE this 11th hour crap. WHY SO MUCH TWISTING WORDS AND MAKING UP OUTRIGHT LIES? Now I remember why I mostly avoid the forums. 

Personally don't think there is ANYTHING WRONG with convincing others of the merits of a DANG GOOD BASE that is 1. artistic, 2. immersive, 3. well-constructed, 4. working as intended so my 8' tall demon didn't get hung up in scenery and what have you like some other bases (sadly, the Dryad base which I really liked, a couple of places in the PIrate base (which I loved), and the Rampage base), 5. was intuitive OR directed as re: teleport points (i.e. you took a teleport point and it went somewhere that made sense and you could easily find your way back. A few bases lost rank with me because I became lost or confused as to the point of teleporting, after using a teleport point. As in, it was a one-way trip with no clear reason for the teleport in the first place (Rampage). Crash was amazing in it's theme, and was a hard competitor for my second choice against the Pirate one. I loved the stage and the post-apocolyptic feel. I just loved Vault Luxe. AGAIN, Not because the owner is someone I know -- BECAUSE I DON'T NOR DO THEY KNOW ME -- but because it's A GOOD BASE.

I liked a LOT of bases, and the top five were REALLY hard to weed out to pick just one. In the end, the immersion won out, but I did love the Pirate one (except for getting stuck a few places), and the Dark Coven. The Dark Coven was SOOO awesome but finding my way around was a bit more difficult so I gave points to a base that was easier to navigate. 

There's no requirement to be an RPer to vote. If that's going to become a criteria, then the base everyone is whimpering about certainly wouldn't do well as it's not really even realistically a RP themed base. 

[CitizenThirteen]

Gotta love it when a popularity contest goes horribly wrong lol

[AgentEmu]

It's really funny, because I noticed the exact opposite that when Rampage got 1 vote, Vault Luxe would be 2-3 votes ahead. 

 

I genuinely believe that that was simply because those two bases were beyond awesome, that they were just that good. 

 

The drama here is just about the vote tampering the last few moments of the poll.

[Dusk]

6 minutes ago, AgentEmu said:

It's really funny, because I noticed the exact opposite that when Rampage got 1 vote, Vault Luxe would be 2-3 votes ahead. 

 

I genuinely believe that that was simply because those two bases were beyond awesome, that they were just that good. 

 

The drama here is just about the vote tampering the last few moments of the poll.

If you are going to make an accusation, you need to provide the proof of such a statement. It is toxic posts like this that has turned this contest into a circus. Some posters here figured out what our strategy was, but you have not. And so instead of asking questions in an effort to gain a greater understanding- you just slandered an entire community of people.

The only thing left here is drama.

[Dusk]

We had two weeks of voting via an online poll format- which yielded 241 total votes.

Now we have one week to try and schedule appointment windows for 241 votes in order to confirm the authenticity of the poll our votes.

People didn't like the results so the rules were changed to alter the outcome.
 

Subtract the votes from Rampage and Vault Luxe and that still leaves 92 votes in just 7 days with no start day/time to the appointments/voting.

You can't make this up...

[AgentEmu]

4 minutes ago, Dusk said:

If you are going to make an accusation, you need to provide the proof of such a statement. It is toxic posts like this that has turned this contest into a circus. Some posters here figured out what our strategy was, but you have not. And so instead of asking questions in an effort to gain a greater understanding- you just slandered an entire community of people.

The only thing left here is drama.

Man idk i just RP furries

[Dusk]

Here is an easy solution:

Call it a tie and defer the final decision to the judges via the voting rubric?

I don't know what rules were put in place in the event of a tie, but I accept that the judges would be honest, fair, and impartial.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Dusk
~Edited for additional Content~

[Dacy]

Well. Every time I visit, I think wow, this has really gotten out of hand. And then it gets worse.

 

We try and move forward with what seemed to us a reasonable path: we believe the results, but the community was in an uproar. We thought that people would be cooperative, if not happy, to prove their vote was valid, that the results were not because of unethical vote padding, and that stopping by a base for a moment and sending an email was not a big ask, and that the results would be proven without any taint. Of course, that only works if the people who voted, vote again. But I can't blame people for being tired of it all. I certainly am. But I and the other judges are willing to put in our time to prove that the results are not bogus. We really did think it was something we could do to fight any perceived illicit voting.  After all we've done to try and make this happen, I guess in comparison, it didn't seem like a lot to ask. We gave ourselves another week of work, and all we need is a moment of cooperation from you.

 

I have just seriously misjudged things from the start. Well, not myself alone, but. I guess both of us, Easter Bunny and I, tend to think the best of people. We thought that people would choose what they thought was the best base. We knew there was likely to be some elements of popularity to it, but hoped that in general, people would pick their preferred base. When that didn't work out the way we hoped, we thought it was better to show that we were aware of the hoopla and that the integrity of the vote meant something to us, and so we should take action. We also thought this would settle things down. Wrong again. We thought people would just vote again. I'm hoping we're not wrong again, but that's two people so far saying they are just done with it. And looking at our track record so far, I'm not confident. Our inexperience is showing, and our optimistic view of people seems to be working against us.

 

I am so very sad. If people do not vote as they did before, then the results will be very different. And then people will say, see? The vote WAS rigged.  Which is the opposite of what I want, and what I had thought would happen. Arrgh. I just. Want. A clean. Vote. As much as that is possible with a virtual community. And at this point, I just want it to be done. We are TIRED.

 

💔Dacy

[Aalya]

I've said it once, I'll say it again:

 

EVERLASTING, YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS!!!!!!!

[Macchiato]

2 hours ago, Dusk said:

How many posts should I have to be legit?

 

Woah, slow down there, partner. Like All-Star says, the neck-and-neck spectacle was cool and fun, and I speak for myself in saying that seeing the last minute influx was wild, but still valid because it could have been and likely was just a bunch of people planning a vote at the last minute for the clutch, lmao. It's not a big secret that LUXE is part of the club scene and this is just a community popularity contest, nor is it a secret that LUXE is a fantastic space on various measures.

 

I'm not super in agreement with the re-tabulation for the reasons some have cited, it's not really easy or equal to have to wrangle the bodies, even if it's not the builders themselves having to do the work (and in fact, especially because it's a lot of work for the CR team, I am very sorry to you, Dacy, and I do love the intent of ensuring people are seeing all the participants' work); I might be presumptuous in saying this, but I don't even think the people who voted for RAMPAGE can argue that it wasn't a well-deserved victory by the end, so congratulations to ya'll with LUXE for the victory, genuinely.

 

I'm just incredibly sorry that some of us have shown no understanding of etiquette in this thread and thought it would be "funny" and okay to say parasocial and inflammatory things without thinking about how far they're putting their foot into their mouth. It's like I said at the start of the blow-out - what DawL said out-of-pocket was an insult to all the builders on that list but especially LUXE's, and at this point, RAMPAGE's for being so close and especially the people who set the contest up.

 

Because regardless of if it was 'jokes' or 'not a big deal', the way things were phrased by people who had no business saying them was hurtful and snarky and was being said on ya'll's behalf and may not even have been accurate to the truth, and it put unnecessary shadiness that may not have been there before and isn't in the participants' ability to control, and the escalation that happened afterwards is a prime example of why people should say things tactfully or not at all.

 

Like, so much of this could have been ameliorated if one (specific) person had just backed off and said "sorry, I said this but I didn't mean it and I get how this makes people upset" instead of aggressively defending what they did or did not do. And also if others hadn't jumped on the wagon to bicker about who did what and what was valid and invalid afterwards.

 

For all we know, ya'll at LUXE were having a block party at the time the polls closed and dumped in unique votes for the victory lap, and that's valid in my book - the specifics don't even matter, it's community engagement and the amount of work that was put in is apparent with LUXE itself as a base, and as long as all entries were viewed, I think the voters had a good time. The rest wasn't supposed to be that serious, it's the Miss Congeniality of contests.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Macchiato

[GM Crumpet]

OK Guys, enough.

This has gone from a fun contest into a really unpleasant attack on people who are trying to do nice things for the community. At this point most of the CR's are ready to throw in the towel and declare this contest null and void and never hold another one. Is this what you want? If so then you are very close to getting it. If you have an issue then bring it up with the GM's.

Do not attack people on the forum. The CR's have the full support of the GM team and do not deserve any of the recent unpleasantness. As for the problem of block voting, that happens everywhere. We can't do a lot to fix that. We will have a different system of voting in future contests (if there is one, the way the CR's have been treated recently I wouldn't be surprised if they walked away). Anyone with a registered forum account can vote. Ideally they should check every base and vote on their favourites, but if they don't it's out of the hands of the GM's and CR's. We all do what we do for the love of the community. We don't do it for what we can get out of this.

 

You are better than this. The CoX community has a reputation for being one of the best on the internet. Sadly this has brought out the worst in some people and I'm ashamed.

 

GM Crumpet.

[Aalya]

People need to stop think about what they are saying on all sides of this painfully stupid argument because there are people that are getting seriously hurt by what others are saying.

 

At the end of the day, what does this even matter? It's a popularity contest. On the internet. That no one is going to remember in a year.

 

But you know who will remember everything you guys are saying?

 

The community reps that you all are treating like GARBAGE!

 

GROW UP AND SHUT UP! I'M SICK AND TIRED OF SEEING TWO OF THE NICEST PEOPLE I KNOW BEING TREATED LIKE THIS!

 

I hope you're all real proud of yourselves because you are WRECKING THEM! And I hope they never put themselves through this again just to be verbally beaten for every choice they make!

 

I HOPE YOU'RE REAL PROUD OF YOURSELVES!

 

Go drink your apple juice, eat your dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, and watch some Disney Jr because you're all acting like CHILDREN!

[Ruin Mage]

I just want to point out, @Aalya that the last page or 2 hasn't been leveled at Dacy or Easter. They heard loud and clear about how to do better next time, and to their credit, have acknowledged these things. They seem like they got good heads on their shoulders for bettering a contest that people enjoyed.

It primarily stems from DawL being out of pocket in admitting trying to brigade the vote (more or less). None of that was leveled at the Reps. The rest is miscellaneous stuff about votes and alt accounts that doesn't really matter in the end.

Though I will say popularity contests ala public polls tend to go sideways. Polls are bad, but that's just me.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Shadeknight

[Aalya]

@Shadeknight Do you really think that this drama isn't still affecting them? That it isn't hurting them? That they aren't having their emotional energy reserves drained by watching the thing they put their hearts and souls into turn into... THIS??? If you think that just because it's being directed all over the place and not specifically at them this time that it isn't hurting them, you're wrong.

[Ruin Mage]

Sure, all the stuff around DawL can still affect others and it probably has. I'm just saying that there's not really been a treatment of Dacy or EB like they're garbage.

Also caps-locking and calling people children doesn't tend to help in any capacity. Like, its understood that peopled jumped the gun, but trying to come in swinging when Dacy & EB can speak for themselves is...head-scratchy. Not only that but a GM has spoken on a couple occasions. It didn't really need the whole "I hope you're happy with yourself" because that's not going to go anywhere. It may also further inflame the thread.

The contest, as far as I know, is done and over with. The feedback, though earlier in the thread, has been heard loud and clear (as far as I've read from Dacy/EB) - so yeah. Further jumping down people's throats for no real good reason isn't a good look. Could have left it at Crumpet's reply and let that be it.

[Aalya]

4 minutes ago, Shadeknight said:

Also caps-locking and calling people children doesn't tend to help in any capacity. 

 

I don't see a lot of adult behavior going on here. 

 

5 minutes ago, Shadeknight said:

 Further jumping down people's throats for no real good reason isn't a good look.

 

If I were trying to look pretty, I would be avoiding bruises, not fighting for  people to treat each other with kindness.

 

7 minutes ago, Shadeknight said:

 Could have left it at Crumpet's reply and let that be it.

 

Crumpet's reply didn't load for me until after I hit submit reply. I still stand by what I said.

[Macchiato]

1 hour ago, Aalya said:

At the end of the day, what does this even matter? It's a popularity contest. On the internet. That no one is going to remember in a year.

 

But you know who will remember everything you guys are saying?

 

The community reps that you all are treating like GARBAGE!

 

I agree and understand the spirit of that, completely, if not the energy nor the phrasing. I get like that too sometimes and can feel like the only adult in the room, and sometimes like the loudest child - just keep calm, guys.

 

I know from experience how something like this can take the rug from under organizers' feet, and I'm sure our CRs appreciate the defense from a friend, but there's a better way to channel that frustration and help them make it through things like this, and that's by refraining from too many passionate or hot-headed remarks. Too much vinegar and tit-for-tat can ruin things. (I was finalizing this post around the time @Shadeknight posted his, so this isn't a response or addition to his or any subsequent ones, by the by.)

 

In fact, some names across this thread I recognize and I know who's not all-too-friendly with whom, this is not the time and place to whip that out and try to get the last word if any of ya'll were thinking about doing so, because after a point that would be hazing our CRs.

 

I, myself, apologize to @Dacy and @Easter Bunny for how I came in swinging after lunch the other day, I was definitely fumed and taken aback by things that someone else was claiming and likely added fuel to a fire that I had no idea would spread like it did, I was barely even cognizant that it was your first rodeo organizing this, but at the end of the day, this is not about most of us posting here.

 

We might lend our voices to the poll as a community, but we do not make the final decisions nor are we actually directly affected by the final decisions; if our contribution isn't on that list of bases in the poll, our say does not matter in the event of a disagreement, that is between the organizers and the participants. This is not a senatorial vote, and I'm sure we have hope that future polls of this nature will be designed to be less stressful for all involved.

 

What's important is that we in the peanut gallery coordinate ourselves and stop trying to climb over ourselves to shout and advocate for artists who may not want that advocacy to be like this. I don't know what's happening behind the scenes at all, but I hope that our CRs are able to take a break, breathe, and come back to discuss things with the affected parties and come to an agreement that can be shared with us. I actually think that Dusk's suggestion, being he's representing one of the ones affected, is a fair one that should be discussed away from here, between the builders and the organizers. Maybe I'm two steps behind and it's already happening.

 

As for the rest of us? Go about your days, it's 7am EST canon-time. Check back, refrain from adding too much until we know for sure that disagreements have been ironed out and there are no hard feelings, get yourselves grounded.

 

As a community we'll make it through this and like Aalya said, we won't remember this snag in a year or two, but we sure will remember the amazing artistry that came from this showcase, which actually has been the most active in memory to me.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Macchiato