Competitions are at the heart of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood and the objectives of this course are to help members effectively plan and run them. As this course goes through the different aspects of a competition, you will get a feel for how flexible things can be, allowing anyone to become a content creator. This course outlines the specifics of competition creation and judgement. You can find additional information on inspiring content in the Leadership Management course.
There are many attributes of a competition that collectively explain who can participate, what it’s about, when you can subscribe, how long you have to create your entry, how you go about submitting it, and what types of awards will be available to those who place.
There are nine major archetypes of competitions and it’s quite easy to determine which one is the best fit. The selection determines how the site treats the competition.
Regular Competition: This will cover most competitions run in the DJB. It allows all members to sign-up and submit their entries through the site. After the competition is over, entries are reviewed and placements assigned and awarded. There is functionality to give special details only after subscribing, and timing competitions to allow for trivia and other time-sensitive events.
Manual Competition:In this type of competition, members cannot subscribe to it, instead the organizer will go in and manually assign participants and placements. A live debate or trivia on IRC would fall into this type.
Gaming Competition: This is for gaming, where members will submit matches through the gaming portal. It has extra functionality that goes with it to handle multiple entries created during gaming matches. The website can even auto-place participants based on the amount of Clusters of Fire/Earth earned.
Timed Competition: This is for competitions where the time between subscribing and submitting are crucial, such as cryptogram and word search competitions. The Timed Competition archetype can be used to measure the interval between subscription and submission, for example in case of Trivia-like competitions. This competition archetype does not allow subscribers to unsubscribe from the competition.
Fiction Competition: This archetype is for word based competitions such as fiction and poetry. The Fiction archetype provides infrastructure for relevant competitions to provide Clusters of Ice based on the word count of submissions.
Graphics Competition: This archetype is for art based competitions. The Graphics archetype provides infrastructure for relevant competitions to provide Clusters of Graphite based on the difficulty of the competition. Approval guidelines can be found here
Container Competition: The container archetype is a specialized manual competition used for unit events ranging from GJWs to a BT event. This archetype allows a competition to function as a parent or container competition where no entries can be submitted, although the organizer can still manually add participants in case awards are given.
Bracket Competition: The container archetype is a specialized manual competition used for organizing knockout-tournament style competitions. It acts as a container-type competition one or more sub-competitions. (which don’t usually, but may award crescents)
ACC Competition: The container archetype is a specialized manual competition used for competitions hosted in the ACC. It is best to ask the Combat Master for help in setting up one of these competitions, also so they can confirm availability of staff to judge matches.
Required for any competition, this is what shows up on the competitions page. Should be something descriptive and proper for what it is, and of course free of profanity and offenses.
Also required, there is a start date and end date which cover the amount of time members have to work on entries before it closes and grading begins.
Having members organize a competition with you is not mandatory, but depending on the arrangement and situation it may make sense to list one or multiple people. These members will have the ability to assign placements, close out a competition after judgement, and assist in administering the event. Organizers and co-organizers may compete in their own competitions but cannot place in them.
This will determine who can participate in your competition. This is partly determined on the details of the competition and what it’s about, but has a final impact on the level of awards that will be given. The more people who can participate, the more competitive and higher awards will be given. Select an appropriate target unit and realize that depending on your own position it may require additional approval from your summit or the Dark Council.
The type of competition is another detail that will show up on the competition page to let members know if it is relevant to their interests. Selecting the appropriate type helps draw the appropriate members to check out your competition and result in higher quantities of entries. In some cases, the type will also warrant additional approvals and improper classification could look like you are trying to circumvent processes in place to ensure quality competitions are available to participate in.
A competition can be tied to another approved competition allowing for everything to collectively be considered one large event. The parent competition itself wouldn’t have anything here but would instead be a competition with a certain award level, and details on possible placements for all sub-events. If the competition being created is a sub-competition, it would be linked back to the parent competition here.
Checking this box will prevent anyone from clicking subscribe to a competition before it starts. Used in conjunction with hidden details, it allows a competition to be approved and show up in the competition center early but prevents anyone from getting started on it until it starts.
Checking this box will prevent anyone from clicking subscribe to a competition after it starts on the site. When setting up certain competitions ahead of time like a structured run-on or ladder based competition, this helps control that pool of participants.
Note that checking to prevent both early and late subscribers will make it impossible for anyone to subscribe to your competition.
When selecting the Gaming Archetype at the beginning, an extra set of details will be required to cover how the database should handle scoring the competition.
The details section is the chance to open up and be creative to explain what a competition is. It expands into everything related to the competition and why it exists, with the most important elements being how a participant goes about creating a valid entry and how grading and scoring will be done.
This is a free-form text section formatted by Markdown to go over the details and explain what is supposed to happen. These details are visible to everyone the instant a competition goes through final approval. Enough of the what should be explained here to guide and ensure proper information exists so it can be participated in. Some different items to include are discussed below.
Story: Some backstory that covers what’s going on in the competition and going into what you will be doing. Regardless of the type a competition can always be tied back to why it’s important and what’s at stake.
Platform:This covers what format you expect files to be submitted in, what game should be played, or what is used to participate in the competition.
Requirements: Things like the number of words in a piece of fiction, number of lines or type of a poem, how many matches to make up a set.
Scoring: How placements are determined, what will be used to score, essentially cover how you end up winning.
Awards:Are there additional medals to be sent out like Clusters of Fire, unofficial titles or bragging rights and prestige in the unit, possible highlights in official moments of House fiction.
This field works the same as above and additionally uses Markdown. This is used for events such as trivia or in any situation where you do not want members to have access to information that may give them an unfair advantage. Used in conjunction with prevent early subscription, allows for getting competitions approved ahead of time and an even playing field from day one.
The Brotherhood distributes awards to members deserving of recognition for participation and placing in competitions. These awards all fall under the category of competition medals and vary depending on the details and type of competition. A full list can be found on the DJBWiki awards page. Ensure you have the appropriate authority for the awards requested, or have approval from someone who does. At the closing of a competition, medals selected are automatically awarded depending on placements. If the medals being awarded are not listed, then you select manual award and put in requests for separate MAA approval.
Traditionally, Crescents used to be awarded to top 3 participants only, no matter of overall number of participants. This has been changed, allowing to recognize high quality of work submitted by more people. Starting from the 4th level Crescents, more people can be awarded on the following pattern:
Novae are awarded for formal Vendetta level events with a Gold, Silver and Bronze Novae going to the first, second and third placing entries.
Seals are awarded automatically for participation in any formal Vendetta event that awards Novae.
Clusters of Ice are awarded for Voice sponsored fiction and run-on competitions, and when available for participation should be noted in the Public details.
Clusters of Fire/Earth are given for gaming type competitions, and in some cases for normal competitions that include gaming as determined by the Fist.
Clusters of Graphite are awarded for Herald sponsored graphics competitions, and when available for participation should be noted in the Public details.
Legions of the Scholar are given with Trivia competitions to the first and second place finishers.
Once a new competition is created and submitted it will go out for approval. The first approval happens only if you don’t hold a position on the summit for your unit and will go to them. This step is skipped if you hold an appropriate leadership position. Once this check is passed, the competition will be sent for review and approval depending on the type:
Once a competition is approved, it will show up in the competition center and be visible to the membership and, depending on how it is set up, members can subscribe. Once closed, awards will be awarded, but will require MAA approval if there are duplicate placements or someone organizing the competition has received a medal.
After a competition is complete, you must go into your Administration panel, evaluate all submissions, and grade it. You can add notes for each submission to give feedback, determine if it is valid or not, and what placement that submission has. After all placements have been determined and saved, a competition can be completed and awards will automatically be sent. An email to the target unit is always a good idea so everyone can be highlighted for their contributions, especially in the case of larger scale competitions with multiple events. It is the MAA’s responsibility to ensure competitions are properly completed and medals properly awarded. So any competition that is closed without placements or not closed for a considerable amount of time will get the attention of the MAA office for intervention. Per MAA policy, all medals awarded for a competition must match those submitted on the request. Also, all competitions must be judged and completed within 30 days or the MAA will intervene and ensure steps are taken to complete the competition in a timely manner for the benefit of participating members.
Judgement, particularly in subjectively based competitions, should be done fairly and without bias. Any complaints about fairness will be forwarded to the competition organizer who is expected to professionally explain the criteria used to determine placement in a professional manner. Further instances of judgement bias may result in a member’s inability to organize future competitions.
In some competitions, particularly involving various writing activities or preparing pieces of graphic, it is important to provide feedback to their participants. At the minimum, you should provide feedback to people, who ask about it. Still, it is recommended to provide feedback to all participants as a standard.
While it takes a lot of efforts to prepare well-thought feedback, it has great importance, both to the organizers and the participants of competitions. People, who organize them, pay more attention to the entries and may be more fair, as they need to determine, why a given entry is better than others. Participants may learn, what mistakes they have done and what they need to improve. Thanks to this, they may develop their skills and become better writers or artists. In the result, whole Brotherhood may benefit in this way, by getting more members, who are exceptionally skilled and well-trained in various fields.
To provide feedback, it is recommended to write down pros and cons of each submission. It will both help you judge the entries in an unbiased way and provide constructive criticism or praises to their authors.
Competitions are designed to be as flexible as possible and allow organizers to create an engaging experience exactly as they want it. This guide has walked through each step in the process, explaining the tools and tips available when submitting and judging competitions. Competitions truly are the heart of activity in the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. If there are any questions, concerns, or suggestions relating to competitions, please contact the Master at Arms.
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