The rules didn't forbid editing in props - in fact, Editing Quality was one of the judging factors. In the case of unholycloak5, that did contribute to his overall entry.

Let's make this clearer, lol. If you were referring to Xenophobia's claim about upvotes affecting decisions, they did not. If you were referring to my claim that the jury discussed this issue, well they did :p

I bet you 10 crystals that Germany will win.

They did not ;)

Completely untrue, otherwise Gangham_Style would have won Free Topic. The jury actually had this discussion whilst judging. But yeah, I agree with the getting-over-it part :p

I think you've misunderstood what 'personal gain' means. So a judge wouldn't pick an entry by a person he/she doesn't like? Why? For personal satisfaction? The staff are more mature than that, this is why they were selected to be judges. And unless an entrant had insulted all 11 of the judges at some point, I don't see having lots of judges is the problem here. Rather, it's good, because it avoids this type of bias :lol: Now that, my friend, is a statement I completely disagree with. I've never said anything negative about the staff? You must be referring to someone else, lol, because that doesn't describe me at all :p And just because I agree with the way things were done this time, it doesn't mean the contest is somehow 'rigged'. Do you want to know why I agree? Because I didn't trust just letting one person make all the choices, so I made sure myself that the judging was fair :lol: And also, I have lost out multiple times in the past in these contests. Did you know that my entry was voted the best in the Madness' Run category by the staff jury, but that Semyon's opinion meant that it was knocked down to second place after Gefordeon's? I don't think you appreciate that even winners lose out sometimes :p As you can see, I wholeheatedly disagree with that opinion. That's a shame to hear, but I hope my responses have been helpful in some way ^_^

The staff had no idea what the jury 'wanted' - in fact, all the staff members who weren't on the jury had no idea as to all the members who were. So, other staff members had no idea as to who in particular would be judging their entries ;) And to try and get a wider opinion of entries from our jury, we first collected good entries in a spreadsheet, and then made sure we selected the winners by using a voting system. If you have any better way of selecting the entries in mind, please share it. And no, getting the community to vote is not the best way - people often cheat with votes and get their friends to vote for them. Having a group of *unbiased* staff members is much more accurate :p

I agree completely that humour is very relative, we all agreed on that before we commenced judging and took it into account. That's why we brought together a panel of about a dozen judges, and made sure we used a voting system as well as taking Semyon's opinions into account. So actually, it wasn't just the random entries that Semyon liked :) Actually, Semyon doesn't know all of the staff members personally. Again, something to make clear - he's very busy as our community manager, and often leaves staff relations to the admins. So, he doesn't even really know all the staff members so well - only their admins :p When staff members do win, it's because they made a good entry - which is no surprise, because the staff are some of our most creative and respected forum members. The winners weren't lucky; they were the ones who made the best entries, as judged by a staff panel of judges. Another thing to make clear: where the staff entered themselves, they were not allowed to judge their own entries! We tried to avoid bias wherever possible. And that's why we had consolation prizes - for deserving entries. We can't give so many prizes out for the sake of it, prizes should only be given to those who deserve them. Crystals are no small matter ;) Just because staff often make good entries, it doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to enter. That's like saying that we should ban all the winners from this time from entering more contests - or even worse, we shouldn't have contests at all, and everyone should get free crystals! In contests, there are always winners and loser. The experienced staff entrants shouldn't be penalised just because some of them did well - we had no more of an advantage than other players, we just put our experience to good use here :lol: Also, staff pay doesn't come into this - they do a lot for our community, and they get paid for that, not because they're "more important" than players. Staff are players first and foremost, remember - they just take on more responsibilities to help the community. _______________ Thanks for your feedback - it has been taken into account, it was really interesting to consider :)

By the way, repeating the same points over and over isn't necessary - I've already taken your feedback into account, thanks for showing your concern :) Whilst I can see whilst you're saying this, there's no need to respond - leave that to us ;) Anyway, congrats on winning your category :p

OK - thanks for sharing your feedback here, in any case!

Please, don't pretend to speak for the entire community :)

Entries weren't judged based on the number of crystals the entrants had - I'm sure you can see why that would have been completely unfair. It is simple - they get chosen if they manage to make a great entry, whether or not they are staff/ex-staff ^_^ You answered your own question there. Sorry to hear you think that.

I personally think you should control your behaviour, step back and calm down. Whether you take heed of this useful advice, or whether you continue to attack the integrity of other entrants, is another matter. I haven't received a PM, so I assume you don't have any constructive complaints/queries about the contest. Good job on taking part, though, and hopefully you've gained something out of it!

Despite the title of the forum group I'm in, I'm not a moderator as such - it says *newspaper* moderator i.e. I'm a Reporter. The only place where I have any moderation powers is the Press section; and even then, us Reporters only use those powers for our articles, not to moderate. Anyway, hat's what Raph was referring to.

I saw your pot - staff members are players too. If you want to ask anything about your entry or to make a constructive complaint, my offer to respond to PMs on the matter remains open. Otherwise, it's a shame you feel like this, and I hope you change your mind in the future.

It means that the winning entries did best overall under those conditions. I understand you're frustrated - but raging about not having won this time isn't the way forward. Rather than making angry posts, if anyone has a complaint about the contest/wants to ask why their entry didn't win, you can PM me directly. I'll do my best to answer your queries/complains about this ^_^

Let's be clear here. Those staff members who won things in this contest had no say in judging the categories they entered. All entries were chosen based on the conditions set, nothing else.

Yeah, they're just too clever, it's sooo unfair :c

Pfft.

Either way, Raphael has the right to ignore those he doesn't want to talk to, just as we all do. Staff members are still players, you know ;)

Oh yeah, because Portugal have Ronaldo, Ronaldo, and... erm... Ronaldo... Afraid I disagree with you there :P

No point in stressing over it; whether Semyon's online ore not, the results will be released soon. Just be patient :p

WO5/Fieldmarshal... It was awesome being a Reporter around that time, plus 300 Astronauts with M3 Wasp/Smoky was fun ^_^

Lol, I was actually in one of @lazer1786's power-levelling Arena CPs recently, after he invited me there... That's clearly an example of organised power-levelling, and should be brought to the attention of the moderation by the Judging Committee.

Argh, England... A frustrating last 20 minutes to watch, so many missed opportunities. But thanks to Costa Rica, we still probably have a good chance of getting out of our group.