A legitimate request towards the staff

[HeroLinik]

What if the Level Designers chose the Level of the Month.

What do you mean by "level designers"? The guys that are designing the levels to shoot a chance for LotM, the guys with the purple usernames or something else entirely?

[Yoshi021]

What if the Level Designers chose the Level of the Month.

What do you mean by "level designers"? The guys that are designing the levels to shoot a chance for LotM, the guys with the purple usernames or something else entirely?

The guys with the purple usernames.

[HeroLinik]

The guys with the purple usernames.

They design the official community episodes.

[Ace]

I don't really think being in the level designers group really means anything, since there's some good designers that just don't want to work on the community project. I wouldn't say the current level designer group is the best of the best. I don't think they should be given another role outside of working ti3.

[Kyo Saito]

This might be one-off, but what about a system where once a week every month we hold a "contest" of sorts for people to get their levels featured in the following month, instead of taking the highest rated levels? This might help to motivate people into making levels as it gives them a week's deadline, Sunday through to Saturday, to work on a level that will be judged by the Level Judges, which can potentially get featured as the level of the month, and the rest of the levels can be released publicly. This should promote motivation and creativity in budding level designers who want to see their work showcased, but it will also motivate the Level Judges and give them something to manage other than voting random levels. What are peoples' thoughts on this?

You mean like the Level of the Month system on NSMBX? That ran for quite a while (it was really popular the moment I joined) but the problem was that people were rigging the polls for the famous level designers like Chad and Kyo and leaving the rest for dust. There were some non-famous members that won it as well like Jarckius. It eventually died out but not just for that reason, but because it was too much work for the Level Judges, or so I think. We did try to bring it back with Level of the Season (I was a part of that) but that wasn't popular and only lasted for a few months before dying out completely.

If we were to introduce LotM here we would need to differentiate it from NSMBX's system to prevent these shortcomings.

I was never around during NSMBX, I had only lurked on SMBX:R before it went down, I got through college, and then joined here.
A system I would propose for level of the month is having disclosed levels (so the authors aren't known) given to the level judges, and they determine what they want to be set forth as level of the month, that way it removes any potential rigging and any other form of "bias". Think of how the Community Contests are judged. It would work in that way, I would imagine.

[PixelPest]

This might be one-off, but what about a system where once a week every month we hold a "contest" of sorts for people to get their levels featured in the following month, instead of taking the highest rated levels? This might help to motivate people into making levels as it gives them a week's deadline, Sunday through to Saturday, to work on a level that will be judged by the Level Judges, which can potentially get featured as the level of the month, and the rest of the levels can be released publicly. This should promote motivation and creativity in budding level designers who want to see their work showcased, but it will also motivate the Level Judges and give them something to manage other than voting random levels. What are peoples' thoughts on this?

The issue with this imo is that the levels that deserve to be featured may not necessarily be the best scoring levels. I still like the idea of a nomination system better and then having the Level Judges choose from the nominees

[Kyo Saito]

The issue with this imo is that the levels that deserve to be featured may not necessarily be the best scoring levels. I still like the idea of a nomination system better and then having the Level Judges choose from the nominees

But here's how the system would work:

At some specific period, like at the beginning of each month or whatever is set in stone, users would send their levels in anonymously to some sort of overseer, and the authors of those levels are made unaware as they are sent out to the Level Judges. The Level Judges, not knowing who the authors of each levels are, will get to vote on which level they want as featured, and they can discuss this among themselves. At the end of the scoring period, whenever that is, then the highest scoring level becomes feature. This system would work similar to how the Community Contests are run, with the judging and everything.
There is no issue with "the levels that deserve to be featured may not necessarily be the best scoring levels" because it's simple; if the level was really deserving to be featured, the Level Judges would give it a good score. The featured levels situation should be run similar to how the Community Contests work, though on a smaller scale. This definitely gives the Level Judges something to do, and it enforces that they actually play the levels. I've been skeptical of the Level Judges and have pondered if they have actually even played the levels they've scored, so this system will ensure that the levels are actually played, and the Level Judges actually have a job to do other than moderate the Levels forum. This should cut down on some of the complaints people are having around here, which is that the Level Judges don't really do much actual level judging, and it will encourage those that try to get their levels featured to do better at making levels.

The system isn't really that hard to figure out, and there really aren't that many flaws with it in the first place. It might take some time and effort to implement it, but I'm sure it will work.

[PixelPest]

I don't think scoring is absolutely necessary and like the idea earlier of a nomination system from which the judges choose. I think it could also be based on multiple levels, single levels, or whatever makes that user featureable

[Kyo Saito]

I don't think scoring is absolutely necessary

Then what is the purpose of "judging" in the first place? If you want a surefire way to determine a featured level, you need to send in all the levels anonymously, and have the Level Judges judge them by actually playing through the levels and giving them a score based on their preference. This will eliminate the bias of choosing famous level designers to get featured often, while the actual levels that need a chance at the spotlight are getting shoved in the back due to the user not being popular enough to get their nomination in. A blind judging system will eliminate the chance for the featured levels to be in the more popular designer's favor.

and like the idea earlier of a nomination system from which the judges choose.

However, this has one major problem, and that was mentioned earlier:

You mean like the Level of the Month system on NSMBX? That ran for quite a while (it was really popular the moment I joined) but the problem was that people were rigging the polls for the famous level designers like Chad and Kyo and leaving the rest for dust. There were some non-famous members that won it as well like Jarckius. It eventually died out but not just for that reason, but because it was too much work for the Level Judges, or so I think.

The problem is that with a nomination system, where the users nominate and the judges choose which to feature, you will have the same exact problem that Linik had just mentioned. If there's a blind judging system, you won't get this problem.

I think it could also be based on multiple levels, single levels, or whatever makes that user featureable

I think a "Featured Level of the Month" is just that; a featured level of the month. It's not a "Featured User of the Month", so I don't think that needs to be put in place.

[Emral]

Bias with a blind judging system will be identical to bias without one. You have no idea how easy figuring out who made a level is. The sane way to circumvent bias is to have competent judges.

[Kyo Saito]

Bias with a blind judging system will be identical to bias without one. You have no idea how easy figuring out who made a level is. The sane way to circumvent bias is to have competent judges.

I wasn't aware it was easy to figure out who made a level, but then again, I haven't played through a lot of levels by the same user.

[underFlo]

I don't think such a system is the way to go since that's essentially just a contest but only the usual Top 10 participate or something.

[PixelPest]

It wouldn't be possible to rig the poll, since the way I saw the system would be to have a thread in which people post the name of another designer; there's no voting by the general population. And as I've mentioned a few times, yes the Level Judges would play through those people's recent levels (from the last month or whatever time period is) and then maybe share their Top 3 with the other Level Judges (the first, second, and third most deserving users of the award). Because in my opinion, the levels that get featured don't always have to be the ones that would score the highest; there's other reasons to feature a user too

[JupiHornet]

Why not feature the levels that win unofficial contests, like the ones The Thwomp King hosts? Then they'll actually have a meaning

[Radiance]

Why not feature the levels that win unofficial contests, like the ones The Thwomp King hosts? Then they'll actually have a meaning

If this will be push through, there will be a new group called "contests hosts".

[PixelPest]

Why not feature the levels that win unofficial contests, like the ones The Thwomp King hosts? Then they'll actually have a meaning

I'm sorry, but I think that isn't a good idea at all. This means that everything rests on the success of those contests--the judges, the host, and the submissions. Also, not everyone enters them and sometimes the winning entries, which may have only beat 1-3 other entries to win, aren't that great anyway

[Bryan]

Why not feature the levels that win unofficial contests, like the ones The Thwomp King hosts? Then they'll actually have a meaning

Unofficial contests are futile. They are too lenient. Contests should be difficult and challenging. That's what makes it competitive.

Also, it'd be nice if we could have community contests that don't involve level creation. Not everybody likes designing levels and in fact some of us find it uninteresting. Different contests will also give members the chance to express their other talents.

Also, why is it that people respond to spam threads like this one. You know its spam so why the heck respond to it? It's unnecessary to post or ask "what is this?" You know it's spam and the staff will eventually deal with it so leave it alone. Posting hungry people!

[Kyo Saito]

It wouldn't be possible to rig the poll, since the way I saw the system would be to have a thread in which people post the name of another designer; there's no voting by the general population.

What?

And as I've mentioned a few times, yes the Level Judges would play through those people's recent levels (from the last month or whatever time period is) and then maybe share their Top 3 with the other Level Judges (the first, second, and third most deserving users of the award).

Isn't that what I've been saying?

Because in my opinion, the levels that get featured don't always have to be the ones that would score the highest; there's other reasons to feature a user too

But I don't think you understand what I've been saying. First off, the Featured Level of the Month is, again, just a level. It's not a way to get a user featured directly, it's a way to get their level designing capabilities featured. The idea is to feature their levels, not focus on the users themselves. If you keep saying it's to feature the users, that makes it a popularity contest. But then again, isn't it kind of like that already?

Second, you completely missed my explanation of how it would work:

There is no issue with "the levels that deserve to be featured may not necessarily be the best scoring levels" because it's simple; if the level was really deserving to be featured, the Level Judges would give it a good score.

[JupiHornet]

Why not feature the levels that win unofficial contests, like the ones The Thwomp King hosts? Then they'll actually have a meaning

I'm sorry, but I think that isn't a good idea at all. This means that everything rests on the success of those contests--the judges, the host, and the submissions. Also, not everyone enters them and sometimes the winning entries, which may have only beat 1-3 other entries to win, aren't that great anyway

I don't mean to ONLY feature the unofficial contest winners. Of course other levels would also have a chance

[Emral]

Second, you completely missed my explanation of how it would work:

There is no issue with "the levels that deserve to be featured may not necessarily be the best scoring levels" because it's simple; if the level was really deserving to be featured, the Level Judges would give it a good score.

CC12. Rinkas;Tale. Technically impressive, frequently used to feature lua technology. 44th place.
Levels which "play it safe" tend to get the high scores. However I feel like featuring clever or technically impressive levels way more interesting. In that sense, the levels that deserve to be featured may not necessarily be the best scoring levels.