Favoritism is all over the place: in school, in real life contests and competions, at work, etc and even in Sims2 contests. Judges score the entries by friendships and/or popularity. I won't give examples, :einstein no one should give, because this is not a thread for argue, it's just a debate thread. I want to know your opinion. What do you think of favoritism in contests? It happened to you? (Do not give people names/nicknames, just examples of the situation) What should be done for this to stop? I am one of the people who joins contest for fun or boredom :peace . I'm not paranoic or something. :howdy:
Oh and by the way, NO OFFENCE!

funheart, it's not that I have a problem. It`s just that I want to know what people think.

I've judged contests and no matter who you net-like more, you have to show an UNBIASED opinion, give constructive criticism and quality feedback. You are given strict judging criteria and you look at each entry INDIVIDUALLY and judge per the criteria given.

It's also in the rules of the contest area that these are the means in which judges are supposed to judge.

I think in essence, everyone has their favorites, but there is no place for that in judging. I like the artistic quality involved in some of the entries i've seen over the months, but that doesn't mean that I net-like that member more than another. In contests, you can really learn and take notes from other contenders and thats what makes you a favorite: By learning, watching and practicing.

I think we ought to give contest hosts more credit for the judges they chose to give honest, unbiased, real uncut results.

I've had my share of pretty harsh critiques from judges, critiques that hurt my overall score. But I respect that although the judge (per private conversation) thought I was the shiznit and loved my work, he/she had a job to do.

So, maybe the glasses are rose-colored over here, but I don't see favortism. I've seen some of the BEST contestants get some scores that even I thought were too low, but the judges had a job to do. We may not always like our scores or feel we did better than the girl/guy who scored higher than us, but I cant see how favortism could be involved.

I say if you see it, feel it or think it, report it.


(this is the longest post i've typed since
the great paysite debate threads )

Cin, thanks for sharing your opinion.

In any system where you have human beings responsible, some bias will play into it. That's simply the way life works. Corruption can occur in any system in which individuals have some measure of power or control over others. The best you can do is hope that the individuals involved are trying to be unbiased and give their honest opinions without playing favourites.

If this is truly meant as a debate thread (and you did mention other instances of favouritism in contests - not just Sims 2 so that's okay), it should be in the Debate Room, not Sims 2 Discussion, so I'm moving it there.

No problem Dreea.

I always think the Miss Universe pageant is fixed because the girl I choose never wins

Oh, and we all know the United States presidential election system (technically a contest) is corrupt..

(pretend I didn't type that).

And urban legend has it, some contests here and elsewhere have been fixed.
I just hope that when I enter these things, i'm judged on my entry, not any pseudo-internet popularity that I don't have LOL only small furry forest creatures like me anyway. So if there shall ever be a contest with small furry forest creatures as judges, and I enter, there WILL be bias you guys... there will be bias.

I don't judge a contest if (obvious example) Lolli's joined it, because I simply don't want my relationships to interfere with my judging task, or the opposite. Avoiding to accept to be a judge if good friends or lovers of yours have joined it is a good way to get less biased... except if someone very popular enters.

As some of you may tell, I judge a lot of these contests and to be honest with you, it's an extremely hard job! You want to be honest with the person, but yet at the same time you don't want to hurt their feelings too. I've never played favoritism because I'm too honest to. When I judge, I look for exactly what the host wants me to look for. I look for how the model is posing or is the picture quality good or was it creative enough? Etc, etc. Favoritism has probably been played here and it's not right. So if a person thinks a judge has been playing favorites, then they need to take that up with that person through a PM. Like someone mentioned earlier, every judge is looking for something different. We're all not looking for the same thing.

I joined Frenchie's Champion of Evil and came in 2nd. I know I got that far by myself because Frenchie wasn't a judge. I think the contests I have entered have mostly been fair except one had me a bit suspicious...I won't name which and it was last year anyway.

I think most of the contests here are pretty fair, but there was one contests I was in that the scoring was totally crazy and biased. Only one of the judges gave fair scores, the other judges were totally biased towards their favourites that the discrepancies in the scores were totally ridiculous, and the comments the judges were giving were just hero worshipping their favourites. I was so disgusted I almost dropped out, I only stayed because I hate to drop out of contests.

I'm still relatively new here and I've noticed some shady scorings already. Like what romyhorse said, some judges are fair and some are, well, ridiculous. And yes, I know that everyone is probably looking for something else, but whoa, how different can you say. most of the contests have the same criterior: Beauty (if its is a beauty contest), Creativity, Follow directions, Photoshop ability and whatever else. Most of those are subjective, however follow direction should be dead on.

Yep, I know people shouldn't join a contest (as a contestant or as a judge) if a friend or lover or family is willing to join. But what about very popular people on the forum, who won A LOT of contests and only their name is enough for them to win ? What about them? What should be done about that? I hate it when I spend hours on my entries and I'm really happy with it and I see I'm somewhere in the middle, like not the best but not the worst and I'm on the last place when the scores are announced? I dropped out one contest because it was very frustrating seing a poorly entry that looked distorted and more than ugly with the same number of points...

Stormy, I know you are fair and very organised. That's why you are my favorite host!

Let me respond, as someone who has won like 3 beauty contests... Screw it, i'm going to name drop, sorry if I offend. I started contests months ago and I SUCKED and you know what? Even when I spent hours on my pictures and I looked at the finished product in photoshop and thought to myself "Holy BATMANS BOXERS Cinamun!! Thats freakin awesome!!" I turned the entry in only to get one of the lowest scores and harsh critiques from judges. BUT YOU LEARN and you PRACTICE and USE what is suggested.

I see people like Joanne, Freelancer, Essa, Zora, Chantelle, Footballer17, I could name a LOT... these are the ladies (and Gent) I used to lurk and watch and take notes on their lighting, pose, prop placement, attention to detail and overall beauty, used what I learned and started winning my own damn contests...

Now i've dropped some names, but its NOT the name that wins, its the EXECUTION OF THE TASKS that gets the high points. Now remember, YOU may think you spent hours and your photos are damn good (and i've seen your work and you ARE good) but maybe the judges were looking for more. You cannot please them all.

Freelancer (for example) doesn't win because of her name, she wins because she's damn good, she has follow-through, she's creative, she's a freakin genius in my opinion. Throughout my contest career i've wanted my entries to be along the lines of hers, Essa's, Joannes and the others i've mentioned. I ALMOST CRIED REAL TEAR DUCT FORMED TEARS when I won AUM 10 because I spent forever on those pics and forever learning techniques and it finally paid off. And I competed against Free AND Joanne.

I look up to the high scorers, not because of the name. Here I was a virtual NOBODY, both Free and Joanne were in AUM during previous cycles, they had the experience and the knowledge, and ME?? CINAMUN?? A FREAKIN NEWB?? ... I.. won? *faints*

*wakes back up*

Seriously, its not the name. Its the talent. And having said that, when I enter a contest with Free, Essa or any of the others i've mentioned I know I need to be ON TOP OF MY GAME, try things out of the norm, get UBER creative because they are gonna come with the big guns and if I wanna place I gotta come with it.

Joannne has even judged me before in contests (mind you, I look up to her) and I didn't think "oh my God, I beat her before, will she hold a grudge and give me low scores?" NO!! She judged me because she knew my potential and pointed out flaws that I didnt even see... she knows good stuff which makes her a good judge. She didn't look at my entry and say "ooooohhhh its Cinamun yeah 100 points baby!!" She used a keen eye and judged my photos independent of who posted them (me).

Also, its kinda rude to say someone elses photo was "ugly" or badly "photoshopped" What if someone said that about yours? Keep that to yourself. Maybe the judges felt otherwise?

And to give you the benefit of the doubt Dreea, I have seen some entries
that leave me like this -->
and see their scores and i'm left like this -->

But the bottom line is... you're not judging it, you're competing in it. Each judge is different and don't ever be afraid to ask your host and judges about the scores you received compared to others. I've won contests but sometimes I look at my entry and i'm disgusted, the judges might be disgusted, but I tried. And if another entry scores better than me, badly photoshopped or ugly or whatever, so be it.

All I can tell you is keep working at it. I happen to enjoy your contest entries because your models are very exotic and beautiful.


*Disclaimer:
I use caps for emphasis, I promise i'm not yelling.
If any judges show favortism towards me, please stop and send me cookies instead.

Thank you, Dreea.
For my contest, for instance, It seems like I have all the best photoshoppers in there! I agree with Cinamun. It's not the name that wins; it's their work. I know it's hella frustrating and it sucks so much, but practice makes perfect. It doesn't mean that your work sucked, it just means that you just have to work a bit harder to give what the judges are looking for.

I've lost or placed like 87th in wayyyyyyy more contests than i've won,
trust me.

I've never even been past the 2nd round myself!

Amen.

Dreea , keep in mind that sometimes, even the greatest (I won't give names and I don't consider myself as great) don't win that much, except Free and Aleesha.

I don't think it's about winning or favoritism, contests should be a way to have fun, learn from the other contestants and improve oneself.
I do think that most of them are fairly judged. I hope so.

I maybe won less than ten contests included AUM7, was often placed 2nd or 3rd in beauty contests and, never made it to the final round in ANTM. Sometimes, judges decided I did well and sometimes I'm not "awesome" but it's part of the game.

As a judge, I use the host criterias. I don't judge after names, never did and never will.

Wow , everyone made some great points! I dont think its really happend to me because im a noob and i know it and im growing.

I dont really think theres necessarily "Favoritism" in some contests although a judge may be inlove with a model or whatever and say that and gives them good marks. They dont necessarily give them good marks , i think its cause of the talent .. etc

I swear ive seen a model who TONS of people like adored and she got out because the photoshopping wasnt bad but wasnt amazing and there were better ones!

I also agree with catwalks technique. I used it too!
Judging first as if you were giving the models money or something to win and dont even like change it once its finish then add scores etc!

As HP stated so eloquently in her post above, as long as there are humans involved bias will always play into anything. Expanding a bit...

1. Judges cannot be moderated 100% - What I mean is that on this site, we allow any member of the site to be a judge at least once or many, many times if they are prove themselves to be honest/a good judge. We could appoint a panel of pre-approved judges to judge each and every contest, but members wouldnt like that, and honestly neither would I. It would be so boring! It makes a contest fun and different to see new judges each time you enter a contest.

2. Favoritism is impossible to stop - Everyone who visits this site often enough makes friends, whether their relationship is defined simply as internet-friends or real life-friends. I have many friends on this site, and I have participated in those friends' contests before. From all the time Ive been active and/or a Mod on S2C, Ive entered somewhere between 20-30 contests and won first place in one. Nuff said.

3. REPORT REPORT REPORT!!! I cant stress this enough. If you think something "shady" is going on with judging or if you know your judges are voting for one particular person based on favoritism/friendship/etc, there is nothing stopping you from PMing me and explaining your concern. Every forum on this site encourages members to PM the moderator of that forum if a member has a funny feeling about something. Im not privy to all the judging/scores/etc in every contest, so I cannot moderate problems within those areas unless my attention is directed towards it - which is your responsibilty as a contest participant or general on-looker.

Awww thankies Cin!

An opinion is always going to be different. You may think your entries were the best, and your sim is the prettiest ... But it's other people's perception that counts!

I too have the people i look up to in contests, such as some of the oldies like pussycat, essa, charmaine, rainncandy, urbanique, and aleesha etc. These were the people i learnt from when i first started contests. But now i think i could learn something new from the new contestants around such as cin, footballer etc. After all i have judged them and competed against them and had my butt handed to me! But i don't think there was any favortism for them to win. Personally i don't think i'm that great anyway, though my contest history may prove otherwise.

I don't care much about winning anymore, of course it's nice to hear that your efforts are appreciated when you do get the win, but now i don't think it's really important. Though in the past i have been very disappointed with my scores only because i have literally spent hours on my work to get the worst score. I used to think it was a personal attack on me because there was often no comments to back up why i did so badly. Til i discovered a contest i had done recently that i just KNEW was fixed. I even had a small hint from the host because she was best buddies with the first and second place winner. I won't mention the host name, but live and learn ... i won't join one of their contests again.

I have been a judge on more than 20 occassions and i am not biased at at all about what i see. I do give my share of bad marks, but that is only based on my opinion of the over all photo. I've seen some really well done pictures and some pictures that are just 'the best the contestant can do' ... and i think this is why people think they are picked on and not liked because they dont recieve high scores like ones with the right editting programs and experience. Personally i judge on effort and attention to detail. I like to see something that is different and unique. And user names do not phase me at all ... they will still get judged based on how well they do. And i have no problems giving even an experienced contestant any critics.

As far as hosting ... i have hosted a lot of contests too! While i am fair I have noticed a pattern in some of the judges scores. I've had previous judges that i think have been judging on popularity and username. Especially when it sticks out like a sore thumb! So much that i can tell because they have given particular contestants perfect 10's as opposed to everyone elses low scores that were under 5. I noticed a pattern between round 1 and 2 ... and chose not to address this judge because i didn't want to accuse them, so instead i chose not to use their scores and called in an emergency judge. So being a host aswell ... i know there is favortism out there.

Personally i know people have left s2c because of unfairness towards contests. Some people choose not to enter them anymore because of the same thing. Some people are also overly cometative and are often the ones that are truly hurt by a bad comment or score.

I think everyone thinks they do well in contests until they are told otherwise. I think it's okay to take it as a personal attack on their work because they did spend the effort making it. But like it has been quote already many times on the thread, it's about talent ... and how good you can make your pictures look. To see a ingame picture to a beautifully photoshopped picture ... isn't it obvious to what judges will think is better? :D

I too think i have marked my longest post too!

Well put to you and boolPropped.

You get a rush when you win, and quite honestly, when I first started joining contests that was my only goal, to at least make top three, but that took a LONG time LOL. But for me, its just FUN! I like playing around in different photo editing programs and I like playing around in bodyshop sculpting faces and such. I like to see the creativity in others. So in these days when I enter a contest it's moreso for fun, don't care about winning. The tasks are so creative sometimes that i'm challenging myself to test my creativity. I may not win it, but I definitely had fun with it. I learn new stuff everytime I enter a contest now. I'm still learning.

And you also made a good reference to all the hosts out there who may be reading this: If you see a scoring pattern and you feel something fishy, call in an EJ and use your best judgement.

Everyone made a good point. Thank you for responding so well at this thread. I'm waiting for more opinions.

I suck at deadlines, therefore I hardly ever enter a contest. I have not seen favouritism, simply because I don't know all the people too well, or who's hanging with who. I don't even expect it. That's naive But I don't enter contests anymore so what's it matter