Feedback Poll

[hsapiens]

In the coming months, we'll be working to gather caps for post-14 challenges. This seems like an excellent time to poll all those who participate in the community (makers AND voters) for feedback as to how it's going thus far. beeej and I would appreciate it if you'd take a few minutes and give us some feedback. Thank you!

Comments

[robyriker]

ooh, I hadn't thought of Davis... I second Major Davis!!

[hsapiens]

Major Davis is definitely someone I'd like to see more of, too. I'm thinking that there's sufficient interest to have a "They Also Serve Who But Stand and Wait"** challenge of supporting SGC characters. Paul Davis, Siler, Hammond, Janet, Chevron Guy, Landry, Lam, Warner...there have been some awesome Earth-side characters over the years.

**(I'd have to look up that quote and get it right, of course, since I'm sure I've bungled it a bit.)

[supplyship]

And don't forget Colonel Reynolds! 16 episode appearances over six seasons plus a MALP!cam appearance in AoT!

Image Quality in Caps

[hsapiens]

Thank you for mentioning this. This contest goes nowhere without good caps. Is this a problem with all of the caps or does this seem to be primarily a problem with caps from the early seasons (say, 1-3)?

I'm asking because the early seasons, my favorites, have sincere quality issues that I *think* are because of the medium they recorded on back in the day. We could solve the problem easily by keeping the focus on the seasons that have better image quality. If, however, this is a problem even with the later season caps then we need to consider using hi-def caps.

We'd gone with the resolution that elfcat255 could get from her DVDs because it's about what is available at a lot of my fave SG-1 cap resource sites and she's particularly talented at capturing expressions and postures that lend themselves to great icons. I valued that more highly, especially since I have no idea how to make hi-def caps. Though I suspect partly it involves a DVD-ROM that reads in hi-def. I'm woefully ignorant on the technical aspects of capping & resolution vs.

Re: Image Quality in Caps

[hsapiens]

Oh, I didn't take you to be saying it was the capper's fault. Even if I had thought that, the mods are the ones with the final say on cap selection so the buck still stops with us

Making challenges tougher

[hsapiens]

I hear what you're saying and this may the road we take. This butts into two founding concepts for the comm, though, so I want to be certain there's a consensus amongst makers before taking this road for increasing challenge difficulty

[sinistercircus]

I'd like a All Goa'uld or all Tok'ra theme. Or Jaffa theme. I think that would be awesome.

Also. Hows about some Maybourne?! C'moooon! *grin*

Other than that, it's very exciting. I'm thoroughly enjoying the variety of caps, I like that there's a theme offered but not mandatory and the work you guys are putting in is great. Thanks for all your hard work - it's very much appreciated!

♥♥! *much luff to the mods*

Theme Ideas

[hsapiens]

Ooooo...Maybourne! He's stars in one of my top five fave episodes visually, Paradise Lost. I'm very open to having more Harry. He was so rotten in Bane and morphed into a great chaotic good guy.

We have, in the wings, the beginnings of a cap collection for two "obvious" themes: Allies and Enemies. The would give us Jaffa, Goa'uld, and Tok'ra (Jacob Carter HAS to figure in here somewhere and beeej wants her Peter Wingfield).

I've shied away from goa'uld/tok'ra as a challenge theme, despite my great love for the idea personally, because except for Baal they are mostly a pre-Cam/Vala character set. I widened it to "Enemies" which meant we could also include Adria, the Priors, Replicators, and so on. However, that's done at the expense of having better coverage of all the great Goa'uld (Apophis, Hathor, Heru-Ur, Baal, Osiris, Yu, Camulus, etc.). I'm never sure where to draw the line so that it's a good challenge that is also interesting to fans of all eras

[supplyship]

The latest voting clarification helped a lot - thanks again for that. (Though I *did* think that having theme as challenge element was pretty cool. Makes it a lot tougher.)

I think it might be better to have fewer caps per challenge. It's easier to compare and vote when everyone is working with the same one or two caps. Maybe this could be for the last five challenges or something.

[hsapiens]

No problem at all -- that's what we're here for. :) I'm really torn on the issue of themes being required because though I like having a goal in mind when I'm looking at the caps, it fights against my foundational goal of encouraging as much creativity as possible.

For example, I made an icon I truly loved a few challenges ago and thought was some of my best work ever. I really wanted feedback on it to see if I was on the right track or if I'd gotten sidetracked and was off smelling the daisies. However, it didn't fit the theme and I knew it could get me voted off as a result. Dilemma, no? I always want to see what someone feels is her best work that week.

But I'm interested to see what other people think, too, so I want to hear from as many members who are willing to tell me what floats their boats -- and why.

(Also there's the important fact that my co-mod, beeej, has the other half of the final decision and we haven't heard her opinions yet. My comments represent my opinions only.)

[supplyship]

Yep, I can definitely see both sides. Maybe only certain challenges use theme as part of the challenge? Like in the final rounds? Eh, just a thought.

BTW, what was the icon that you loved but didn't enter? :)

[hsapiens]

I'm looking for ideas. :) I was thinking of this as an open call to the comm to brainstorm with us. Sometimes, the theme is unavoidable (landscapes, space-scapes) so at least some of the time the theme can't be avoided. :)

(*points to icon used on this comment*) I used myself as the example because I don't have permission from anyone else to use her experiences rather than because I wanted to discuss how it affected me personally. I did post the icon in the alternates thread and *did* get feedback so I was very happy for that. In the end, I got what I wanted personally but I hate to have people tell me they chose a "safe" entry due to the theme.