2 Concerns Addressed

If you're looking for the Round 2 challenge, CLICK HERE.

Since running this type of a contest is a first for me I expected things to come up that wasn't planned for. A couple of those already have, and they were addressed. Well recently 2 more concerns & questions popped up that I apparently need to address.

1. Are Judges Allowed To Submit Shadow Entries? This question was brought up today on Twitter, and a mild debate followed on Twitter & in ArtiFiction. This situation is not mentioned at all in the rules, but I have said before in numerous places that shadow entries are always welcome. I see no reason to say so-and-so is NOT ALLOWED to write a shadow entry. Even if I wanted to, (and I don't) how the hell do I enforce that? I mean I have the option of uploading a song if it's sent to me, but I can't stop someone from writing & recording a song they feel inspired to write. If someone is inspired to write a song for this contest, then I think we should celebrate that no matter who it is.

Since it could look strange for a judge to be participating in some other fashion besides judging...I will wait until after the competition is over to upload any shadows from judges to the albums. So anything a judge writes will not be ranked, reviewed or discussed on this blog until that time. Keep in mind all this debate is about something that may not happen. I've not had a judge submit a song, there was just a very lively "what if" debate going on yesterday.

2. Should I be allowed to review each round? The concerns that were mentioned to me include: a: Judges could be swayed by my opinions. b: If someone won that I consistently ranked high, it could look bad. c: It's unprofessional.

A: I don't see how the judges could be swayed each round when my review isn't posted until after I've posted their review. I also don't think I got a bunch of lemmings for judges in this contest. I think that each one is capable of making their own decisions, and not weak willed enough to vote based on my feelings IF they managed to read my mind somehow.

B: It would only look bad if someone kept entering sub par songs & winning, and I kept ranking them high. I don't see that happening. Nur Ein 5 was the first Nur Ein I had the pleasure of following as it happened. Niveous has been a judge in Nur Ein all 5 times, and I didn't notice any problems in Nur Ein 5. Matter of fact it ran smoother then ANY Song Fu that I've followed. Since I didn't follow Nur Ein 1-4 as it happened I'll have to ask Niveous how those went.

C: Unprofessional...if I wanted to appear professional I probably wouldn't be posting pole dance videos on the "Dance" page of my blog. However I do want to keep things FAIR, and I do think things are fair as is. I mean from the start of this I was going to be a regular judge (not an alternate). It was no secret, nobody complained, and the people who joined did so with the knowledge that I'd at least be an alternate.

To me all 3 of these concerns are people creating problems before there is a problem. What if this, what if that... What if we compete...and address problems as they come? I know this set up isn't perfect, but lets wait to fix things after they break. I don't plan on reviewing rounds 2-4 unless a regular judge is unable to, and I have to step up as the alternate. We'll talk about the next contest when the time comes.