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  1.  
    It WOULD be nice to have a way to submit.
    • CommentAuthorwfiedler
    • CommentTimeDec 10th 2007
     
    It WOULD be nice to have a way to submit.

    Yeah PLEASE admins! Tomorrow will be my last chance! Have also the time zones in mind!
    •  
      CommentAuthorLobsterMan
    • CommentTimeDec 11th 2007
     
    Please note that due to the delay in providing a submission method the contest deadline has been extended for another 2 days, to to december 14th, 12 am GMT.
    If you feel that you might be able to have something ready by then, please try.

    bakie
    • CommentAuthorgraystatic
    • CommentTimeDec 11th 2007
     
    Yeah, so is that 7:00pm the 13th in Eastern time.
    Glad to hear it's extended.
    •  
      CommentAuthorgreg
    • CommentTimeDec 18th 2007
     
    any chance we will get a look at all the entries before christmas?
    •  
      CommentAuthorkirby145
    • CommentTimeDec 24th 2007
     
    So........

    The results?
    •  
      CommentAuthorgnome
    • CommentTimeDec 24th 2007
     
    I'm sure Matt (from OpenReaction) will tell us when the time is right. I for one want to see the designs.
    • CommentAuthorniemion
    • CommentTimeJan 8th 2008
     
    Still no winner?`shocked
    •  
      CommentAuthorgnome
    • CommentTimeJan 8th 2008
     
    My last post is still relevant.
    •  
      CommentAuthorgreg
    • CommentTimeJan 9th 2008
     
    surely a winner doesn't need to be announced before the entries can be displayed
    • CommentAuthorORMatt
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    To all contest entrants and OpenDesign members:

    After much internal debate we, The OpenReaction Team, have decided the outcome of the contest. Due to our current focus as a company and our current design needs we are unable to declare a clear winner. While many of the designs were excellent we have to select a design that meshes perfectly with our marketing and design outlook and we where not able to do that in this case. At this time we are closing the contest down without a winner.

    We appreciate all the effort that went into the designs that where entered into the contest and we know they will be put to good use here on OpenDesigns. If anyone has any questions please feel free to respond here.

    Thank you,

    Matt Armour
    OpenReaction Hosting Solutions, Inc.
    • CommentAuthorMike Weiss
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    Nice..... Glad that paying projects took me away from participating. Can users now submit their designs for the public?
  13.  
    I understand that these people have a little more pull than most because they sponsor OD with hosting, but OD is walking a fine line here. Running a contest and not paying out for a winner is bad for designers, and great for contest sponsors. I will not participate in any contests here until I see a record of paying out to winners. However, I'd be happy to run one. Pick any one of my sites. I'll just explain that nothing fit right, close the contest with no winner, and enjoy slowly deploying all the ideas I got from the different designs.

    Note: I'm not saying that this is what happened, but I am saying that it looks like it.
    •  
      CommentAuthorsnop
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    It's nice to see my gut feeling was right on this one.
    •  
      CommentAuthorbradm81
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    I think an extension could help, but only if the competition gets some good advertising this time. Personally, I didn't enter because I'm in grad school and November/December are crazy for me, just not enough time. The prize is good, but without enough time and without enough "buzz" the prize won't make the difference.
    •  
      CommentAuthorgnome
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008 edited by gnome on the 15th January 2008 at 18:52:32 EST
     
    I'm not impressed with how OpenReaction has handled this, but there isn't much to be done about it. (edited to reduce confusion, originally said designers were free to do as they please, which isn't the case, apparently. sorry.)
    •  
      CommentAuthorbakercad
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008 edited by bakercad on the 14th January 2008 at 16:36:10 EST
     
    Jason...not sure if this is the right message to give to the designers just yet. There is another discussion that has been presented to the other moderators and admins concerning this issue. Take a looksy at that please. I thinks it's not a good idea to speak on behalf of the OD board at this point, especially when it hasn't been discussed fully or a possible resolution decided on.

    I'd suggest/request that you remove/reword your posts
    • CommentAuthorbluecafe
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    Posted By: aaroncampbellI understand that these people have a little more pull than most because they sponsor OD with hosting, but OD is walking a fine line here. Running a contest and not paying out for a winner is bad for designers, and great for contest sponsors. I will not participate in any contests here until I see a record of paying out to winners. However, I'd be happy to run one. Pick any one of my sites. I'll just explain that nothing fit right, close the contest with no winner, and enjoy slowly deploying all the ideas I got from the different designs.

    Note: I'm not saying that this is what happened, but I am saying that it looks like it.


    For the sake of fairness .. I think they had it in their contest rules that the contest could end without a winner if no design fits.
    •  
      CommentAuthorbcwood
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    Posted By: bluecafeFor the sake of fairness .. I think they had it in their contest rules that the contest could end without a winner if no design fits.

    I just re-read through the contest rules at the beginning of this post, and found nothing about ending the contest without a winner if none of the designs fit.

    I'm sure glad I didn't spend waste time creating a design for this "contest".
    •  
      CommentAuthorperthmetro
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    Posted By: ORMattAt this time we are closing the contest down without a winner.


    How about doing the right thing Open Reaction and 1. donate the winnings to OD or 2. evenly among the designers who entered designs or 3. hand over the money to OD and let us run the competition... because at the moment it smells really, really bad.
    • CommentAuthorbluecafe
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     

    I just re-read through the contest rules at the beginning of this post, and found nothing about ending the contest without a winner if none of the designs fit.

    I'm sure glad I didn't spend waste time creating a design for this "contest".


    They had a pdf-file with the contest rules (see the post). Unfortunately the file is already deleted. But you can google for OpenReaction_Contest_Rules.pdf then you will find it in the google cache :

    •  
      CommentAuthorSean
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008 edited by Sean on the 14th January 2008 at 17:54:12 EST
     
    Good find bluecafe. Here is a direct link and it does clearly say:

    OpenReaction reserves the right to extend or end the contest if it finds no suitable winner within the alloted time frame.

    So Joe should have the hard copy of the PDF still as it's in Google's cache. With this information, it's very clear that Open Reactions followed the rules they set up.

    Apparently not everyone read the entire rules... I know that I didn't but I wasn't entered in the contest but it was linked on the first post in this thread.
  23.  
    Right, where to begin... well to start with I don't think Open Reaction were out of order here. Obviously none of the submitted entries were suitable for them, otherwise they would have chosen one, so why should they be expected to settle for second best and just choose one for the sake of it to please people?

    So it's down to them how they handle this, not Open Designs. These things happen, in an ideal world a winner would have been chosen, but design is subjective, what one person finds attractive, another may despise. Based on that fact alone, it's not suprising that this contest ended with no winner in my opinion, to please your clientele you need to be directly liasing with them, finding out excatly what they want, how they want it, sharing ideas, and so on. That is a very difficult thing to do in a situation like this.

    If however the contest was, for example, based around a theme - e.g. your favourite book - then that is set in stone, let your imagination run wild and allow your thoughts to shape the design, that's easy in comparison to creating a template for a specific company and purpose where many people behind the scenes (at that company) will be required to agree on the final design before it is finalised.

    I think we should just forget about this as there is nothing much we can do, and get a fresh contest in the works which is based around a theme, instead of trying to get a template perfect for a specific company, which judging by this experience does not really work.
  24.  
    is there a place to view all submitted designs????
    • CommentAuthorORMatt
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    I want to make this very clear. We will be using no aspect of the designs submitted to build our next website or any website for that matter. We have looked over the designs and debated them carefully and where unable to find one that was appropriate.

    We have already contracted out our next website to a professional web design firm, Infogenix, and the web site is under active development. I will be more then happy to provide a recent proof to show that the design does not look anything like the submitted designs.

    As for the winnings of the contest we cannot disperse funds or prizes as we did not declare a winner. We are continuing to support the OpenDesigns community by providing free hosting and services that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars a year. All the submitted designs remain property of the submitters and they are free to do with them as they please.

    I am sorry if there was any misunderstanding but as we clearly stated in the rules we can pull or otherwise cancel the contest at any time or for any reason including not finding a suitable design.
    •  
      CommentAuthorLobsterMan
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008 edited by LobsterMan on the 14th January 2008 at 18:31:20 EST
     
    Posted By: conartistdesignsis there a place to view all submitted designs????

    The designs are not uploaded anywhere, they are on my computer. At the time of the contest we had a problem accessing the OD site via FTP, so I couldn't set the contest upload system into place. That's also why I had to upload the rules to an external server. BTW, they're back here where they were.
    Right now I'm not sure it would be the wisest thing to post the entries, we will figure out a solution for this first, and then decide what to do with the contest entries.
    •  
      CommentAuthoryugnats
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    Posted By: ORMattWe are continuing to support the OpenDesigns community by providing free hosting and services that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars a year.

    let me just say thank you for your support and sorry you couldn't find a suitable design.

    good luck with your new design :)
  28.  
    Posted By: aaroncampbell<snip>

    Note: I'm not saying that this is what happened, but I am saying that it looks like it.

    I just wanted to draw attention to this line in my post, and clarify that I wasn't accusing OpenReaction of doing anything wrong. I was just pointing out the flaw in the plan. Mainly that someone could take advantage of this kind of setup. I don't know how many designs were submitted, but I'm guessing you were far from deluged.

    My opinions on contests:

    1. I think that contests should generally be done by giving the money to OD ahead of time, or escrowing it somewhere.

    2. A winner should be mandatory, which means contests need to be publicized better (more entries == better chance of finding what you want). If you can't afford to settle for a design that may not be 100% ideal, a contest is probably not right for you, you probably need to hire a designer/design firm. It probably wasn't right for OpenReaction.


    I don't care if the contest is for a specific site, but I definitely think that part of running a contest would be the risk of paying money for sub-par results. However, that risk may pay off by giving you many quality options to choose from, and possibly many in directions you would have never thought to suggest.

    Just my two cents.
    •  
      CommentAuthorNickyD
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008 edited by NickyD on the 14th January 2008 at 19:38:37 EST
     
    OK, I finally got a free moment to write here. Before we all start expressing opinions here, let's remember that this site is still in its infancy. An opportunity arose where the site administrators saw an chance to get a very generous prize to someone in the community. Their intentions were very good. It did not work out the way it was supposed to. Please realize, it was not the intention of OD. This is a community site that cares about the community. We all learned from it.

    Second, OpenReactions has been very generous. They give our community hosting that saves the community money. They wanted a new look, and came here first. They did not have to do this, but showed support. They did not see what they wanted. That is their choice, and they wrote they did not have to choose a winner (see here). They have that right, after all, it is a business to them, and need a specific design to meet their needs.

    The only problem I have is some designers spent a lot of time working on their submissions. I have seen a couple of them, and they were quite nice. We (the admins and mods) are discussing ways to work this out. Let's all be patient and wait to see what the final solution will be. We are working in the best interest of the community. Please don't make this learning experience a poor reflection on a great community.
    •  
      CommentAuthoryugnats
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    well said len :)
    •  
      CommentAuthorgreg
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2008
     
    this is an incredibly disappointing result - one that i think could have been avoided had there been some clear specifications on what sort of design openreaction was looking for. all we were given was the menu structure - perhaps colour schemes, general style/feel would have been useful.

    Posted By: ORMattWhile many of the designs were excellent we have to select a design that meshes perfectly with our marketing and design outlook and we where not able to do that in this case.

    how are we meant to know what the "marketing and design outlook" is?

    also, why did it take so long to announce this? surely it wouldn't have taken more than a few days to review all the entries and then decide none were suitable.
    • CommentAuthorwfiedler
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    I second Len. There is no need to discuss the decision of OpenReaction. It is not the first contest in the world, where a winner couldn't be declared. It happens.

    To the admins: please don't submit my design for the contest to OD. It uses the logo of OpenReaction in the header and I have to modify it before it will be submitted. Thanks!
    •  
      CommentAuthorperthmetro
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    Two words come to mind... rights verses responsibilites. You can't have one without the other.

    Firstly, I think OR's donation of hosting and the result of this 'contest' are two very separate things. No one is criticizing OR's donation of hosting.

    Running a contest isn't just about putting up rules with convenient ways to bail out if doesn't work out, it also means an ensuring an amount of responsibility to ensure the participants know where they stand as to what is expected, and if there is a pretty decent risk that a winner wouldn't be announced that this risk is communicated before the contest starts.

    Being such a 'subjective' thing, warranted the need for very clear guidelines as to what 'look' they were after, as subjectiveness is very very very different among different people. As much of the the subjectiveness should have been taken away by very clear directions in the look needed, and not just to explain the objective factors such as how many links etc.

    Do we think OR took enough responsibility to ensure that the 'look' they were looking for was made clear for all to see?

    We all understand it was with the 'rules' to not accept a winner, but when there is a very high and very real expectation of a winner being announced they should have done more to ensure we all knew exactly what they were looking for and what they were not looking for. OR also had a responsibility to see what standard of designing was in this community to see what they could expect. Also the rules said they could ask the winner to make alterations... could this not have been an option?

    In any case I reckon we've all learnt (OR included) as to what to expect in running a contest like this.
    • CommentAuthorRob
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    Just a couple of points, obviously i'm fairly new so my opinion won't hold as much as others, but it just strikes me that if all the people who are having a go and saying they're glad they didn't waste time on it, had actually submitted designs, then perhaps there would have actually been a winner.

    I can't really think of a good reason why people wouldn't submit designs other than if it wasn't very well publicised and run by the OD team, which i'd probably go along with, as I for one missed out on it (i'm one of those people who checks the front page/rss feed on a daily basis but rarely delves deeper).

    However it still strikes me as hypocritical to hear boo boys have a go at the competition and directly or indirectly have a go at open reaction when they themselves didn't even contribute.
    •  
      CommentAuthoryugnats
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    here's my newest take on it:

    1. OR offered up a generous contest with specific rules and regulations and supplied a .PDF for the designers stating specifically that they do not have to choose a winner.
    2. OR didn't like the entries that were submitted so they declined to pick a winner.
    3. OR exercised their right not to extend the contest (i believe OpenDesigns made some mistakes that contributed to this).

    thats it. i mean if you didn't read the rules and are now complaining i dont think you have any grounds too. if you did read the rules and still entered the contest you still can't complain because you knew what you were getting into. bakie
    •  
      CommentAuthorperthmetro
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008 edited by perthmetro on the 15th January 2008 at 06:41:34 EST
     
    Posted By: RobHowever it still strikes me as hypocritical to hear boo boys have a go at the competition and directly or indirectly have a go at open reaction when they themselves didn't even contribute.


    Welcome the world of democracy my friend, the land where everyone is entitled to have a say on anything they like. People have the right to express their thoughts on things like granny bashing or cat kicking even if their granny hasn't been bashed or cat hasn't been kicked.
    • CommentAuthorbluecafe
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    Just my 2cents: perhaps the disapointment wouldn't be so big if OR had published maybe a gallery of screenshots of the submissions as a little sign of appreciation. The way it went is that all decisions were made behind the curtain ... no overview of the submissions and now not even a winner. I think the reason why most expected to see at least a winning design is that there was almost no communication about the contest all the time.
    •  
      CommentAuthorlastlegion
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    I think OD should announce a winner using a poll or whatever and give him a lil trophy or something bakie
    •  
      CommentAuthorsnop
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    Posted By: RobHowever it still strikes me as hypocritical to hear boo boys have a go at the competition and directly or indirectly have a go at open reaction when they themselves didn't even contribute.

    I think the reason some of us didn't contribute is because right from the beginning the competition had a bad feeling to it. As Christopher said, coming up with a design that someone will love takes collaboration between the designer and the client. You need to know what their tastes are.

    Having a logo, a menu layout and the requirement that there should be 2 versions of the template is like saying 5km down the road there's an egg cup and now I'd like you to throw this pea into it.
    •  
      CommentAuthorperthmetro
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    I was going to put up a little polling site early on, so if those who entered the contest want to email me their entries I'll have a go
    •  
      CommentAuthoryugnats
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    Posted By: perthmetroI was going to put up a little polling site early on, so if those who entered the contest want to email me their entries I'll have a go

    we should just wait until the admins make a statement on this - that way if a contest or something is decided then the designers hard work wont be for nothing as they can enter the template in that contest.
    •  
      CommentAuthorgreg
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    Posted By: snop
    As Christopher said, coming up with a design that someone will love takes collaboration between the designer and the client. You need to know what their tastes are.

    exactly right, and given the recent posts by OR representatives here it sounds as though OR had a pretty firm idea of what they wanted, but they failed to communicate this to the contest entrants.

    Posted By: yugnatsi mean if you didn't read the rules and are now complaining i dont think you have any grounds too. if you did read the rules and still entered the contest you still can't complain because you knew what you were getting into. bakie

    i personally am not saying it is unfair or misleading of OR to have ended the competition as per the terms and conditions, however more could have been done to ensure all entrants were aware of what was expected from the design. i mean if you have a list of things you want on your new site, or a pretty firm idea of the style of the site, it isn't very reasonable to open a competition with extravagantly vague points like "here are the menu items, we want a generic page and a page for hosting plans".
    •  
      CommentAuthorNickyD
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    Posted By: greghow are we meant to know what the "marketing and design outlook" is?

    Greg, this is a fair question. As always there are two sides of the coin. One side may say, OR should have been specific about this in their description. The other side may say, the designer could have asked questions about this before creating their design. The debate can go on and on.....

    As I mentioned earlier, I just feel bad for those who spent so much time working on a design with nothing to show for it.
    • CommentAuthorORMatt
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2008
     
    In terms of "marketing and design outlook" we had very little if anything fermented. We where looking for a design that was both creative and marketable. We had no preset design or structure in mind and we where willing to leave that up to the designers to be creative. Anything from the marketing perspective was going to be created later after the design was selected.

    We where also open and responsive with anyone that wanted to ask anything about what we where looking for in the design but very little, if any, questions where asked.

    For those of you looking to have the designs posted online you will have to wait for the OpenDesign admins to decide if or when they will be displayed. We leave this up to them as the designs are not our property and as of now we treat them as copy written works of other individuals.

    If anyone has any direct questions on this matter please feel free to address them.
    •  
      CommentAuthorarwen54
    • CommentTimeJan 16th 2008
     
    so let's have another contest!
    onwards and upwards people!
    Back to the themed idea, no?
    • CommentAuthorSkyshadow
    • CommentTimeJan 16th 2008
     
    Is there anything the community can learn from this to make future 3rd party contests run smoother, and participants more aware of the rules? (I know they were posted in the PDF, just saying).

    Is the hosting template idea salvageable, maybe a spokesperson could post on a hosting forum, extend the deadline, and keep the contest alive?

    Maybe as an idea going-forward, board could create a 'sponsored contest rules page' and allow any visitors to sponsor a contest under agreed rules, some kind of escrow on the prize maybe.

    Perhaps companies would like the opportunity to get a great design, work with a good developer and support the community here at OD.

    I know there are a lot of maybes and perhapses in the above, but I am new and don't fully have the ropes, apols if going over old ground bigsmile
    •  
      CommentAuthorLobsterMan
    • CommentTimeJan 16th 2008
     
    Posted By: RobJust a couple of points, obviously i'm fairly new so my opinion won't hold as much as others, but it just strikes me that if all the people who are having a go and saying they're glad they didn't waste time on it, had actually submitted designs, then perhaps there would have actually been a winner.

    Hear hear
    •  
      CommentAuthorkirby145
    • CommentTimeJan 18th 2008
     

    LOL
    • CommentAuthorniemion
    • CommentTimeFeb 12th 2008
     
    So what about releasing the designs here, then we (forum users) can vote and find the best design.

    Designer will then get a money prize - not from the hosting company - but a part of the revenue that the much discussed Kontera adlink system has already generated?
    •  
      CommentAuthorgreg
    • CommentTimeFeb 13th 2008
     
    i for one would really like to know the current state of the money generated from advertisements - it really must be starting to add up by now, yet nothing has been put back into the community.

    yes i know the admins are busy and have real lives too, but a short status update post doesn't take long. since the use of kontera was the source of much controversy i would really like to see it getting put to good use!

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