The contest results are bullshit

Alright, let's see...
First things first: I'm not mad that I'm not in the top five. I'm just utterly disappointed and angry for these winners. I'll probably offend most of the winners in this post. I don't give a single shit.

First of all...

T-hug said:
We are kind of looking for something created for this contest. Stuff you already work on is fine but projects created just for this competition will be looked upon more favourably.
Click to expand...
EhytFA.gif

Yeah, sure. Four of the winners aren't bounty projects.
And you know, what's even better?

T-hug said:
In previous GBAtemp bounties, we have called upon our members to code projects for various devices. This however, left a lot of our fellow Tempers out in the dark, as not everyone has the knowledge or skill to code apps and games.
[...]
Projects can literally be anything; are you good with art? Draw, paint or craft something for us to see! Maybe you are creative with woodwork, an avid gardener or like photography? You can also enter!
The usual coding entries will still be accepted, but this time we wanted to make it possible for as many members to take part as possible!
Click to expand...

Anything, you say? Really? Yeah. Anything's accepted. Too bad not anything's appreciated. Four of the winning projects are coding projects. Makes you think, ey?


Alright. Now, I'm gonna comment on all the winners, and why they should or shouldn't be on the list. The first place is pretty rant-y, I know, but I'm pretty angry about it as well, and you'll see, why.

#5 newo: NewoSky - $25 Amazon Gift Card
NOT a Bounty project
This has been in the making for around two years.
Interesting idea, but still not made for the contest.

#4 Asia81: HackingToolkit9DS - $25 Amazon Gift Card
NOT a Bounty project
This is an around 1 year old project, that is already well-known and widely used piece of software. This feels like as if someone entered FBI or freeShop. It's just not right. Software like this basically gets a head start, which is really not fair.

#3 Dr.Hacknik: SimpliiU - $50 Amazon Gift Card
NOT a Bounty project
This tool, while useful, presents nothing original, and is just a programme that copies stuff to your SD card if you're too lazy to do it yourself.
This should not be on the list of winners.

#2 cracker: DIY PCB etching / Arduino controller shield - $100 Amazon Gift Card
Bounty project
The only project that was made for the Bounty. Are you fucking kidding me?!
This one's pretty good. It should honestly be first place out of these five. It's really creative and has a lot of work put into it.

#1 Voxel: Stick Magician - GBAtemp Bounty Demo - GPD Pocket
NOT a Bounty project
Oh, boy. OH, BOY! This should NOT be first place!
This is also a VERY old project. And you know, what's the worst thing about it? It has nothing to do with the Bounty! What's this? A test level made for his game, that he's already been working on for quite some time. The Bounty might've motivated him to make said test level, but this is something he would've done anyway in some time. Not only that, but (according to unnamed sources) it mostly just uses Unity's built in stuff, and excluding the art assets, this can be made in a couple of hours. Also, according to my experience, said art assets can be made in ~30 minutes!


Now, what can we do to avoid this in the future?
More attention to stuff other than programming
If you're gonna advertise this "anything, not just programming" shit so much and then ignore it for most of the list, we need a different system. There shouldn't be five winners from any category. There should be a couple of fixed categories, and there should be one winner per category. This would not only encourage people to make more varied submissions, but would also prevent shit like THIS.

Fuck the mods and Patrons-only system
It should either be
Just mods: so we can have some responsible adults thinking about the distribution of basically 700 US Dollars,
or everyone: if we're gonna have normal people voting basically just for stuff they like, it shouldn't be just a couple of them.


I'm actually angry at this contest. Even by just looking at the first two places you can see the problems. One is clearly much better and more creative than the other one, yet it didn't win. What the fuck?!
I'm so furious, I could literally flip my table with my laptop, phone and Wacom tablet on it. Fuck this shit!

Also, wow. I've apparently taken more than an hour to write this shit. Phew.
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Comments

B
I'll be honest; I disagree with a few of the results, especially HackingToolkit9DS (which is still a great tool, but, like, jeez, it was made ages ago). I also agree with the idea that there should be categories for the Bounty, and that each category should have its own set of winners, to keep everything fair.

That being said, I heard that the mods were having organizational issues with the Bounty; I can't say the specifics (mainly because I'm not a mod), but I assume that it was a total mess getting this organized.

Plus, and this is my opinion, but I liked Voxel's entry. I kinda entered the Bounty myself with the mindset that his project would win.
 
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B
Also @AyanamiRei0 I'll be looking forward to seeing the comments in this section as the day goes on. ;)
 
sarkwalvein
What was this weird off-line lapse?
Did the powerlines fail around the server holding your blog post? /s

PS: Also I would recommend for the next one to keep a more organized catalog of the entries, it is ok if they are all posted/named into a messy thread by their creators (like it was this time), but at the same time I think it would be good if each one is assigned an entry number and listed sequentially in another clean official ordered entries thread that only mods can modify (to avoid replies and comments that would make the thread messy again)
 
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sarkwalvein
Many, sure, it is rude and offensive per se.
It should not attack the participants / winners of the contest, that is ill-intended behaviour.
But I agree with many of the suggestions for the future.

PS: I think the blog creator should learn to be more humane.
 
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Subtle Demise
I was going to put together an experimental industrial music album just for the bounty, but I knew I wouldn't even place. That, and working 50+ hours a week doesn't help either.
 
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B
This comment has been removed due to the corruption of the staff or something or other idgaf
 
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sarkwalvein
@Subtle Demise yeah, but I think something that has a full-time work wouldn't even care about the prize, but more about doing it for the fun and putting it in the contest for it to be seen by the community.
But hell it takes a lot of time to come up with something, I also wanted to do something for the Bounty (more like a short GBATemp themed videogame), but I couldn't find the time (also it would have been a good idea to team up with others that can do music and art for the project... next time perhaps).

I really think we need a more organized staff-maintained thread listing the project for the next Bounty, with a standard format, e.g., one post per entry containing Title, Type of work, Description, Screenshots/Music sample/Whatever applies, and Link, something that is easy to browse quickly to take a look at the different projects, something not surrounded by comments and off-topic posts.
 
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B
@sarkwalvein Yeah, to a degree, it's more about the fun of doing your own project, making your game, than anything else. I saw the Bounty as an opportunity to try my hand at making a short video game, and I think I did well for a first attempt. Will definitely be participating in the future.
 
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ThoD
I agree cracker should have been in first place, being an electronics engineer, I find his project really amazing and can motivate people to get involved in hardware more, as it can be pretty fun! I also agree that people should have made stuff just for the contest rather than reusing already existing projects. About number 4, let's not forget that especially when packaging CIAs, HackingToolkit9DS isn't exactly working half the time, so it's a bugged software at the current version, but still got a place in the top 5... Finally, about number one, I understand that it's not something new and considering how it is after all this time, it has no place on the list. I can't say anything though to be honest as I didn't submit, but it's not that hard making a similar video game in a month or even less!

PS: You sure raged quite a bit there @smileyhead :P
 
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