MstrOfPppts

Well I guess I'll have to kind of agree with you, I knew it was a bit of a personal preference, since I rarely use the quote buttons (the quote selection is far more useful!) and even more rarely bother to reply on mobile. I prefer to be fast and reply directly under the post or don't bother replying at all (; And the longer the post, the less sense it makes to quote it anyway for keeping the forum clean ... so there still might be something behind the idea?

I do have some small suggestions, don't know how much work and if possible at all. It's just my visual preference (maybe suitable for a future poll). Not necessarily connected to the upgrade, but since there seems to be some activity on the backend works I might just throw them in: I find the MultiQuote button quite distracting since it takes it's whole own row. Especially on mobile. I think it'd be great if it could be moved up to the three dots for more options of the post? Also, this has been brought up quite some times. Due to the forum structure and the menus there are 3 taps required on mobile to get to the forums index, which I guess is the most important area of the site. Is there a way to restructure the menus for mobile and make the forums reachable in just one tap as is the case on desktop version? Great work on the upgrade and thanks for taking care of the site!

"From Merchant to Pirate" by Yatkuu/Gregory Coquelz

Small Category Sneaking Steve by YellowFrog RAFT: The King’s Merchant + Comic book by Marooned Marin International Society of Steve by BrynnOfCastlegate From Merchant to Pirate by Yatkuu Large Category The Crimson Raider (Pirate Brigantine) by Andy-Roo Captain Steve of the Revenant by Sebeus I The Rusty Rudder Pub by CaptainDarkNStormy TAPU ISLAND + MEGA COMIC by Marooned Marin Escape from the Imperial Trading Post by A_Goodman

Sorry, my previous reply was written in a bit of a hurry, since I saw I was a bit late to the party. It's not about what I want, it's about what all of us want, which is more activity in this part of the forum. At least that is what I've pulled from the previous conversations we've had after the last contest. My complaint was more aimed towards the regular users here, to maybe show some more love to Pirates theme in general. It's OK to like the classic pirates sets and style, but to stay permanently stuck in time with the outdated building techniques, old color schemes, to despise fleshy figures and anything that would require a small upgrade of ones collection is another thing. I don't know about the others but this sure is a bit repulsive to me. Long story short, regarding the poll and this topic, I really don't understand this: since I thought that the contests in general are aimed towards eurobricks users which have an interest in a certain theme, which in this case is Pirates. Just trying to explain that the classic pirates theme narrows down the possibilities of luring fresh new builders to these parts and that in my eyes going for the Steve might not be such a wise decision especially straight after a heavily classic focused contest. Despite the polls showing us otherwise.

I don't know the exact connection or history between EB and classic-pirates but I do know there was something ... anyway, this subforum is called LEGO Pirates and it saddens me a lot that it is so much classic pirates oriented and - excuse my expression - narrow sighted. Lego Pirates should be so much more than a few over 3 decades old sets. Maybe one of the reasons for not having that much of an interest, or maybe it's just me!? Although it already saddens me, knowing I might not have time to participate (any hints about the approximate dates?), I'll share my thoughts, already greatly explained by @Mazin: Monkey Island Madness - although a classic, maybe a bit too restrictive for people who have not played the games or it's been too long to remember all the cool stuff Distant Waters - maybe a second pick, but a bit harder parts-vise for everyone Pirates of Pop Culture - voted for this, it offers most possibilities and I am still under the influence of recent Shadow Gambit game, also Pirates of Dark Waters comes to my mind! The Infamous Steve - too much classic vibes ... ):

Category A Piranauts and Imperatrons by Ross Fisher The Motley Crew of the Ironclad Gunner by Sympatik Brick MetalBeard 9000's Crew by JulianH Category B King Kahuka's Surface Hopper by kritch Hover Raft by BrynnOfCastlegate Space Armada Sentry by the Inventor Category C Kahuka-1 by Yatkuu The Blackhole Sunfish by kritch The Rustbucket by JimBaggins

With all the exhibition events I have in plan for this year let's say I'm out of quota of family free weekends. It's unfortunately a no from me this year. Hopefully next year we meet again!

I guess that if the shape is harder to match, it'd be a good idea to use the sets recognizable color scheme into your build ...

... in space. Got it! Thanks. I liked the previous space pirates competition, hopefully I find time to submit some stuff for this one too!

You mean January 26th, which is today, or are we not allowed to post until February? Too much copy paste? This was a standard 10 years ago ... I guess the images per guidelines are 1024 or even1280 by now? Again this unfortunate category around official lego sets?! Are there any restrictions regarding this being a plausible official set or is it meant to be a MOC where a Pirates set can be recognized in?

Yes, I do realize I voted for digital entries. I must admit I had a really hard time writing comments as objectively as possible regarding this matter. I applied for the creative critic and did not want my chances lowered by the fact that almost half of the builds were digital. I was really surprised by this amount. And when it comes to voting, I'm not a cheeky bastard, so I vote for the entries that are most visually appealing to me. As said, I put my digital problems aside for this contest and if the rules allow digital entries, I'm alright with it, just trying to suggest a change for this. Will have a second thought on commenting or participating next time though! No, that does not solve the problem. Digitally you can still use all the expensive and retired parts in all the colors ever existing even in small quantities. And I'm not saying that this was the case in any of the builds, so let's put this aside. Sometimes it can come to a very small number. Let's say you have 5 palm leaves but for your design you need 7. Digitally 2 more clicks and it's done. Physically it comes to bricklink orders and if they arrive in time or maybe in the best case you borrow them from someone. Or you redesign the thing which might not look as cool. In other words, physically you usually design your creation in your head in regards to your collection and thus can maybe not achieve the full potential whereas building digitally you don't have this limitation. I disagree here. I have a ton of sets and none are built. All are parted out and sorted and waiting for a MOC opportunity. While physical builders might already have enough bricks for MOCs another set always enhances their collection and therewith their future builds. Even if it's jut for the minifigs, prints or the few special parts which go for ridiculous prices on bricklink. On the other hand if one relies on prizes to build up his collection without any investment, the wait for that person to start building is pointless. Ok, this was my more sarcastic argument. I see sarcasm is commonly misunderstood here so I'll avoid it in the future. Yet still firstly, this is a hobby, not work. And secondly we have a debate between physical vs digital building. And what do you want to compare the programmers and cartoon makers to in your argument? Unless you imply that I despise all digital work which is absolutely not the case. As said I'm not neglecting the effort of digital building, I just can't look at them in a same way as physical builds. Now I see that all the arguments here can go either way and I agree that it depends on a particular case and individual what one will or won't do with the prize, how big ones collection is and so on. So I'd rather see the defenders of digital building focus on the aforementioned unfair advantage. If we take two builders with similar building skills I still think the person building digitally has an advantage!

How is building a same creation digitally and physically double the effort?! As if the design phase, coming up with the idea and trying things out doesn't count?! I'd say that once the design is done it's like building a set using instructions which depending on the complexity and size of the set can be a very minor effort to build in the other media. Anyway, in the past few years I've been in quite some debates regarding this matter, yet still I see no success in convincing me otherwise. Contrary to the usual belief of the opposition, I'm not saying that digital building is not a hobby and that you're not a LEGO fan if you use it. Though I've admitted before that personally I'm not too keen on looking at digital builds in detail, as I've said they lack some character. But what I am trying to convince people here, is that digital builds have an unfair advantage over the physical build. And yes, I've also read some quite good articles about it and am well aware of most of the pros and cons in both digital and physical building. Be it searching for parts, replacing colors, replacing parts in the middle of the build, illegal builds, flexible parts, custom sails, prints, stickers, photography / renders and what not. I also agree that both building styles require a learning curve where neither is easier than the other and no one was born mastering either form of building. But when it comes to competition building, I think we must look at the very top level of builders, where I think that pros in digital building far outweigh the cons and thus create the mentioned unfair advantage! Usually I see excuses how people are not by their bricks and mostly how wealthy people can afford all the pieces thus they turn to digital building. Well to first, you'll just skip a contest or two until you get back to your collection. I too had no time nor space on my desk to make an entry this time, yet was still not allowed to enter with an older creation fitting the theme. And to the second, how is that fair then that you compete with the amount of imaginary bricks no one could ever afford? Every hobby requires some dedication and is costly and I just can't see digital builds in the same basket with physical ones. Especially when it comes to prizes. Being an organizer I'd much rather give a set to a physical builder who I presume will most probably use it in the upcoming projects, rather than just having it on display or boxed. Or maybe the digital builders would be satisfied with the Eldorado.lxf as a prize? Although I too have used digital programs for trying things out, testing some angles or color combinations, do some sketches, still physical building with bricks is the hobby for me. Digital building feels a bit like digital stamp collecting. So I'm absolutely rooting for separate categories obviously not minding if digital builds were gone completely. And if the former, absolutely different designs for each category as per the first paragraph!

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me to finish all the duties and now getting another son kept me incapable of serious discussion for a couple of days and since now I'll be physically absent ... (; I've had this post here as a draft for a few days now. Editing it in the few spare minutes as the replies flew in and finally decided to delete it all after the last couple of replies. Although I agree with most points @F1stzz stated, I also agree with @Mazin to a degree. But I too am an idealist, always trying to improve things further, yet maybe it has gone a bit too far. And since I don't want to make another impression of neglecting all the hard work from @Mister Phes first of all I'll say kudos for the organization! So I've decided to just reply in a couple of lines with further discussion possible upon request. But first let me just add that I have some concerns about the below statement, although some more explanation would be appreciated, before expressing them prematurely. Or maybe it's a subject for another topic about activity? Please do mention me there if one arises, to attract my attention! Build an official set is a very bad theme. We're AFOLs, we strive towards realism and perfection, we build awesome stuff out of bricks we buy in sets we usually complain about, despite we all know and sometimes even understand the restrictions and strict rules the designers are working with. Either it is accuracy, poor design, wrong color choices and what not, and yet the rules want us to replicate all that? Also combining the "categories" of modern and classic style as well as set remakes and original ideas was a mishap. Both pairs are tough to compare yet here we ended up with a four-way. Quite some unnecessary work - an entry registration topic with links to all the entries by their authors would automatically build us an entry index. I too am a huge supporter of no digital entries and am really glad I'm not alone! My support also goes to only one entry per member per category if multiple! I've already written a lot about the voting rules in the other thread and would rather not repeat myself here. I clearly suggested a registration prior to the contest + at least 20 comments! The creative critic prize was too generous, considering more could be used for the builders. The mini category was a blast and with a few little tweaks it could become an awesome category for future contests!

I'd say there's nothing wrong with the current voting system, as long as voting is restricted from the new or even barely active accounts. While the brackets idea might look fun, I think there's too much engagement expected from the voters. I think that towards the end, there would be less and less activity and winners would be decided by just a couple of votes in the end. There was already skepticism in allowing to vote for five entries rather than just three for people not taking the time. Imagine them having to vote multiple times and for all the pairs to come through 40+ entries in both categories ... At first I was a bit skeptical about the long voting period, but since the votes are still coming in, I'd say it was a good call. Also I think that over 50 voters, even if with a few suspicious ones, is a huge success for the competitions around here. And I think that the amount and diversity of votes is about right to say that we will get fair enough results.