All legit contests must have a winner as long as the entrants follow the submission rules and meet eligibilty. The problem with these small contests is that they have no regulations and therefore can claim no winner, a false winner or cancel the contest. Let the submitter beware. Is the prize worth the pain of being scammed?
That's like saying if you walk into a car yard you have to buy a car. If you don't find any you like, or none that suit your requirements, then you aren't obligated to purchase. If you do then you will. 75% of people don't follow the feedback. Something is posted, such as DON'T USE BLUE, so what are the majority of the next entries? Blue. On the flip side: 1) It's not like every contest is directly with the end person who are actually picking the winner and providing feedback. Most of my contests are for clients, not me (every contest that was actually for me a winner has been chosen with informative feedback given multiple times a day), who don't sit on the internet refreshing their inbox every 2nd minute for updates. It can be days before they even check their inbox, let alone go through all the logos and provide feedback. It pisses me off when I get 5 "send feedback" PM's a day - hold your god damn horses. It's one thing if its been a week, if 8 hours have passed and you're re-posting, just back off and stop nagging, it's not doing anything except putting you on my "annoying" list. Stop wanting everything RIGHT NOW. That is just annoying as clients who want it "just as they imagined" - without providing any input, and then getting shitty and blaming everyone else for the poor results. A bit of patience goes a long way. 2) How can you expect to be taken seriously when the simplest of instructions aren't even followed? I can't even count the amount of times a client has asked why the hell people are still posting things they specifically asked not to do. It ruins the credibility, and you won't be taken seriously (even if you are one of those do it right - the rest let it down for everyone). 3) If the end client provides little to no feedback, what do you expect back? Do you think I want to have to come up with some other plan for a logo? I stick with building websites, I hate having to doing logos, it works in my favour to work with entrants to come up with a winner. If the end client is being un-cooperative there is nothing that can done except to cut your losses by not doing any more designs for that thread (you need to realise that most expect you to just "make something good", they don't want to provide much feedback or direction, and even when they do they often select something totally different to what they requested). A lot of them "just want something nice", they have no ideas or concepts. If they don't post good feedback, don't spend any more time entering. Simple. Nearly every thread it that "no winner picked/abandoned" one has people posting designs AFTER its already been called off! They haven't even read through the thread to see what entries have been made, feedback posted etc. That's just plain stupid and of course will end up with wasted time, not to mention they post designs that aren't inline with what was requested and feedback leaned towards.
I think the key point here Rochow is that all contest holders should state in their opening post, that they reserve the right to not announce a winner if none of the logos meet their requirements.. which is what you have done in your contest, and which is fair enough. In that instance all designers know that they may well be working for nothing and its their choice. For those contest holders who dont state this then in my opinion they have an obligation to choose a winner. If you were to contact a logo designing company, the chances are they would supply you with 3 different versions and would ask you to choose one of them, even if you didnt like any of them you would be expected to pay for their services. The same should be true of here. Let the designers know your intent right from the outset, then its their choice if they wish to take the risk. Nice post Rochow
Perhaps, but will that be a long-term solution? Everyone will just write that then, and we're back to square 1.
In any contest, there should be a contest. It is not an excuse that the contest holder didn't like any of the entries. It is just hard to know if the one he/she chose as the winner is not his/her (another) account.
But that way its the designers choice to take that risk, and they may not bother to enter. The only reason I enter contests like that is because I'm still learning so I'm not bothered about winning or not, but I think the good designers would steer clear, thus the quality of the logos wouldnt be as good. For any of my contests I always announce a winner and tell my client that as soon as the process starts they have to pay, however long it takes to get the right logo. I also tell them that the only way for them to get the right logo is for them to give clear, concise, constructive feedback. If they dont give that then the fault lies in their laps and they still owe the money. If I have a problem getting the money from my client then thats MY problem not the designers on here. I choose a winner myself if need be and pay that designer... then its up to me to chase the client for the money.
Doubt it. They're going to spend weeks of time, making sure to use proxies to not flag duplicate IP's, to try and dodge out of $25-$100? (not even taking into account people want a winner, they don't post it just so they can declare themselves the winner!). Which then: 1) Reduces the amount of contests by a truckload (both bad and legitimate), because what % of people are going to put money on the line for a "possible" concept they'll like? 2) Means that everyone can submit any old entry, and the CH has to pick one of them. I have a contest for a client ($50 and only 1 entry, opposed to like 20 on the $25 one? What the?) with 1 entry, so I'd have to declare them the winner? Hardly. If everyone puts that, we're exactly where we are now. Anyone can just not declare a winner, simply never reply at all etc. You aren't going to change peoples mentalities. People want things good, they want it cheap, and they want it right now. And they want to put in extremely little effort to get it. That is society in general, definetely not limited to poor feedback on DP. (oh, and if they dont get it like that - its someone elses fault).
Add to the list: philzilla86 No winners: PJD Media http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1365044 lettings manchester: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1393454 Dallys Digital Installations: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1511069