utala sitelen pi tenpo sike #MAMTT

[fading gulch]

#ijo-sin message
the first announcement!

ideal submission design:

• 24-26 days to submit
• require discord name
• one image upload, any number of submissions
• submitters chooses all categories their submission is in (add resolution requirements and [NEXT YEAR] color blind accessibility requirements here)
• [FOR NEXT YEAR] ask if they want their submission to be included in next year's contest too
• allow an optional comment at the end
• offer a reward to the winner in the icon/banner categories

ideal voting design:

• 3-5 days to vote
• require discord name
• one question per category with all submissions, allow picking up to about one third of submissions (could be revised)
• allow an optional comment at the end
• "nanpa" each image in each category with semi-arbitrary words [NEXT YEAR] and use the same nanpa if the same submission is in multiple categories
• winner chosen by simple highest number of votes (could be instant runoff via ranking if google forms were fancier)

ideal announcements:

• jan 1, announce contest [NEXT YEAR] and commission a contest banner from a previous winner or high placer?
• [NEXT YEAR] add every-few-days reminders in #pali-musi
• jan 21, announce near-end of contest
• jan 26-28, announce start of voting
• jan 31, announce end of voting; post all winners and any high placers, then ping everyone

the submission form: https://forms.gle/tcpE1DtSpUPwovwZ6
the voting form: https://forms.gle/WgMeqZH12iLhxaQy7

[fading gulch]

from @mitokietokipona, whose username is not real and so we cannot credit them

from @amber lark

from @knotty sparrow, the winner!

from @knotty sparrow , also the winner!

from @dense needle, very close third place in the icon contest! (and super cool! is the font meant to mimic the minecraft font?)

from @warm plover

from @agile bear, winner for the id:guide server guide banner! (by a landslide, too! originally was the only submission; i contacted those who submitted banners to see if they wanted to include their banners in the other categories, all said yes, and this still won super easily in the server guide category)

from @worn junco! i feel like i've seen this somewhere before, aha

from @calm ember!

also from @calm ember!

this wasn't part of the contest because i was unsure how to include it; it's also by @calm ember and is intended as an alt icon for tpt events!

this is the banner @calm ember submitted, which won in the invite banner category! they are also making adjustments to it to better fit the crop in invite links, so i've added the adjusted version as well

from @coral axle!

also from @dense needle!

another cute banner from @dense needle

one of the most colorful submissions, from @boreal heart

personally i think this is the single most inspired design, and i am sad that it didn't perform better! from @visual juniper
i would love to commission other works from you in the future, because this is awesome

also from @boreal heart!

from a participant who wished to remain unnamed :P

from @split ridge! 5th place, only about 25 votes behind the winner!

from @wild granite, third place! only about 15 votes behind the winner! (and for some reason i managed to upload the version that was not animated to #ijo-sin? my bad! but it was animated in the contest!)

also from @wild granite! this was actually the second place banner, but it was by a muuch wider gap to my surprise- about 70 votes.

second place icon, from @desert spoke! only about 10 votes behind!
(i considered doing a runoff like last year, but last year showed the exact same results in the original contest as in the runoff, just increasing the gap, and we were already running behind 😅)

finally, the third place banner, from @chrome marsh! this is a beautiful one and my personal favorite among the banners, but i am very happy with the one we got.

lastly, some responses to commentary we got on the survey:

submissions:

There can be other color variations :)
@knotty sparrow 👀❔

voting:

sina wile ante e sitelen ni tan seme? ona li pona mute tawa mi! taso, tenpo lili la, ante li pona.
@polar jewel mi wile ante e sitelen tan ni: ma pona pi toki pona li suli a. jan mute a li lon. ona li sona wawa e pali sitelen la mi wile e ni: jan ale li ken lukin li ken sona e wawa kulupu!
taso, tenpo kama la mi ken pana e ken ni tawa lipu wile: "mi wile e awen e sitelen lon!"

I am blue-yellow colorblind (which I admit is rare) and a number of these are inaccessible to tritanopia!
(omitting name for privacy) i'm so sorry about that! i'll add that to the submission guidelines for next year. that said, i threw the winners into a colorblind simulator, and only noticed an issue with the id:guide winner, so at least it turned out okay for this year assuming the simulator is accurate?

I wish there were a way to vote for them in a way that didn’t make votes in one category compete with the same art in others. I wish we’d had a table where we could rank the art we liked best, then tick columns for the uses suitable for each. Maybe your way was better, but it removes our vote from each piece of art in all but one category.
@worn aspen this was a shortcoming created by the fact that we had only one submission each in the invite banner and server guide category. unfortunately i think that will always be the case with these contests, because those images are less exciting to make art for and less visible. so, i asked those who submitted banners to also add their submissions to the other categories, but then realized i couldn't just let the same banner win in every category; so i asked everyone to vote otherwise. this is a shortcoming of this year's format. that said, google forms doesn't give us a way to do rankings afaik? maybe we'll need a better survey system for next year.

I enjoy all of these! But I'd love there to be a sitelen pona version of the "nanpa ilo" server icon.
@knotty sparrow this one's for you!

I think that this contest really brought a lot of great artists together and I love seeing everyone's work in here!! I have had such a hard time deciding which ones to choose because I truly do like them all!! This is like the fourth time I go back to revise my answers haha. Best of luck to everyone!!
and lovely commentary for everyone!

I have some concern about inability to group one's votes into a coherent theme (though that would make the voting procedure more complex)
@orchid sequoia so, we actually had it like this intentionally in 2023, where submissions were made as a pair and then voting was done on pairs, and submitters kept to a consistent visual theme among both their icon and banner. the problem was, this heavily discouraged submitting due to doubling the necessary work to make a submission! and it made voters unhappy because they did, in general want to mix their vote rather than vote just for a pre-made pair of icon and banner. couple this with this new format making it WAY easier to make the survey, and i think we'll be keeping this format. but thank you!

nanpa mun lon wile nanpa wan li pona tawa mi. taso ike la jelo ona li sama walo ona. ona li ante e ni la mi wile e ona
@wild granite ni li tawa sina! mi tu li toki lon ni; jelo en laso li poka la mi ken ala lukin pona e ante kule.

[chrome marsh]

I would like to say two things regarding my submission:

• First: wow!! Third place is still pretty good!! I'm honestly quite glad that you liked mine that much as well, mun Kekan!! It put a smile on my face :] !!
• Second, the comment about colorblindness accessibility resonated with me because I tried keeping that issue in mind when creating my banner. One of my friends is colorblind so I tried limiting myself to one palette to try to avoid hard to distinguish color combinations and hopefully maintain the spirit of the banner by the brightness of each hue. I hope I managed to at least accomplish this!!

And overall, I am happy to see everyone's art together in one spot again!! It was a nice run, everyone, and hopefully more people submit artwork next time!!! Good job to everyone :]

[bleak viper]

a wawa! mun li sitelen mute lon tomo ni a

[shut musk]

i will throw these all up on the external website when i have spare time. its now on my to-do pile.

[fading gulch]

sorry i didn't do so

[shut musk]

no worries! i really enjoy maintaining the website, its a good opportunity to learn skills

today i learned how to do like h2. sitelen-pona {} vs h2.sitelen-pona {} in the styleblock and what their differences are!!

[fading gulch]

oooo nice! hell yes to that

[boreal heart]

hiiiiiii :3

[shut musk]

still need to throw these up

tenpo sike wan. li pini.

[fading gulch]

mi sona e pilin