Deadline Rules Changes Discussion

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Enthalpy
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Deadline Rules Changes Discussion

Post by Enthalpy »

tl:dr; I'm considering changes to the rules for deadlines for submitting competition entries and releasing judging results. This is your chance to give feedback before I make a decision about what changes (if any) to adopt.

Under current rules, any rules changes (especially deadline extensions) need to be authorized by English moderation. At present, that's me. While gotMLK7 is around, he isn't active on forums and especially not in the trial-related sections. The motivation for this policy is the history of drawn out case competitions due to repeated deadline extensions. This isn't a problem for most competitions, but for those competitions where it is a problem, it can extend by a month or more. Similarly, there's a guideline about how long trial reviews should take, which exists primarily to discourage competitions from being dragged out while the judges prepare an elaborate "awards showcase" trial to announce their results.

The problem with this system is that it requires fairly heavy monitoring from me. I have not been keeping up with this, so the rare cases where there is a problem often slip through the cracks. I would also much rather limit my AAO activities to the ones where my experience with AAO is more useful: improving the editor and player, writing tutorials, reviewing cases, and making cases. It's true that monitoring case competitions isn't much, but psychologically, it makes me feel like I'm keeping up with AAO when nothing of importance is getting done. That, and I can't think of case competitions now without thinking of moderating timeliness problems.

Here's my personal wishlist for a new system:
  • Minimal maintenance required from moderation
  • Any new rules are non-technical
  • Curtails major deadline extensions
  • Clear expectations about how long results should take.
  • If there is a long awards ceremony, there's a trimmed-down version free of in-jokes.
  • There's no pressure to create an awards ceremony, especially long ones.
My proposal is:

Deadlines:
  1. Once the judges have played all entries, they must post an estimate of how long until rewards.
  2. There's some hard limit on how long this estimate can be. (Two weeks, maybe?)
  3. Any awards ceremonies should have a "just the results" version posted in-topic.
That's it. If the award ceremony takes longer than the estimates, or they drag their feet on playing cases, the hosts have annoyed entrants to contend with.

Extensions:
  • Hosts have carte blanche freedom for rules changes, including deadline extensions. The rules in the rules topic are binding, but everything else can be changed at any time, as needed.
  • Moderation retains the ability to override rules changes in the case of abuse. (Hosts can't re-override.)
  • Moderation can arbitrarily declare that the competition ends in a week if the new enddate is two or more weeks after the original deadline.
With this system, routine extensions (like a day or two for AAO technical troubles) are protected. For anything beyond that, extensions carry the risk of "the hosts can't actually give this extra time if moderation intervenes". The annoyance generated by doing this should be enough of a check for me to only do this in cases of abuse and for hosts not to abuse extensions. But if I do need to intervene, the actual intervention is quick and painless and doesn't require coordinating with the hosts. I still need to know to intervene, but there's no way around that problem.

The floor is open for discussion.
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Tiagofvarela
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Re: Deadline Rules Changes Discussion

Post by Tiagofvarela »

There's a couple of things I'd want clarified, but otherwise the system is sounding solid to me.

"Moderation can arbitrarily declare that the competition ends in a week if the new enddate is two or more weeks after the original deadline."
The wording here seems to dictate that if the current competition, set to end on April 26th originally, were to have the host declare a new end date in December today, then you would be able to change the deadline for next week, March 12th?
I can only imagine I'm misunderstanding this and you're actually referring to a week past April 26th, the original deadline.

"Any awards ceremonies should have a "just the results" version posted in-topic."
As long as this rule exists, could you provide an example of a compliant competition?
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Re: Deadline Rules Changes Discussion

Post by Tear »

I like those changes! I believe it will make things easier for everyone involved. Less pressure on both the hosts and the moderation.
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Re: Deadline Rules Changes Discussion

Post by SuperAj3 »

I agree with Tiag's reading of that 3rd point under Extensions, but yeah that sounds fair!
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Re: Deadline Rules Changes Discussion

Post by Nicky Boy »

My concerns match Tiag's, other than that, I'm on board with those changes.

Another clarification I'd like, taking the last competition for example, could hosts post a "Just winners" and later release a large Awards ceremony? I know it's annoying when a rule prevents cases from going public until the ceremony is up, but if there isn't, a long ceremony isn't necessarily bad, since it's meant for entertainment anyway
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Enthalpy
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Re: Deadline Rules Changes Discussion

Post by Enthalpy »

Tiagofvarela wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 10:37 am "Moderation can arbitrarily declare that the competition ends in a week if the new enddate is two or more weeks after the original deadline."
The wording here seems to dictate that if the current competition, set to end on April 26th originally, were to have the host declare a new end date in December today, then you would be able to change the deadline for next week, March 12th?
I can only imagine I'm misunderstanding this and you're actually referring to a week past April 26th, the original deadline.
Good point. Rewording:
If the deadline gets extended two weeks or more, moderation can advance the enddate, subject only to:
  1. The new enddate can't be sooner than two weeks after the original deadline.
  2. One week notice is required for the new enddate.

Tiagofvarela wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 10:37 am "Any awards ceremonies should have a "just the results" version posted in-topic."
As long as this rule exists, could you provide an example of a compliant competition?
The text summary here is great. Worded slightly more formally, "The results of any awards ceremonies should be posted in-topic. 'Results' mean all rankings and awards given in the ceremony."
Nicky Boy wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 11:14 pm Another clarification I'd like, taking the last competition for example, could hosts post a "Just winners" and later release a large Awards ceremony? I know it's annoying when a rule prevents cases from going public until the ceremony is up
It depends: Is the release of the large awards ceremony blocking public showcases or the start of the next competition?

If the answer is "yes," then the deadline rules we're discussing apply.
If the answer is "no," then the hosts can take as much as time as they want.
Nicky Boy wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 11:14 pm but if there isn't, a long ceremony isn't necessarily bad, since it's meant for entertainment anyway
Whether it's bad is subjective. I usually dislike long ceremonies because long usually means "filled with in-jokes I don't find funny." This doesn't matter for your above point, but this is why I want the "post-in-topic" rule.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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Enthalpy
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Re: Deadline Rules Changes Discussion

Post by Enthalpy »

I've already mentioned this to drvonkitty, but just to make this on the record: these rule changes will be in effect for the next competition. I'll need to decide what the best way to word it is, but the idea is pretty well settled by this stage.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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Enthalpy
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Re: Deadline Rules Changes Discussion

Post by Enthalpy »

This has serves its purpose, so close. Thanks for feedback.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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