Forum:Puh...puh... Pickle?

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Pickle, anyone?

Okay. (Looks both ways to make sure nobody is around) I believe the coast is clear.

It has been two years since Illogicopedia's own prestige writing competition, Illogic Pickle was last held, after which it was decided to retire the contest for a while. We all know the calamitous events that each of the previous Pickles have resulted in, but hear me out, bros (and sisses).

I think it might be about time for another Pickle. However, to prevent re-occurrences of previous problems the event has caused, there ought to be at least some changes to the format. We attempted to spice things up a bit last time by going 'against the grain' with some decision-making, but to no great avail:

• Problem #1: Administrators are too lazy/find it too difficult to get together on IRC at the same time.
• Problem #2: There is a period of huge inactivity immediately following the Pickle closing date in which everyone holds their breath, waiting for the result.
• Problem #3: People get too cheesed off when they don't win and wander off to Uncyclopedia for ages.

This is why I'm throwing it out to you, the Illogicopedia users, to garner some ideas for a possible modified Pickle for 2011. Should it remain a three-judge IRC discussion panel, or a points based system where all non-participating admins rank the articles from 1-10, or whatever? What about the categories? Should the 'Randumb' section be renamed to reflect Illogicopedia's general increase in quality and moving away from pure randomness in the past 24 months? And should the whole contest be rebranded in light of any changes to the format?

Maybe you think the Pickle is outdated and writing competitions simply aren't good for Illogicopedia. I dunno. Perhaps most importantly, if there isn't a demand for it then there's no point, really.

Thoughts? Ideas? -- Hindleyak  Converse • ?blog • Click here! 12:36, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

The traditional panel method seems to have served well in the past, apart from maybe the test of patience that ensued last time. I think the random category should remain as well, it means those who are lazy and less talented don't have to compete with the high-quality stuff, which suits me just fine :P (Also, lawl @ the reference to Go home, small child. 'twas an incredibly lucky win!). I vote keep the same, for the sake of ol' times. --Ben ^Blade 16:40, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

Just need to hire some blokes of the street for a few dollars to group together and be the judge, and then BAM, you've got the results. Completely unbiased, unless you manage to pick Dunc off the street or something. —rms talk 16:55, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

With his current drinking habits, finding him on the street is highly likely--Ben ^Blade 16:59, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

As I remember it, the activity around the pickle and outside it would pick up around the period we run one. Reluctance to announce new pickle contests was always the void of nothingness that appeared after them, for at least a month, sometimes two months and on the last one, four months of massive ?pedia disinterest, edits drop below well the norm, the last one practically killed the site :P. Really what we need is a non-competitive means of encouraging edits or at least a way of providing damage control post pickle. So the question really is, Can the site withstand "The Pickle 5.1"? Looking at Recent Changes and from past experience, Id be inclined to say no. But then, the site has never been what it was since the golden year of 2008, I do think maybe it went on to be something more. But hey, I've been an advocate of pressing the reset button on ?pedia and doing it all again from the beginning, that made people angry :P months later we were deleting a buttload of naff articles back from when we were uncyc's toilet. Also, omfg, two three edit conflicts? let me get a word in edgewise please :P.--Silent PenguinLeave Me Alone 17:00, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

On another note, we don't really have the same userbase as we've had in the past, there are some vets, but by and large the majority of the editors here are fairly fresh and haven't experienced the pickle just yet. From what I can tell, they don't seem too competitive, except for defending ED :P But there is quite a bit of apathy towards VFF to say the least. Maybe a writing competition would bring out a competitive edge (which isn't necessarily a good thing). Who knows. —rms talk 17:16, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

An obvious 'damage limitation' exercise would be to judge the contest the day after the articles are locked down, getting the whole process over and done with and moving on quickly. If the judges stick the very best articles up for voting on VFF, some of the good entries that didn't win will still have the chance to be featured on the front page, ensuring people aren't too disappointed. We'd have to make sure people know about it, though, that users will have a second bite, this time through public consensus.

To reduce strain on judges, they can start reading the articles a couple of days before lockdown. That way, they'll have a good idea of who will win and will only have to do a final readthrough before emailing the results through or going on IRC or whatever. Word limits might help here - there is such a thing as too long an article, I think. This should also go some way towards preventing author burnout so they'll be more likely to stick around afterwards.

Even with these ideas, I still feel there needs to be more of a 'safety net' to prevent inactivity. I will say the Pickle is supposed to be fun, a chance for people to get together and pit their writing skills against each other once again - it's something that's been missing for a while now, since leaving Wikia, in fact.

With regards to the article deletion, I'm still finding lots of Uncyc-cruft via Recent Changes. Vigilance patrol is a possible future project, seeing as some of that really old, poorer stuff is on Wackypedia anyway. I'm pretty sure that, if we had a userbase anywhere near as big as Uncyc, we would have executed a proper version of your plan, if watered down, by now. -- Hindleyak  Converse • ?blog • Click here! 18:40, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

Let me have a bit of input. Judging the The Illogic Pickle 2.2 was the entire reason I wanted to stay on this site. A pickle may lower activity, but the new users who participate in the pickle will have a sense of belonging because they are in the same group as IllogiVeterans (this makes me wonder if I'm an IllogiVeteran...). So yeah, get a damage control system going and maybe tweak the pickle a bit but, whatever you do, don't abolish the pickle. --T3 20:32, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

I'm not too keen on changing it up much, except for maybe speeding up the judging process. If we just get things done and get them done fast, people won't be prone to sitting around do nothing/leaving for somewhere else. I also agree with what T3 says; if we can get the new guys involved, and if any of them is good enough to win, they might figure they really like this place and stay around a bit more, maybe show up a bit more often. —rms talk 20:41, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

/jumps up and down for someone agreeing with me - Anyway, I don't care if you change it either. I suggested you could if you wanted to... yeah. --T3 20:43, 15 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

My response to the Pickle has always been Apathy in Action. --Nerd42 01:55, 16 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

Stop chatting and crack that Pickle jar open. It's been too long, Daddy needs him some pickles -- $H_{olleH}^{ello}$ 22:32, 16 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

I couldn't have said it better. --T3 01:32, 17 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

Is it bad that I want to see it happen just because I've never seen one happen? But I do want to see it happen. Although... hmm... ~ 06:42, 17 Yoon 2011

I've seen pickles die in the real world. Gone within a second, after being consumed by a drunk British Bulldog. However I feel this next pickle would not see such a fate, because that dog died years ago. Hell yeah! Bring the pIcKlE back and lets throw a Shameless parteh. I think a voting system like the illogicoland guy/gal of the couple of full moons and a half would be good (IOTM if ya know whoddah mean!) where we all vote to see who should wind the comp. But you can get lost, I'm entering this comp cos I need some exercise. And my fingers are getting fat, so they would love some action... "Keyboard" action! DG |Chatty Chaps| 20:40, 17 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

I disagree with the voting part! Individuals work likely vote for themselves, and eliminating the option to do so seems lame, if your article is indeed the best/your favorite. —rms talk 20:55, 17 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

It can also produce tactical voting, people may not vote for their favourite article simply because that would hinder the chances of their entry winning. Keep the Jury, down with Democracy--Ben ^Blade 21:02, 17 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

Also because then I would be forced to attempt to write something for the pickle, which as that link points out, I'm not very good at. --T3 23:46, 17 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

Damnit, Ben! I think your signature leaked all over my post and now it's small. Gahh!!!! --T3 23:48, 17 Yoon 2011 (UTC)

*Deep breath*

Alright guys, let's get this show on the road. -- Hindleyak  Converse • ?blog • Click here! 11:04, 21 Yoon 2011 (UTC)