Collaborative Project, Contest Style

[Kagamine]

Shon, I can see now where I may have sounded condescending, with a sort of I'm-staff-so-I-know-what-I'm-talking-about-and-you-don't attitude, and truthfully, I was trying to avoid that, especially how much I hated seeing other contest managers do it before I myself became one. Apparently I didn't do a great job of preventing myself from doing that, so I apologize.

That said, try to understand that, when I first posted, I was trying to offer constructive suggestions. I figured the idea did have merit, just a few flaws in presentation and execution, which I was trying to fix by giving you some insight on running a contest, since there IS a bit more behind the OTMs that meets the eye. Stuff you don't really realize until you're working behind the scenes. Again, I didn't mean to sound condescending because of my manager position, I was just trying to offer help.

After you clarified some things about the contest, I guess that just threw me for a loop, since the whole process was suddenly very different than what I had put together before, and, as I had honestly stated, the entire thing seemed confusing, complex, and I didn't expect it to work. I guess I did snap at you a bit, which I apologize again for, but it was just my impression of the contest.

Speaking of Writers Underground- that whole fiasco taught me a lot of things about how to carry myself as a member of the contest staff, as I made a lot of mistakes then that really made me look bad, but I learned a lot from it. One of those things was that I shouldn't completely undermine un-official contests. And, I should point out, I wasn't telling you that you "weren't allowed" to try this, I just said that I was nearly positive Contra wouldn't allow it to be in the Official section, at least not right away, and that, from my impression of it, it didn't look like it would work. You're still welcome to try, though. Just in the Gallery or something, and we'll see how well it works out for you.

You can contact me if you want any more advice on contest-running, as I'd be glad to help, but it seems clear that you don't really want my advice, so I'll just leave you and your idea alone unless you want to come to me. I, originally, hadn't even planned on making this post, but I figured it would be better I at least apologize and clear up any miscommunications rather than just ending it with me barking at you and you barking back. That makes both of us look bad.

So, good luck on your project. I'll keep my input out of it if that's not what you want. Carry on.

[Shon Harris]

I appreciate the message Kaga. The fact you're trying to meet me in the middle here says a lot and it doesn't go unnoticed. I'll take a step back, simplify the process, then pull all this together in a way that will be easier to execute. Between now and then I'll probably organize some questions to pull from the experience of the managers, including you, and hopefully we can build something with the potential to be successful. I did have some mixed perceptions from seeing the WU situation and reading what you have to say now has helped me step away from that. Hopefully in the future I can be more aware of any biases I may be holding before snapping back.

Thanks for the advice, I'll contact y'all in a week or so.