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My thoughts on kiriban events
15 years ago
General
I don't like them.
That's not to say I don't appreciate gifts of art being handed out, that's wonderful, but the way they are usually earned, first one to send a screenshot of a specific pageview count, isn't terribly fair. First by tying the event to a specific time, when anyone could be asleep, outside, or just not on FurAffinity then. Second, by being inherently open to cheating.
The first point I could take or leave. Anyone with even a modest amount of popularity would get swamped if they left the window open for a whole day to allow for everyone, so cutting down on potential entries makes the whole process easier.
The second point is my big criticism. Anyone with MS Paint can create a fake screenshot and have that uploaded or ready to upload the instant the view count ticks over. Or if you don't want to go to the effort of that, you could easily have an upload page, Paint and a note to be sent to whoever ready to go as soon as possible. You could even prepare a link in advance of your upload if the service you use is predictable about them.
If you don't take these measures, you're not likely to win.
So taking the first person to send you a note is not the best way to go. A fairer option is to take any number of entries and pick a random winner out of them. For just a little bit of extra work, you'll completely avoid any potential complaints, cheating, or drama. You might have someone fake a screenshot if they were just a little late, but since that could have happened in the previous system, it's no worse at the very least.
Or, hey, why not be nice and hand out sketches to everyone who tries, rather than one full colour picture to one winner?
But let's break this down in to its base components. The kiriban thing is fundamentally about celebrating rising popularity with gifts for your followers. Whatever method you take to decide on a recipient is just a means to an end. There are so many other options as well, such as
- First person to reply to a journal
- Next person to favourite a picture (Without announcing that there would be a prize)
- Challenge your followers to a puzzle
- Street Fighter tournament
- "Guess the number I'm thinking of"
- Best TF2 hat offer
- Best music recommendation
- Judge ideas for the picture you'll be drawing or have commissioned
- "Which picture in my gallery do I like most?"
Myself, I just decided to put up a journal asking to borrow characters to celebrate 200 watches and 3000 views quietly and it worked out well. I'll be doing it again some time.
If you were doing this kiriban thing, what would you do?
That's not to say I don't appreciate gifts of art being handed out, that's wonderful, but the way they are usually earned, first one to send a screenshot of a specific pageview count, isn't terribly fair. First by tying the event to a specific time, when anyone could be asleep, outside, or just not on FurAffinity then. Second, by being inherently open to cheating.
The first point I could take or leave. Anyone with even a modest amount of popularity would get swamped if they left the window open for a whole day to allow for everyone, so cutting down on potential entries makes the whole process easier.
The second point is my big criticism. Anyone with MS Paint can create a fake screenshot and have that uploaded or ready to upload the instant the view count ticks over. Or if you don't want to go to the effort of that, you could easily have an upload page, Paint and a note to be sent to whoever ready to go as soon as possible. You could even prepare a link in advance of your upload if the service you use is predictable about them.
If you don't take these measures, you're not likely to win.
So taking the first person to send you a note is not the best way to go. A fairer option is to take any number of entries and pick a random winner out of them. For just a little bit of extra work, you'll completely avoid any potential complaints, cheating, or drama. You might have someone fake a screenshot if they were just a little late, but since that could have happened in the previous system, it's no worse at the very least.
Or, hey, why not be nice and hand out sketches to everyone who tries, rather than one full colour picture to one winner?
But let's break this down in to its base components. The kiriban thing is fundamentally about celebrating rising popularity with gifts for your followers. Whatever method you take to decide on a recipient is just a means to an end. There are so many other options as well, such as
- First person to reply to a journal
- Next person to favourite a picture (Without announcing that there would be a prize)
- Challenge your followers to a puzzle
- Street Fighter tournament
- "Guess the number I'm thinking of"
- Best TF2 hat offer
- Best music recommendation
- Judge ideas for the picture you'll be drawing or have commissioned
- "Which picture in my gallery do I like most?"
Myself, I just decided to put up a journal asking to borrow characters to celebrate 200 watches and 3000 views quietly and it worked out well. I'll be doing it again some time.
If you were doing this kiriban thing, what would you do?
I agree with you though. Kiribans are just easy advertising. Not that there's anything wrong with that, either.
I just don't quite agree with that part.
As for missing out, you wouldn't have got in anyway. I found recently that
One person probably should only be able to win once though. I think. But having said that, I wouldn't like to exclude Nefer from the next time I borrow characters because he turned out to be a very cool person.
But seriously, I agree with you. Maybe we could petition 'Neer to get something added to the site that automatically sends a note saying "<username> just became the <number>th visitor to your page." (for certain numbers at least.)
Better to forget the pageview thing entirely and do something more interesting.
People miss my kiribans on DeviantArt all the time, so much in fact that I've never done one. Instead I started doing things that boost my popularity even more like contests.
As for DeviantArt, I don't know how things work over there, but I imagine that's just part of the culture. Furries seem to need a character to represent themselves in order to fit in, which makes art done for them more desirable and ultimately they will walk through fire to get free requests.
And I know what you mean by furries walking through fire to get free requests... I made a thread on the forums here and had 24 requests in a day, despite saying I'd only take 3. Imagine if furries had money? There'd be so much money exchanging hands we'd be out of this global recession in no time.
I guess its attention whores being attention whores. :/