Eye of the North Brand the Boss (2007)/Judging blog

27 July 2007

Contest Judging -- One of Our Favourite Things: Today is the day where the entire team is judging the 2007 edition of our Brand the Bosses Contest. Over the last few weeks, various team members have opened, read, sorted, tallied, and generally reviewed every entry in the contest. Entries have gone through two or three reviews and we are now in the midst of selecting the 100 finalists -- which will include 10 winners and 20 honorable mentions -- from a larger semi-final group. If all goes well, we should publish the recognition list on July 31st, as planned. So here's how it's done: After the initial reviews, we created a document with a few hundred names that were readied for semi-final review. The names are printed on eight sheets of paper -- with a space for tallies -- which were then posted on the Wall of Fame outside my office. Yesterday evening, I sent all team members -- designers, writers, artists, programmers, or business folks -- an email asking them to stop by and vote. We set up the ballots, laid out the pencils, and of course displayed an edible reward for all who judge, as is a tradition with community contests. (This time, the tasty treats are green apple-flavoured gummy candies in the shape of a certain well-regarded amphibian.)

The judging has drawn a lot of discussions amongst the team, and there are a few names that are clearly huge winners already. Andrew and Natasha and I can tell when people get to certain names on the lists because we hear the verbal reaction. (Laughter, groans, comments like "Cool" or "Nice!") Some names are drawing passionate commentary, and truth be told, voters may get a little nudge from devs who have chosen a certain name as their personal favourite. We don't allow pre-vote politicking, and we fully respect the confidentiality of all tallies...even if balloting is taking place on paper tacked to a hallway wall. *wink* Izzy suggested he would "grief the vote" by choosing more than 10, so we're watching him like a hawk. Joe, one of the programmers, spotted an anagram, and discussion erupted as to whether that could be allowed. A few will get "sanity checked" to assure they're not already in the game. Lots of great entries from an amazing number of countries. It will be almost impossibly difficult to get down to just 100. This has been a great contest, and today has been a particularly fun afternoon. :)

--Gaile 21:47, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Taken from Gaile Gray's user page.