As there were alot of new members that came to Tongal for the KIVA contest, we'd love to get your thoughts/feedback on the site and our process.
Comments
(6)
Cody Conelly
12/23/2009
Hi, so I am one of those new members that was drawn to this site by the Kiva contest, and at the risk of sounding like a sore loser, I'm pretty sure this contest soured me on this site forever.
Some very basic things that you guys could improve.
-I know for a fact that the registration pop up that comes up every time you navigate to a page both confuses and deters people from viewing videos, when I sent out my link I had several people respond who were confused/annoyed by this.
-When I uploaded my video I got a message saying "sorry we encountered a problem." After spending another 20 minutes re-uploading my video, I received a message saying my video had already been uploaded.
-In the most viewed competition, two numbers are displayed, one in parenthesis and one not. I looked around a bit on the site but I could find no explanation anywhere of what these two numbers meant. I assume that one meant total views and one meant unique views but that is just a guess.
-I was very confused by the low-quality of the upload preview. Maybe ad a warning saying that videos will not look good until they are accepted.
-The whole process was a bit confusing, I realized one wasn't able to see the videos until the deadline passed, but after the deadline there was still a day or two lag in which nothing was updated, it seemed like the contest had been called off or something.
-The results were supposed to be published at 3 PM (I assume Pacific time as that's what the deadline was based on). When I logged onto the site at 11 AM EST I got the surprise of seeing the winners already.
-Finally, my main complaint was the judging seemed totally arbitrary. When I stumbled across the winners well before they were supposed to be announced, I was able to view "complete results." In the complete results I found a list of "points." Nowhere on tongal could I find any mention of the points, how they were awarded, or what they actually signified. I was extremely disappointed to see that aside from about 10 of 50 submissions, most of the entrants (including mine) were given 0 points. Like I said, I'm not trying to be a sore loser here, but ZERO points...that doesn't seem right to me. My video was creative, described the Kiva process fairly accurately, and was very entertaining. www.syntheticlives.com/kivaFinal.mov . Also some of the other submissions I watched such as Paul Russel's (in my mind) described the Kiva process just as accurately as the winner's videos and did so in a much more aesthetically pleasing manner. After seeing my video and many other's awarded zero points in this competition (along with the number of technical glitches in the site) I can't help but think that either a)something went wrong technically and the judges were not shown all the entries or b)this was never really a competition to begin with or c)the judges were selecting videos based on requirements other than the TWO listed in the contest rules page.
Like I said, I'm probably coming off as someone bitter about losing but I have entered many video contests and lost. I've been in the motion graphics industry for years and know good work when I see it. And I'm the first to give a nod to someone when I see something I like, or admit defeat and offer congratulations when I know I have been outdone. However, the feeling I am left with after this competition, is simply one of being ripped off or scammed. Sorry, but that's just how it is...
James DeJulio
Tongal
12/23/2009
Cody, Thanks for your feedback. The reason we are asking is so that we can improve the site and help new people understand how everything works.
-the "pop up" is a bug that we're having internally and we're fixing. Apologies for any technical difficulties during the process. We are in "Beta," as it says at the top of every page, to work these things out.
-"sorry we encountered a problem." - I can't speak to that specifically, but it's just a generic error message. You could have hit the "Submit" button several times, which would cause this. We've actually addressed this after we realized that this was happening.
-Most viewed competition - the number that is not in parenthesis is the one that counts. that's the number of views from unique IPs, the number in parenthesis is the aggregate number of views. Views need to last 10 seconds to count. You're right, we should post that somewhere.
-low quality upload - we should post that in the faq. It takes a little while for the video to convert to HD after being uploaded.
-the lag was a result of waiting on Kiva to "screen" the videos for abiding by the rules and for inappropriate/inaccurate content. They were very thorough and you should be happy about this. They had to sort through over 60, two minute videos, so that took some time. For example, some videos were over the 2 minute limit, and they were rejected. This is all happening to be fair to people like you who made a video and followed the rules, to give you a fair shot.
-the winners were announced early because the judges finished voting early. Maybe in the future we should manage people's expectations and post the winners at the exact time we say they are going to be announced.
-I can't speak to the judging, that was all Kiva's choice, I assume you saw who the judges were when you decided to enter? They were very thorough in selecting the winners. As far a points go, you are awarded points when a judge ranks your submission in their "top ten" when voting. I actually think your video is pretty good. To be totally honest, I don't think it was better than the 5 that won, but it probably deserved a few "points." I don't have a vote though...
a) The judges saw all the videos, trust me. b) I'm not sure what you mean? are you implying that this was rigged somehow? That's a little unfair, we're very cognoscente of creating a very fair environment and level playing field, for example, the ten second minimum for a video view to count. Why don't you add the winners as friends and ask them directly c) I see 13 requirements.
I'm sure that you are a good judge of quality, but I think you may be a little biased based upon your own work, and to use your own words "bitter" about losing.
Here's where I think you really sound like a sore loser - saying that you were "ripped off" or "scammed" is totally unfair and dismissive of the quality of the work of the winners.
Thanks for your comments and feedback Cody, this is important for us to create the best environment for our members.
Dagfinn Mork
12/29/2009
I yet have to see one entry without one or more waits for loading. It appear as you have nearly not enough bandwith or soemthing else down the chain all the way back to your servers. . . It is so bad that I have given up seeing all entries for Kiva as I spenmd more time waiting than watching.
James DeJulio
Tongal
12/29/2009
you're probably loading the videos in HD, switch off HD and it should load much quicker.
Dagfinn Mork
12/31/2009
- with 12MB bandwith I think for sure the problem is not with me but the delivery. And no, the HD is off.
