How to make a contest?

SilverStarApple7
Duck - Duck Genocide Is Real!

How do I make an art contest? I want it to be a standard one where everyone has to draw art according to the contest’s theme and whoever makes the best art wins money.
Joey
Dawnsong - Derpi Supporter
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Cool Crow - "Caw!" An awesome tagger
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Verified Pegasus - Show us your gorgeous wings!

PM me your cute OCs
Aren’t you the guy who wanted people to draw your oc shipped with Twilight, but only pay one of them? Even if it’s a decent sized reward, it’s still not good incentive, as people don’t want to spend time working on such a specific image that most people wouldn’t be interested in if there’s a good chance they won’t get anything for it.
 
Just commission people - you’ll have way more interest, and everyone gets paid.
SilverStarApple7
Duck - Duck Genocide Is Real!

@Joey  
I’m the guy who wanted to make a contest about that where only the first-place winner gets paid £200 british pound sterling, yeah. Thought it’d make things more competitive, and I’m not exactly rolling in money as it is so this seemed like a good way to reduce costs and still ensure the winner gets a bigass cash prize. Unfortunately it fell apart because the contest didn’t get its minimum number of entrants.
 
But yeah at one point that highly specific contest idea seemed good to me. “The theme is romance between Silver Star Apple and Twilight”. But now I’ve realized that’s way too restrictive. It HAS to include THIS character AND THIS one in THIS situation with a whole list of “No doing this”s and “No exploiting that loophole”s? Terrible.
 
My next contest will have a first, second, and third place winner. And its theme will be: Silver Star Apple performing any real or fictional olympic sport featured in the Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games series! Can be winning, can be losing, can look cool or lame, it’s up to the author. The only rules are: no nsfw, no gore, and no Toxapex.
 
Whoever makes the best pic in that theme wins £100, second place wins $50, third place wins $20, and every good runner-up wins $10. That way everyone who makes the best art gets paid more, but everyone who enters still gets paid. Except for the wacky jokesters who’d submit MS paint art for a tenner if I just said “Everyone who enters gets at least a tenner”.
Joey
Dawnsong - Derpi Supporter
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Cool Crow - "Caw!" An awesome tagger
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Verified Pegasus - Show us your gorgeous wings!

PM me your cute OCs
Why not just buy $200 worth of commissions from people? You could easily get 5-6 images for $200
SilverStarApple7
Duck - Duck Genocide Is Real!

@Joey  
Probably, but I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy so I still like contests. What, do those have a bad reputation around here or something? What am I going to do, get 7 people to draw my OC and then not pay anyone? That’d just make them draw my OC getting killed or whatever, and I’d end up with more bad pics of my OC I don’t like than ones I do like.
Blossomforth
Thread Starter - Started a thread with over 100 pages
Flexible - Bendy Pony

The Flexible One
@SilverStarApple7  
Questions about your honesty and integrity aside… The entire concept of concepts revolves around the fact that there are winners and losers, meaning that if you somehow do get entries, it’s very likely that you won’t pay someone (aka the people you deem to be losers).
 
Do you have any idea how fucking insulting it can be to artists for them to draw an image of your Marty Stu OC doing something specific that you asked for, only for you to turn around and say “thanks, but I don’t like this as much as I like other images, so I’m not paying you for it”?
 
Don’t do that. If you want art, pay artists to create art for you.
SilverStarApple7
Duck - Duck Genocide Is Real!

“Deem to be losers”? I don’t know how to respond to this. What am I supposed to do, hire co-judges everyone already trusts and loves, or open it up to a community vote so everyone who didn’t enter gets to vote on the winner? …Wait that actually sounds like a good idea.
 
edit: besides, people would still get paid the runner-up prize for entering. I’m only putting that “runner up” distinction there so nobody can draw my OC getting shot and say “DUELLING IS AN OLYMPIC SPORT NOW PAY ME LMAO”.
SilverStarApple7
Duck - Duck Genocide Is Real!

Hey, I had an idea.
 
What if instead of paying the winning artist directly, the artist could instead choose any apolitical charity and then I’d donate that artist’s winnings to that charity?
 
That way it’s all for charity and nobody who loses has any reason to get mad over not winning.
 
Also @Blossomforth want to be a co-judge for this contest? It’d mean you can’t enter but apart from that it seems good.
Clear Vision
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Hard Work - Merited Perfect Pony Plot Provider badge with only their own art
Perfect Pony Plot Provider - Uploader of 10+ images with 350 upvotes or more (Questionable/Explicit)
The Power of Love - Given to a publicly verified artist with an image under their artist’s tag that has reached 1000 upvotes
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Charitable Contributor - Contributed to a series of art packs that helped raise over $10,000 for charity
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Artist -

Petrolhead Artist
@SilverStarApple7
 
It’s because artists, especially skilled artists who are capable of making high quality images, want to be paid appropriately for their work, and in some cases it might even be their primary income.
 
A competition only makes sense when the top 3 prizes are worth the time to justify making a piece of artwork for only a chance of getting paid; a high end tablet maybe, or a significant sum of money. And for the artist who happens to win your contest, it would be a slap in the face for you to take the money that you would have given them and instead give it to charity.
 
It’s nothing to do with artists being selfish, it’s just that the risk of not being paid far outweighs the reward for a task that isn’t easy and also has a lot of misconceptions surrounding it. £100 for some artists would be barely any better than their standard price for a commission, and that’s assuming they win. An artist who already has interested customers approaching them won’t take the time to enter a contest like this and it makes zero economic sense. Why enter a competition where the first place price isn’t even that good when you already have paying customers paying a price that both you and the client are happy with?
 
The way I see it, a competition only works when you have a significantly bigger prize pool for the top 3 and the highest runner-ups, and when the competition theme is very broad, which allows artists to use whatever characters they want and express themselves in a way that fits the theme rather than being restricted to use a specific character or setting or whatever.
 
Don’t take what I or others have said personally as an attack against you, I think you have good intentions but we’re just trying to tell you why it won’t work. If all you want to do is get some art, find an artist with an art style that you like that also fits within your budget of what you want to spend and get in contact with them. Joey has already said this, but it’s also better for you, not just for the artist because for £200 you can get a lot of pictures from lower-end artists or artists who are simply new and have low prices to start out, 5-6 from mid-range artists or one or two from higher end artists which would be a better use of your money for this purpose. If you want to support artists in general, many artists will have typically have a patreon you can pledge to, or a ko-fi/paypal link for one-off donations, or simply spread the word about their work so that they will be more likely to find new customers or people interested in their art.
 
There’s no real need for more competition because we’re already competing against each other.
SilverStarApple7
Duck - Duck Genocide Is Real!

@ClearVision  
Oh, now I get it. I guess for someone who sells £1000+ commissions weekly, £100 really would be chump change. I once heard there was a bidding war on this site and someone blew over £10K dollars for some furry you-know-what commission. Simpleflips did a Mario Romhack contest like this recently, the theme was “Creepypasta” (Scary stories) and it turned out great.
 
Did I word that charity thing poorly? Converting the contest from a “Do good and you win big money” to “Do good and big money goes to a charity of the winner’s choice” seems, to me, like a good way to solve the “To one guy, that money is a game-changer that can go toward his first ever art tablet and get his career off the ground sooner but to another guy, that money’s nothing” problem. All charities love getting money, and this would allow artists to compete not only for themselves, but in the name of whatever cause they think needs £200 the most.
 
I wouldn’t say “You can get the money” and then after someone wins say “PSYCH! You don’t get the money, pick a charity”. I’d convert it before it starts, and everyone would go into it knowing they’d get nothing out of it but their chosen charity might. So no matter who wins or loses, there are no true losers because a charity that shelters abused spouses or rescues dogs or buys video games for orphanages or whatever would get the money and make the world a slightly better place with it.
 
The only downside I see with this plan is that everyone who enters might coordinate over PMs and agree to pick the same charity. And if I add a “No picking the same charity as someone else, first come first served” rule to prevent this, someone might screw someone else over by picking a charity he doesn’t like and then intentionally submitting crap art so he won’t win and nobody else can seriously try and win cash for that charity. Also someone might win and then pick a political charity even the rule says apolitical charities only. So “announce your charity at the start when submitting” should be a rule.
Derpy Whooves
Preenhub - We all know what you were up to this evening~
Artist -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Artistic Detective - For awesome dedication to sleuthing out and maintaining artist tags and links
Economist -
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!

Looking For My Doctor
@SilverStarApple7  
You seem to be focusing on what you are offering the artists.
 
And you seem to be ignoring what everyone is saying about how you benefit.
 
You are asking for “work on spec”, or “asking for pitches” - you are asking for work for free, and even in the best of cases when you are asking to receive art from people without any compensation - even if you promise to compensate “the best ones”, it’s unethical.
 
In fact, you’re describing what is most often considered the worse possible, and least ethical, form of speculative work - sometimes called “design contests”. Like a gaming or magazine company that puts out a request for unpaid submissions from anyone and everyone for a logo or a character, and they promise “big rewards” for the one that wins. The company gets all the art to use in whatever way they want, and only one person is paid (usually - not always). All of the artists except for one get completely screwed and lose their rights to their work, and one person maybe - MAYBE - gets adequately compensated for their art. But usually they also lose their rights.
 
That’s the kind of thing that most people rightfully hate about gaming companies or magazines, for obvious reasons. You’re pretty much doing the same thing.
 
With regard to speculative work, such as this contest you are creating, the American Institute of Graphic Arts (which recommends standards for pricing and ethical behavior in graphics arts and design) believes that professional designers should be compensated fairly for their work and should negotiate the ownership or use rights of their intellectual and creative property through an engagement with clients. That’s a committee-sourced, very fancy, and highly industry-specific way of saying “What you are trying to do is unethical to artists and yourself, and no one should have anything to do with it - even you.”
 
The website NO!SPEC is a little more blunt about all of this, but does go straight to the heart of why the kind of contest you are describing is unethical for everyone involved. Even you, though you do not seem to be able to see it.
 
A possible first step in “fixing” what you are trying to do is to focus not on what others get out of it, but what you get out of it. Try to create a contest where you get nothing out of it. Make sure the artists retain their art and their rights, figure out how to have the winner chosen by something something out of your control (or make it so everyone wins), and have no requirements for the contest that benefit you - like artists making bunches of art with your personal OC in it.
 
The annual Community Collaboration is a great example of a “contest” that is pretty cool and is pretty ethical both in its design and in its implementation - anyone can join, the requirements are very specific and do not benefit any individual, the entrants get to promote their own OCs, artists get special badges for helping, and anyone who participates wins.
 
The community gets a ton of new art, some people get great new images of their OC, some artists have a great opportunity to create a bunch of art for others, and everyone gets a warm fuzzy. Plus the person running it doesn’t get to sleep for 6 weeks because of the effort of putting it all together. Winning!
 
Alternatively, if you just want to get a bunch of art that involves your OC that you like and want to own, then work with specific artists to get specific pieces. Work with an artist who is skilled in the kind of art that you want, and who will make sure that your wishes are reflected in the design.
Clear Vision
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Hard Work - Merited Perfect Pony Plot Provider badge with only their own art
Perfect Pony Plot Provider - Uploader of 10+ images with 350 upvotes or more (Questionable/Explicit)
The Power of Love - Given to a publicly verified artist with an image under their artist’s tag that has reached 1000 upvotes
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Charitable Contributor - Contributed to a series of art packs that helped raise over $10,000 for charity
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Artist -

Petrolhead Artist
Oh, now I get it. I guess for someone who sells £1000+ commissions weekly, £100 really would be chump change. I once heard there was a bidding war on this site and someone blew over £10K dollars for some furry you-know-what commission. Simpleflips did a Mario Romhack contest like this recently, the theme was “Creepypasta” (Scary stories) and it turned out great.
 
You don’t even need to be at or anywhere close to that level for a competition like this to be pointless or almost pointless from an artist perspective. Using myself as an example, $50 for second place is currently equivalent to my standard price for a fully shaded commission with one character and no extras (backgrounds, extra characters, NSFW, props etc), and I plan to increase it a little in the near future when I next tweak my prices. If I were to enter this competition and take it seriously, I’d definitely do something that goes beyond the basics in an attempt to win. If I win, I would at best be only slightly better off in terms of time invested versus the reward, and at worst I could still even be at a slight loss compared to my standard prices depending on how far I decided to take the piece. And if I get anything less than first place then I would undeniably be at a loss.
 
Did I word that charity thing poorly? Converting the contest from a “Do good and you win big money” to “Do good and big money goes to a charity of the winner’s choice” seems, to me, like a good way to solve the “To one guy, that money is a game-changer that can go toward his first ever art tablet and get his career off the ground sooner but to another guy, that money’s nothing” problem. All charities love getting money, and this would allow artists to compete not only for themselves, but in the name of whatever cause they think needs £200 the most.
 
I personally understand what you mean, but this would definitely not work with the current theme that you have planned. It would just look like you’re just using charities to get free art tailored to your tastes. Also, the point I was trying to make with that is that artists who are on that level aren’t even going to be here to see that this competition exists due to the fact that they would be too busy serving paying customers or making monthly content for their Patreons for example. And even if they were aware of it, they won’t be interested. I’m nowhere near that and even I’m not particularly interested.
 
The only downside I see with this plan is that everyone who enters might coordinate over PMs and agree to pick the same charity. And if I add a “No picking the same charity as someone else, first come first served” rule to prevent this, someone might screw someone else over by picking a charity he doesn’t like and then intentionally submitting crap art so he won’t win and nobody else can seriously try and win cash for that charity. Also someone might win and then pick a political charity even the rule says apolitical charities only. So “announce your charity at the start when submitting” should be a rule.
 
I highly doubt that anything like this would even happen. People by nature are only going to bother with loopholes if it directly benefits them.
SilverStarApple7
Duck - Duck Genocide Is Real!

Fuck, you’re right. I’ve been going about this the wrong way.
 
If I had to pick one way to fix this, which would be best?  
  1. Bigger money, bigger prizes. Enter for a big consolation prize, win 1st place for a thousand quid.  
  2. The theme is now Twilight Sparkle at the olympics, not my OC  
  3. The theme is now “Any Mane Six member or Derpy at the olympics” so now artists can choose to draw different ponies  
  4. This becomes a team contest, I choose 3 good charities and all entrants have to pick one of those 3 charities. Every entrant has their 1 piece of submitted art rated 1-10, winning charity is whichever has the highest total score divided by number of entrants  
  5. I give up on the contest, find some artist I like, and pay him/her money directly for many pics of Silver at the olympics  
  6. The contest goes ahead but there are no winners so everyone who enters can get a decently-sized consolation prize
Joey
Dawnsong - Derpi Supporter
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Cool Crow - "Caw!" An awesome tagger
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Verified Pegasus - Show us your gorgeous wings!

PM me your cute OCs
@SilverStarApple7  
I’d go with #5 - that’s the best option overall, as you get exactly what you want, and the artists drawing for you are all compensated at a rate they find agreeable.
 
@Derpy Whooves  
I wouldn’t say the community collab is exactly a contest, but instead more of a showcase. There’s not really any prizes, I don’t give out any money, and so on. It shows off how large, diverse, and talented of a community we are.
Clear Vision
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Hard Work - Merited Perfect Pony Plot Provider badge with only their own art
Perfect Pony Plot Provider - Uploader of 10+ images with 350 upvotes or more (Questionable/Explicit)
The Power of Love - Given to a publicly verified artist with an image under their artist’s tag that has reached 1000 upvotes
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Charitable Contributor - Contributed to a series of art packs that helped raise over $10,000 for charity
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Artist -

Petrolhead Artist
@SilverStarApple7  
If you’re dead set on making a competition, an approach that combines 6, 1 and 3 is the best, but 5 is still the best use of your money and time as you’d spend less for both and get what you want.
Interested in advertising on Derpibooru? Click here for information!
Techy Cutie Pony Collection!

Help fund the $15 daily operational cost of Derpibooru - support us financially!

Syntax quick reference: **bold** *italic* ||hide text|| `code` __underline__ ~~strike~~ ^sup^ %sub%

Detailed syntax guide