Hi All,
I can’t wait to share with you the results of the survey about the Roomstyler Contests. In the end, 91 of you participated and I’m very happy about that. It gives me a much fuller picture of who you are, what you want, what’s on your mind. Let’s get started soon, because there’s a lot to tell.
Results
You can find all the results here https://blog.roomstyler.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Contest-Survey-Results.pdf
In short
• Almost 75% of the participants say that being part of the Roomstyler interior designer community is important or very important for them. This result did not surprise me after all the passionate reactions I received since the beginning of this weblog.
• Almost 65% spend more than 4 hours a week on Roomstyler.
• More than 70% of the participants say that the contests are an important reason to be and stay active on Roomstyler and most of them do it for having fun.
• The race is undecided when it comes to the amount of contests per week. I can already reveal that we will be adding a third contest per week.
Template or no template
I have received many responses to the question “I find contests with a template room more fun than an open contest“. Over 38% disagreed and over 34% could not make a choice, while 27% find a template contest the most fun. We will just keep alternating them so there is choice for everyone.
Community Contests
Almost 70% of the participants would like to propose contests. That was what I expected since quite a lot of contests are put online by RS designers. From now on we are going to make sure that you can submit suggestions. I will come back to this in a separate blog very soon and explain how we are going to organize this together with and for you. A large majority would like the creator of the contest to be highlighted. We are going to offer this possibility as well, see next blog.
Speed contests
There were people who would like speed contests as well. I am curious if that applies to more of you. Who knows, maybe we can consider it then and give it a try. Please respond and let me know if you like the idea and then which form appeals to you most.
Comments
Nearly 87% say that being able to comment on entries is very valuable. However, it is rightly noted by some that cyberbullying and making mean, negative comments should be prevented. Maybe a flag option should be available for this too someone suggests.
If I could put something on the RS wish list myself, I would prefer to change ‘comments’ to ‘compliments‘. Let’s use this place to encourage and appreciate each other. If someone is looking for constructive criticism, they can indicate that and everyone can respond in a positive helpful way, like most of you already do.
Flags
Being able to flag entries yourself is also very important. You want to flag for plagiarism, or for not fitting the contest description. Several of you would like to have the option to include an explanation of why they placed a flag.
At this time, posting the comment with a flag is not yet possible but we will put it on the RS wish list. I myself check the entries and flags regularly and occasionally withdraw entries if I see a need to do so. It would be easier for me sometimes when I can read why a room is being flagged. And I always send a constructive email to the designer to indicate that I am withdrawing the entry and why I think it is necessary.
Voting
The participants indicate that the voting by the community itself is basically fine. (However, there are some irritations among some about the fact that the same people often win and that not everyone takes the contest briefing equally seriously. Let’s talk about these subjects together at a later time.) There was not much enthusiasm for setting up a jury, so we will not do that at this time. Who knows, maybe at a later time this will change.
When you encountered an unpleasant comment, please do not respond to it yourself, but report it to me by email so that I can do something about it.
Rules
I completely understand that some of you find it annoying when an entry is not done exactly to the letter. The rules are there for a reason. They are meant to create a framework within which you can work, so that it is possible to compare. And that you can be very surprised by all those different, creative beautiful designs!
We are all different and some find following rules important, while others want to be able to move around more freely and still change that camera angle or put in another window despite the friendly request not to do so.
Let’s never forget that it’s all about fun! If you feel more comfortable staying to the description, be sure to do so! If you see someone else taking more liberties, breathe in and breathe out. If needed, place a flag. If enough people agree with you, the entry will be withdrawn.
Periods
Most of you are satisfied with the periods to design and vote. So we’re not going to change that for the time being.
Notifications
I have asked you which notifications you would like to receive regarding the contests. I now have a good idea of that and have put it on the RS wish list. So for the time being this is not there yet but as soon as it changes you will hear from me!
Seeing entries
Some of you let me know that they are not able to see all the entries. That is rather strange. If you have this problem please email me a screendump and let me know on what device you are working on. I can not promise I can solve the problem for you but we will have a look at it.
Forum/chat
Some people miss the forum. It was helpful in getting explanations and ideas from others for example. Others would like a (non public) chat function as well. I wrote it all down on the RS wish list and we’ll come back to it.
Let me know what you guys think of the results, of the fact that we are going to do community contests, whether speed contests are a good idea, and whatever else comes to mind when it comes to the contests.
I’ll get back to you on community contests asap and probably have other fun news coming up next week.