Hi,

I'm a beginning modeler who managed to finished only two kits so far and I took part in last years contest with one of them. I didn't manage to win anything but hey that's life.

I'm still not sure if I will take part in this years contest and I don't want to offend any one with this but I'm just writing how this may look.

The idea of not allowing people who won something one year to participate next year in my opinion won't make the contest more fresh and live but it will certainly lower the bar and the quality of the contest. It can also be seen as a way of getting rid of competition so instead of trying to make a better kit and improving your skills you would only need to wait for your turn.

If one year I would place on 4-6 place and for the next one I would get 1-3 place I wouldn’t enjoy it that much. Because even if I would improve my skills and make much better kit a one that could participate with the 1-3 place kits from previous year I would think that the only reason I won is because those modelers didn't participate.

Not allowing staff to take part in contest makes sense only if they are the ones who decide on the winners but as the winner is chose by the members of the forum this doesn't make to much sense.

Another thing is the professional modelers. Wouldn’t it be great to take part in a contest and take good place among them? Wouldn’t you fell that you achieved something great? Well I certainly would and the all open category is the place to put your lives work in to a kit you’ve been working on for 2-3 years.  At least in my opinion.

Setting a bar of a limit of posts wouldn’t allow participating modelers who are lurking thru this forum and only post when they finish something or think that their post would help someone. Or it can make a flood of post like “great”, “cool” just so the member would achieve a desired level of posts.

As for allowing a member to take only one place in certain category makes sense but why not on start allow people only to join with one kit per category? Because if they will join with more then you might have a situation where you will have kits on 4-5 place that should be on 2-3 because they are that good.

It’s just my 2 cents and my opinion in which I didn’t want to offend any one just state how this might look after the rules are implemented.

Cheers

Karolina