Indeed we have had banner contests in the past and it would be nice to see them make a return however there have been a few draw backs as to why we haven't had more recently. For one most of the staff team is busy with their own projects as well as the numerous current contests and events we have. It takes a lot of work, time, effort, and planning just to set up for a particular event for instance. We also have been refreshing the site by cleaning boards recently and updating rules and stickies, thus if we did decide to resurrect the banner contest we would also have to rethink how we hold it, judge it, and what particular rules and themes will be set for it.
We have had a few discussions about resurrecting this old contest recently but as Vespian stated we haven't gotten to a solid decision yet due to a few issues that emerge each time we consider the idea. This isn't to say that we will never have banner contests again though. The main issue has been deciding upon themes that are mostly Feral Heart & Community related but do not focus solely on one particular group too much. The wider the audience that the theme relates to the better. The idea is that the contest shouldn't be held too often so that means that the banners themselves need to be fairly relevant for at least the time of a year. We are trying to avoid any seasonal themes although I do like the MOTS banner that you suggested. Also since most of our events & contests are now seasonal we may have to reconsider exactly how often we will be changing the banners and if we can keep up with it. Perhaps for the preset contest banner we can show the particular years winners instead of the seasons winners to cut down on the frequency need to change the banner.
Due to the amount of events & contests that we already have with a limited staff team we wouldn't want to exhaust our resources or the staffy themselves. We have had delays in the past with preset contest judging and prizes so we don't want that to happen again. We want that each of our contests and events are held in a timely and orderly fashion. For that reason we would need to formulate a steady schedule with the banner contest to assure that it doesn't impede with the schedule of any of the other contests or events. Although the prize of the banner contest is simply a banner and that shouldn't be to demanding on the staff it's the general organization, theme, and management that concerns us.
I will definitely bring up the concept of banner contests again to see if we can perhaps get a little more progress discussion wise but it may be a bit of time before you see this type of thing making a come back. On a positive note though we did make a fairly good amount of progress on the structure of the contest itself as well as judging etc.
On behalf of the entire staff team we thank you all for your feedback and appreciate your efforts to suggest new and different ways to keep the community engaged and entertained.
Feel free to suggest more themes here if you like.
