User blog comment:Wikikinetic/New Awards Idea/@comment-5518179-20180924203050

Here's some problems I pick up from the awards:
 * 1) Characters posted in multiple awards, regardless of winning or not, generally have a higher chance of winning because they have a richer history, they are more known, and are subject to more analysis than a new page.
 * 2) Most characters on this wiki that are nominated are maintained by a relatively small group of senior users, with a few exceptions. We're lacking a diversity in writing style and we have a small pool of users open to voting.
 * 3) The admins understand this problem and add more regulations to minimize this, causing voting habits to be very restricted and more time consuming.

Here's some solutions I have:
 * 1) Increase the amount of users here. This'll be hard though, given the fandom's bad connotations and people's disinterest in this place's rich history.
 * 2) Drop regulations. May as well move to a poll system, but that negates the appeal of the awards in the first place, and makes it a popularity contest.
 * 3) Let it die.

Here's an idea that's different though:
 * Move away from a nominate/vote contest, and move more to a design/writing challenge akin to a hackathon.
 * Authors are given a limited time to design and write characters, and then you have an open board of critics to review the ones they like the best, provide critique, and then move the ones that pass to a poll.
 * This reduces the need for a large pool of people, and doesn't scare people off just wanting to say which character looks or sounds the best.
 * You can expand this beyond the Sonic fandom, allow furry/anthro/whatever submissions to draw in a wider crowd of people.
 * Raffle off characters. Give authors and artists some monetary reward, it'll attract a wider range of users, and also promote the contest because the reward is directly correlated by how many people willing to pay know about it.
 * Take a cut of the raffle for operation costs, if any.