On Sun, Dec 05, 2004 at 06:42:10PM +0100, David Neary wrote:

I have no objections as long as people are happy with this. I would be a little worried about some splashes not getting a fair whack because they were submitted late, but sure, why not.

When do you think it would be fair to call a result?

Well, if I understand you correctly, the core developers have to make the decision which splash screen will be in the next gimp release. Apart from that, if a well defined group of gimp contributors can pick their favorits on mukunds page, we have at least some sort of a result:

http://www.mukund.org/temp/gimp/judge/scores.php

You stated out, that people picked splash screens on earlier times, so I think it would be fair, if Mukund can reset the current choices and everyone votes again.

If this all is to complicated from now on and you guys want a splash screen fast, I'm very fine with your solution Dave. I don't have to make the decision which splash screen will be the winner, so I can shut up if you already figured out how to judge :) Dunno what the others think about this ...

Greetings,

Hi,

Quoting Roman Joost :

On Sun, Dec 05, 2004 at 06:42:10PM +0100, David Neary wrote:

I have no objections as long as people are happy with this. I would be a little worried about some splashes not getting a fair whack because they were submitted late, but sure, why not.

When do you think it would be fair to call a result?

Well, if I understand you correctly, the core developers have to make the decision which splash screen will be in the next gimp release.

I disagree. It should be a user community decision primarily. Of course, the core developers belong to the user community.

If this all is to complicated from now on and you guys want a splash screen fast, I'm very fine with your solution Dave. I don't have to make the decision which splash screen will be the winner, so I can shut up if you already figured out how to judge :) Dunno what the others think about this ...

One of the advantages of the panel system is that a few people can be conscientious and look at all the entries, whereas a larger pool of people is more likely to pick their favourites froml the first 100 or 150 splashes, and ignore the last 300, which would be a shame, since there are some really nice ones down there. Another consideration is that a panel can ignore splashes that we can't ship for one reason or another (copyright material, other people's trademarks, etc) and can also use agreed guidelines (no photos, for example) whereas that's harder for a much larger collective.

In either case, we need some kind of resolution on this today or we run into the other thing I was worried about, which is time.

I suggest that - Mukund wipes the existing votes
- We give people on the mailing lists until Thursday to vote - Please try to avoid getting mukund's page slashdotted - On Thursday evening, if the top choice is not invalid for some reason, we're done. If it is, we go onto second choice. Etc.

Is there any way to close the contest page now and not have any more entries until we have chosen a winner?

Cheers, Dave.

--
Dave Neary
Lyon, France

On Mon, Dec 06, 2004 at 02:32:59PM +0100, Dave Neary wrote:

I have no objections as long as people are happy with this. I would be a little worried about some splashes not getting a fair whack because they were submitted late, but sure, why not.

When do you think it would be fair to call a result?

Well, if I understand you correctly, the core developers have to make the decision which splash screen will be in the next gimp release.

I disagree. It should be a user community decision primarily. Of course, the core developers belong to the user community.

Maybe a note should be put onto the voting page - like "Remember that this splash screen will be shown to a lot of users, many of whon are not computer freaks or experts. Therefore, the splash screen should be worthy a respectable image manipulation app.".

If this all is to complicated from now on and you guys want a splash screen fast, I'm very fine with your solution Dave. I don't have to make the decision which splash screen will be the winner, so I can shut up if you already figured out how to judge :) Dunno what the others think about this ...

One of the advantages of the panel system is that a few people can be conscientious and look at all the entries, whereas a larger pool of people is more likely to pick their favourites froml the first 100 or 150 splashes, and

Just randomize them - use a seed value based on the nickname so that the page looks the same every time.

ignore the last 300, which would be a shame, since there are some really nice ones down there. Another consideration is that a panel can ignore splashes that we can't ship for one reason or another (copyright material, other people's trademarks, etc) and can also use agreed guidelines (no photos, for example) whereas that's harder for a much larger collective.

My k.o. criteria:
- just a photo
- screenshot with OS-specifics (e.g. window decoration) - advocacy

In either case, we need some kind of resolution on this today or we run into the other thing I was worried about, which is time.

I suggest that - Mukund wipes the existing votes
- We give people on the mailing lists until Thursday to vote - Please try to avoid getting mukund's page slashdotted

Mirrors, anyone? Votes are easy to add...

- On Thursday evening, if the top choice is not invalid for some reason, we're done. If it is, we go onto second choice. Etc.

ACK. The voting pages should close automatically (and communicate this clearly).

Bye, Tino.

Hi all,

Quoting Roman Joost :

On Sun, Dec 05, 2004 at 06:42:10PM +0100, David Neary wrote:

I have no objections as long as people are happy with this. I would be a little worried about some splashes not getting a fair whack because they were submitted late, but sure, why not.

If this all is to complicated from now on and you guys want a splash screen fast, I'm very fine with your solution Dave. I don't have to make the decision which splash screen will be the winner, so I can shut up if you already figured out how to judge :) Dunno what the others think about this ...

I have followed this thread during the day, and I am afraid I'm going to go back on what I said above - I think we have a very good panel set up (although I understand that some people might not like all of the people on it), and I think we should let them judge. Of course, the GIMP is a community project and lots of people have CVS access, but I think that the idea of a panel is the best way to go.

So - Simon, Alan, Michael, Joao and Adam, please judge away, and whatever decision you come to will have my support, and that of a large number of people around here.

To address one legitimate point which was raised, there are no artists on the panel. One of the judges has already proposed soliciting the ideas of our resident artists, and I think that is good enough to address that concern.

Apologies for the huge inconvenience all of this rucus has caused. I really want to clear things up as quickly as possible, and let the judges get on with it.

Cheers, Dave.

--
Dave Neary
Lyon, France

Hi,

there are a few more criterias for a splash that haven't been mentioned yet. The winning splash should be

- international

Thus it must not show any text besides "GIMP 2.2".

- useable as a splash

It needs to have a blank or very low-contrast area at the bottom that is large enough to hold the progress texts we show at startup. Large enough even for a slightly larger font.

It could also be beautiful, perhaps funny and it should have a relation to GIMP.

Unfortunately not all submissions meet these criteria. There are some very nice ones that can't be used because they violate these obvious rules :(

Sven

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004, Sven Neumann wrote:

- useable as a splash

It needs to have a blank or very low-contrast area at the bottom that is large enough to hold the progress texts we show at startup. Large enough even for a slightly larger font.

Unfortunately not all submissions meet these criteria. There are some very nice ones that can't be used because they violate these obvious rules :(

Because there are some very _very_ nice ones that don't have the area at the bottom, maybe this shouldn't be a reason to reject them, if it is trivial to add such an area. I think the purpose is to have a great splash for gimp 2.2 and we shouldn't care about little details that can be fixed.

Sven wrote:

The winning splash should be

[ . . . ]

- useable as a splash

It needs to have a blank or very low-contrast area at the bottom that is large enough to hold the progress texts we show at startup. Large enough even for a slightly larger font.

Since painting a solid or nearly solid rectangle on the bottom is quite an easy operation, a splash candidate would not necessarily need to be rejected on this basis. I feel that this is worth mentioning because several of the most popular candidates have this problem.

In any case, I feel that the committee is well chosen, and I don't really have any worries that they will pick something that is unusable.

Best, -- Bill

______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ Sent via the KillerWebMail system at primate.ucdavis.edu

William Skaggs wrote:

Since painting a solid or nearly solid rectangle on the bottom is quite an easy operation, a splash candidate would not necessarily need to be rejected on this basis. I feel that this is worth mentioning because several of the most popular candidates have this problem.

If the image authors have the XCF or the splash, it would be rather easy to add this - and rearrange other items with their consent (some splashes have text there, even).

Michael

Hi,

Steve Stavropoulos writes:

Because there are some very _very_ nice ones that don't have the area at the bottom, maybe this shouldn't be a reason to reject them, if it is trivial to add such an area. I think the purpose is to have a great splash for gimp 2.2 and we shouldn't care about little details that can be fixed.

Well, we told people about this beforehand and it was stated clearly in the submission rules. Since there are enough very, very nice ones that followed the rules, I think it is perfectly fine to reject those that didn't. But this is completely up to the judges. I was only pointing out some facts that the judges should take into consideration when doing their decisions.

Sven

Steve Stavropoulos wrote:

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004, Sven Neumann wrote:

- useable as a splash

It needs to have a blank or very low-contrast area at the bottom that is large enough to hold the progress texts we show at startup. Large enough even for a slightly larger font.

Unfortunately not all submissions meet these criteria. There are some very nice ones that can't be used because they violate these obvious rules :(

Because there are some very _very_ nice ones that don't have the area at the bottom, maybe this shouldn't be a reason to reject them, if it is trivial to add such an area. I think the purpose is to have a great splash for gimp 2.2 and we shouldn't care about little details that can be fixed.

I agree that it is trivial to add an opaque region to the bottom of an otherwise excellent image. I for one did not understand that stipulation, and only realized it later (after I submitted) when I actually watched the splash image on startup. My Debian system loads so fast, you barely get to see the splash image ;-) The rules said something about text getting squished, but I didn't know whether that was for text in some surrounding area, or what. I thought the template provided had a border at the bottom to balance the border at the top.

Anyway, I entered for the fun of it, and don't think my image is seriously good enough to win. It would take me about 60 seconds to add the layer... I just didn't realize that it was meant for text display. I'm just throwing in my comment so that if the panel finds an otherwise agreeable candidate, they should consider adding such an opaque layer.

Thanks,

Greg

I see that two entries have 3 votes so far on the www.mokund.org site: One with grass and the a triple self protrait mock up.

Are there any trademark problems with the mock up of Rockwell's Triple Self Portrait?

(I'd strongly suggest favoring originality over adaptation, anyway.
The same would apply to Escher's Hand with reflecting Shere, which I also think looks very nice but would be eliminated for the same reason.)

_-T

_________________

Hi,

Greg Rundlett writes:

I agree that it is trivial to add an opaque region to the bottom of an otherwise excellent image.

Sure. But simply adding some opaque region will ruin any otherwise excellent image. The point here is that the splash image should have been designed with the text at the bottom in mind. There are some submissions that have solved this very nicely. A lot better than just using the opaque area from the template.

Sven

And what about the About image? Given that there are so many splash contest entries couldn't be some one of them used as background for About?