The now-discarded scale went like this.
First the image itself got a score. The "perfect" score was a 5, meaning the image was new, and this is what everybody always got. There were only ever a few instances of templates being used. There were never any nines or tens given.
Pre-Existing Template: 1 point
Altered Template: 3 points
Multiple Old Templates: 3 points
Animated Template: 4 points
Multiple Animated Templates: 5 points
New Image: 5 points
New Image with BG: 6 points
Multi-char Image: 6 points
Multiple New Images: 7 points
Multiple New Images with BGs: 8
Animated Image: 8 points
Animated Image with BG: 9
Multiple Animated Images: 9 points
Multiple Animated Images with BGs: 10
Then the coloring was graded.
Flat color: 1 point
Filter/Gradient Fill: 2 points
Flat color with pattern: 3 points
Flat color with a basic shading job: 3 points
Filter/Gradient Fill with basic shading job: 3 points
Pattern with basic shading: 4 points
Flat color with decent shading: 4 points
Filter/Gradient with decent shading: 4 points
Decent shading, decent pattern: 5 points
Volunteering: +5 points per image
Late: -5 points
Over the months, "basic" shading came to mean messy shading to me, while "decent" was clean. Sloppy versus effort.
Part of the reason why I so readily scrapped the system was because for the most part, the average scores were nines and tens, with few exceptions. The only thing that ever really pulled people down was being late. So really, as time went on and people stopped using templates, the system got more and more obsolete, which is why I'm happier eliminating it than leaving everybody all freaked out.
But as you can see, the scale was NEVER SKILL-BASED. It was all effort-driven.
Of course, now that the system doesn't hoist our dedicated volunteers (coughyouknowwhothatiscough) to the top, I need to come up with a different way to reward that. The Blacklist punishment was easily shifted, but rewards... I had something along the lines of that art contest that use to run at Yerf, where the following contest is all art for the winner of the previous one, but didn't think that'd go over well, neither to the winner who'd have to page everything nor to everybody having to put art to a certain person. ^^* So I'll probably just do custom prizes, myself. XD
Now please, just don't start critiquing or complaining about the system, since it's now ELIMINATED and all.
Unless you get a really, really good idea. Feel free to suggest names.
