# IALPC 2012 New Judging Guidelines



## George Farmer (23 Jan 2012)

http://www.adana.co.jp/en/sc/news/detai ... o.facebook


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## plantbrain (23 Jan 2012)

This is a train wreck.........

but....it's their business.........


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## George Farmer (23 Jan 2012)

I fear the same, as does every single other aquascaper I've discussed this with.


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## Ian Holdich (23 Jan 2012)

i don't really get it.


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## Aquadream (23 Jan 2012)

I have been thinking a lot over those new rules. It could be a train wreck, but it is also better in some ways then the previous way of judging.
The old way was the first 100 and the rest were with lottery tickets about their places.
Now there will be first 200, which is better. The rest will be still on lottery tickets that never win.
The most negative moment I see is that the contestants will have judging vote in one of the stages. Firstly the shear number of Chinese and Japanese participants would inevitably pull the score to their favourite nationals. Well everything should be anonymous, but.... yea.
And on the second place I have seen what happens when the public is allowed to pass judgement on art. It is always a disaster.

In any case ADA will claim responsibility off their shoulders, which is I believe the main purpose here and of course this contest will be more popular than ever.
Well, think about it. Every "aquascaper" out there with couple of gold fish and bunch of valis judging the best of the best along side with the body of judges that were supposed to be carefully chosen.

I know that I may sound a bit elitist, but it just does not compute in my head this kind of voting for a president.

With this kind of voting system I can not see how an European aquascaper will ever get to the top 27.


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## ghostsword (23 Jan 2012)

I think that the question one would have to pose, is why would you enter such a competition? 

I enter it because it is nice to have a goal to work out for, to show my skills and my own interpretation of Nature Aquarium, and to show my kids my name on the ADA booklet (shallow, I know).  

I learn lots from the process, I learn from the start up, the maintaining, and all the way to the photography. 

Ok, I know that I will not reach the top 100, or even win, but one needs to be realist. The competition is mostly asian, and we are really overwhelmed by their numbers. Last year from the UK there were only 14 participants. Compared with Brazil that had 37, Turkey with 17 and Italy with 22, we only managed to get 14 people to enter their tanks. 

Now look at Japan with 526! entrants last year. In statistical terms there will be a big chance that from Japan alone as much as 50 people will go into the first 200.  ... The UK will be lucky to get one or two into the first round. 

But the fault is not with ADA, there is no one to assign fault. It is just the way it works. Also, with the hard times ahead, many people in Europe have started to save money on hobbies, and aquascaping is one to drop out from. 

Maybe the future is to get some regional aquascaping contests going. There is the ASE, AGA, and last year were the UKAPS stand in London, so maybe we should divert our attentions to what is happening in Europe, and in the UK, and leave the IAPLC? 

Obviously this is hard for people that make a living out of aquascaping, it is a very important event.


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## clonitza (23 Jan 2012)

ASE is gone.
I'm not competing, maybe in the future but I don't have high hopes, anyway for me the new interactive judging is gonna to be fun. 

Mike


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## Aquadream (23 Jan 2012)

clonitza said:
			
		

> ASE is gone.
> I'm not competing, maybe in the future but I don't have high hopes, anyway for me the new interactive judging is gonna to be fun.
> 
> Mike


Shame. I did like the ASE. For some resaon they did not get very popular. I was prepared to enter both for large and nano aquariums thie year and it was dissapointing to see that they have discontinued the contest.
Then I tried to enter ASW, but they require more than just front photo and I do not have it. So I could not enter there either. :? 
I also can not find any new information about the Russian open contest this year.

It seem there is a lot of fall out from the hobby.


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## ghostsword (23 Jan 2012)

I believe that it is the hard times in Europe, and the world, that are putting the hobby on a back burner.  

I planned to go to Hanover and Vivarium this year, have had to cancel both, money is an issue. 

The ADA change may see a bigger decrease in entrants. On the other hand we have to be positive, PFK has announced that the next Aquatics Live will be bigger than last years, so why don't all of us get behind that and support the local shops, turn up and enter a couple of competitions?

It is the only way I think...


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## Morgan Freeman (23 Jan 2012)

Is there a UK based aquascaping competition?


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## greenink (23 Jan 2012)

Morgan Freeman said:
			
		

> Is there a UK based aquascaping competition?



This forum?


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## Morgan Freeman (23 Jan 2012)

mikeappleby said:
			
		

> Morgan Freeman said:
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But only if you know about this forum can you enter. I'd like to see a UK based one, possibly set up by UKAPS in which international contestants can also take part.


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## ghostsword (23 Jan 2012)

Not a bad idea.. It could be done the same way as AGA did theirs, a form to upload the pictures and details. 

With three sections: under 50L, less than 120L and larger than 100L.

We got enough top aquascapers to do the judging.


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## plantbrain (24 Jan 2012)

You guys could do the contest much better I think.

Better than the AGA etc.


Video(most cameras have this function) or go with a NBAT type thing at the local regional level.
In person home show type of thing.

I think and cannot stress how important IN PERSON interaction and learning is in this hobby.
I know Amano is really keen on this as well. 10 years on line vs 1 year in person is perhaps weighted too much to the web......you just can learn so much more in person.

Judge groups of 3 chosen by the group could go around and shoot video and run down the "criteria".
These are sent to the national and discussed. Vendors can help off set the cost.
Marketing and promotion is key to this. You have enough skilled scapers locally to do this.

Do not get mad, go do your own thing.
I have pretty much all my life.


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## Gill (24 Jan 2012)

I Have to Agree with Tom in that We as a Forum Could possibly do a Much Better Job, Of holding the Comp. 
Look at the Success we had with our Pico Contest, and the great response to the Aquaria Live contest.


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## ghostsword (24 Jan 2012)

The pico contest was what made me join ukaps, was an amazing contest, a great format, allowing people to see the path a tank would take and how it was shaping up.




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## sussex_cichlids (24 Jan 2012)

Morgan Freeman said:
			
		

> Is there a UK based aquascaping competition?



Be great if there was a UK one maybe some how tied to Aquatics Live and have prize presentation at the show for the top 10 winners maybe Founders could look at introducing this to UKAPS 

Wouldn't have to go to the point of have a cash prize sure many people would be happy with a cup if in top 5 rosettes if you in the top 25 and certificates for the rest. maybe sponsors would get involved

Could also build gallery in to the main site have the top 500 entries displayed

Could also look at possible entry fee of a £5 to process entry sure most members wouldn't mind paying if keen

I would pay to enter it


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## greenink (24 Jan 2012)

Me too. Would be a good way of widening the membership. And love the idea of 60 seconds of video as part of the entry. 

Over to George I think....


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## hinch (24 Jan 2012)

would be easy enough to setup a website allowing people to enter and upload videos+pictures etc and then allow judges to vote.

the hard part would be securing some form of sponsorship with prizes to the top 3 for example


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## George Farmer (24 Jan 2012)

Hi all

The idea of a UK aquascaping contest is great, especially if it's different to all the others. 

I like the use of video to make it a fairer I also like the idea of visiting tanks in the flesh. But this (visiting tanks) is a huge logistical issue in terms of time and money. However, it is feasable to involve sponsors to help fund such a contest. Time contraints are probably the biggest factor. Most of us have full-time jobs and our weekends are precious.

I'd really like to be involved with helping to co-ordinate something like this but unfortunately with my full-time job in the RAF calling me away for 6 months of this year, with many weeks training before that, I cannot afford the time.  Next year is a possibilty though.

However, there is nothing to stop others from leading the way with this. There is a wealth of experience and ability on here - and I don't just mean in aquascaping terms, but management and leadership. To be able to organise such a contest will take a lot of time and hard work.

I organisied the UKAPS-LAC at Aquatics Live last year, a very small contest, and it was hard graft.  Something like this is potentially a lot lot bigger.


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## George Farmer (24 Jan 2012)

hinch said:
			
		

> would be easy enough to setup a website allowing people to enter and upload videos+pictures etc and then allow judges to vote.
> 
> the hard part would be securing some form of sponsorship with prizes to the top 3 for example


Go for it.

I can likely sort sponsorship.


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## sussex_cichlids (24 Jan 2012)

George Farmer said:
			
		

> hinch said:
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I can sort some free hosting if needed i have a dedicated server hosted with http://hostforweb.com  i can set you up a free hosting account with cpanel for it 

Save the cost for hosting


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## hinch (24 Jan 2012)

hosting isn't an issue I have my own servers too its more a case of if you guys are serious about running a competition or not if you are then its worth while putting in the time to design and develop something i'm sure we've got a few designers here who can come up with some nice clean designs for us developers to work on.

out of interest what languages do you use for web development?


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## Piece-of-fish (24 Jan 2012)

I can assure at least one sponsor for the contest  
Let the fun begin. Just hope it does not die as all other topics about UK competition


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## sussex_cichlids (24 Jan 2012)

I use almost everything 

PHP, HTML, CSS, FLASH, JAVA, PERL, MySQL 
also use C# & C++ for phone apps 

i could throw a basic site together in 24hrs  

Just going to be a matter getting a domain sorted i know you can get a free .co.cc domain 
but don't mind donating $5 towards domain name if we can get few donation then we can pay for a .com or .co.uk


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## ghostsword (24 Jan 2012)

Why not use a sub domain from ukaps? 


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## hinch (24 Jan 2012)

ghostsword said:
			
		

> Why not use a sub domain from ukaps?
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that was what me and sc were just talking about figured we'd flesh out the concept get you guys involved first in what features / design / name / layout / logo etc we wanted and then have a chat with george about it after.


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## plantbrain (24 Jan 2012)

I think this a great direction folks.


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## NeilW (25 Jan 2012)

I would be happy to get involved in the graphic design part. 

I graduated last summer in BA Graphic Arts and although I'm not mad into designing for the web I'd love to get involved in some kind of logo/identity that could be applied online. I can produce flat .pdf layouts with all the elements ready to code up if someone was happy to do the coding. 

Give me a shout if you guys were interested, I don't want to step on anyones toes though 

Maybe we could start a new thread with sub topics to discus different things that need to be organised.

Cheers,
Neil


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## hinch (25 Jan 2012)

speak to sussex he's going to handle some form of prettyness since i'm horrible I think png's rather than pdf's would be more useful though


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## NeilW (25 Jan 2012)

hinch said:
			
		

> speak to sussex he's going to handle some form of prettyness since i'm horrible I think png's rather than pdf's would be more useful though



That's all cool, I'll leave him to it   

I was only thinking just a .pdf for the sake of a flat visual to throw something together. Of course I would include proper file types of the correct resolution as a bundle of artwork to be used for the final.

Give me a shout if you need anything


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## hinch (25 Jan 2012)

drop him a pm and offer to help i'm pretty sure a proper designer will come up with something better than either of us 2


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## NeilW (25 Jan 2012)

hinch said:
			
		

> drop him a pm and offer to help i'm pretty sure a proper designer will come up with something better than either of us 2



Cheers Hinch,

heres a link for some different bits and pieces I've done in the past;

http://www.neilwoodwarddesign.co.uk


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## Piece-of-fish (29 Jan 2012)

Guys about time to start new thread.


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