I put our conversation in ChatGPT and this is what it spit out:
Based on your conversation and the input from Doc, Sleepy, and others, here's a potential framework for your meme competition that addresses the challenges you've identified, like the issue of fairness, voting methods, and the selection of judges.
### **1. Judging Panel Structure**
- **Rotating Judges**: As suggested, the winners from each week (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place) can act as judges for the following week. This allows for more community involvement and keeps fresh perspectives in the judging panel.
- **Sponsor or Special Guest Judges**: Each week, include the sponsor or a guest judge from the community, such as a prominent figure (Doc, Corndalorian, etc.). This will keep the judging panel dynamic and connected to the broader community.
- **5 Judges Each Week**: The weekly judging panel should consist of 5 members (3 winners from the previous week + 2 chosen guests/sponsors), with a simple majority vote determining the winner.
### **2. Tournament-Style Format**
- **5-Week Tournament Cycle**:
- **4 Weeks of Qualifiers**: Each week serves as a qualifying round for the final.
- **Final in Week 5**: Only winners of the qualifying rounds can participate. A separate, larger prize for the final will make it exciting and competitive.
- **Weekly Prize**: Have consistent, smaller prize pools for the qualifiers and a larger one for the final.
- **No Repeat Wins in Qualifiers**: To encourage more participation and fairness, a participant can only win once in the qualifiers. However, they can still participate in the final if they’ve won a previous qualifier.
### **3. Criteria for Judging Memes**
Here’s a breakdown of specific categories that can be used for scoring memes, which could help the panel think systematically:
- **Humor/Entertainment (10 points)**: How funny or entertaining is the meme? Does it elicit laughter or a strong reaction from the audience?
- **Creativity/Originality (10 points)**: Is the meme unique or does it provide a fresh take on a familiar theme? Did the contestant create something new or remix an existing meme format in a clever way?
- **Relevance to Theme (10 points)**: How well does the meme align with the theme of the week (if applicable)? Does it relate to the broader conversation or topic of the contest?
- **Visual Appeal (5 points)**: Is the meme visually striking? This includes image quality, use of colors, and overall aesthetic appeal.
- **Shareability/Viral Potential (5 points)**: Would the meme perform well if shared more widely? Does it have the potential to go viral?
- **Cultural Awareness (5 points)**: Does the meme avoid being offensive while still being playful or edgy?
Total possible score: **45 points**
The panel can score each meme on these criteria, and the highest-scoring meme wins. If there’s a tie, the panel can vote again, or a tiebreaker criterion (such as most zaps or reactions) could be used.
### **4. Community Involvement (Zaps/Reactions)**
Instead of solely relying on zaps and reactions (which can be spoofed or influenced by large accounts), community voting can be incorporated as a **weighted factor**:
- **Zaps or Reactions as a Judge Vote Equivalent**: The meme with the most zaps can be given the same weight as one judge’s vote, or it can break a tie.
- **Separate People’s Choice Award**: Alternatively, have a separate “People’s Choice Award” based solely on community reactions, allowing for some community input without it being the primary factor in deciding the winner.
### **5. Logistics for Running the Competition**
- **Submission Deadline**: Define when memes must be submitted each week.
- **Judging Period**: Allow judges 1–2 days to review and score memes.
- **Results Announcement**: Announce winners at the end of each week and reveal who the judges will be for the next round.
### **6. Example Judging Sheet for Each Judge**
| Meme Entry | Humor (10) | Creativity (10) | Relevance (10) | Visual Appeal (5) | Shareability (5) | Cultural Awareness (5) | Total (45) |
|--------------|------------|-----------------|----------------|-------------------|------------------|------------------------|------------|
| Meme #1 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 40 |
| Meme #2 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 37 |
### **7. Fairness & Visibility**
To address the concerns about visibility:
- **Equal Promotion**: Ensure all submissions receive equal exposure through reposts and engagement. Judges and prominent figures can help promote all entries so everyone has a fair chance of being seen.
- **Focus on Quality Over Quantity**: Reinforce that the quality and humor of the meme matter more than just how many likes or zaps it gets.
### **8. Final Tournament Structure**
- Once the weekly rounds are over, the final contest will only involve the weekly winners.
- Have a new set of judges for the final, possibly made up of prominent community members or invited guests.
This framework should help formalize the process while keeping it fun and inclusive, addressing both the judging fairness and the issue of uneven visibility in decentralized platforms like Nostr.
Let me know if you’d like any further refinements!