Hello All,

Tonight we introduce ROBLOX Contests, a new way to share the stuff you build and win cool prizes while doing it. Just click on the Contests link on the main menu to get started.

How it Works

Each contest has an entry type, such as a place, model, or t-shirt. Contests also have a voting question, such as “Which is the best campground place?” There are three basic elements:

Voting

Visit the contest entry page to vote. You’ll be shown two entries side by side. Pick the one that you think best answers the contest question. You can vote over and over again, and you’ll generally be shown a different pair of entries each time. For places, you have to visit both places to vote.

Building

Enter one of your existing places or a new “contest place”. If you currently have all of your active places filled (see next section), a new contest place will make one of your existing places inactive for the duration of the contest, or until you activate it again.

Prizes

For most contests, everyone gets a participation prize; you can get additional prizes by ranking higher in either most visits (since the contest began) or most votes. You can view the top ranked players in each category on the leader-board page. Here’s an example:

Active/Inactive Places

Many of you may be familiar with our old “showcase manager”, a page for determining which of your places are active. We’ve revamped that with this release, making it easier to see which places are active and which are not. Here’s the new manager:

Your active places are on the left, and inactive places are on the right. Only active places can be visited by others, earn tickets, or be voted on in a contest. The above picture shows my account after I joined a contest and picked the “Give me a Contest Place” option — my existing place was made inactive.

To get things back to normal, either before or after the contest ends, just make your original place active. This will make the contest place inactive, removing it from further voting. You can collect votes again on your contest place by making it active, but be careful — you won’t collect votes while the contest entry place is inactive!

A Work in Progress

Contest are hard to get right – not the coding, but the fairness. We spent a lot of time thinking about all the ways that a contest could be unfair, and then built something that we think addresses most of them. For example, we have two (and soon more) leader boards, so you if you don’t win in one, maybe you’ll win in another. We also require you to visit a place before voting so good games with bad thumbnails don’t get dinged. Finally, we’ve implemented the Elo Rating System used in chess as our voting algorithm.

We’ve done a lot of things to make contests fair, but we’ve probably missed some things too. If there’s something about contests you don’t like, let us know on the forums. I’ve pinned a new thread called ROBLOX Contests. Let us know your ideas on how we can make the contests more fun and more fair.

Summary of Contest Rules

1. You must be a registered user to enter and vote. Guest accounts cannot enter or vote.
2. Any registered user can enter the current contest at any time during the contest.
3. Prizes are awarded in one or more categories, including, but not limited to, Highest Votes and Most Visits.
4. Votes are cast by users on the voting page. The user is asked to compare two assets (e.g. place, model, t-shirt) and decide which one best answers the contest question. Users must play both places before voting. Users cannot vote on their own place.
5. For place contests, users can enter an existing place or a new contest place. Contest places must be active to collect votes. If you currently have all of your active places filled, a new contest place will make one of your existing places inactive for the duration of the contest, or until you activate it again.
6. Contest starter places will not be shown in the voting booth unless they have been modified in some way.
7. Prizes are awarded automatically at the end of the contest. Award criteria are specified numerically before the contest begins (e.g. top 10th percentile) and prizes are awarded to all those contestants falling within a prize criteria.

Thanks!

Keith