IFC issues to vote on and a side quest.

Hello there! Welcome to our digital castle.

Artwork credit - @yeszuzia on steemit and instagram

Hey everyone. This is going to be a pretty important update and will try to jam as much into one post as reasonable. If it's too long please bookmark it and come back later when you have time.

Plus I will be tagging everyone relevant because I feel things have been kind of slow on steem and our discord, so I want to try to get as much attention on this as I can.
I may even message a few of you directly to let you know. Anyways.. Let's get to it.

Before we get started I'd like to ask if anyone is possibly going to steemfest or could go with a lil help?

We can't afford too much, but me and @plushzilla would like to see someone there to talk about the IFC, and if it doesn't work out this year.. No worries! Maybe next time it happens we can have someone there. :) Either way I'm in this for the long haul and I think in time if we keep growing, we will probably find ourselves at some physical meetups eventually! Hopefully anyways.

First we need to vote on a few subjects in regards to how to move forward next season and I also have a side quest below planned as well. This is an official vote, so please vote if you are anyone who is a member of this community and if you want to share your thoughts on how we should proceed.

#1 Should judges be required leave detailed feedback on the entry they vote for?

This was a rule originally that I think serves a good purpose, however.. The community voted on the issue and decided the judges don't have to say anything or explain their reasoning.
The reason for that is because some judges I think feel pressured to perhaps not hurt other peoples feelings or cause conflicts in various ways.
The other side of the argument and why I support a rule for the judges to vote is that.. It's a lot more transparent for the player so that they trust more that everything works as it is out there for everyone to see on the block chain. They can also learn more and grow more from the criticism in my opinion.

#2 Should we allow people to pay for certain things to get XP, like finding the IFC a sponsor?

This was brought up and deserves a vote.
Do you think players should be able to pay to have an advantage?
We have a couple rules like to find a sponsor who donates at least 10 steem gets you XP, is it okay for those with more funds to be able to level up quicker and such?
This is.. A very popular model out there in the industry and our contest definitely needs more funds! I don't think it will stop people from playing especially as the advantage isn't much.
For example.. The only game I really play these days on my phone Clash Royale has a way for you to buy in game items with real money.. And this gives certain people an advantage over others. BUT.. It's not so much that I don't play.. I still play even though I've only ever spent like $5 or $10 on it cause I just can't justify spending much on games at this point in my life.
However.. Other people can, and would be great to grow MUCH quicker so this game can reach MANY more people. So.. Please consider this as well.

#3 Should anyone in the community be able to vote like the judges and also play in the game and remove the barrier there? Including myself and other co-owners...?

IE Anyone can play/judge and everyone who plays gets 1 vote per round.
This would solve our scaling problem when it comes to judges as the players themselves would decide who wins.
That is also the danger and the con as well as certain groups could form to sort of "ensure" their team wins..
I'm very hesitant of this idea.. Cause.. It could be a disaster, BUT.. It also has incredible potential as well and could be a "game changer" in a positive way so to speak.
It would also be cool if myself and the other judges could play in regular rounds. What do you think??

#4 Is there a way to have the IFC without a winner?

This one sort of.. Would alter the IFC name if so, cause.. How can we have a champion with no winner? But I wanna bring it up anyways.
I wonder if I wanna feed into a sort of "fighting" mindset at times. Yet I also want this iea to grow to the heights it can grow and I can't think of any really popular sport where there's no winners!
I don't want to add to separation or make things more divisive, however.. Maybe in order to reach a better level of harmony some of that is needed?
Can we truly reach our potential in a game without a winner? I've said this before and I'll repeat it here. I've heard a quote that says something like.. "The two things that make you strongest in life are having someone to protect and someone to compete against".
So as much as it would be great if we could have a game without a champion, would it not still sort of be a way to help us evolve even more? I dunno! Please share your thoughts on this as well if you so desire to.

#5 Change the name of Marketplace? Or even the IFC itself?!

We had criticism from one person who said they didn't like the name of our Marketplace.
I don't think we should change the Information Finding Championship name even though I am open minded to it. Though.. I like the name and we already have a song made up and so much artwork and logos and stuff! I don't wanna change the name of the IFC.
The Marketplace on the other hand.. Maybe we can find a better name for it? What do you all think about the names of the IFC and the Marketplace?
I'm really passionate about the Information Finding aspect, but I wanna stay open minded.. If someone can think of something a lot better and the community agrees, then we should go with it.. This is a community thing and I want it to have a life and a spirit of it's own, not one that I try to desperately control.. I want to control it as little as possible and let the peoples decide as much as is possible within reason.
How this will scale as we get larger I don't know.. But, we're still small enough where it makes the most sense to me and in the spirit of Anarchy and freedom I want it to be as free as can be for as many as can be.

#6 Should we do groups? How would it work?

I highly support this idea, I think it's only a matter of time if this game gets popular until it happens anyways naturally and "guilds" and groups sort of spring up.
So.. Why not embrace that ahead of time and give peoples the option to play in groups?
This would take away the stress of trying to win all on your own and you could split the prize up with your team mates.
It would also add an extra element to how artifacts/relics and things of such nature would be used as it would become more team orientated, and if someone is too busy to play.. Their team can pick up the slack.
I also think that if we get more sponsorship, we could perhaps add a bonus prize to the team that wins? Or something like that? To give an extra incentive to make this more team based? Though in the end.. I want people to still be able to enter as individuals and in the very final round only one player should be able to play per team to make the "champion" element still make sense.. Though..I think adding groups is virtually all positive and I can't really think of the negatives right now..?

If I'm forgetting anything or if you have any good ideas to vote on, let me know and we can do one more vote before the season begins.

Please answer as many of the questions as you can and want to, and we will make the changes according to the will of the people.

And as I mentioned above.. We have a side quest as well.

Artwork by @charisma777

I feel like this is an important quest.
I believe we can do a lot at the IFC. Heck.. If we had enough funding we could even do our own flashy TV show like American Idol or something like that, lol.

But.. We do what we can with what we have.
We have often sought out sponsors and help and have received a decent amount of support at times and now after discovering that curie is offering to help various communities more I figured.. I think we should try to apply!

I think our players have got like 6 or 7 or maybe even more curies during the first season through their entries they submitted to the IFC.. So it's sorta like we're already working with them to an extent as they are already rewarding our players.

The mission this time is to write/type a blog post about the IFC.
Tell us what you like about it. You can tell us what you'd like us to improve as well, however this post is more about trying to tell our strong points in a sort of promotional sense.

I would like to perhaps show a couple or even link all of your testimonials when I submit my official request to curie. You could sort of consider it like a group effort, to.. Help make this a better game for everyone involved. :)

Oh and if you're a judge or guest judge or anyone involved in any way even if just an observer, feel free to create your own entry as well, we could use as many testimonials as we can get.

Also I would appreciate any help to find all the rounds where a player got a curie? I'd like to be able to link them the specific rounds that got curies, however.. I'm not sure if I want to go look through every entry in the whole season.. I might spend the time to do it as I think this is important..

But not sure yet cause I'm rather busy and it would take quite a while to go through every single entry.. So for now at least for those of you who may have got a curie, could you let me know and I'll add it to the list? And then if I do go through them all I can at least skip those ones and save a little bit of time.

Also things have been decently slow around here since the finals.. Hopefully we can get at least a few entries! :) Winner gets 10 steem, second place gets 5 steem and third place gets 2 and a half steem.

Here's a link to curie's last post on this subject if you wanna check it out in more detail.
https://steemit.com/curiecommunitybuilding/@curie/curie-community-building-support-application-september-7-2018

Here's the tag I mentioned for everyone relevant, and also a thanks!

Players who scored at least one point.

@kryptocek
@bashadow
@plushzilla
@amariespeaks
@har5h
@iexplore
@eaglespirit
@mr-bike
@youhavewings
@jan23com
@sandrina.life
@jbreheny
@artgirl
@magicalmoonlight
@bengy
@swolesome
@wholeself-in
@kenneth1
@warpedpoetic
@auminda
@simplymike
@bitpizza
@losthippie
@boladayl
@noisyboy
@giddyupngo
@grizzman
@deliberator
@sophiabydesign
@lynncoyle1
@nxtblg
@yura81
@mnallica
@lahvista
@chrisroberts
@laurawhite
@beeyou
@gerrardihno

Judges @charisma777 @addempsea @xomegax
Former judges @rarebooksleuth @luckysteem @harj
Guest judges @enforcer48 @deliberator @jankasparec @plushzilla @tonyr @irvinesimages @sparrowbernard @mdf-365 @cryptosharon @dynamicgreentk @tecnosgirl @lunaticpandora @headchange @shepz1

And now a moment for our sponsors!

First up is @ats-david who has helped greatly! If you appreciate this contest or just his efforts in general you may want to look into voting for him as a witness at @ats-witness, he does a lot of other cool things for the community as well!

Next is @timcliff who has similarly helped out the contest significantly and who is also a witness who does a lot for the community, so likewise if you appreciate the efforts you may want to vote for him as witness also!

@krnel has also offered some support and does other good things to help out on the platform in general, I suggest you vote for krnel as a witness as well if you want to support all of this.

@steemcommunity has also helped us and expressed interest in helping more in the future and they likewise also help the community in various additional ways, I suggest voting for them as witness as well!

I'd also like to thank @theguruasia who has pledged at least 20 steem to the second and third place prizes and he said he may even donate more.

And @nxtblg who has been regularly resteeming and upvoting our challenges which has been a big help!

Plus one other person who has been helping a lot who deserves some credit is @soundlegion who has also been upvoting the contests regularly.

And while not technically sponsors, we are working with @davemccoy and those at #newbiegames and #newbieresteemday and they do a great service to the community so definitely check them out if you appreciate that, or if you're new.

Also not a sponsor, though @iexplore has taken a huge workload directly off of my shoulders and is now doing the "catch up" rounds, those should be posted on the @ifc page.. And I suggest giving him a follow and some support as well if you appreciate the work as he is doing an amazingly helpful and important job!

And another thank you to our recent sponsor @underground for donating 10 Steem.

In addition to connecting us with underground, eaglespirit has also connected us with @derangedvisions who has donated 10 steem as well. Thank you derangedvisions!

Furthmore we recieved a 5 SBD donation from @youhavewings

And finally, a thank you to @tonyr who has donated a Trophy Token to the winner of the championship.

The challenge will finish after 7 days when the post ends and provides its payout cycle or when all entries have been submitted.

There will be no ties, each winner will move on to the next round.

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Rules

1. Side quest 2. Create a blog post for the contest. 3. Title must contain, "IFC Side Quest" 4. Leave a link to your post in the comments below. (This part is important and a lot of people forget this, please put the blog link in the right place so our judges can find it) 5. And you also have to use the #ifc tag in your blog post as well.
6. If you somehow get hurt doing any of our quests you can not reasonably hold us accountable. Take responsibility for your own choices and actions in life. This is a voluntary game where you choose to play. Only you can make that decision for yourself. 7. You are responsible for paying the appropriate government taxes, fees, and service charges resulting from any transactions with the IFC or Marketplace. We are not responsible for collecting, reporting, paying, or remitting to you any such taxes, fees, or service charges, except as may otherwise be required by law.

Acceptable content

1. A blog post to promote the IFC to potential sponsors and investors.
   
2. Language is primarily in English and if you would like to participate from elsewhere in the world it is up to you to translate your message into English so we can understand you.
3. We also encourage role playing for those who enjoy doing that. :)

Good luck in the contest!

Artwork credit - @yeszuzia on steemit and instagram

Original by @yeszuzia and modified by @charisma777