To the FSC Community,
We have over time struggled with late entry submissions in FSC where juries have submitted very late inside the deadline, often in the last few days or even in the last hour on deadline day. This has added stress in the juries involved, stress for the FSC Moderators collecting entries, cases where entries have been submitted too late, and delays in the schedule / mode of operation followed by the FSC Moderators to get everything ready in preparation for a new edition.
We have tried for a long time to encourage juries to submit earlier, adding encouragements to our posts to members both in the FSC Forum and in PMs, but without sufficient result. We still see around 34% (1/3) of all our juries submitting in the last 2-3 days before the deadline and very often up to 10 juries submitting on deadline day itself.
As a consequence of this, the FSC Mod team has considered several options and after a period of discussions we have finally devised a points system with penalization for late submissions inside the deadline (the country gets minus-points deducted in the results) and rewards for early submissions inside the deadline (the country gets plus-points added in the results).
The new system works as follows:
Countries submitting 1-5 days after the Evaluation Period is over = +20 points in the results
Countries submitting 6-10 days after the Evaluation Period is over = +10 points in the results
Countries submitting 11-13 days after the Evaluation Period is over = -5 points in the results
Countries submitting 14-16 days after the Evaluation Period is over = -10 points in the results
Countries submitting 2-3 days before the deadline = -20 points in the results
Countries submitting on deadline day = -25 points in the results
We believe this is a fair system which will strongly encourage all countries in FSC to submit earlier in the month (but it is the jury’s choice in the end), with a wise balance of reward and penalization, that will give a positive effect for our beloved contest. It will also minimize the chance that countries submit too late and have to skip an edition, something the FSC Mod team has especially had in mind when making this important change in the FSC Rules.
We know some of you will be critical of this change, espcially juries who wait for a potential entry until the very very end - and change is never easy and comfortable, we all know this - and we also know that internal jury routines may need be changed in some juries as a result, but we still believe this is for the best for the whole FSC Community and for smooth operations and we are confident our juries will show an ability to adapt to rule changes as they have done before.
The change will be implemented from the FSC May 2021 edition onwards (next FSC edition) and the FSC Rules will be updated accordingly. The FSC April 2021 edition will run as planned.
On behalf of the FSC Mod team,
Regards,
Malagant
FSC Admin
We have over time struggled with late entry submissions in FSC where juries have submitted very late inside the deadline, often in the last few days or even in the last hour on deadline day. This has added stress in the juries involved, stress for the FSC Moderators collecting entries, cases where entries have been submitted too late, and delays in the schedule / mode of operation followed by the FSC Moderators to get everything ready in preparation for a new edition.
We have tried for a long time to encourage juries to submit earlier, adding encouragements to our posts to members both in the FSC Forum and in PMs, but without sufficient result. We still see around 34% (1/3) of all our juries submitting in the last 2-3 days before the deadline and very often up to 10 juries submitting on deadline day itself.
As a consequence of this, the FSC Mod team has considered several options and after a period of discussions we have finally devised a points system with penalization for late submissions inside the deadline (the country gets minus-points deducted in the results) and rewards for early submissions inside the deadline (the country gets plus-points added in the results).
The new system works as follows:
Countries submitting 1-5 days after the Evaluation Period is over = +20 points in the results
Countries submitting 6-10 days after the Evaluation Period is over = +10 points in the results
Countries submitting 11-13 days after the Evaluation Period is over = -5 points in the results
Countries submitting 14-16 days after the Evaluation Period is over = -10 points in the results
Countries submitting 2-3 days before the deadline = -20 points in the results
Countries submitting on deadline day = -25 points in the results
We believe this is a fair system which will strongly encourage all countries in FSC to submit earlier in the month (but it is the jury’s choice in the end), with a wise balance of reward and penalization, that will give a positive effect for our beloved contest. It will also minimize the chance that countries submit too late and have to skip an edition, something the FSC Mod team has especially had in mind when making this important change in the FSC Rules.
We know some of you will be critical of this change, espcially juries who wait for a potential entry until the very very end - and change is never easy and comfortable, we all know this - and we also know that internal jury routines may need be changed in some juries as a result, but we still believe this is for the best for the whole FSC Community and for smooth operations and we are confident our juries will show an ability to adapt to rule changes as they have done before.
The change will be implemented from the FSC May 2021 edition onwards (next FSC edition) and the FSC Rules will be updated accordingly. The FSC April 2021 edition will run as planned.
On behalf of the FSC Mod team,
Regards,
Malagant
FSC Admin
That will be interesting! 
