[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: art and the planted aquarium



Erik Olson wrote:
"None of us have copies of the NBAT rules to compare against, but the
judges seemed to work well with the point range we gave them."

Mmmmm...... are you sure about that? I seem to recall, back when we were
working on the original set of guidelines, that someone sent me a copy of
the "Dutch rules" and I believe that we discussed them in the contest-list
group. They were certainly comprehensive but also very restrictive and
designed for the "mapped out" Dutch approach. They also pretty much required
that the judge have the tank right in front of him/her - they were not very
applicable to judging aquascapes via photos.

We decided to go with only a modest set of guidelines and leave a lot of the
discretion up to the judges. From my point of view, it worked well - I
thought that the judges in both years did an admirable job in reviewing the
entries. Feedback was the important thing, not ribbons or prizes. From what
I see online on this year's site, it looks like the same sort of thing
happened this time around.

James Purchase
Toronto