Wow 99Designs deleted my comment. Christian comments being censored? Wow!!!!!

So far, the only one that I see that actually has 5 stars, didn't follow the creative brief. The design is beautiful, but weren't we clearly told to put Rick Warren at the TOP and NOT use stock photos? I'm a little confused by this . . .

Honestly, had they thought things out better people would not complain so much.
As a CH you have people spend their time for you, mostly without compensation.
It was obvious that a big prize and prestigious name would heighten people's feelings and make their expression more violent.

Inconsistency in requirements and judgement does not help:
a contest with this many entries _needs_ eliminations to take place.
It is just cruel to those who have no chance of being chosen, to keep them hanging like that.

It is of no use to keep blessing us with words and then mistreat our feelings.

I heard of a saying that sounded something like this: "Communication is the key.." (or in this case, "..the hope we need")

I'm very disappointed that in this project, the communication between the contest holders and the designers wasn't there.

Altho my chances of winning are slim, If I do, I promise you all that I will share the prize with every one of you involved. :) Just to cheer things up, this means 5000$ / 846 designers = 5,91$ for each of us.. (which still is better then nothing)

So let's keep our fingers crossed, and hope for the best!
I'm going out for a beer (you should do to). Cheers! ;)

@amokana

I'm not in any way agreeing with what others have said/are saying, but we put the time in to design, the CH can put the time in to judge. Waiting till the last minute to go through the designs is poor management. If he'd been rating all along, it would be a lot easier to rate 3,100+ designs then waiting till the close. AND he'd give people an idea of what he was looking for. What to do and what NOT to do.

I'm sorry, but that's just good BUSINESS practice.

It's incredible how people do everything for money.. You can earn money but also lose your time, so don't complain because rules are clear!

After so much talk about STOCK PHOTOS. It's strange why some designs using stock photos have a STAR RATING. But oh ! well...I guess we are too impatient. Let's wait for the results. That should silence all of us.

im wondering where is the CH ??
there is alot of designs here , nothing eliminate !!

I notice the addition about the original work question however I do not think it will fix the useage of stock images and clip-art because people will still say it was their original design.. Nice concept though.

I think it is more a legality for 99 designs. By ticking it it releases them from any further liability as far as copywrite laws.

@BombardierBob Okay, fair points. Is it true that a CH cannot update their brief? I understand that a CH might make a comment advising that they have changed the brief so that those already working on the job [is spec work a job?] can make adjustments, but for a designer just stepping into a contest to have to read all the comments is counter intuitive. The brief should state everything a designer needs to know. If changes need to be made, update the brief.

@99fail, it's bad enough that 99Designs Staff had to post it it on the comments not to use stock art that the Host only a couple hours
said it. Comment section was intended for the host to relate any changes or updates and it was up to us designers to keep an eye on this section. Common sense would dictate that you need to read what the host says cause more often then not the host hasn't have a clue how to change the briefing to reflect the changes they want or may have!