As promised in a previous post, we’re back again to provide an analysis of the last three questions of our community-wide survey regarding the ongoing BIONICLE canonization contests.

To recap, our survey consisted of ten questions, seven of which were multiple-choice, and three of which were open-ended responses. After filtering out duplicate submissions, we received 983 responses to the survey. Last Friday, we were able to crunch the numbers for the multiple-choice questions and provide some quantitative analysis.

The first seven questions dealt with community sentiment about the way the contests have been run up to now. The final three, on the other hand, solicited suggestions from the community on how to make positive changes moving forward. Users were not locked to multiple-choice answers, but were allowed to write-in any suggestions they might have. The questions were:

Question #8: If the contests were to continue, would you like to see TTV continue to run these contests, have a different group run them, or pursue another option?

Question #9: If another group or team in the BIONICLE fandom was to run the canonization contests, which group would you want to do so, and what would you want such a team to look like?

Question #10: Would you like to provide any other feedback or notes?

Now that we’ve manually read through all of the open-ended responses to these questions, we are ready to provide some analysis and takeaways. As part of our efforts, we amended our spreadsheet of survey results with some machine-readable summaries of the open-ended responses to Questions 8 and 9, which you can download below.

This spreadsheet contains the same exact data as before, except we have added two extra columns that helped us generate the statistics which we are about to present below. Since there were over a thousand responses to scan through, our goal was not to go through every response with a microscope, but rather to group them into some common themes we identified and get a general idea of their statistics. There may be some minor errors, but given how well-represented all positions were, we are confident that the overall impressions we’ve gotten are accurate.

Question 8

If the contests were to continue, would you like to see TTV continue to run these contests, have a different group run them, or pursue another option?

This question suggested three broad options, but when reading through the responses to this question, we identified seven common types of response:

1. TTV should continue to run the contests
2. TTV should continue to run the contests, but improvements are necessary
3. A different group should run the contests
4. The contests should be run by multiple groups as a community effort
5. No more contests should be held at all (if the user answered “Disagree” or “Strongly disagree” to Question #1 and left this question blank, we put them in this category)
6. Pursue another option
7. No response or indifferent

The responses break down as follows:

We can see that a sizable portion of people prefer TTV to continue running the contests (26.8% total), but it is not a majority, and about a fifth of these respondents specifically mentioned that improvements would be necessary going forward. On the other hand, 30.2% responded that they would like to see some sort of change in management, either by going with a different group (17.9%), a community effort by multiple groups (9.5%), or some other unspecified option (2.8%). Finally, 15.5% indicated they did not want the contests to continue, and 27.6% did not specify a preference.

Although this chart is a broad categorization of all the responses, even these could be broken up more given the range of opinions and perspectives. Many contain thoughtful responses and are well worth the time to check out.

Question 9

If another group or team in the BIONICLE fandom was to run the canonization contests, which group would you want to do so, and what would you want such a team to look like?

To analyze this question, we tallied up all the times each group was mentioned as one of the suggestions. Here are all of the groups that were mentioned at least 10 times:

The top suggestion by far was the BS01 wiki, followed by BZPower, often citing the fact that they ran canonization contests in the past. Another common refrain was for multiple groups or representatives from multiple groups to run the contests together as a community effort. Many people also mentioned MaskOfDestiny, and several mentioned Red Star Games, the r/bioniclelego subreddit, and Bio-Cup. Many also suggested forming a new group specifically to run the contests.

We’ve included some representative responses below; a common theme in all of them is a call for broader involvement with other parts of the BIONICLE community.

A group of communities instead of just one part of the community

Respondent #75

If it must be run with fans, then definitely a team of delegates from international fan groups and sites.

Respondent #493

The teams at Red Star Games or BIOsector, or a combination of the two would be my choices.

Respondent #13

It would be nice if some of the Great Archives regulars (Dag, Pak, Keplers, Surel, Planetperson) could have a hand in establishing and enforcing the rules, since they seem more attuned to the minutiae of canon than anyone else. Maybe running the contests through BS01 would be the best option, since that’s the only site that will really change to reflect the results and it’s seen as neutral territory?

Respondent #305

There are several 100% Bionicle fan groups. Several members of each group should be consulted and formed a jury on the rules and their applications. Being French, BIONIFIGS is the most important at the French-speaking level, and should also be able to participate

Respondent #408

Question 10

Would you like to provide any other feedback or notes?

This was a totally open-ended question which gave respondents the chance to provide any other thoughts they had. One of the clearest themes in the answers was the need for outside assistance, specifically to keep things running quickly.

Maybe some outside assistance? People involved with the contest seem a bit too busy to give it their full attention.

Respondent #666

Please communicate more. Months long silences are torture. Simple message/uppdates like “sorry busy with work this week/ 50 % done, we will soon continue” would be VERY welcome.

Respondent #855

There were also concerns about the accessibility and culture of the TTV Message Boards, sometimes citing the actions of the TTV admins.

Allow community members outside of TTV Message Boards to vote on the contest. Otherwise the contests should not be held there anymore.

Respondent #105

I do think this survey is just another piece of unnecessary noise from people unsatisfied with the contests for whatever reason, but if winds up having an impact and the vector for the contests changes, please let it be something easily accessible. My one major gripe with TTV is that you need an account to view/participate in the contest process, which is not immediately obvious at all points. So if we switch it over to something new, just make it something everyone can participate in easily without having to jump through 84 hoops.

Respondent #690

The hostility and unfriendliness on the contest forums hasn’t been helped by Eljay’s blunt, impolite and undiplomatic conduct. I believe much could be improved with him either stepping down from being the primary moderator, or otherwise being much more thoughtful in his interactions

Respondent #881

However, many respondents really appreciated the work TTV has done so far, and the effort they’ve put into revitalizing this aspect of BIONICLE.

I feel like a lot of the drama around here these contests is overinflated. Yeah, the hagah contest has been very very slow, but that’s likely due to the sheer amount of arguing about it. From where I’m standing as a member of the community, it’s fine

Respondent #293

I think TTV have done the best they can with the contests – the issues that have arisen are inherent with the contests.

Respondent #723

There have been recent improvements in overall manpower and organization behind the contests, which are yet to become noticable at the large scale. But it is appareent that the improvements are on a rise.

Respondent #888

Conclusions

Based on the results of this survey, it’s quite clear that majority of people in the BIONICLE community want the canonization contests to continue, but many would prefer to see changes to how they are run (only 22% indicated they prefer the status quo). Notably, many people want more groups outside of TTV to be involved in the contests, and many also indicated they would like a more accessible means of voting or participating that does not require signing up on the TTV forums.

So, what are we at MaskOfDestiny going to do about it? As we mentioned in a previous post, MaskOfDestiny recently approached TTV with recommendations for altering the contest format. Now that we’ve compiled some hard numbers with this community survey, we will reexamine our recommendations in light of them and also determine if TTV will welcome the help that other BIONICLE fan groups are offering. There certainly seems to be a strong appetite among fans for TTV to collaborate with other organizations, particularly BS01, BZPower, r/BionicleLego, or MaskOfDestiny. In the meantime, we at MaskOfDestiny have approached BS01, r/BionicleLego, and other groups mentioned in the analysis of Question #9 to see how we can best navigate forward in concert with TTV and the larger community.

All in all, given that the consensus is to keep the contests going, we will endeavor to find as good a path forward as possible, for all BIONICLE communities.

—The MaskOfDestiny team