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I think it’s difficult to find a completely fair way of judging as every contest will be different. If we had to be completely strict I guess my idea of fairness would have to be anonymous entries (no bias to any contestants) and a panel of judges who aren’t participating as contestants (again no bias or strategic voting). I think having a set criteria for judging on would be the most fair. So could have to judge on colour balance, theme, anything really as long as all judges are on the same page. Multiple judges again would help balance any personal preference, eg a single person not like a certain colour scheme.

But at the same time I think that too strict could make for less diverse contests or entries. It could make it too competitive, trying to tick the boxes/criteria rather than just having having fun and creating something we like. So there’s pros and cons for everything. I don’t think there’s a foolproof way to make any contest 100% fair, but I like to hope most people are honest whichever way they are participating.

I would love it if it were possible to do ranked choice voting. So instead of everyone voting their favorite they would rank everyone. 1-whatever. Then you would add the rankings for each person and the sort low to high to get the final rankings.

It would definitely be more time consuming for voters though depending on how many entries there are.

I also like the idea of a judging panel. Although trying to get people together to judge at the same time could be a challenge.

I feel like it's impossible to make any kind of artistic judging completely fair. For example I'd have trouble deciding how to weigh a simple entry vs a complex one - they're setting out to do different things. That being said I agree that having established criteria set up would increase fairness, but also that they can easily make things too rigid. Personally I prefer flexibility and potentially more wonky judging, as I enter contests to have fun.

A lot is a matter of personal taste. Color vision is also variable in itself, so entries will literally look different to people across that spectrum.

If voting is involved anonymous entries are best to avoid bias in relation to friends or whether someone won recently or not - these types easily happen subconsciously. Although I'm aware it would create more work for the organizer, so whether that's feasible is a valid consideration.

Fairness in the context of judging an avi contest depends on what kind of contest it is tbh. For example, who's hosting? Who's sponsoring prizes? Where is it hosted and for what occasion?

If it's a personal contest then one single judge would already be fair bc the objective is to please the host...

Anonymous entries would be most fair bc it's a blind vote, but doesn't mean it always yields good results (see Runway lol). Popular vote is certainly the most democratic, though.

I like the ranking idea, it gives a comparative result of how favorably an avi is received across the voting pool instead of just yes/no. That's how usually real world contests happen no? By accumulation of votes instead of picking just one.

But honestly, if someone is committed to cheat, they will always find ways =_=