Keep it simple stupid we are not playing for cattle stations
When wandering around my local bonsai mates garden the other day I mentioned the shohin comp and wondered if there was anything that he might be able to enter. The comment was made that since it was an online comp then there would be alot of cheating.
I explained that that was far from the truth. I don't think anyone is out to cheat at all.
Well there was this one guy that I believe was caught out scamming the popularity pol in one of the late great BT online contests. In fact he got banned over the scandal.
They had very strict rules such as only normal nursery stock under a certain price and newspapers to prove the tree had not been worked on at the time of entering. In my opinion this did nothing but reduce the quality of the entries.
As we are not playing for cattle stations I think the learning and the fun of this process is the biggest prize but it is nice to have some small tokens as prizes to add to the fun. When we set up the literati comp I believe we set the simplest rules ever for an online comp. Granted we did have two sections one for new stock and one for worked stock which meant nothing was disqualified but a few where moved into a different section.
So I think thye simpler we can make the rules the better as it gives us a wider range of stock and approaches to the task set. That is only my opinion though and would mean very little in the scheme of things but just want to make my point clear as possible.
I don't get why anyone would get short, upset or whatever just because some one is asking for the rules to be clarified. We all have faith in each other that we are not out to cheat, in fact I get the people that are asking are trying to ensure they are being fair to all. Shoot I'm sure it would be easy to deny a tree had wire on it before it was chopped.
I think it is a separate issue to question what rules have been given but with respect given that it is only our opinion I also think that this is healthy discussion.
I disagree with Pup on the pot issue. But I think I do understand his point.
If I was setting the rules I would have set them as I thought they read. Only the trunk could have been styled. Branch work was to be no more that hedge or selecting removal to style the trunk. Root work ok. Isin't this the normal process for creating shohin trunks?
I think this could have given us some exceptional quality stock to follow and what everyone wants to see. The whole reason for keeping the rules simple instead of the old BT days.
I just hope the mods don't get precious and make the next comp with all soughts of silly rules after this.
Edit: took me a while to write that so please excuse that I haven't read the last half a dozen posts
It's too bad your in such a hurry cause the stories I could tell you, Bushels and baskets of stories, hole crates full of stories. But if you can spare a moment I will tell you one story.