Forum 7's Factbook Contest!

[Elfland]

I'd like to thank everyone who viewed and/or voted for my factbook! It has been an honor to be put alongside Montevento's own fantastic factbook.

[Khoronzon]

I voted for Elfland yesterday evening but didn't really have time to make a post detailing why, so here goes. It's mostly down to personal preference - Elfland's base concept is just something I like more than Montevento's, and the design of the factbook, while definitely more plain in appearance and layout, feels more original and really fits the nation's theme. While there isn't as much content in it as there is in Montevento's entry, the brevity and succinct presentation feel perfectly in character with the nation itself, and it still conveys a good amount of information. It having a unified appearance across both light and dark themes is also something I always appreciate, which Montevento's overview lacks. That being said, both are very well-made factbooks, and it's a bit of a shame that one of these won't be able to make it into the next round.

[Voxija]

I choose Montevento, as Elfland makes my eyes hurt.

[Elfland]

I've never heard the eye hearting complaint before. Is it the green? Or the shade of black? If there's something I can change I am open to adjusting it.

[Sanghyeok]

I've never heard the eye hearting complaint before. Is it the green? Or the shade of black? If there's something I can change I am open to adjusting it.

The colours work much better in dark mode than light mode. Right now, the light green is difficult to read in light mode for me.

[Elfland]

The colours work much better in dark mode than light mode. Right now, the light green is difficult to read in light mode for me.

That shouldn't be a problem as I have the entire factbook background in a grayish black.

[Sanghyeok]

The colours work much better in dark mode than light mode. Right now, the light green is difficult to read in light mode for me.

That shouldn't be a problem as I have the entire factbook background in a grayish black.

That's rather odd. It's not grey for me when I open it in light mode.

[Bloodshade]

Looking over both factbooks, I think my vote's going to go to Elfland's overview and I'll also explain why. While I do acknowledge that Montevento's overview is much more complete and has more content than Elfland's, there's something about the concept of Elfland that strikes my interest. The blending of the map with the background block of the factbook makes it look like rather seamless, plus that's a well-crafted map too!

The concise manner in which the information of each sub-section is organised gives me a very clear image of what Elfland is like, from the behaviour of every member of a society, taking a new approach with defining their actions, taboos, cultural norms, gender roles and so on in just a few paragraphs. While I do admire Montvento's approach as well as the fact that they most certainly did a fantastic job in fleshing out their nation, Elfland's nation strikes more chords in my mind and I was more absorbed by it despite it's relative lack of content. Just to mention, the Allbook looks perfectly fine on both light and dark mode on my end.

Anyways, both are well-made so good luck to both contestants!

[Valentine Z]

Montevento wins! Congratulations! ^^ Good effort from Elfland as well, of course! Very nice factbooks from both. ♥

Next up:
Kyoki Chudoku / Karachi Trench Colony – Overview
The Restored Danelaw / Twithe Gilakish Republic – Gilan >> Overview

All the best! ♥

[Khoronzon]

This bracket's probably almost over by now, but I may as well give my thoughts. I voted for Karachi Trench Colony this time around, once again mostly because I prefer the base concept. Gilan, while definitely well-made, just isn't really my style of nation. It's not your average cookie-cutter MT democracy by any means, but it still isn't out there enough to really appeal to me. What does fit rather nicely into my particular tastes is bleak hopelessness, strange, unfamiliar lifeforms, and equally alien cultures and environments - you can probably see where I'm going with this. The Hekkathi are a very unique concept for an alien "civilisation" that I haven't really seen done before, and their cultural beliefs and lifestyle are great to read about - if a little depressing, but that just adds to the atmosphere. Of course, KTC's overview does have its flaws, mainly that it could do with a fair bit more formatting and images, but otherwise it's definitely my preferred choice in this round and overall just a really cool nation.

[Valentine Z]

Sorry it took a while. Very haphazard on a phone!

Anyway, Danelaw wins with a 9-8! Congratulations, and good Factbooks from both! Very, very close!

Next up, we have:

Kyoki Chudoku / Settlers League – Informative Pamphlet
Synne Industries – https://synneindustries.sy/home

All the best!

[Kyoki Chudoku]

A remarkably close round! I am utterly honoured to have been as close as I was to draw. I am legitimately surprised it was such a contest!

And in honour of that, and because it seems like I really should be over-analysing things more, today I’m giving my opinion on the next contestants...including myself. The outcome may shock you.

Onto the analysis. As the producer of one of those works, I obviously have an inherent bias. I know exactly why I made the choices I did. You will note that Kyoki Chudoku is conspicuously absent from the overview section despite being my main nation, and indeed the most liked overview page last I checked. The reason is because it is not very unique. It is a simple copy-paste of the standard Ponderosa (saviour of the wiki-makers) template. I wanted to front work I felt was more fully my own. As such, I put up the Karachi Trench Colony and the Settler’s League. The first because of the unique perspective and subject matter- it’s intended to explain in melancholic detail the abnormalities of their Hekkathi and the darkness of their situation. The Settler’s League is also an experiment in many regards, focusing more on aesthetics than on raw content.

It’s designed to look like a pamphlet, of course- and one filled with propaganda. I had way too much fun toying with the use of censorship in Treadway’s section, trying to offer a perspective on a national leader in a more indirect sense. Instead of using direct exposition, I wanted to create the sense of multiple differing perspectives as one would view an actual historical figure, with a compilation of (obviously censored and manipulated) accounts in contrast to the direct propaganda. It is the factbook of mine which I consider to be most entirely in-character.

So my vote goes to Synne.

Why?

The Synne page is in many ways a very good thing to compare to the “Informative Pamphlet”. It too is a very in-character work, with an aesthetic focus and intended to display information from a more internal perspective. It has a different voice, of course- less the words of a dictator trying to entice visitors with promises of prosperity, more the pseudo-nicety of a corporate entity. But I’m going to be very honest here. The Settler’s League is not a well-developed nation. It has some information, but nothing too concrete or detailed save the letters on Treadway himself. Whereas the Synne webpage has, I feel, a greater amount of raw content, while still affording exceptionally complex aesthetics. I have no clue how to make something look that seamless. It even has a built-in viewing aid to help with visual issues! And beyond that, it feels very much like what I feel it’s supposed to. It feels like a webpage. It has direct links to other dispatches- a seamless integration that makes absolute sense because of course a website would use that kind of link. It has small boxes filled with tiny minute details and links you’d probably miss the way you would a pop-up ad if you weren’t scrutinising the page. It has a social media window and a stocks window It all contributes to a consistent feeling.

And if I think it exceeds the Settler’s League pamphlet in both literary content and aesthetic value, what other metric could I possibly use to not vote for it? There are a couple of small things. It is busy- not in a bad way, but it is. My perpetual ignorance makes me question how kind of evil they come across from my perspective- it’s probably intentional though. Or maybe I’m just exhausted of corporate-speak, which is anything is further evidence of consistency. I could be missing something obvious. But in any case, that’s my analysis- and that’s why I’m affording a vote to my direct competitor.

Of course, I’m very eager to hear everyone else’s thoughts on the matter! I after all have a skewed perspective- and this is the perfect contest for delivering feedback! More than any victory, I think what I value most from this experience is indeed such feedback, advice on what works and what does not in both directions. It’s a constructive exercise and I eagerly await the public consensus!

Until next time (if I ever do this again, that’s undetermined right now).

[Valentine Z]

Oh thank goodness I can change it midway.

Sorry about that, my friends! I forgot to let the poll run for only one day*, AND also allow revotes. Both are now in-effect without touching the numbers.

* The time was not extended, it's still one day - I started the poll around 17.30 GMT +8, it's ending next day at 17.30 GMT +8.

[Kiu Ghesik]

I'm voting for Synne for much the same reasons Kyoki pointed out, but I'd like to add that I find SL's formatting far less... clunky than Synne's. It's an excellent factbook, but it feels like it was beaten into shape. Which does give it that great "early 2000s HTML" website, sure, but there's a reason that very few professional websites are formatted like that nowadays. And I dislike how I needed to realign my zoom to view it properly, but that's just a personal preference, really. Ultimately it comes down to the fact that Synne's has more information. While Settlers' is interesting, and formatted well, I think that Synne's formatting is ultimately more creative and its content more in-depth.

A strong showing from both of you, though. It could really go either way.

[Valentine Z]

And that concludes the first round of Overview! Congratulations to Synne for the win, and for both Synne and Kyoki for their wonderful factbooks! You have amazing design on different aspects.

Instead of going over to Overview, to give the contestants some breathing space, we will be moving across the categories! Here comes the first bracket in the History bracket!

The Krirken Swarm – The Shattering and the Brood Wars
Western Fardelshufflestein – The Flag and Seal of Western Fardelshufflestein

Good luck! ♥

-----

EDIT: Wayback Machine is down, I cannot save and archive pages. With that, I will be saving offline copies for my reference in case of edits.

EDIT 2: Moved my entry - Valentine Z / Garden at 6th Mile Road – The Wonderful World. - down to the Misc Category (I didn't edit my own entry; was just miscategorised, oops), and split the 3-way bracket below into two 2-ways. So sorry for the change! >,<

[SS-AAA]

I am not very verbose OOCly, but here is my take -- from someone who works clericals I guess.

Both factbooks have their positive qualities -- both are simple, readable and quite clean. But Krirken makes it even more orderly with [align=justify], [list] and good use of the [box]. All paragraphs also have equal space from one another. Meanwhile, WF's factbook sometimes overlooks the spacing between paragraphs and the way that the pictures of flag take up the entire space just doesn't cut it. I recommend you resize all pictures to relatively equal sizes and please do decide if you actually want your flags in [box] or no.

[Valentine Z]

Krirken Swarm wins! Congratulations! ^^

Now we have the second history bracket!

Voxija – History of Voxija
Synne Industries – Sun Never Sets [ACT 1]

Good luck! ♥

[Valentine Z]

Congratulations to Synne for the win! Great effort by Voxija too, and don't be discouraged! There are always opportunities, and you still have factbooks left!

Next up, we have:

Diarcesia – Calendar Conversions
New Carthagea – History Of New Carthagea

Good luck!

[Sanghyeok]

I feel like I've missed so much.

[Kiu Ghesik]

Yeah... it's the sheer amount of content NC has that clinches this one for me.

[Valentine Z]

Congratulations to NC for another win! Great effort from both users, very nice factbooks still, with merits of their own! ♥

Next up, we have:

Balticonia – 1744-1784: Balticonia in the Wars of the Austrontan Coalitions
Wuchu / Shtet – We Are Here | אונז זענען דא

Good luck!

[Voxija]

I kind of have to vote for Shtet on principle.

[Kiu Ghesik]

I personally voted for Shtet as I feel that its formatting is far better. While I immensely enjoy both factbooks, I feel that Balticonia's factbook is incredibly cramped by its images especially at its start, which rather turned me off to it from the start. It certainly gets better, but Shtet's is great throughout.

[New Carthagea]

I have voted for Shtet because I find the concept of the nation endearing, and the formatting and imagery are simple yet elegant. Balticonia has done a good job, too, but I find the paragraphs too large at times.

[Valentine Z]

Shtet wins this round! Good effort from both nations, as always! :3

Next up, we have:

Diarcesia – Timeline
Synne Industries – Sun Never Sets [ACT 2]

Good luck! ♥