This is another old rant that I just never published because...honestly? I have no idea. But something reminded me of this situation...and so...I decided to post it.

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It seems like a lot of people just don't know how to be professional. And I don't mean in terms of there graphics; just in the way they treat people. Like, I joined this online magazine on another site as a designer and one of the first things I noticed when I started was that the magazine had no margins and the columns weren't uniform. This is what the pages tended to look like:

So I said that we should have those two things. Not in a mean way or anything; like, I didn't call the other designers stupid or poor designers or anything like that. I simply said that I had noticed the magazine lacked margins and the even columns and that the magazine needed those things. One of the other two designers (Tyanna) responded with this:

"Sure kk faith lets do whatever you want. Just let me know whatever pages im doing you make up the design rules and wdll [sic] do whatever it is you seem fit. Idc anyway."

And I was just like "Um...what?"

I wanted to call her out right then and there and ask her if she was SERIOUSLY taking issue with the fact that I said the magazine should have margins and uniform columns but I didn't because I was kind of afraid that she would then proceed to claim that her comment wasn't sarcasm but that she was being serious and that everyone would get mad at me because that's usually how these things turn out.

So I kept it simple and she never responded, so I thought that was the end of that until a couple weeks later I was on the profile page of the person running the magazine and I saw Tyanna posting shit about me there, calling my ideas crap and also blaming me for the fact that the issue was late even though she and the third designer hadn't even designed anything, while I had. And by that point I was done with her. I posted in the admin chat thread and told everyone that I was quitting (because there was no way I wanted to work with someone like that) and I told them WHY I was quitting.

Suffice it to say, she threw a bitch fit. We ended up both staying on at the magazine for a little while but she was no longer a designer. Eventually, though, I couldn't deal with the tension. Every comment she posted sounded really passive aggressive to me, and I was also really annoyed by the fact that I had gotten barely any help in designing the issue. After this user stopped being a designer, it was only me and one other girl and she didn't design anything until I asked her to design the pages for specific articles.

Anyway, I stopped having any contact with Tyanna but then a group that she was an admin in started becoming active again. I wasn't worried about running into her, even though she was an admin, because she wasn't really all that active on the site. So the founder of the group made a contest and I joined, only to find out that this girl was one of the judges of the contest. And let me tell you, she was very clearly biased against me. Her critiques were so full of shit that they made me want to puke. I showed the cover to my graphic savvy sister and my other sister who doesn't  know as much design stuff (so that I could get the opinions of someone who knows design and someone who's going to look at it on more of a first look basis) and they both agreed that this girl's critique was full of it.

I then contacted the founder of the group (who by the way is irl friends with this girl). At first I wasn't going to call her out for her obvious bullshit and I was just pointing out that the winner of the group had broken the very first rule. But then the founder made some comment in his reply to me about how she won anyway (after the 10% deduction for not following the rules) and I was just like, nope. She wouldn't have won if the contest was fair for me. 

She had an 8.7/10 after the deduction and I had an 8.4/10. I had a whole .5 points taken away from me because this judge claimed that my tagline could "barely be seen" even though no one else had trouble reading it. She also gave more points to someone who's title was mashed together and over beveled, making it REALLY hard to read. And the girl who had newb fonts? She got a full point for her text! And the girl who won? The judge told her that her idea was "very cliche" but then gave her a .9/1 for originality!

By the way, this was my entry for the contest:

Unfortunately, the contest thread was deleted so I can't get the rest of my scoring or anything like that.

Anyway, I pointed this stuff out to the founder and the next day he responded with this:

"I would like to answer your concerns right now, but I need to get a contest and some other things completed first. Once I do, I'll be sure to answer you to the best of my abilities. Please be patient with me."

Three hours later, he posts his contest.

Over seven hours after that he finally responds to me with a whole heaping ton of bullshit (though I don't really know why I expected him to side against his friend; stupid me, I guess).

This was his response to me (italics are what he said; the bolded parts is my own commentary; none of which I ever said to him):

[Tyanna's Scoring] During the judging process, none of the judges speak with each other when giving out critiques; thus, I don't have an impact on what she says, nor does she impact me on what I say - i.e., each score is reflective of the judge's own opinion, and not influenced to other input.

The score Tyanna gave out is based on her personal opinion; if there's a particular critique you didn't like, you're entitled to ignore it. All of our commentary is based on first appearances and should be taken with a grain of salt. The scores we hand out are what we focus more on; the little statements that follow are just major points that we think need to be addressed. If you would like further details concerning your score, you're more than welcome to ask Tyanna for her thought process.

(No...it wasn't based on her personal opinion and that is the whole point. She was being a bitch because she didn't like me. Plain and simple. Because if she really did have trouble reading my tagline (and let's be honest, even if she couldn't, half of my score for text? Really?), she would have had trouble reading a lot of the people's titles/taglines. So why was I the only one being called out on it? Because she was pissed at me for DARING to challenge her oh so superior design skills.)

[Judges & Competition] We, as judges, will always be biased to certain styles and artists when it comes to critiquing; that can never change. The best way to minimize bias and inaccurate scores is to have multiple feedback and then compile them together. Tyanna and I are very familiar with your work, so both of us expect a lot from you.

(So what he's saying is that because they're familiar with my work, they're allowed to be extremely harsh with me; whereas if they haven't seen someone else's work before (or not very much of it), they'll be more lenient. This is, of course, complete shit because you should be judging the cover for what it is, not what you think it could have been based on other covers I've made. Maybe it was the worse cover I ever made and maybe the cover the other users made were their best ones ever, but that doesn't change the fact that I was being criticized unfairly while these other people were being commended for things that they did worse than me.

Also, whether or not you are biased toward/against certain artists does NOT mean you should be an unprofessional twit while judging a contest. I have literally given first place in a contest to someone I hated because I honestly thought their cover was the best -- with one exception, but the other one I didn't think had really followed the prompt.

And again, this girl only hated me because I told her a fucking magazine needed margins and uniform columns.)

The contests we host at are meant to be fun, not to cause issues or disputes; that's why the grand prize is only a momentary mention on the front page and have the entry displayed on a discussion for future use of the administration. Had actual prizes been involved, more precautions would have taken place.

(So...it's okay to let your judges/friends be hatefully biased against certain people because there was no real prize. Yeah. That makes me feel a whole fuck ton better about being unfairly targeted. /sarcasm)

[(username removed) & Figment] I wasn't trying to sound as if (username removed) was receiving a pat on the back; I was merely mentioning something I had noticed. In fact, I wasn't aware that this was a different account of the same person; I don't pay much attention to people here on Figment. The main reason why I had commended her was because of my personal experience.

Most people who join Figment have no useful or recreation skill to begin with, and that was the case with me. I know that there is talent outside of Figment, but most don't join this site just for accreditation. So, in my personal opinion, finding someone with skills and are relatively new to the site are not common.

(I mean, it should have been fairly obvious that this girl wasn't a total newb based on her graphic. Whether or not he knew she'd had another account makes no difference because she obviously wasn't a newb. I mean...it's not fucking complicated. :/)

[Graphic Design in Figment] I recognize that Figment isn't the only place to have graphic designing; and honestly, I think it's one of the worst places to find talent (including wattPad). This isn't the only site I use to practice my designing skills, so I know of better sites and areas for improvement.

The only reason why I come here so often is because of the community; I personally find it to be more open-minded than other sites I've found. Despite the fact that this site is oriented towards writing; there have been some covers that come out decently.

(He recognizes it's not the only place where people make graphics but then was under the impression that this other user was a newbie designer because he'd never seen her one Figment before. I'm sorry, but when I see someone new to Figment or Wattpad and I think their graphics are good I don't assume they're a new designer simply because they're new to the site.)

I don't remember if I ever responded back to him or not. I would say probably not because by this point I was probably sure that anything I could possibly say was just going to fall on his biased deaf ears.

And the really sad thing is that I know I was not the only one who'd had problems with Tyanna before. I know she got pissed at a friend of mine once because in a graphic critique thread my friend gave her like a 6/10 on a graphic and Tyanna got wall whingy and whiny about it and then started unfairly judging her in a contest (sound familiar?).

And in this contest with my friend, the owner of the group (the same one mentioned above) ACKNOWLEDGED that Tynanna was being extremely unfair and she even ADMITTED that it was because she'd been given a low rating and NOTHING WAS DONE ABOUT IT!

He might have told her to be fairer but to anyone with half a brain, it was obvious that she was still being extremely biased against my friend.

But, of course, nothing was done about it.

God, I really hate people.