The disputes system is now live 🚩

[LogoArena]

Hello designers.

We’ve just launched our new dispute resolution mechanism. If you believe that a designer has copied your design, or if someone is using a copyrighted design from the web, you can utilize this feature.

Designers who looses in a dispute, will get a strike. Accumulating 4 strikes may lead to a definite suspension from our platform.

With that, we are also bringing back onsite designer messaging. It’s a great way to connect, chat, and strengthen our LogoArena community. If there is a dispute that can be resolved quickly and respectfully among yourselves, that is always the best way.

Please note that we monitor these discussions to ensure a positive and respectful environment for everyone. Misuse of this feature, in any way, will not be tolerated.

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How the dispute feature works

Designer A believes Designer B copied his design.

To start a dispute, Designer A clicks on the Flag icon of the logo in question.

After starting the dispute, the challenged designer will receive an email notification:

And, it will also appear in the dashboard of both challenging and challenged designers:

Once a dispute is initiated, there is a 24-hour period during which all contest participants can vote on whether they believe the design is a copy and should be withdrawn, or if it is not a copy and should remain.

Once voting ends, our moderation team will review the results and make a final decision. If the dispute is accepted, the challenged design will be withdrawn. If the dispute is rejected, the challenged design will remain in the contest.

A contest can have several disputes happening at the same time, and they will all show up under the Dispute tab. This tab only appears if there’s at least one dispute in the contest.

If you think a designer copied a design from the internet, you can start a dispute and share a link plus a screenshot of the design you believe was copied.

Additional notes:

• When voting in a dispute, you will be asked to leave a comment to explain your vote.
• Both the challenging designer and the challenged designer cannot vote on the dispute.
• A design that has previously won a dispute will have a green flag, indicating it won a dispute. If a design won a dispute, it cannot be disputed again.

In closing, we hope the need to use the new dispute mechanism will be minimal. We have great faith in our community and have gone to great lengths to maintain the positive vibe we all cherish here. Let’s continue to support each other and contribute to making LogoArena a place where creativity flourishes in a respectful and fair manner.

Best,
Daniel & Aviel

[LogoArena]

p.s. the onsite messaging feature is planned to launch tomorrow.

[RetroMetro_Steve]

I guess there are two things that might need revisiting:

Voting should be open to all eligible designers on the site rather than just those participating in the particular contest. Designers should also get notification via email of initiated disputes so that they can participate in the voting process.

Also, a design should not gain immunity from future disputes by virtue of having won a prior dispute. It is reasonable to suppose that other designers may need to dispute that design or that evidence from the web might later come to light.

[LogoArena]

@RetroMetro_Steve

Voting should be open to all eligible designers on the site rather than just those participating in the particular contest. Designers should also get notification via email of initiated disputes so that they can participate in the voting process

1. We decided to limit this to participating designers since we don’t feel it makes sense to have all designers vote on a contest dispute that isn’t relevant to them.
2. Good point, we will add email notifications to all participating designers.

@RetroMetro_Steve

Also, a design should not gain immunity from future disputes by virtue of having won a prior dispute. It is reasonable to suppose that other designers may need to dispute that design or that evidence from the web might later come to light.

For edge cases like this, Moderators/Admins can withdraw designs at any point, also after a dispute is won.

[mes]

We would also need to be able to report winning designs. I have noticed in completed contest the entries do not contain the dispute flag.

[RetroMetro_Steve]

Part A above - in fact, every dispute has relevance for every designer. We all learn from both the dialogue within a dispute as well as the outcome of a dispute. As well, in the past, disputes have benefitted greatly from a greater sampling of opinions, gotten by having all designers eligible to vote. I don’t see a downside to having all designers involved in the process of any particular dispute. Just to clarify, I mean that all eligible designers on the site should be able to vote, not have to vote.

Part B above - I don’t think any complaint that would otherwise be eligible for arbitration in the dispute process should be exempt from the benefits of that process. Mod/Admin potential action notwithstanding, second string disputers should have the same rights as those who get there first, as should the designer/design in question: that seems only fair.

[LogoArena]

Thanks @mes, can you please elaborate on this point? Are you asking to be able to raise a dispute on contests that have ended and the final files have been approved?

[LogoArena]

@RetroMetro_Steve

Part A above - in fact, every dispute has relevance for every designer. We all learn from both the dialogue within a dispute as well as the outcome of a dispute. As well, in the past, disputes have benefitted greatly from a greater sampling of opinions, gotten by having all designers eligible to vote. I don’t see a downside to having all designers involved in the process of any particular dispute. Just to clarify, I mean that all eligible designers on the site should be able to vote, not have to vote.

Makes sense. We may open it up to all designers to vote, but only send out an email notification to participating designers. That probably strikes a good balance between the two.

@RetroMetro_Steve

Part B above - I don’t think any complaint that would otherwise be eligible for arbitration in the dispute process should be exempt from the benefits of that process. Mod/Admin potential action notwithstanding, second string disputers should have the same rights as those who get there first, as should the designer/design in question: that seems only fair.

We get your point, but technically it might be a challenge with the way we built the dispute mechanism. So in cases of a second dispute, we can use the forum disputes category.

We’ve also started working on a much better integration to the forum, where all designers will be auto-signed in to the forum area (without the need to signup again).

[mes]

BlockquoteThanks @mes, can you please elaborate on this point? Are you asking to be able to raise a dispute on contests that have ended and the final files have been approved?

Yes. You could easily be away and come back to a concept copy and/or clipart violation after the fact.

[RetroMetro_Steve]

@LogoArena

Makes sense. We may open it up to all designers to vote, but only send out an email notification to participating designers. That probably strikes a good balance between the two.

Is there an issue I’m not thinking of with respect to the idea of notifying all designers instead of just those in the contest? Is it a technical thing…?

[LogoArena]

It’s not a technical thing, but rather a measure of balance. We don’t want to over send email notifications to designers.

[RetroMetro_Steve]

I guess designers could opt out of email messaging if it got to be too much for them (assuming that feature was made available).

[kavi92993]

I think the first dispute happened and I got the email, but I couldn’t find the dispute under the disputes tab in My Contest page, and the dispute tab didn’t show up in the contest page (Sania) (next to Entries , Brief, Comment), UNTIL I clicked on the fifth page of that contest page. Where the disputed design is shown.
When I clicked on the 5th page of the contest (Sania) the Dispute tab opened next to the “Brief” and “Entries” tabs. Is this a bug that you know about? OR was it still out of your sight ?

Its been 3-4 days I am looking for this in forums but no one replied about this and only 2 people voted for that dispute.
@LogoArena @RetroMetro_Steve

[RetroMetro_Steve]

There is obviously work to be done on the dispute system still. I continue to think that every designer in good standing on the site should not only be made aware of disputes, but be given the opportunity to vote thereby. As well, the presence of a dispute in a contest needs to be clearly visible on the very first page of a contest to every signed in user (not contest holders, though). Not everyone looks through every page of entries or even notices the Dispute button that show up only on the fifth page of a contest.

[LogoArena]

A few quick notes:

1. The dispute button should appear always, not only on page 5… this is a bug and we’re issuing a fix.
2. On a single designer level - disputes appear in your account dashboard here:
   
3. We are considering making disputes available for all active/approved designers to vote.

[LogoArena]

Point 1 - fixed, the Dispute tab appears on the main page, and is visible to all active/approved designers

[mes]

The dispute flag is not working properly. I have clicked on a design I want to dispute but it doesn’t bring up any of my designs to choose from as the entry I want to protect. I have tried both chrome and safari

[LogoArena]

Just to verify, is the blurred image not your design? Or is the problem that you’re seeing only a single design?

[mes]

Correct. The blurred design is not mine and it is the only design I can see once I selected it. I do not see any of my designs as a choice to select to reference. Just the flagged design which is not mine.

[mes]

It was fixed this morning but now is back to not showing/allowing to select any of my designs to “Please choose which of your designs you belive was copied.”