It's not like if you don't get showcased one month, you'll never get showcased again. Anyone who complains can be simply told "You're on the reserve list" if they weren't chosen that month, since only one costume can be chosen each time.

Also, is it going to be a monthly showcase? Why not a weekly showcase? To only highlight 12 costumes a year means we're still missing out on quite a lot... Weekly showcases mean we can highlight about 52 costumes a year, or alternatively a bi-weekly showcase can highlight 26 costumes a year.

I trust in Kat to have a good eye for cosplayers and to not just choose her friends for showcases, so I think if we leave the decisions up to the mods (with PM recommendations from members) that should be the most simple, least-amount-of-work-for-overworked-Perrin, and most drama-free way to start highlighting our "hidden gems"

I do quite like both ideas (the 5 star system and the costume showcase) but can see the bad sides to both. All of which have been discused here. Of the two I personally prefer the showcase system as it can be handled more anoymassally (sic).

I think whatever is decided apon it will probarly bring about good and bad stuff.

I like the showcase system - I think it works really well on cosplay.com and there's far more members on there than on here!!

I think it's the most drama-free way of showing off the "hidden gems" of this site. And there are 5 mods, I'm sure they can all be trusted to select one in an unbiased manner.
Having members PM them for recommendations is a good idea as well so that if the mods miss out on a "hidden gem" but somebody else finds one, then they can put it on their 'to-be-featured' list or something.

A little note saying why they were featured would be nice as well.

it's an unfortunate situation where it's a great idea and 99% of the community will like and appreciate it.

the other 1% will be made up of the prima donas who think they're special snowflakes who deserve 24/7 limelight.

i support it as long as it's a non community voted system. thinking longer and harder about it since my post, allowing the community to vote will potentially cause silly drama. still think that a group of active people within the community should be selected, firstly to remove extra workload from current mods, secondly to be as impartial as possible.

been following this thread for a couple of days now, and just thought id add my two cents, for what its worth

im not too fond of the idea of a star rating system. it seems like it will be to open to abuse, and cause a lot of drama. i see it causing the same "problem" as the commenting system, with the hidden gems probably having less people voting for them, so they remain hidden, despite them probably getting high star ratings. i imagine we would see a lot of bought Kingdom hearts and Naruto cosplays for example being in the top few, simply becasethe are popular characters and common costumes (not that im against them in any way, its just what i see happening). so in short, the same biases exists.

i think the best idea suggested has been the showcase, but i would like to see it changed regularly, not just once a month. i dont use cosplay.com regularly, but ive sometimes logged onto there months apart, and seen the exact same cosplays showcased on the front page. we wouldnt want ours to stagnate as much, so it would need a regular changeover.
how it would work i dont know, but i see the voting system again open to abuse. as suggested already, it would be best putting it into the hands of a group of individuals who know the hobby and are already well respected. although again, as pointed out, even then fairness cannot be guaranteed. it simply just needs to be democratic. maybe 10 or so people with the final vote, and highest vote wins the spot.

of course, it would require a lot of work from the mods, which i do not envy.