Blind Judging

Judge entries without seeing who entered. Set blindness per round on AwardKit, choose which answers judges see, and keep the audience vote anonymous too.

Blind judging removes entrant identity from every judging screen so the work is scored on its own merits. It is one switch per round, nothing to configure beyond that, and it is included in the flat plan.

Turning it on

Open the Judging page, click Edit scoring, and flip the Blind judging tile in Round Options ("Judges score the work without seeing who entered: names, teams, and file names are hidden."; the Blind judging guide link next to its title opens this page). On a multi-round program, the tile reads Blind judging in [round name] and applies to the selected round only; the Edit round dialog (Rename and dates in the round menu) has the same switch, Blind judging in this round. The Judging rounds card then marks that round with Blind in its counts line.

Because blindness is per round, a blind screening round can feed an open final: the Screening panel never sees names, and the Final jury does. When the round is blind, the collapsed Scoring summary says so ("Blind judging is on: judges score without seeing who entered.").

What judges cannot see

In a blind round, every judging surface for that round:

Drops entrant names and team members from the entry list, the entry page, and search.
Hides the answers to any entry-form question shown to judges Except in blind rounds (see What judges see). The organizer's own views are unaffected.
Masks uploaded file names (entrants routinely put their company name in a file name) while keeping the files viewable.
Shows Word files in the viewer without a Download link.
Hides the entry summary when the summary question itself is hidden while blind.
Leaves the entry code ("E-014") as the only label under each entry on the dashboard, and next to the title on the entry page, so judges and staff can refer to an entry without naming anyone.

Judges see a hint at the top of their dashboard, "Blind judging: entrant identities are hidden.", so a missing name reads as intended rather than as a bug.

Nothing about scoring changes: criteria, weights, picks, recusals, and feedback all work the same way. See Judging interface.

Hiding specific questions

Blindness is about identity: names, teams, bylines, file names. Some answers identify the entrant even when the name is gone (a company website, a LinkedIn profile, "Tell us about your team"). On the entry form, open the question's menu (the handle beside it) and set Judges under Shown to to Except in blind rounds. The answer is stripped in blind rounds and shows as usual in open ones, so a blind screening never sees the company website and the open final jury does.

Questions judges never need in any round (a signed consent form, "How did you hear about us?", a CV) are a different setting, Judges: Never, which strips the answer from every judging and audience page whether the round is blind or not. Either way the answer is still collected and visible to you and to the entry's own team. A question set to Never also stays out of the public entry gallery (its links, cover image, and summary), while one set to Except in blind rounds can show there, because the gallery is never blind. See What judges see.

If public voting is on for a blind round, the audience surface is anonymized the same way: no names or teams on the vote page, and the hint reads "Entries are anonymous: entrant identities are hidden." See Voting on entries.

Watch the gallery

Blindness covers the judging and voting surfaces, not your public entry gallery. If gallery visibility is set to After entries close, entrant names are public on the gallery while judging runs, and a judge could look them up. The Blind judging tile shows a warning in that case; set gallery visibility to When results are published (or Organizer team only or Hidden) to keep the round genuinely blind.

When names come back

Publishing results reveals winners with their names on the results page, the gallery, and certificates as usual. Blindness only ever applied to the judging and voting surfaces, so nothing needs to be undone.

Tips

Decide before the round opens. Flipping blindness mid-round is allowed, but judges who already opened entries have seen the names.
Pair blind rounds with recusals: a judge who recognizes a work from the content alone can still declare the conflict.
Brief entrants. Tell them the screening is blind so they keep identifying details out of the free-text answers you do show judges.