Anonymous Judging

Why

The UIA Accord on Competitions requires jury members to evaluate submissions without knowing who made them. Most platforms rely on organizers to honour this voluntarily. We enforce it at the server layer instead.

How it works

1. Anonymous ID assignment

When a submitter first finalises their entry (submit: true in saveEntry), the server assigns an anonymous_id:

// src/app/actions/entry.ts
async function assignAnonymousId(db, competitionId): Promise<string> {
  const { count } = await db
    .from("entries")
    .select("id", { count: "exact", head: true })
    .eq("competition_id", competitionId)
    .not("anonymous_id", "is", null);
  const n = (count ?? 0) + 1;
  return `E-${String(n).padStart(4, "0")}`;
}

IDs look like E-0001, E-0002, etc. The ID is assigned once and preserved on all subsequent saves. Draft entries don't get one.

The anonymous_id column has a partial unique index: UNIQUE (competition_id, anonymous_id) WHERE anonymous_id IS NOT NULL.

2. Query-level stripping

getCompetitionEntries (the action the organizer dashboard calls) checks competition status before selecting submitter fields:

const announced = comp.status === "announced";

const { data: entries } = await db
  .from("entries")
  .select(announced
    ? "*, submitter:submitters(slug, name, country, type)"
    : "id, anonymous_id, title, description, project_url, files, status, submitted_at, created_at"
  )
  ...

When status !== "announced", the query never touches the submitters table. Submitter identity is absent from the response object entirely — it's not present to strip on the frontend.

3. Dashboard UI

The organizer dashboard shows:

• Anonymous ID per entry (E-0001) in mono font
• "Identity hidden" label where the submitter name column would be
• A notice banner: "Anonymous judging active — submitter identities are hidden until you announce winners"

After announceWinners() flips the competition to announced, the next dashboard load returns full submitter info.

4. Public competition page

The competition detail page shows a green "✓ Anonymous Judging" block explaining the guarantee to submitters before they enter.

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What this does not cover

• The organizer knows which submitter registered (via registrations table). Registration is separate from submission and is not anonymised.
• If a submitter includes their name in their project title or description, the anonymous ID doesn't help. Brief standards should advise against this.
• The anonymous_id is sequential and reveals submission order. This is intentional — submission timing is not sensitive, only identity is.

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Revealing identities

Identity is automatically restored when the organizer calls announceWinners() and competition status becomes announced. No manual reveal step is needed — the query logic switches automatically.