Since Yue mentioned my name, let me throw in my 2 cents...
I don't really think it matters if a judge is an editor or not. It comes down to two things, IMO.
1) Does the judge understand what they are going to be watching... Do they understand the basics of editing. Can they differentiate between a video that consists of simple edits and one that consists of many layers of compositions. Can they see how the video was made while they are watching it, is it just a series of long cuts or one scene cut up a million times randomly. Is there structure to it. Can they break it down.
and more importantly
2) Can the judge put aside any bias. Favorite/least favorite song/source aside, can you judge a video based solely on how well it was made.
That said, editors make better choices here because they, in theory, should be able to do the first item I mentioned. But that doesn't exclude non-editors at all. I know a fair amount of people who don't edit but still have a great feeling about how a video is made and understand what they are watching. On the flip side, there are a lot of editors that don't understand what they are watching or making for that matter.
Even then everything eventually comes down to some kind of preference. No two people, judges included, are going to look a the same video the same way. This is why you need a pool of judges with varying opinions. A good example for a contest with a varying degree of opinions in the judging pool would probably be Brad's IC4 contest still going on. I know that my opinion as a judge differs almost the opposite of at least one of the other judge's. Assuming the other judge follows the same guidelines I do for judging, that's pretty awesome. It means that what I think is good or bad is completely different than what someone else thinks is good or bad. If everyone thought the same, you wouldn't need judges.
I think the point I'm trying to make is that it doesn't matter how many judges you have or wither or not they are editors. Its better to have a handful of judges who understand the content they are watching and that their opinions vary. And at some point we all have to accept that this is how it is. Otherwise, every year we are going to be complaining about judges. "I don't think Pwolf is doing a good job, lets get so and so in there to judge!" You just have to accept that this is who judges this contest and let it be. It really comes down to wither or not DP or who ever makes these decisions, wants to change it. If they are happy with the process and the judges that are in place, then they are more then willing and entitled to keep everything the same. I'm throwing this out there because I'm familiar with how other contests are judged and some of the judging pools consist of people who've never edited a video yet those contests don't get any flack or "drama". Part of that is because they might have a better understanding of the videos and the rules are clear but also because I think it's been known and excepted that those are who the judges are. Fist contest that comes to mind is Sakuracon who's judging pool consists of (let me know if i'm mistaken) the Board of Directors and other con staff. All of which, if not the majority, never edited a video. Yet, every year the contest has been pretty good. Yes there's going to be one or two videos that make the cut that people are going to get upset about but overall, i think it's generally excepted that these are who judge that contest and it turns out rather well in the end.
There's my 2 cents. Don't spend it all in one place
