Yesterday, I was trying to look up some entries in previous BASH contests.
All I could find were winning entries only, and even those were not easy to find unless you know exactly what you are looking for and where it is.
First of all, you have to know where to look, as the website location of these archives is not at all obvious. . Secondly, the organization of the existing information is not consistent from one year to the next. . I know that the contests differ from year to year and the contest titles and moderators change. . But a fairly simple indexing system should be possible and would help a lot.
But ... My main question is this ... Why are only the winning entries archived (or am I wrong in saying that is the case) ? . Does it take up too much website memory to preserve permanent records of ALL ENTRIES ? . If it is a trade-off for memory usage against the usual thread memory requirements then I would say that it could be convincingly argued that the complete BASH entry records could justifiably have priority over lots of threads that have been started, completed, and left in memory over the years.
If possible, I would suggest that all contest entries be archived. . I think it would be extremely useful and a lot of fun to be able to search for and view previous contributions from all who participate in the contests, both winners and, for lack of a better word, the "losers" (although there are really no losers ... NO ... no losers ... and that's what I mean !!).
I know it would require quite a bit of work to do as I suggest, but our BASH contests are such a big part of our heritage on this, the world premier interactive website for penturners, that I am quite sure that the benefits would be well worth the effort ... an effort that would be appreciated by all penturners.
By the way, if I were younger, and if I were more computer literate, I would volunteer. . But I think that someone less computer hostile than me would be better able to do this job, someone like an IT professional, of whom there seem to be plenty among our membership.
Looking forward to thoughts on this subject ....
All I could find were winning entries only, and even those were not easy to find unless you know exactly what you are looking for and where it is.
First of all, you have to know where to look, as the website location of these archives is not at all obvious. . Secondly, the organization of the existing information is not consistent from one year to the next. . I know that the contests differ from year to year and the contest titles and moderators change. . But a fairly simple indexing system should be possible and would help a lot.
But ... My main question is this ... Why are only the winning entries archived (or am I wrong in saying that is the case) ? . Does it take up too much website memory to preserve permanent records of ALL ENTRIES ? . If it is a trade-off for memory usage against the usual thread memory requirements then I would say that it could be convincingly argued that the complete BASH entry records could justifiably have priority over lots of threads that have been started, completed, and left in memory over the years.
If possible, I would suggest that all contest entries be archived. . I think it would be extremely useful and a lot of fun to be able to search for and view previous contributions from all who participate in the contests, both winners and, for lack of a better word, the "losers" (although there are really no losers ... NO ... no losers ... and that's what I mean !!).
I know it would require quite a bit of work to do as I suggest, but our BASH contests are such a big part of our heritage on this, the world premier interactive website for penturners, that I am quite sure that the benefits would be well worth the effort ... an effort that would be appreciated by all penturners.
By the way, if I were younger, and if I were more computer literate, I would volunteer. . But I think that someone less computer hostile than me would be better able to do this job, someone like an IT professional, of whom there seem to be plenty among our membership.
Looking forward to thoughts on this subject ....