What did you think about Birthday Bash 10?

[mbroberg]

Bash 10 is now wrapping up. The Donation Drawing is complete. We have a few more auctions but for the most part this Bash is history. But there will be another in just a short year from now!

The management of the IAP and the Bash Planners welcome your honest feedback. We know that we can't please everyone and we are not trying to. What we are trying to do is please as many of you as possible. We attempt to run a variety of fair, simple contests and events with two goals in mind. First, we are trying to raise enough funds to keep the site operational. The IAP does not want to be constantly badgering its members for money but the reality is that it takes money to keep this forum up and running. This once a year fundraising effort, and Jeff's stewardship of the funds seems to allow us to accomplish that.

Secondly we want to provide the members with the best on-line party experience we can. We want people to look forward to the Birthday Bash each year. I think the Birthday Bash allows us to do more than just raise some money; I think it brings us closer together as a community of individuals who share a common passion for creating pens as an art form and a common goal of improving ourselves in that regard.

What did you like about the Birthday Bash this year? What did you not like about the Birthday Bash this year? What should we continue to do? What should we no longer do? What do you think could be done better? What is absolutely perfect the way it is? What would you like to see expanded? What should be scaled back? What should be added? What should be eliminated?

You get the picture? We need your feedback in order to provide you with what it is you want.

I cannot promise you that each and every suggestion or comment will be implemented. I can promise you that each and every suggestion and comment will be read, considered, discussed and taken seriously. It is not up to the Bash Planners to decide what the Bash will be. It is up to the Bash Planners to provide the membership, or at least the majority of the membership, with the Bash that they want.

I'd like comments and suggestions posted here so that others may address them with further comments and suggestions. That will allow us to get an idea of what the really "Hot Topics" are. If, for some reason, you do not want your name associated with your comments or suggestions go ahead and PM them to me and I will post them on your behalf without identifying you.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance to those of you who respond. We look forward to your comments.

 

[Mike Powell]

This being my first. I think the bash was WONDERFUL! I appriciate all the time and hard work every one put into it, to make the Bash a success. I look forward to doing it all over again next year.

 

[lyonsacc]

Had a great time with this year's BASH (my 2nd).

It did seem that the contests were a little more spread out this year as compared to last year - and that is good. Last year it seemed that most all of the contests ended at one time near the end of the month.

2 rules items you may want to consider:
1) Loved the addition of the antler/horn/bone contest. I think that allowing a closed end modification would be good for the contest due to all the variations the horns tips have.
2) As a participant in the intermediate contest I don't want to sound grumpy - and I am not. My pen scored much higher than I thought it would. But, would like a slight clarification in the rules that either allows or disallows closed end pens. From my reading of the rules I thought that closed ends would be not be an allowed modification of the kit.

Thanks for running a GREAT show.

 

[Band Saw Box]

This was my first bash and I thought it was great. I wish I was able to enter more of the pen contest. Well maybe next year. There are a lot of very generous folk donating prizes and all the folk behind the seems pulling all together. Great job by all. I'm looking forward to next year.

 

[Karl_99]

This was my 2nd year for a Bash. I entered to two pen contests this year and tried new things with both pens. This was a wonderful opportunity to learn and try to hone my skills. I do like the addition of bone/ antler contest.
I really enjoyed the wood identification contest and was fortunate enough to win twice. I like the daily trivia although I think the random number generator was broken! I did miss the puzzles throughout the month, but it was a nice surprise to see one appear near the end.
This was a fun time, I learned a lot and really appreciated the work involved to pull this off. I look forward to next year! Thank you...

 

[firewhatfire]

Only thing I can think of is.

Any event that has a set number of entries (say 10) has a multiple voting round.

Any event that has more than 20 entries get a pick top 3 in the initial round.

2nd round can be a 24-48 hour voting period.

just my humble opinion,

Phil

 

[Dale Lynch]

I think the Bash went along swimmingly.I understood most of the rules and concepts,my mistake not the Bash. It has been alot of fun.I would like to suggest a segmenters challenge for next year.

 

[Edward Cypher]

three votes

I agree with Firewhatfire if there is more than 20 an initial round then a final would be nice. I know this takes longer and requires more time from the person running it. But when there are so many pens it is hard to only pick one.


Ed Cypher

Only thing I can think of is.

Any event that has a set number of entries (say 10) has a multiple voting round.

Any event that has more than 20 entries get a pick top 3 in the initial round.

2nd round can be a 24-48 hour voting period.

just my humble opinion,

Phil

 

[southernclay]

I had a lot of fun, first year for me as well. Looking back over a couple of previous years I thought the general layout was great. The contests were all a lot of fun. I spent too much and slacked at work because of the bash but that's on me :biggrin:

I like the multi stage voting with more votes upfront and one in any additional stage idea. There was some tough voting and amazing pens submitted.

Thanks to all of the bash team, donors, contestants etc, it really was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from challenging myself in the two pen entries I made. Looking forward to next year!

 

[knowltoh]

I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to the organizers and donators. I will be back next year!

 

[Rick_G]

Good time was had. Along with many others I got skunked in the trivia but my pen did take a 3rd in the bone, antler etc contest.

Normally Feb. is a quiet month here so good for the bash but this year there were a lot of other things that popped up so pen making was not a priority.

Just out of curiosity I wonder how many of the contest entries changed position in the second round of voting.

My thanks to all those workers who put the time in and donated prizes to make it another successful bash.

 

[Edgar]

I thoroughly enjoyed the bash and have no complaints. Just one observation though - there were 3 contests aimed solely at casting. I realize that a lot of folks here love casting and do superb work, but there are also folks like me who have absolutely no interest in doing it ourselves.

I'm not suggesting that we eliminate any of those contests, but I do hope that we can continue to add other, more general contests such as the bone, horn & antler contest that was added this year.

Edgar

 

[Ed McDonnell]

I think the voting periods on some of the contests were too long. It seems to me that a 48hr period max should be enough to let everyone in every time zone have a reasonable period for voting.

With over 30 entries, I would have preferred to have an additional poll (3 total) for my contest. First one cuts the field in half. Second one identifies the finalists. Third gets the prize winners. Allowing more than one vote in the initial poll could be interesting if our voting mechanism can enforce the limit.

I found having all the voting polls in a separate forum to be a bit cumbersome once things really got going, but maybe it got some people to view polls (and vote) where they otherwise wouldn't have. I would have really preferred to be able to provide links to the polls that I ran rather than written directions on how to find it. Maybe a solution to the forum runner issue can be found by next year. Or maybe we could try a contest with the voting in the open and see how that works.

Overall, I think things worked just fine. If nothing changes for next year, I'm sure it will work fine as well.

Ed

 

[Joe S.]

A segmenting contest? I think I've seen that before but didn't notice it this year.

 

[plano_harry]

I think it was a BASH! This is my 3rd and each year I enjoy more of the activities. As I stated before, I think I look forward to this more than my own birthday!

I liked the contest improvements this year. Standardized entry forms in one place and a link to voting made it easier to be involved. The calendar probably works for many, but it would be nice to have a contest listing with entry deadlines in a sidebar on the entry page.

First time to play trivia, should have done this in the past. Would like a little more challenging questions next year, but it probably exposed a lot of people to the library and site.

The wood contest was too hard -- for me at least. I have to figure out a way to win this.

First time I have played the shop contest. That was challenging and took me a couple of hours of searching. Didn't realize the clock was running or I might have been in the money, but it was over really fast. I liked that Jon added a random number consolation prize to keep it interesting. I am ready for next year!

I can't even imagine all the hard work that went into building and running this Bash but it sure was fun!! Thanks to our great vendors and artists who donated to the gynormous prize cache that so many of us benefitted from.

Harry

 

[Jim Burr]

It rocked!! I wish there had been an opportunity to enter a pen, but we are relocated to Reno as of yesterday, so it would have a bit much. On the other hand, it was fun to lose at Trivia every day!!!!

 

[Si90]

It has been my first bash, so for me it the whole thing has been superb. It has been a fantastic experience and a credit to those involved in it's organisation. I would like to thank everyone who donated the prizes, especially the ones I won.

The multiple rounds of voting for high entry categories is a good idea. Some of the decisions have been very difficult when given only one option.

I was surprised that there wasn't a specific category for kitless as there are quite a few people now making them on the forum, but perhaps that was the intention of the advanced category.

 

[Lenny]

It was an awesome Bash! It gave me something to look forward to every day in what was otherwise a pretty bleak Winter month.
Each year little things come out as to what the volunteers have to deal with behind the scenes. It's amazing to me how smoothly things SEEM to go!
A BIG THANK YOU to all who worked to make this a great bash!

 

[markgum]

Loved it all. Just pondering how to make the wood identify event effective for everyone. Our International family probably were not able to enjoy this due to timing.

You all running this bash do an amazing job for all the coordinating that is required for us crazies out here. Honored to be a part of the IAP Family.

 

[mbroberg]

Bump

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

 

[southernclay]

Loved it all. Just pondering how to make the wood identify event effective for everyone. Our International family probably were not able to enjoy this due to timing.

You all running this bash do an amazing job for all the coordinating that is required for us crazies out here. Honored to be a part of the IAP Family.

I thought about this....in all honesty the only reason I won the two I did is do to a ton of WAGs and google, wood id sites etc. The very few I would have known offhand I wasn't in time. I think it could be done similar to the daily trivia quiz where everyone sends one answer within the allotted time. That being said if that change is made I may only get one correct guess all month long :laugh: But may make the contest a bit easier for all to play, not sure if it would be easier or harder on whoever runs it next year though

 

[Haynie]

It was a good time.

 

[MikeL]

I stayed in the background last year as an observer. I got sucked in this year because of the competitive yet friendly atmosphere. I think it is an outstanding forum that generously shares information throughout the year that then consolidates talents learned from each other to compete against each other. Pretty cool! I think the BASH has multiple successes that only strengthens the IAP. I look forward to next year. Mike

 

[Sylvanite]

Just like every previous bash, it was THE BEST BASH EVER!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped put it together. Sure, some things could be better, and I will make some constructive suggestions for next year, but on the whole it was great.

Regards,
Eric

 

[Ambidex]

Very cool Bash..a huge thanks to Mike and all the donaters and helpers!

 

[mark james]

As a first time follower It Was AWESOME! I enjoyed the inspiration I got from seeing many examples of what I aspire to! That is great.

A negative... I had a hard time filtering out negative comments that added NOTHING to the events, other than to satisfy certain individuals vanity to simply... complain. That's MY Problem!

This was a great event and I look forward to next year, and maybe even start submitting works (if the ugly pen comes back... I have a bucket of those!).

Nice job Folks!

 

[rholiday]

Create a set of general rules that would apply to all contests such as ---
1. A pen can only be entered in one contest.
2. Must use contest entry form.
3. Only one entry per member per contest.
4. Pen must not have been shown on another site....
5. Etc.

Create a set of general photo rules that would apply to all contests such as ---
1. Size
2. Format
3. Must be taken by IAP member.
4. No borders or frames.
5. Editing.
6. Only one photo per entry.
7. Etc.

Each specific contest could then address just the variances from the standard such as ---
1. CNC machines allowed.
2. 3 photos allowed.
3. Wood Id contest would allow multiple entries, one at a time.
4. Specific photo contests could alter the amount of editing allowed.
5. Etc.

The specific contests would list the 'who, what, when, where why' type of info.
1. Who may enter
2. What kits / materials are allowed.
3. When the deadline is.
4. Etc.

Finally, it was a great BASH!!!
Thanks to all!!

 

[bgio13]

My only complaint is that the Bash is over. I finally entered a contest this year and although I didn't make it out of the first round of the casting colors contest, after seeing who did, I don't feel all that bad. In fact, I already ordered more Alumilite and plan on working on next years entry soon. Hopefully we will see more entries next year. Thank you to those that make the Bash what it is, and also what IAP has become.

Bill

 

[mbroberg]

I want to keep this in the spotlight for about a week. All comments,, pro and con are welcome. After all, it's YOUR Bash!

 

[Brooks803]

Now that I've run several different contests I can see quite a few loopholes in the rules and general guidelines that should be ironed out for next year.

For the beginners contest I would suggest restricting the blank choices. No segmenting or self cast blanks (or home cast blanks that are purchased). Keep it simple. Standard wood/burl or "store" acrylics only. Let the fit, finish, and craftsmanship be the deciding factor. Keep it to ballpoints only.

For the Intermediate contest I would only allow 1 kit alteration. That could be anything from closed end to a custom finial. On top of that I would not allow the omission of the clip or the use of a hidden clip. Keep the blank choices open to any and everything except decals, cnc, etc. like it has been. Open kit choice stays.

Insert the 1 pen per person per contest into the written rules. Leave nothing to be assumed.

Create a segmenting contest. Possibly a decal contest (since they're excluded from everything)?

After the conclusion of each contest have the chair person create a "Who's Who" thread so the public can see who made what pen or took what photo. Personally I'm dying to know who made several entries.

On the back side of the bash...KEEP the setup sub forums for the contest chairs. That was a godsend!

Last but not least....CHECK THE SPAM FOLDER :redface:

I'm sure I can think of more as I read back through previous & future comments.

Only thing I can think of is.

Any event that has a set number of entries (say 10) has a multiple voting round.

Any event that has more than 20 entries get a pick top 3 in the initial round.

2nd round can be a 24-48 hour voting period.

just my humble opinion,

Phil

While I do agree with you Phil, one thing that must be kept in mind is the length of time it takes to create all those polls AND have time to let them run their course. There has to be a balance between allowing enough time during the month to create an entry and the time it takes to go through multiple rounds of voting. Some chose to end their contests early and some waiting right till the end to let as many people enter as possible.

 

[edman2]

I've mentioned this to Jeff already so I will post it here for others to think about. In order to find the winners in all the contests I had to click on 20 contest threads to discover who they were. I would like to see a consolidated thread "Contest Winners" under the "contest voting" link on the front page. One thread to see all the winners. Don't have a clue how hard that would be to do but it would sure be easier for me! )

Overall one of the best BASH efforts I have seen in my seven years here. The donation drawing prizes were outstanding. Great job guys!

 

[mbroberg]

Keep the feedback coming folks. During the recent Bash was not the time. During the next Bash is not the time. NOW is the time to let us know what is on your mind. If you wait until next year during the Bash it will be too late to implement any changes.

 

[stonepecker]

This is my second Bash. I thought the first years was great but you folks did an even better Bash this year.
I was lucky enough to be able to give a box of blanks for a prize. PLEASE, keep me on the list for next year. I will try to have more then.

The whole concept of the Bash is to have fun. And other then a few bumps....... THIS was a GREAT BASH. I applaude the planners of the 10th Bash and can not wait to see how you will top it next Feb.

 

[Marnat3]

First Bash and won Superbowl pool!! All around great month long party.
I too would like to see one central page for winners of daily contests as well as all others.
A "segmenting contest" would be great.
How about an "unlimited class" for completely over the top ideas that have been put into action.
Just thinking out-loud.

 

[Jeff turns]

I have only been with IAP for a few months. I paid close attention what was going on and tried to vote on some of the contests but with my knowledge did not think fair if I voted on some because I do not know how to notice all the good workmanship from a picture yet. I thought it was very interesting and will definitely join in next year. There was definitely alot of fantastic looking work here. Got some great ideas. Thanks for the hard work

 

[its_virgil]

I've been here for all of them and they have gotten better each year. Great prizes, great contests and great auctions. I'm sure those who participated in the daily games and contests had a wonderful time. Thanks for all of the hard work from behind the scenes and thanks to all of the vendors and members who supported with the wonderful prizes. Having not actively participated I don't feel qualified to offer suggestions except I hope we have #11. Thanks for this place we can come to escape, share, and have fun.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

I do think we need some kind of "membership time" requirement for new members to be eligible for participation. I saw several Facebook posts suggesting going to IAP, registering, and entering all of the contest. Is there any data on new members during the BASH vs other months of the year? This is not a complaint but just an observation and a suggestion.

 

[mbroberg]

Bump

 

[edstreet]

This was my first bash. Even tho my 'member since' tag shows many years in the past I have not been around this time of the year and had no idea what to expect.

I was ask to post here so I have prepared a list of things to bring up of things that I have noted and very few of these things have been mentioned elsewhere. I would like to point out before hand that in no way is what I have listed intended to be anything but taken in a positive manner.

1. Asking for rule clarification results in WW3 and epic loads of drama, found it best not even to go there so it becomes a don't ask policy. I find this very disturbing and bad. Many seems to be wound very tight and perhaps some type of event to help lighten the mood. After looking at it from how I do things at my company I could have stopped that whole spill with 2 sentences.
   
2. 'Advanced Beautiful' is a contradiction in terms. As is 'Intermediate Beautiful'
   
3. polls show less than 0.05% vote, not a 'majority' by no stretch. there is more rhodium in rhodium plating than the number of people who voted. Polls with more than one level of voting saw a decreasingly supply of votes.
   
4. Teasers, all submissions, etc should have exif metadata scrubbed. Easy to remove that, stupidly easy to track and location the original author. Some shots where posted with copyright logo, names and even physical location. Also worthy of not there are federal laws pertaing to information relating to underage users, i.e. COPPA. With the ever increasing levels of predators (censored) we all need to do our part to secure things.
   
5. many pens should have been allowed to enter but was not, i.e. closed end antler. antler is a natural closed end product and there was a very good entry shown on the open board, yet would have been disqualified to enter due to rules listed.
   
6. If contest are trying to push the crowd away from favoritism then why are they asking for 'pick your favorite' why not ask to grade the images based on various things that is related to the contest at hand. I am not sure that the IAP community could or would vote like this.
   
7. Youth entries. This is a very tricky and very sensitive subject. I was very unsure of how to vote on this, one had you have which was the better pen, other its youth and the question I ask was did the parent do 90% of the work or 10% of the work? Clearly there will be guidance given but the winning entries seemed more heavy adult heavy than youth made.
   
8. seems to be that half of the bash is related to casting for some reason. Also seems that segments are top winners in many cases, often times out performing pens that exhibit superior craftsmanship.
   
9. Auctions should yield a higher turnout if there was some type of listing of what items would be up, as well as time periods. Perhaps something like ebay/etsy, public listings of goods to auction prior? Some type of promotion even would bring in more bidders.
   
10. no schedule makes things very difficult for users. Not knowing when something is going on almost guarantee's low turnout. <- auctions, entry submissions. need some type of calendar of events.
    
11. if a husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, neighbor/neighbor, friend/friend works together to make one entry pen for a bash contest, is that a 'sole' entry or is that a 'group effort'? By definition it would be 'group' yet we see many doing just that, esp in the (censored) contest. There is some level of unfair advantage to multiple people working on one entry.
    
12. One contest in particular (censored) rules were changed and none of the rules upheld. There were 8 entries that by definition should have been disqualified but was not. What is the point of having rules to keep things fair and honest when they are never upheld?
    
13. No ball points? Really? I don't understand this one at all. A pen is a pen and that includes ballpoints.
    
14. letter openers anyone?
    
15. 'kitless' does not equate to 'quality' nor does it equate to 'advanced'. There are plenty of highly skilled advanced blank makers and pen makers who are not into 'kitless'. Currently there is no equally skilled 'kitless' pen maker on IAP to compare with this group. There needs to be some type of 'artist' group or higher end skilled that transcends kits or kitless.
    
16. same pen entered into multiple contest
    
17. worthy of note is if we spend the $3k to get the (censored) done we can only enter (censored) into one contest next year. Also note is this project is not a single person, it's a group effort.
    
18. changing the definition of 'marketing' is not good.
    
19. from all things it seems that no matter how much you turn, no matter what material you work with and no matter how skilled you become as long as you put it on, or using it on, a 'kit pen' you will never be 'advanced'. (many telling me that 'advanced' was only for kitless, but the group think also excludes higher end skilled)
    
20. would be super nice to see bash team, admins, moderators, etc. be more active, vocal, in things. not just their contest but in others.
    
21. the winning entry in contest (censored) was not the highest skilled pen in the list. (censored) entry did clearly show higher skill levels yet the voting was much lower than anticipated. It seems that voting turnout was not a match for the contest listed.
    
22. rule changes between events results in mass confusion. i.e. 1 person, 3 photo's, 1 vote -vs- 1 person, 2 photo's, 2 votes.

Overall I did enjoy the bash, it was much more observation than interaction mostly (whole nother threat that one is), I learned many things that I did not know before going in, brought new ideas as well.

 

[Brian G]

This was my first bash. I had a great time and it pushed me to participate more in the forum. I appreciate the hard work all of the volunteers put into making it a success. Some things to consider, which may be repeats of others' comments:

-Be consistent with voting options. Contests with many entries, like the Russ Fairfield contest I entered, could have benefitted by a "choose your top three" to advance to the next round. Perhaps something like < 10 choose one, 11 to 20, pick top two, greater than 20, pick three.

-For photo contests, restrict the entry to one photo only. Whether I missed a rule, misunderstood, or missed a clarification, I attached two photos to the Shop Life entry (which the entry allowed), but they were split into two entries. It didn't make a difference in the final placing for me, but I still don't understand why the entry form allowed two photos, but they ended up as two entries. When the comments about the entries started, there was an understandable reaction that it looked like some of us were trying to cheat the system. I didn't feel very good about that, so I reacted because I felt I needed to clarify what I thought had happened.

-I agree with a segmented contest. Shine and segment will win over satin and standard.

-You chose a good bunch of goofballs to manage the contests.

-I don't think there needs to be wholesale changes. Too many rules and requirements make a contest a chore, not something fun to do.

Overall, great job, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

 

[Dan Masshardt]

I was just getting here last year but didn't really participate in the bash

This year I jumped in quite a bit more and had a fun experience

I participated and won the daily trivia contest once. Waiting for my CSUSA blanks This contest is a good way to make people aware of things I'd throw in some questions that don't have answers that are easy to find as well maybe

I participated in the wood ID and won once. Fun contest. I don't know if it's best the way that it is or to limit the number of guesses. If each person was allowed one guess they'd put a lot of thought into it and more could have a shot.

I find it unbelievable that Classic Nib would give a way so many prizes Roy and Dee's generosity there is simply stunning.

I entered three pen contests. I looked a lot at previous years entries I was surprised at how many entries there were this year I some of the categories. I didn't win any pen contests prizes but am motivated to continue on next year

I like contests like the modified slimline, antler and modified pen - the ones I entered I owner whether beginner, intermediate and advanced and too vague. There is a lot of apples to oranges comparison

Not everybody is into every technique, regardless of skill level.

Some ideas that may or may not be fun

- a segmented category
- best all wood pen and / or most unique piece of wood pen
- what about a category sponsored by a blank maker for best pen with their blanks Brooks beautiful pen contest?
- have a contest just for kit less, however we choose to die fine that
- steampunk pen contest?

If we stick with beginning / intermediate etc I think maybe more guidance could be given For example I think beginner is turning pens one year or less. For the others, I think categories on techniques rather than advanced etc would be more interesting.


I donated to be in the drawing I won't lie - the drawing motivated me, but $25 donation is a tiny contribution to give for such an incredible community of pen makers. People here blow me away with their helpfulness and generosity all the time.

Finally, thank you to all the vendors and everyone else who gave donations / discounts etc I hope that this minty met the needed expenses for the iap

I really appreciate everyone here