2013 --we should read this

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As one of the trivia meisters, changing it will lead to a load more work. And as volunteers, I know I spent hours working behind the scenes almost daily. In PMs with the other trivia meisters and members fielding questions and such about the trivia.

I am sure other trivia meisters did as well.

If its changed, we have to go through each email, to make sure those playing aren't playing. This year we had a few ineligible members take part, they are removed so our numbers and your chances of winning match exactly whats drawn. For example, if firewhatfire entered after he won this year, and decides to continue emailing answers, then those emails need to be deleted so when we draw the random number it correspondes to correct email. Each day the number emails from winners, ineligible others for one reason or another goes up. Then were devoting more and more time daily.

And some of you noticed....... patience with posting the winners isn't a strong suit.





I was going to post this in thread and thought maybe I should post here first....
 
Don't fret, James!!!

All comments from membership will help in planning. But, in the long run, the people ON the bash committee determine what changes make sense.
 
I agree with James and with only 3 repeat winners it seems a little of a non issue. I had a lot less PM's this year. Harder questions mean more PM's and the point of the trivia contest is to get people to look at different features on the site and not to have near to impossible questions.
 
Would more contests give more people a chance to enter or would it just make it too busy? What would be the best way to get the most people to enter pens?
The only issue I see with polls to decide the top 6 and then the top 3 is it is going to cut into penmaking time. What if all were posted for showing when the polls were put out and allow a vote after the winning three were out for the "fan favorite"?
Just thinking out loud.
 
There is also an issue of "recognizability". When a picture is posted, a high percentage of the time Dawn can tell you whose pen it is. NO NEED for a persons name, each has a distinguishing characteristic or two.

So, if we post all the pen pictures, will the "firmly entrenched old guys" have a great advantage over new members?

All good questions we should ask before next year's bash. Right now, just good notes!!
 
ed4copies said:
There is also an issue of "recognizability". When a picture is posted, a high percentage of the time Dawn can tell you whose pen it is. NO NEED for a persons name, each has a distinguishing characteristic or two.

So, if we post all the pen pictures, will the "firmly entrenched old guys" have a great advantage over new members?

All good questions we should ask before next year's bash. Right now, just good notes!!
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I even put in my rules to use neutral "props and backgrounds", well since most don't read(or barely read) the rules, that did not happen either. I left of several pics and/or made the entrants re-do their pics. A lot of this was a PITA but I put in the time so the votes could be as objective as possible. I tried to make it as anonymous as possible. For the most part I think I did. There are always exceptions. I think somewhere between posting each entry as it comes in and only posting the finalists is where the answer lies. I'm just not sure what that happy medium point is yet.

I actually started already on some of my rule changes(assuming you all think I did a good enough job to earn the job again)for next year. On a personal rule note----Less copy and paste for me. It led to the same error being repeated in multiple threads.:eek: Even if I get fired and someone else does the contests, I think my rules setup might still be beneficial. As far as trivia being too easy. Tell them to do the crossword puzzles, I think I made one of them plenty hard that they had to earn their "Google Badge". The puzzles are not so easy to set up and keep it forum related as some might think. Like the trivia, there are only so many questions that cannot be easily searched. I actually had about 40-50 man hours of research (online and reading books) to get the second puzzle built, not counting all the time dealing with PM's as it was running.
 
In an ideal world, you would not be running the contest AND making the puzzles.

This really can develop into hundreds of hours. By the time the month is over, nerves can be pretty "shot" and family life can suffer, neither of which are good for you.
(I'm lucky, Dawn spends the same amount of time at the office so the impact is somewhat less).

More "bash team members" may be a good thing.
 
ed4copies said:
In an ideal world, you would not be running the contest AND making the puzzles.

This really can develop into hundreds of hours. By the time the month is over, nerves can be pretty "shot" and family life can suffer, neither of which are good for you.
(I'm lucky, Dawn spends the same amount of time at the office so the impact is somewhat less).

More "bash team members" may be a good thing.
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No perfect world here and no problem, I have no social life and my wife puts in a crap lot of hours at work. That leaves me home with my son(6) a lot. That usually equates to me having this great site logged on most every eve and weekend. I'm a better contest chair than a turner so it is where I feel I can contribute moat to the site.:smile:
 
I didnt answer in that thread about allocations because Mike had asked us to keep it on the qt that we were the ones doing the allocating. We did take into consideration what prizes went where as much as possible. One of the considerations in the prize allocations for the casting contests was trying not to award someone elses cast blanks to the winners. I felt that would be redundent. Justins post about prizes that are germain to his level of participation is well understood by me. But unless the bash is given a "budget" to "purchase" awards for certain levels, the prizes will continue to be what they are. Donations of good will by the donors. The Bash Contests, prizes, and rules will never be perfect, you can only offer them to the members and let them decide if they have any value to themselves.
I would be glad to address it in the thread or by pm to the individuals or just let it lay.

I still offer my suggestion of ending the contests on Sunday evening when ever possible to allow a full weekend of effort to be applied to finish what ever is bieng made for those who work during the week. I have enjoyed working the bash and look forward to it again next year.
 
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mredburn said:
I didnt answer in that thread about allocations because Mike had asked us to keep it on the qt that we were the ones doing the allocating. We did take into consideration what prizes went where as much as possible. One of the considerations in the prize allocations for the casting contests was trying not to award someone elses cast blanks to the winners. I felt that would be redundent. Justins post about prizes that are germain to his level of participation is well understood by me. But unless the bash is given a "budget" to "purchase" awards for certain levels, the prizes will continue to be what they are. Donations of good will by the donors. The Bash Contests, prizes, and rules will never be perfect, you can only offer them to the members and let them decide if they have any value to themselves.
I would be glad to address it in the thread or by pm to the individuals or just let it lay.

I still offer my suggestion of ending the contests on Sunday evening when ever possible to allow a full weekend of effort to be applied to finish what ever is bieng made for those who work during the week. I have enjoyed working the bash and look forward to it again next year.
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Agree, I had to set mine up around my life schedule this year. It was actually an odd set of circumstances this year, should be any easy fix to make the timing better next year.
 
I like the end the contests Sunday night idea. I had no problem with the prize allocation. To me complaining about the prizes is a lot like "looking a gift horse in the mouth."
 
Just an FYI, I am going through all the threads and my PMs looking for ideas and comments that will help with future planning. I am assembling a WORD document (up to 13 pages so far, but I will pare it down) in which I will have the issues broken down with pros and cons. These issues will then be discussed by the policy makers. I've gotten a couple very interesting PMs about the BASH, including one that basically said that the BASH was just a bunch of unneeded clutter that should be done away with and more effort should be put into just encouraging people to make a monetary donation. Once I picked myself up off the floor and read it carefully, even that PM contained a valid concern that could be addressed.

If things proceed they way I intend them to I think everyone will find that planning for 2013 will be even smoother than planning for 2012 went. I've not heard too many complaints about 2012 planning but things can always be tweaked. As you all know 2014 is the 10 year anniversary of the IAP and it is definitely not to early to start thinking about that Extravaganza!!! We will be doing some serious, out of the box, brainstorming.:biggrin:
 
Last I heard (in a comment by Jeff) the IAP has about 2000 "unique visitors" each week.

In a "universe" that size, you can find 5 people who will espouse ANY thought presented to the universe. In other words, there will be at least 5 who believe the Bash is a waste of time.

So, let's settle on pleasing the bash team and Jeff. If we LOSE those five members---so be it.
 
ed4copies said:
Last I heard (in a comment by Jeff) the IAP has about 2000 "unique visitors" each week.

In a "universe" that size, you can find 5 people who will espouse ANY thought presented to the universe. In other words, there will be at least 5 who believe the Bash is a waste of time.

So, let's settle on pleasing the bash team and Jeff. If we LOSE those five members---so be it.
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My "public servant" background causes me to look at it slightly differently. My goal is to please the majority of the membership, not the BASH team or Jeff. I would rather we concentrate on pleasing the majority of the membership. If that causes us to lose some members, or inconvenience the BASH Team, so be it. I suspect that if the majority of the membership is happy, Jeff will be happy, which means the BASH team has done it's job well. If the BASH team is happy, but the membership is not, then we have a problem.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Forum Runner
 
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