The Bash, how did we do?

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mredburn

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Now that the Bash has come and gone, its time for feedback.
We are always looking to improve the Bash for you and if you have an idea of how it could be better we need to know.
Maybe you think that something didnt work well or at all. Maybe you have a great idea for a new contest. We would like to hear your thoughts.
 
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mark james

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First - I think Mike and Jeff deserve a huge THANK YOU for all the "behind the scenes" chores that they do that is not noticed. Another year well done.

As for suggestions, one would be to review the Universal Rules for any tweaks that need to be made.

It might be nice for a clear tutorial for posting pictures for the contests. The information is there but took a bit of digging. As a first-time contest chair, it was a huge worry for me that I'd mess it up; which I ultimately did. I think we have a great beginning list of how to do this now in several threads.

And I found it very, very discouraging for suggestions on changing the rules, or tweaking certain aspects of contests AFTER the comment/suggestion period was over.

Thank you for starting this thread Mike - Hopefully the discussion will be fruitful.

Again, Well done Mike and Jeff.
 

Talltim

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My hat is off to every person that invested hours of their time to run these contests. It is an incredible volunteer effort.

I did not see anyone "mess up" Mark. There might have been a few bumps on a pleasant journey but certainly not mess ups.

Few groups this size have as many helpful organizers and generous people who donate prizes as this forum.

Well done.

And who else has a losers train? And a real losers car to top it off. You have it all.








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Dehn0045

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I enjoyed participating in the bash and seeing all of the other entries. There is obviously a lot of effort from a lot of different people that makes this happen every year. Thanks to all of the volunteers and supporters who donate prizes.

As for improvements, I have a couple of minor suggestions:

For the contest voting I don't see the value in multiple rounds. In every case that I checked the top three from round 1 were also the top three in the final round, and in the same order.

Having a standard number of votes depending on number of entries might also be helpful. For example, I don't see the value in selecting 5 from a pool of 10. I would suggest the following: select 1 from pools size 2-5, select 2 from pools size 6-15, select 3 from pools 16-25, etc.
 

mark james

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I'm not too sharp with polls and statistics, but it may be worthwhile to consider whether to simply have a single vote.

It is very feasible for a winner that nobody voted for being the "best," to win, as it was voted the "2'nd" best, often.

e.g.

Five pens, Five voters, 3 votes each:

Pen 1 - 1'sts = 1; 2'nds = 0; 3'rds = 2 Votes = 3
Pen 2 - 1'sts = 0; 2'nds = 5; 3'rds = 0 Votes = 5
Pen 3 - 1'sts = 2; 2'nds = 0; 3'rds = 0 Votes = 2
Pen 4 - 1'sts = 1; 2'nds = 0; 3'rds = 1 Votes = 2
Pen 5 - 1'sts = 1; 2'nds = 1; 3'rds = 1 Votes = 3

Or, a pen voted consistently the 3'rd best, could win. :eek:

Five pens, Five voters, 3 votes each:

Pen 1 - 1'sts = 1; 2'nds = 0; 3'rds = 2 Votes = 3
Pen 2 - 1'sts = 0; 2'nds = 0; 3'rds = 5 Votes = 5
Pen 3 - 1'sts = 2; 2'nds = 0; 3'rds = 0 Votes = 2
Pen 4 - 1'sts = 1; 2'nds = 0; 3'rds = 1 Votes = 2
Pen 5 - 1'sts = 1; 2'nds = 1; 3'rds = 1 Votes = 3

Just food for thought. (My personal opinion, this has already happened, through no fault of anyone - it's just the way the votes played out).

I may be wrong, but I believe the only solutions to these scenerios is to have a weighted polling system (complicated), or single votes.
 

Dehn0045

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I'm with you Mark, but given the limitations of the systems that we have available on the forum I'm guessing that a ranked style voting probably isn't possible. Also, I have a concern that we may not get much separation between 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. if there is only 1 vote per person in large entry pools. Presumably people will vote for their own pen, so in a pool of 40 there would only be about 100 or so votes to spread between the rest. If there is one or two pens that are exceptional, then there might be big ties for 3rd place.
 

mark james

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I'm with you Mark, but given the limitations of the systems that we have available on the forum I'm guessing that a ranked style voting probably isn't possible. Also, I have a concern that we may not get much separation between 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. if there is only 1 vote per person in large entry pools. Presumably people will vote for their own pen, so in a pool of 40 there would only be about 100 or so votes to spread between the rest. If there is one or two pens that are exceptional, then there might be big ties for 3rd place.

Yup. I agree with your comments. I just threw it out for folks to ponder. Often simpler is better.
 

edicehouse

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I think it was a BASH just like every other year. A good time, I really don't have anything negative to say. I was just too busy this (and still am) to participate as much as normal.
 

magpens

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Many thanks again to all the organizers and moderators, as well as to those who made the effort to submit entries.

This year, it seems to me that a decision was made to hide the polling results for all entries and across all contests (with possible exception of a small number of contests). . I would appreciate clarification of this with the reasoning behind the decision. . I think the polling results are interesting and useful but maybe the thinking is that some non-winners could be discouraged by low scores. . My thinking is the converse ... namely, that it would be nice to know how close an entry came to winning ! . A possible compromise would be to reveal the scores of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, plus the top two or three non-winners.
 
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mredburn

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I believe that the norm is to hide the poll voting until that poll voting is closed. The exception to this is the Pretty Wood Pen contest which has two polls and the Chairman asked that the first round remain hidden until the final voting round was done. The first poll is now open for viewing. If there is a poll that cant be viewed at this time let me know. I will make it available. I can see the results regardless so I may not know you cant.
 

allmaclean

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I thought that a great job was done by all. An area for improvement would be to include a description of the material being displayed, as in years past.
It was fun as always though.

Allan
 

magpens

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It seems there are only 3 now without final results (I thought there were more, but had not checked before I posted above) ...
1) Kitless
2) Pretty Resin Final
3) Perfect Slimline Poll #1
 
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mredburn

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Years ago we debated trying to have a poll that allowed you to pick first, second, third, and would tally the results. It would have had to been off site and we didnt want to add another layer of complexity to the process if it was even available. We have not found a perfect way to vote that will fit the software we have to work with on the forum. By allowing multiple choices we feel that the best pens will make it into the top spots.
 

gimpy

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Mark, as far as a tutorial for posting pictures, my wife and I sat down together and walked through all the steps and posted them. You may have not seen them.

I asked for this to be put in the tutorial section and was informed that there is no longer to oversee the section.

When I get back on my laptop, I will send you a copy for your review and Brian G had some in put and I added his response.


First - I think Mike and Jeff deserve a huge THANK YOU for all the "behind the scenes" chores that they do that is not noticed. Another year well done.

As for suggestions, one would be to review the Universal Rules for any tweaks that need to be made.

It might be nice for a clear tutorial for posting pictures for the contests. The information is there but took a bit of digging. As a first-time contest chair, it was a huge worry for me that I'd mess it up; which I ultimately did. I think we have a great beginning list of how to do this now in several threads.

And I found it very, very discouraging for suggestions on changing the rules, or tweaking certain aspects of contests AFTER the comment/suggestion period was over.

Thank you for starting this thread Mike - Hopefully the discussion will be fruitful.

Again, Well done Mike and Jeff.
 
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mark james

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Mark, as far as a tutorial for posting pictures, my wife and I sat down together and walked through all the steps and posted them. You may have not seen them.

I asked for this to be put in the tutorial section and was informed that there is no longer to oversee the section.

When I get back on my laptop, I will send you a copy for your review and Brian G had some in put and I added his response.


First - I think Mike and Jeff deserve a huge THANK YOU for all the "behind the scenes" chores that they do that is not noticed. Another year well done.

As for suggestions, one would be to review the Universal Rules for any tweaks that need to be made.

It might be nice for a clear tutorial for posting pictures for the contests. The information is there but took a bit of digging. As a first-time contest chair, it was a huge worry for me that I'd mess it up; which I ultimately did. I think we have a great beginning list of how to do this now in several threads.

And I found it very, very discouraging for suggestions on changing the rules, or tweaking certain aspects of contests AFTER the comment/suggestion period was over.

Thank you for starting this thread Mike - Hopefully the discussion will be fruitful.

Again, Well done Mike and Jeff.

Hi Terry, I already have a file with your/wifey's process as well as what Brian G related and also Sylvanite. I suspect between us we can get a very nice list of steps and have it in the Activity Manager's Forum (after review) for future Contest hosts.
 

MRDucks2

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Mark, as far as a tutorial for posting pictures, my wife and I sat down together and walked through all the steps and posted them. You may have not seen them.



I asked for this to be put in the tutorial section and was informed that there is no longer to oversee the section.



When I get back on my laptop, I will send you a copy for your review and Brian G had some in put and I added his response.





First - I think Mike and Jeff deserve a huge THANK YOU for all the "behind the scenes" chores that they do that is not noticed. Another year well done.



As for suggestions, one would be to review the Universal Rules for any tweaks that need to be made.



It might be nice for a clear tutorial for posting pictures for the contests. The information is there but took a bit of digging. As a first-time contest chair, it was a huge worry for me that I'd mess it up; which I ultimately did. I think we have a great beginning list of how to do this now in several threads.



And I found it very, very discouraging for suggestions on changing the rules, or tweaking certain aspects of contests AFTER the comment/suggestion period was over.



Thank you for starting this thread Mike - Hopefully the discussion will be fruitful.



Again, Well done Mike and Jeff.



Hi Terry, I already have a file with your/wifey's process as well as what Brian G related and also Sylvanite. I suspect between us we can get a very nice list of steps and have it in the Activity Manager's Forum (after review) for future Contest hosts.



One of the things I noticed in my first effort at helping this year was that all of the guidelines do not necessarily work the same on all computers. Not just talking about different systems, but how some of the individual settings on an individual PC are set-up effect what actually happens (or what you see happen) in an sequence of steps.


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