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Subject: 
How to have a successful contest (was "re: A new contest")
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.build.contests, lugnet.general, lugnet.starwars
Date: 
Tue, 8 Feb 2000 22:04:17 GMT
Viewed: 
40 times
  
I can add a few points to Dave's.

A successful contest also needs to be:
C.  Interesting to build, and within the building capabilities of many
builders (piece and skill-wise)
D.  Easy to enter, maintain interest, and adjudicate.

C.  A contest to build a Milennium Falcon won't attract a lot of people.
Most people would get bored building a pre-existing ship like the Falcon,
and many (like myself) do not have those saucer hull pieces.  Right there,
you've eliminated most of the otherwise-interested contestants.  Other
contests that would do poorly would be to build a Lego deodorant bottle (too
boring) or a working particle accelerator (well beyond the skill of most).

D.  A good contest needs to be regularly advertised on relevant newsgroups,
so it's easy for people to find out about, even if they missed or forgot
about the initial announcement.  It also needs to have a website so that
people can easily look up contest details and status.  All who enter should
be kept informed through email of the contest and its final results.

Taking all these into consideration, the ideal site to host regular contests
would be Lugnet.  Plus, with the new membership scheme, there may even be
funds for prizes, who knows!  5 minutes of fame and a cool Lego set is a
good incentive to enter.  I for one think it would be cool to see maybe
semi-annual or quarterly contests in various themes like space, castle,
town, etc.

--


Paul Davidson


Well, I'd suggest 2 things:
A. A bit of formality & completeness
B. Some inscentive to win!

A. (Formality/Completeness) Your description of your contest was:
I am holding a contest to design a millenium falcon. The only rule is
that it must use the UFO quarter saucer hulls at the top (anu of the
hulls you have in any color will do), like the TLG design. I want to see
if anyone can come up with a better design than TLG's piece of garbage,
given the same constraints.
This is rather sparse-- some points need to be covered:
  1. How do people submit entries? (to whom? by ftp? email? etc.)
  2. What forms of submissions do you accept? (pictures, DATs, etc.)
  3. When does the contest end?
  4. How will entries be judged?
And a bit about the specific contest itself:
  1. Not that I like TLC's Falcon design, but I'm betting they had more
requirements than simply using the UFO quarter domes... how about "model • must
be under X pieces" or something...
  2. TLC has the new cockpit canopy & perhaps other pieces for their new
Falcon-- should these be allowed?
  3. Based on #1, should piece count/weight be a factor other than • "looking
good"? Hence, someone who used 200 pieces and ranks an '8' for looks wins • out
over someone who used 350 pieces and ranks a '9'...

Anyway, lots of things should probably be specified if you're really • declaring
a contest...

B. (Inscentive to win!) This isn't really necessary, but I'm SURE you'll • get a
better turnout if you announce a prize to the winning entry... and, like • with
most things, the bigger, the better. If you offer a certificate of winning
(I.E. you put together an MS Word doc and print it out and hand-write the
winner's name in a blank), people won't be too anxious to win... But if • you
offer a Collecter's Edition X-Wing fighter (when they come out), you'll • have
LOADS of people that will want to enter... Of course, there's always a • happy
medium between 'printout' and 'huge lego set', but you get the idea...

But like I said, you don't need to offer a prize... As with Pat's SW • Design
Contest, the real great thing about it was that it was a contest that a • LOT of
people were interested in, and really the best thing about it was seeing • all
the ideas that came out of it-- not so much the prizes themselves. But a • prize
never did hurt! :)

Anyway, that's my $.02,
DaveE



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: How to have a successful contest (was "re: A new contest")
 
OK, now its time for me to chime in. Everyone has made some good points about how to set up a successful contest, but there are a few other important points to be made. The first, and I mean no disrespect John, is that you have to have it for the (...) (25 years ago, 8-Feb-00, to lugnet.build.contests, lugnet.general, lugnet.starwars)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: A new contest
 
(...) Well, I'd suggest 2 things: A. A bit of formality & completeness B. Some inscentive to win! A. (Formality/Completeness) Your description of your contest was: (...) This is rather sparse-- some points need to be covered: 1. How do people submit (...) (25 years ago, 8-Feb-00, to lugnet.build.contests, lugnet.general, lugnet.starwars)

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