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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 right reason. I dont think 'showing up TLG' is a good one. The
second important point is that you you need to define it as openly as possible,
otherwise you just won't get enough entries. David Thomas' contest idea is
suffering from this problem now. My last point, and I dont know if many of you
know this, is that in the early going of the contest you really need to actively
recruit participants. I surfed a lot hunting down cool SW models on the web,
and looking through newsgroup postings by people discussing models they had
made. I then contacted these people individually and pointed them to the
contest website. The majority of entries cam from people who I contacted about
the contest. Setting the site up on a search engine also netted me a couple of
non RTL/Lugneters as well. In other words it is a lot of work getting the word
out.
P.S. I still have not sent out the trophies and other prize materials to the
category winners. If you won a category I will be contacting you soon to get a
mailing address.
P.P.S. I'm thinking of putting together a space MOC contest sometime in the
future, keep an eye on the lugnet.space group for news on that front.
Paul Davidson wrote:
> 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
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