Help! Desperate Moderator Looking for Contest Ideas

[peter halle]

Fellow Foggers,

The moderators have been tasked with suggesting ideas for contest themes in the coming year.  Suggestions have been passed around, but my personal feeling is that the membership could help with suggestions.  So, how about helping me out with some ideas for themes.  Please remember that any and all suggestions submitted are just that.  But, just to make it interesting and to let you know that we are thinking about everything, one of the things that we have discussed are random prizes thru the year.  Along the lines that you will never know when something you post merits a prize.  We have also discussed the fact that the FOG has an international presence that is growing, so when suggesting your ideas for themes, please remember members from all parts of the world. You never know what can come out of your posting.

Please put on your thinking caps.  Don't worry about the prizes;  that is not part of this request for ideas whereas the giver will determine those.

Please post ideas - don't link to previous contest ideas or posts.  We are in a new decade now!

This thread is open until January 20, 2010.  It will be locked after that.

Help me out here.

I look forward to your suggestions!

Peter

 

[sw1211]

Possible themes, best project posting including Festool tool use along the way, best jig, most pictures posted over past whatever # of months (we all like pictures), random (every post you made in past xx months gives you an entry, then a winner is drawn at random).

Those who have 599 posts or more win a prize.  [big grin]

 

[peter halle]

Steve,

Cute Edit. [tongue] [tongue]

Great suggestions.  One thing we talked about was the number of posts idea.  Substantive posts might be an idea for a dividing line.  You are a regular contributor of information and I would bet that you would agree that you wouldn't want to have someone who posted "I don't understand" 1000 times to have an advantage in that situation.  I might be wrong.

I'd love to hear more of your ideas.

Thanks for the help,

Peter

 

[sw1211]

Steve,

Great suggestions.  One thing we talked about was the number of posts idea.  Substantive posts might be an idea for a dividing line.  You are a regular contributor of information and I would bet that you would agree that you wouldn't want to have someone who posted "I don't understand" 1000 times to have an advantage in that situation.  I might be wrong.

I'd love to hear more of your ideas.

Thanks for the help,

Peter

Determining what is substantive might be a tough job, what is helpful to someone might not be helpful to someone else.  I was just trying to think of a way to incent lurkers and infrequent posters to post more often.  Random is just that, random, if someone only posts jokes or sarcasm, they're still contributing. 

There are plenty of people who haven't won a prize that I would like to see win and it would be great if we could somehow get those outside of the US eligible to win.  Past contests seemed to have worked fairly well, come up with a theme and then have a vote. 

Another idea, best tutorial posting with the prize being a paid trip to Festool  HQ for one of their training sessions.

 

[peter halle]

Steve,

Ideas now.  Details later.  No suggestion for a theme is wrong or bad.

Getting lurkers to join and post is a hope and a goal.  Getting members who don't post often to contribute more often is also a vision.  This place is growing, most people just don't know it.

I don't mean to be vague - I can't disclose details about discussions because of my role.  But help get the others kick started with ideas - will yah?

 

[Frank Pellow]

I believe that the contests that have drawn the most interest on this and other woodworking forums have been those where nominations for best whatever have been open for a certain time period.  Then, the nominated items a voted upon within a short time period (say a week).  Then, either the item with the highest number of votes wins the prize or the top n items are placed into a draw for the winner.  Some contests could be run with the top highest number of votes winning, some with n = 3, some with n = 5, some with n =10.

A few ideas for whatever  are:  (1) best project, (2) best jig, (3) best use of a given Festool tool in a project (4) best limerick that involves Festool tools, (5) best documented project or jig, (6) best modification of a systainer, (7) best woodworking shop tour, ( 8 ) best tool review, (9) the most popular request in the Festool wish list, (10) best project using prescribed material (such as a two board feet of maple)

We could also have some contests that require nomination but  don?t require a vote such as: (1) most Festool tools employed in a project, (2) oldest Festool tool involved in a project, (3) oldest Festool tool owned by a number, (3) most Festool tools owned by an individual member for their own use, (4) most systainers owned by an individual member for their own use, (5) most (legitimate and relevant) photographs in a thread, (6) the originator of the  thread with the most (legitimate and relevant) replies (7) the originator of the  thread with the most views in a given sub-forum, ( 8 ) the first person to start a thread after a secret date and time,  (9) oldest member, (10) member with the 20th most posts as of a certain date.

Of course, these are just a few examples to get folks thinking.  I could come up with a lot more, but that is enough from me for now.

Once a project, jig, or other item wins a prize it should not be eligible for another prize.  This should include those that won in the round of contests that we had a couple of years ago.  So, for example, my thread entitled 'A child's log building kit mostly made from old fence boards' should not be eligible for a prize.

 

[peter halle]

Frank,

Great post.  One thing that I would love to see is that contest entries would have to be new - after x date.  Nothing personal.

All ideas are welcome.  None are wrong.  If I post my opinion - it is just that.  Keep them coming.

Peter

 

[Frank Pellow]

Frank,

Great post.  One thing that I would love to see is that contest entries would have to be new - after x date.   Nothing personal.

All ideas are welcome.  None are wrong.  If I post my opinion - it is just that.  Keep them coming.

Peter

Requiring entries to be after a certqain date would be fine for some contests, but I don't think that it should apply to all contests.  Variety is good.

 

[harry_]

Another idea, best tutorial posting with the prize being a paid trip to Festool  HQ for one of their training sessions.

I like the sound of this one.

IMO, the only thing more important than being able to buy/have green tools is to obtain the knowledge on how to use them to their fullest potential.

Another thought:

2 votes (surveys):
1). a tally of what tools are owned collectively within the group.
2). a tally of what the group would like to see a tutorial of.

Start the focus on tools that strike a balance with 1 &2 above, and build something with them. We all should be able to build something, that's why we bought the tools, right? (Think of it as `New Festool Workshop` [sorry Norm  [jawdrop] ])

The something should not be all big and glorious & expensive (and the judges should not get overcome by that), because it is about the tools and the tutorial, the `project` itself is only a vehicle. (Just thought this would help to level the playing field AND keep things interesting. )  I also think that `professional works` should be excluded. No competing with commissioned work. We have a lot of hobbyists in here. I don't think it would be fair for them to compete against anyone who got paid to build something. A hobbyist may have only 10 hours/week available to him. Whereas 'professional works' are on someone else's time and money.

I would think that it would be hard to remain competitive with tutorials for very long however. a tutorial on the VS 600 would hardly be fair when there are probably only a handful of them amongst us. But if it's setup and use were demonstrated as part of the overall `project` that would be like a bonus.

The are so many of us that are virtually clueless on how to use a particular tool for a particular task for a number of different reasons. As a result many of us may not even realize that a given task could even be done with that tool. Many times we just `go with what we know` because `that's the way we have always done it`...

With all that said:

let a contest run a month or two or three (multiple contests could run at the same time with different `completion dates`. (A Feb.1 announce for Apr. 1, a March 1 announce for May 1 sort of thing.

[2cents]

 

[Inner10]

How about "What Can You Systainer?" contest.

People will submit their creatively modified systainers.

Winner will be based on originality and practicality.

 

[Frank Pellow]

How about "What Can You Systainer?" contest.

People will submit their creatively modified systainers.

Winner will be based on originality and practicality.

This must be a good idea  [thumbs up] because it is also number (6) in the first list in my earlier post  [poke]

 

[peter halle]

Thank you to those who have given their thoughts.

I hope others will contribute additional thoughts.

Peter

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

How about most creative ways to fix mac n cheese?

My 4 year old is starting to wise up to my ways of disguising mac n cheese for both lunch and dinner.

Hopefully we can get some Ramen noodles soon!!

 

[AlexThePalex]

How about a Festool photoshop contest? Put something together in an attractive design for a desktop background or screensaver. Might not be woodworking, but is Festool and internet (as is this forum) related.

 

[Inner10]

How about most creative ways to fix mac n cheese?

My 4 year old is starting to wise up to my ways of disguising mac n cheese for both lunch and dinner.

"Festool Owners Cookbook"  Featuring:

Mac and Cheese
Beans and Weiners
Rice 467 ways
Wish Sandwiches (I Wish there was some darn meat in this sandwich)

This must be a good idea  Thumbs Up because it is also number (6) in the first list in my earlier post  Poke

You got me Frank, I didn't read your whole post I jumped the gun.  [embarassed]

 

[whk]

Why not offer a prize to whoever suggests the first contest that you decide to implement?  That would make a nice contest, ehh?

 

[John Langevin]

FESTOOL Frauleins [wink]

 

[hasslefactor]

Well... um...

You could always solicit contest entries for best Six Word Story About A Sawzall....

[wink]  [poke]

Edit: inside joke (Peter, bail me out here before Shane decides I'm a bad person....)

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Apparently, we only have a few members who are interested freebies  [blink]

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

Apparently, we only have a few members who are interested freebies  [blink]

So I have to come up with a good idea and do a good job with my idea?

I like free stuff but, that is a lot of thinking.

Plus, I don't build any furniture or stuff like that.  That is what most of them were here.

If we had a steepest roof, flattest shingle, best flashing I could win that one!!