Laser Contests - Support, Suggestions & Questions!

[scumbagatheist]

Thanks, guys. It was, indeed, just a joke. I really appreciate the kindness!

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

Sportsmansip award goes toooo..... SBA

 

[Gun]

I know this debate has sort of ended here, but I feel I should say something.

Although I did organize the contest, I don't think that means that I have to pay to ship other people's prizes to the winners. I agree that maybe I should have organized the shipping of Tony's donations before I declared them as prizes, that was bad planning on my behalf. norbyx you said 'If you can't even afford to pay for some shipping, than, in my personal opinion, you shouldn't have hosted the contest in the first place.'. Although I completely disagree, if other people do agree with you then maybe I will hand over the position of moderating the contest, but I do not think it will be too much of a problem as from now on the donator will pay for shipping, and most of them won't be in Australia anyway, so it won't come to me.

Thanks for understanding, and a big shoutout to Lazerbeak for chipping in money for the shipping :wave:

 

[Lazerbeak]

I think you did a great job Gun! I don't see a reason you shouldn't be able to finish what you started. First contest, everybody learned a lot about what's needed and what's expected. There will be other contests with other moderators, but you got the ball rolling and it was Great, everybody got a chance to have fun and show off some really amazing work.

The donors have to be thanked as well, nobody has to do anything here. People give out of their own generosity with no other reward than that. So a big Thank you to TonyT, I won't mention other names because I don't want to put anyone on the spot if it hasn't been confirmed or plans have changed. Miscommunication happens to easily

Awesome new Avatar too Gun, not so creepy :na:

~ LB

 

[Gun]

Haha thanks, it's a beamshot of the laser that Blord is shipping out to me tomorrow!

 

[grainde]

Tonyt have sent you a PM.

Guys I think you can solve the problem of the shipping by charging a competition entry fee, say $5 or $10 depending on where the prizes will originate. I dont think that would be too much to ask of each entrant. I really think its a little harsh to demand that the donators should also get lumped with the shipping costs as well...

Rep for LB and Tont - Thanks lads! :beer:

 

[tonyt]

Tonyt have sent you a PM.

Guys I think you can solve the problem of the shipping by charging a competition entry fee, say $5 or $10 depending on where the prizes will originate. I dont think that would be too much to ask of each entrant. I really think its a little harsh to demand that the donators should also get lumped with the shipping costs as well...

Rep for LB and Tont - Thanks lads! :beer:

No problems Grainde, Thanks.

Gun and I actually discussed the possibility of a user entry fee but i thought that a donation to LPF as entry would be better as half the reason the competition was started was to help LPF.

 

[grainde]

No problems Grainde, Thanks.

Gun and I actually discussed the possibility of a user entry fee but i thought that a donation to LPF as entry would be better as half the reason the competition was started was to help LPF.

Understood. Perhaps you could have the entry fee and use that for shipping and anything left over gets donated to LPF. Gun could just inflate the shipping by $2-3 to cover all eventualities?

I really dont think people will have an issue with it especially if its clearly stipulated before hand. :beer:

 

[norbyx]

Even if an entry fee is somewhat a solution, it limits the ammount of entries that there will be in a contest. Not everyone has a way to pay an entry fee, some don't have a paypal account, and for sure a money trasnfer would be out of question.

A donator "can" pay for "one" shipping to the host (or in the case that he lives near just bring the prices to him) since he is already "donating" the prices.

On the other hand the "host" might not have the will to ship out the prices but as a good host he is responsable for the good development of the contest and, in my opinion, if he finds out that the prices won't be shipped, he has to take responsability and see What to do (find some donation for the shipping cost or whatever) but in no case he has to say, well I don't have the money, prices wont get shipped out, that is just not responsable and not mature.

Maybe the best way to make this contests in the future is to find single "small" donations from users, or sponsors, and make them ship this small donations directly to the winners. When I say small I mean, something like a driver, or a module, or something small enough where the shipping won't be more than $1-$3.

One thing is for sure, contests need to progress, and all this that happend in this contest is good to avoid making the same mistakes on the next.

Gun, to you I have to say that you had a briliant idea, and we all appreciate your effort in doing this contest, learn from the mistakes and host a new contest soon ( the sooner the better) so to show people that contests "can" work and "will" work, as long as rules are clear from the start.

For the next contest, I will be happy to donate a prize (shipped ). So let's get started .... LET'S SEE SOME LASERS....

 

[tonyt]

By all means i would be able to host the next contest, no problems? I am actually talking to some companies about "donations" of money for postage and prizes. I have a few idea's :yh:

On the other hand the "host" might not have the will to ship out the prices but as a good host he is responsable for the good development of the contest and, in my opinion, if he finds out that the prices won't be shipped, he has to take responsability and see What to do (find some donation for the shipping cost or whatever) but in no case he has to say, well I don't have the money, prices wont get shipped out, that is just not responsable and not mature..

That was my point.

 

[Atomicrox]

TBH I think the most important thing is to set clear rules before the contest starts. IMHO it would be OK to have some contests without prizes and some contests with an entrance fee.

Anyways I think Gun did a very good job and the contest was pretty cool

 

[Gun]

In my opinion the contest was still a success and it accomplished what I wanted it to do. Prizes* (with a 'z' norbyx ) were never really important to the contest in my point of view, however I know a few people disagree with this.

I'll still host the next contest, but remember to provide suggestions for the next contest topic in this thread. Also, tell me what you think the arrangement should be regarding prizes and entry fees.

 

[norbyx]

Thanks for the correction gun, sometimes I make a mess with English, Spanish and Italian...

 

[Lazerbeak]

Great input Grainde, Atomic+ and Norbyx Thanks Tony and Gun. Definitely looking forward to future "contests"

~ LB

 

[mdubbicus]

Even if an entry fee is somewhat a solution, it limits the amount of entries that there will be in a contest. Not everyone has a way to pay an entry fee, some don't have a PayPal account, and for sure a money transfer would be out of question.

A donator "can" pay for "one" shipping to the host (or in the case that he lives near just bring the prizes to him) since he is already "donating" the prizes.

On the other hand the "host" might not have the will to ship out the prizes but as a good host he is responsible for the good development of the contest and, in my opinion, if he finds out that the prizes won't be shipped, he has to take responsibility and see What to do (find some donation for the shipping cost or whatever) but in no case he has to say, well I don't have the money, prizes wont get shipped out, that is just not responsible and not mature.

Maybe the best way to make this contests in the future is to find single "small" donations from users, or sponsors, and make them ship this small donations directly to the winners. When I say small I mean, something like a driver, or a module, or something small enough where the shipping won't be more than $1-$3.

One thing is for sure, contests need to progress, and all this that happened in this contest is good to avoid making the same mistakes on the next.

Gun, to you I have to say that you had a brilliant idea, and we all appreciate your effort in doing this contest, learn from the mistakes and host a new contest soon ( the sooner the better) so to show people that contests "can" work and "will" work, as long as rules are clear from the start.

For the next contest, I will be happy to donate a prize (shipped ). So let's get started .... LET'S SEE SOME LASERS....

TBH I think the most important thing is to set clear rules before the contest starts. IMHO it would be OK to have some contests without prizes and some contests with an entrance fee.

Anyways I think Gun did a very good job and the contest was pretty cool

I think we're all in agreement that:
Gun did a fine job kicking off the idea, it's clear he's never hosted a competition or event like this before, but he did an excellent job for his first go round, and it was a success; he still deserves a decent amount of credit for everything he did to get it going. No point in continual criticism, it really won't accomplish anything, and doesn't change the reality.

And, in the future competition rules will not be one size fits all, can be adjusted based upon the competition, sponsors, prize donations, and location of user hosting the competition. But indeed all the rules need to be concrete and clearly stipulated; there just needs to be better preparation before the competition gets underway so people know what it is exactly that their getting into.

The main problem this contest was flawed, was PREPARATION, and strictly due to the fact that everyone wanted to get it going right away and jump right into it feet first, without taking the time to get everything straightened out, make sure all the bases were covered, and getting all the ducks in a row. We all will just have to learn, adapt, live on, and power up some new lasers.

Yeah, the fact of people not having PayPal (which I think is almost absurd if you want to accomplish most things on here) and/or other resources kinda excludes some, but that isn't the person hosting the competitions fault. Not every competition needs to have an entry fee, depending on the stakes and size, but I think people are too worried about this factor. If you use an external polling system and can get enough people lined up to participate in the contest it won't be a very big entry fee to cover the shipping of the top three to five winners depending on competition size, and you'll still have enough to donate a good chunk to LPF. Like, $5 is not a whole lot to ask for, since your advertising yourself, promoting your work, and your competencies and abilities with lasers; thus adding to your rep. As well as, getting to help out the site, and if it's handled in this manner, it will be more like helping out a GOOD cause (that everyone here uses and would most likely be worse off without), than paying just an entry fee. If someone really wants to participate they will find a way, if not they'll find an excuse.

 

[Gun]

No problem norbyx

As grainde and mdubbicus said, I'm thinking that a small donation as an entry fee would be a good idea. All the entry fees will go towards shipping for the prizes, any money left over will be donated to the forum or saved for the next contest. It might also be better to make the prizes smaller (such as drivers and modules) to save on shipping costs, I think norbyx suggested this already.