Re: Dave's post

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

I must be brief because I am not in the US right now.
I think the idea of not doing "real" prizes is bad.  I think it cheapens
the event, and the other work we are doing to make it a high-quality
contest.  If someone e-mailed me a PDF of a certificate to print out,
first I'd laugh, then I'd nevver take them seriously again.

I posted my thoughts on the limit and/or entry fee last week.  David,
please re-read.  It's not just my time and energy... it's potentially
putting my time and energy into digitizing dozens of the same photos of
one person's tanks because they can't be nbothered to limit their entries
to the best tank.

More when I get back.

  - Erik

On Thu, 2 Sep 1999, James Purchase wrote:

> Good luck with the move Dave - I hope that it goes smoothly.
> 
> >With the way the latest line of thinking has been going, I don't see why we
> >should limit the entries at all (as long as Erik is able and willing to
> >organize the entries).  If we do not give people anything for
> participating,
> >an increase in entries will not increase the cost of the contest.
> 
> The prime reason (I think) that Karen suggested an upper limit is primarily
> to ensure that we don't get caught in a bind with too many entries to be
> able to handle properly. For a "first try" at this, I have to concur. We
> could be swamped with entries and find that we lack the people to be able to
> scan them and arrange them in a reasonable time frame. A smaller event which
> runs well is much better than a hugh event which is delayed because of
> limited resources. This first year should point out any errors or omissions
> in our planning and we will have the chance to work the kinks out in a
> smaller venu. However, three hundred entries (which was the lower number
> suggested) is still a lot of images and if we get that many I'll be very
> gratified.
> 
> I would like people to speak up on the idea I posted regarding the idea of
> foregoing  any mailed out awards, be they prizes, certificates or ribbons.
> We could post the "winners" names and send PDF format "certificates" to them
> to allow them to have something to hang in their fish room if they wish.
> 
> Jose has also suggested memberships in the AGA as another option as
> "prizes". This would work with this idea, as the "Contest" would not be
> responsibe for sending anything out in the mail to the people who win. It
> would require the agreement of the AGA. We could also ask the various
> magazines for "gift subscriptions" as well.
> 
> My prime reason to couple this idea with the idea of "no entrance fees" was
> to bring home the fact that this was not conceived as a money making venture
> and if we can keep a very tight lid on costs it need not be a money losing
> one either. If anyone has any thoughts of this, I'd like to hear them - one
> way or the other. Have I missed or forgotten about anything which would cost
> money in my calculations?
> 
> Would levying a nominal "entry fee" ($5.00/entry) make this more "serious"
> or more or less likely to garner attention and attract entries?
> 
> Do you think that doing away with mailed out ribbons or certificates would
> hurt the event? Would people be less likely to enter if they know that we
> are not going to give them a prize, in the traditional sense of the word?
> Would notification of their efforts via the Web be enough?
> 
> James Purchase
> Toronto
> 
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-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com

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