Ideas for future prize competitions

[Brogan]

Thanks to the generosity of our members: canis for the server, Mike for the development, all those who have upgraded or donated and ZakspeedYakspeed for the prizes, along with the (very) modest income from the Google AdSense adverts, the site will actually make a small profit this year.
It's only taken us five years

However, the site was never set up to make money so what little it does make will be put back in to the site either via purchasing new features or for competition prizes.

We already have a few more prizes to hand out this year (thanks again to ZakspeedYakspeed, cider_and_toast and yours truly) so with a bit of luck we will be able to hold a couple of competitions.

The article competition was very good for the site as it generated a lot of great content and activity. However, I suspect it wasn't the preferred option for many as they may have felt unwilling or unable to participate.

There is of course the obvious candidate for a prize which is Fantasy F1 but other than those two, does anyone else have any suggestions or ideas for future competitions?

It would be preferable if it was something which generated content and/or activity as that will (potentially) make the site busier, hopefully more popular, resulting in even more income and therefore more prizes and so on.
Feel free to suggest anything though - we can then choose the best options.

This, by the way, will be one of the upcoming prizes (thanks to ZakspeedYakspeed):

http://www.exoto.com/s/1/ProductDetails.aspx?Language=en&CategoryId=149&ProductId=1150

 

[Mephistopheles]

The way I see it is any competition is restricted by the media you have available and on a forum that consists of.

• The written word as in the previous competition but could also include site improvement ideas of which the best one voted for by members is implemented but only if practical for instance the upgrade to the FF1 system is a bang on winner...
• Design, maybe a seasonal design competition Easter, winter, summer, Christmas something say a blank outline of a car is given people come up with a seasonal livery for it.
• Photography a best pictures competition capture the moment something like that not necessarily judged on quality but more on how unusual or funny it is but has to be the work of the entrant....

This is probably all complete nonsense but I'm just running ideas here....

 

[teabagyokel]

I like the livery design.

 

[Brogan]

Ideas are good so thanks for that Mephistopheles.

The problem is I'm struggling to think of an idea better than an article writing competition as that ticks all the boxes as far as content, activity, creativity and giving something for the members to read and discuss

 

[Mephistopheles]

Me too Brogan but there are things that can be done in an article competition for instance it could be categorized I noticed in the last competition some articles were technical and some were personal some were about people in F1 and some were more general this made it hard to chose who to vote for.

For instance one member voted for me because it was more of a personal article and that swung it and so maybe a theme based article with some parameters on subject matter attached to make comparisons easier (A list of themes could be posted and voted on before hand.) I would also do away with the vote for yourself rule and have a specific section where entrants post so that we don't need to search the whole forum for an entry, also a banner at the top of the forum announcing a new entry has been posted when a visitor passes and when we log on....

 

[Brogan]

Some good ideas there so thanks for the input

Technically some of them are difficult to implement. such as the notice when a new entry has been posted - that would need to be completely manual but it's do-able(ish).

 

[Mephistopheles]

Just add the caveat "Reader beware," to the banner.

Sorry I meant, there maybe other entrants as well since the last update.

 

[Greenlantern101]

How about A Bernie look alike competition.

 

[Brogan]

have a specific section where entrants post so that we don't need to search the whole forum for an entry

Just picking up on this point, but didn't the list in the thread here, with links to each entry serve the same purpose?

http://cliptheapex.com/threads/win-an-exoto-1-18-scale-model.5680/#post-167417

 

[Mephistopheles]

Yes it did but I just thought that squaring it away in a nice tidy section all of its own would appeal to the OCD element in some posters...

 

[Brogan]

The next prize is here

Thanks are due once again to ZakspeedYakspeed for the generous donation.

 

[Mephistopheles]

The Good Year markings on the tyres haven't been lined up properly before taking the picture....

 

[gethinceri]

You clearly don't want to win it Mephistopheles

 

[Brogan]

The Good Year markings on the tyres haven't been lined up properly before taking the picture....

The rear wheels aren't independent - believe me I tried

 

[Mephistopheles]

 

[Jos the Boss]

I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 1 million, the first person to guess it wins, if no one guesses it, I win it, how does that sound?

 

[gethinceri]

7

 

[Brogan]

That sounds great Jos the Boss but as I'll be asking the question, the odds are I would keep the prize...

 

[Mephistopheles]

I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 1 million, the first person to guess it wins, if no one guesses it, I win it, how does that sound?

Can I have a million guesses..?

 

[Brogan]

As it currently stands, it looks like it's going to be another article competition.