[wileetundra]

Good comments OTR.

I was first disappointed to see only 6 total entries and then further disappointed that most of them were common accessories or topics which had been covered previously (and in some cases extensively) in the forums. My main point, however, was that it would have been better for the contest to be a fairly close race with each contributor receiving a significant amount of votes, versus one contributor blowing away the competition from the start even though several of them had spent considerable time and effort on their entries.

If the main reason for the contest was to generate more detailed, highly relevant, high-quality, unique DIY posts then the contest may have missed the mark. If voting is left up to the public at large then it will almost always be a contest in popularity, marketing, or novelty and it will be subject to corruption such as new member accounts being registered just to place additional votes (something I have seen at other forums).

There is nothing wrong with this type of contest if TS and the members are pleased with the outcome but I bet that most members would have preferred to see a higher number of entries, fresh material which hadn't been discussed before, and a closer race between the competitors. Perhaps I am wrong and most people just want to be entertained, which is ok too, and I certainly enjoyed some of the entries which I found to be quite creative or entertaining despite my concerns with the contest as a whole.

My suggestion for future contests is for TS to publish criteria for the entries in advance (must contain photos and/or video, must be a new topic or new solution not previously published in the forums, must include a complete parts and tools list, must demonstrate creativity while also being practical, etc.) and then task the forum admins with judging each entry based on the criteria. The admins see a lot more of the forums than most of us and I would trust them to be fair. Regardless of the outcome I do hope that TS will run another contest and that we will get more contributors in the next round.