competition!!

[mark.f]

Hmmm...

First off, if it is going to be a monetary prize, PCGUY has to run it. Have any of you PM'ed him to see if this was even possible in the first place?

As for the prize, I would personally like to see something non-monetary and useful. Like a mauler valve, other component, or even a completed cannon. For instance, the last competition I remember was the "best shot on video" competition, and the prize was simply a copy of Half-Life, but it got plenty of entries and a good amount of competitiveness, so it's not like you need a $600 dollar prize to hold a competition in the first place (even if you could manage to collect $600 in the first place).

As for the competition itself, I don't think all the restrictions you're placing on it are very feasible. For instance, I think it'd be better to place entries in "classes". Sure, it sounds good to simply say that all cannons have to introduce something new, but in reality I think it just pulls the rug out from other people who build something already done before, but also put out some quality work and thought into it.

So, enough of all of that. If it were to be class based (like the last true Spudfiles Build-Off, what do you think the classes should be? Spudtech had some classes set up before it went down for the on-going competition, as well.

The scenario would be: somebody post's a cannon, with the selection CONTEST APPLICANT. It would then receive a nomination as to which class it should be in. The maker of the cannon doesn't get to place it in whichever class he chooses, but others do it.

Posts should be made with as many accurate details as possible.

Take a look at Spudfile's previous Build-Offs, for some inspiration.

[MRR]

Keep in mind that spudfiles is a 99.99% D.I.Y. community, so I absolutely agree with B.t.B. . If you got something new, extraordinary, beautiful, special or what ever in your mind, sooner or later you will build it and post it on this site anyway.

So why not doing a contest for the fame and glory?

I think this website deserves a "Hall of Fame" and a competition would be a good start...

[psycix]

Guys this is getting way out of hand.

Keep it simple stupid, 1st 2nd and 3rd place winners, anyone with any budget can enter, no production models (as said well before "one of a kind"), one entry and voting based off most innovative.

It worked just fine before so why not now.

I agree.
Just collect money and divide it over the prize winners like: 55%-30%-15% of the collected money.

[PCGUY]

Alright guys, you want an official contest, you got one!

I really do like the "new, innovative design" types of contests since it pushes the community forward, instead of sitting around and trying to figure out what kind of automotive paintjob you can give a cannon. Topics for contests like this do come up often, but you can not have too many "innovative design" contests too near eachother, or people will be out of ideas. I like to keep it to a yearly, summer time (in US) competition.

Before there was a $100 grand prize, however that came out of pocket from me. SpudFiles can't really afford that this time, so some sort of low ($10?) entry fee would need to be put into place. I would like to offer something up, however I have been told that I am getting laid off in 2 months so I have to save everything I can since it's really hard to find a good job in my career right now.

The owner of UltimateSpudGun (Mike) has approached me about being involved with a contest as well, so some sort of physical prize may be able to be mustered up as well.

What do you guys think?

FYI Yes, any monetary transactions for an official contest will have to go through me.

[john bunsenburner]

Well perhaps a voucher of some sort or a physical prize would be best? Many here are fairly young and it is very hard to convince your parents to pay 10$ for entering a spudgun contest...

[Carlman]

Cool! Its on!

Are you going to run it like like the last?

[MountainousDew]

Yeah, I'm thirteen and I know my parents won't let me send any amount of money to someone that I only know over the internet and barely at that.

What sort of voucher/prize would the winners get, any ideas?

[mark.f]

I would be willing to send some $$ for the prize pool. I believe that I'll be able to rig my PayPal account to take money from a Visa prepaid card...

BUT:

I would also be willing to put up a physical prize, depending (I won't give it away yet, but it's worth around $80, so it's not just something I've got lying around gathering dust).

I still think it should be "classed out" like the 2006 "Build Off", but that's just me.

[jrrdw]

We will have to wait and see what the details will be. I'm sure ANY prize offered by Spudfile sponsers will be SWEET!

[MountainousDew]

We will have to wait and see what the details will be. I'm sure ANY prize offered by Spudfile sponsers will be SWEET!

Well, of coarse the prizes would be awesome! Just look at the sponsors; We have 'UltimateSpudgun.com' who has several awesome spud gunning things... And 'LaunchPotatoes.com' which has various items for pneumatic and combustion cannons alike!

[daberno123]

I still think it should be "classed out" like the 2006 "Build Off", but that's just me.

I also support that idea, but with multiples classes you need multiple prizes. One way would be the winner of each class gets the entry fees from the other entries in its same class.

For example: 5 people enter a cannon into one class, paying a $10 entry fee. The winner of that class gets $50. It kind of splits each class into its own competition.

This way the more competition per class there is the bigger the prize gets.

Now excuse me I need to get brainstorming...

[rp181]

does the original end date stand?

[MrCrowley]

does the original end date stand?

Not at the moment. Same with the start date.

We still need to work out:

Classes
Judges
Prize
Theme or Requirement (does it have to be a 'new innovation')
etc

Classes will have to be something basic like:

Combustion
Pneumatic
Hybrid
BBMG
Extra-Ordinary (welded/lathed/milled etc)

Depending on how many cannons are entered, you'd take the top 2 or 3 voted cannons from each class, put them all in one poll and then the judges will decide the winner.

By having an 'extra-ordinary' class, it will give people in the other classes a better chance. Because if you have 3 machined pneumatic cannons, they're probably going to win the 'class vote' for 'pneumatic'.

It's just an idea anyway, expand on it if you will.

We can also make it so you can enter more then one cannon, but it will have to be in a different class and you have to pay another entry fee.

Judges will be Moderators and Senior Members not taking part in the contest.

Prize, we're still sorting out. Anything worth $50 will be sure to get enough people thinking outside the box.

Theme or Requirement:
We can make it that you can enter any sort of cannon you want, but when it comes to judging, new innovations will get the highest marks compared to things like 'Power' and 'Aesthetics'.

[Moonbogg]

I don't know how the competition should be organized, but I do know that a very expensive cannon could really easily lose to a $30.00 cannon. I think that a well thought out cannon with creativity put into it, perhaps with some unique features will stand out regardless of price and resources used.
If everyone had 5 grand to spend, everyone would have a nice cannon, even if it was a basic cannon that works like we've all seen before. I believe it is easy to see through dollars spent on a project and to focus on creativity and how artistic a gun is etc.
Also, IMO, I think it is important to look at how much effort went into a cannon. How much thought did they put into it? Is the design unique and does it achieve anything? This can be accomplished with lots of money or little money.
Anyways, I guess my point is, for me at least, it will be easy to look past dollars spent and to focus on the mind behind the cannon, not the wallet.

EDIT: had to throw in a cheesy example. Lets say you have cannon A and cannon B. Both are the same style pneumatic. One is painted PVC, the other is solid 24k gold tubing. I would say cannon A wins because cannon B is too friggin heavy to actually use.

[PCGUY]

Asking for an entry fee does pose a problem, as mentioned above, and which is why I didn't do one before... since there are a number of young members who would not be able to send money online. Regardless if sponsors will put up something, I would like prize money involved as well to make the deal sweeter. Here is my idea...

-Entry fee would still stand, however if you do not have any kind of credit/debit/prepaid card to run through Paypal, I can accept something by mail.

-If you are REALLY dead set on competing, but there is just NO way for you to put up an entry fee, I can cover you if you talk to me via PM and convince me your entry will be worthy enough for me to cover your entry fee (of course only a few people max I would allow this for). I don't want to shut out young members who can't convince their parents about something online, since I know what that is like (think of me at 13 years old trying to explain to my mom that I own a website!).

I do not want to impose a spending limit, since if we do an "innovative design" that could be something that doesn't cost a whole lot, or something fairly expensive. Plus as mentioned before, cost of parts may not be much, but if someone has an entire machine shop to themselves, that still puts their "cost" much higher if you include the machines. I think instead this time, there will be a rule that no production cannons or companies can enter, only personal entries.