Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with contest

Help me solve problems with a peer judging contest!

Modus Pwnens — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:07:12 -0800

Help me devise a peer judging system for a contest that will contain approximately 135 members, give or take a few. Key Details:

-The event will last five hours with a short break for lunch.

-The presenters are required to be at their exhibits except for the short lunch break and the time they spend judging others' exhibits, at which time those "others" must be present to explain their exhibit.

-The event must have peer judging. Other forms of judging cannot be substituted.

Last year the event was rigidly structured beforehand. Each registrant was assigned to rate 11 other exhibits which were predetermined, spending ten minutes at each exhibit. However, this caused a myriad of problems because on the day of the event people who were not registered showed up with exhibits and some did not show up all, throwing the entire system out of whack.

Scoring was based on three fields. In these three fields, peer judges would rate the exhibits they saw from 1-11 and the exhibits' overall score was taken from everyone's rating of it.

Assigning numbers and creating a system on the day of the event has been considered too problematic given the amount of other activities going on.

Does anyone have a creative solution to this problem? If you need any other information, just ask! The problem isn't so much the scoring system as making sure the judging assignments are doled out in an efficient manner before the day of the event.

How to make this contest drawing fair?

smelvis — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:01:31 -0800

What's a fair way to chose winners for this ad-hoc giveaway? details inside... I have 100 items to give away to roughly 10,000 people. Folks can sign up for as many items as they want, as many times as they want, but can only win once (no money was involved).

Some items received hundreds of "votes", others received very few.
What order should I draw names to make it most fair for the most people?

Should I start with the high-number items first, since they represent the items with the most interest? Or should I start with the lowest interest items - or random?

Or does it even matter that Joe only signed up for item 1, while Bill signed up for every item, since the rules allowed it?

Why is "win" often implicitly considered a conditional verb?

wackybrit — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:46:01 -0800

Grammarians: Is it OK to take liberties with the word "win" when publicizing a contest or draw? I see a lot of competitions that use phrases like these to get people's attention:

- Leave a comment on our blog and win an Amazon gift voucher.
- Design a logo and win $500
- Tell your friends about [store name] and win $100 in store credit

This "and win" wording bugs me because the "win" is speculative or conditional, but no words are stating this (for example, "Design a logo to be in with a chance to win $500" or "Leave a comment on our blog, you could win an Amazon gift voucher" make the speculation pretty clear). If you changed "and win" to "and get" in the above examples, people would be rightly peeved if they didn't get X for doing Y - so why is "win" implicitly considered conditional where "get" would not be?

I understand why in something like "Win $100" it's conditional because "win" is imperative, but when you say "do X and win Y," there's a "do X" and then "win Y" cause and effect (in my mind).

My interest in this is two fold. First, I'd like to run some contests and use this sort of snappy wording, but I'm worried about the ethics of it. Is this sort of wording ethical/legal? Second, I love the English language and am intrigued if this sort of implied conditionality is actually popular with other verbs (or has a name) and I'm just being obtuse! :-)

Why are so many contests limited to the continental United States?

yesno — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:49:51 -0800

Why are so many contests limited to the continental United States? For example check out these rules ([sic] on the misspelling in the URL) for the Conan O'Brien "Please Blow Up My Car" contest:

Open only to permanent, legal U.S. residents who are physically residing in one (1) of the forty-eight (48) continental United States or the District of Columbia (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands and other United States territories)

Now, I understand why you'd want to limit a contest to just the USA, and I can see that there might be legal reasons to limit a contest to states and not territories. But excluding Alaska and Hawaii, which are just as much part of the United States of America as Virginia, doesn't make sense to me.

Now, for this contest which involves moving cars around, you might think it has to do with saving money, but I can't see that moving a car from Juno would be all that much more expensive than moving one from western Maine.

Photo Contest Set-up Help Needed

SuperErin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:30:40 -0800

PhotoFilter: I need to create a monthly photo contest for my clients to participate in. Help me find the easiest way to do this. I've already seen this question, but it is from 2007, and I know things have changed many times since then. I looked at the two programs suggested, but would prefer something online that I don't have to upload to my website.

I'd like to just set the thing up, give out a link, and have my clients upload photos of their dogs and vote on the best each month. I'd prefer an actual voting mechanism, rather than just writing "vote" in the comments.

I'd prefer free, or at least inexpensive for me, free for my clients to use.

I've googled this, but there's a lot of junk to slog through, so I was hoping to get some Mefite expertise!

Thanks in advance.

How best to manage a prize draw / giveaway?

Anonymous — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:49:22 -0800

What rules / laws govern prize draws and contests in Ontario? How best to manage a giveaway much bigger than I've done before? I'm organising a fund-raising event for a non-profit and a charity (2 separate organisations). I was expecting to giveaway a gift basket and a few CDs as door prizes. I've done this before and never worried about rules governing prize draws in the past at similar events.

Somebody has very kindly donated a trip worth several thousand dollars. This puts me into 'how do I handle this?' territory, as I regularly see long lists of contest rules and 'no purchase necessary' type statements on such contests.

Does Ontario or Canadian law govern such contests?

I was thinking of giving a ballot with a purchase (from the non-profit) or a donation (to the charity). Is this ok? Or do I have to do a 'no purchase necessary' option?

While I will exclude staff of both organisations from the draw, I want to allow volunteers to be able to be able to enter. OK? I will get the person representing the donor to govern all aspects of the draw to ensure no bias.

What else should I know? Hiring a lawyer to draw up rules is not an option. Registering for a license is more than I want to do. I just want to give this thing away to somebody who will appreciate it, raise money for the charity and promote the non-profit.

No whammies, no whammies

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:01:16 -0800

As has been done with previous similar contests, has anyone posted a regression that estimates when Apple will hit the 1B mark on their recent app download contest? (I'm not talking about when Apple's web JS counter is programmed to flip early tomorrow morning.)

How can I win a gummy bear eating contest?

jwfree — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:02:13 -0800

Best strategy for a gummy bear eating contest? I've got myself into a 30 minute gummy bear eating contest. Winner gets a nice shiny bottle of Patrón and that makes it a very serious bet. Any tips from the gummy bear fiends out there? Swallow whole? Cup of water? A hand full at a time?

Your tips could very well make me a grand champion at work, just remember that.

I just want to win a prize. Just once. Please?

joshrholloway — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:00:19 -0800

Are there websites or communities that exist to gather and link to legitimate sweepstakes, contests, and giveaways? Years ago, I saw a report on television about a woman who entered basically every contest and sweepstakes she could find in newspapers, magazines, TV, etc., and had won a bunch of stuff from them, including a car and a few other big-ticket items. Now that the Internet has grown so much, I figured there must be places where people go to discuss and/or exchange legitimate contests and sweepstakes and whatnot.

I have found many websites dedicated to referral programs and things that you have to pay for to receive free iPods, computers, game consoles, and the like, but this is not what I'm after. I only want to know about things that require minimal effort and no purchase, along the lines of, "comment on this blog post and you will be entered in a drawing to win!" (but I am willing to fill out entry forms and sign up for email lists if necessary)

So do these communities or websites exist? If you can't lead me to one, maybe you have tips or tricks on finding contests like these? I know I might not ever win anything and that I'm certain to be inundated with spam email, but I'm prepared for those outcomes.

Science fiction whodunnit competition?

crossoverman — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:07:13 -0800

Please help me remember this movie/contest. Some time in 1985 there was a (worldwide?) contest sponsored by Mobil where to enter the contest, you had to watch a whodunnit film on television and figure out who did the deed. The film was science fiction and someone was murdered (on a space station, I seem to recall an airlock sequence).

And that's about all I recall. I don't know how long the contest went on for or when the resolution of the contest/movie was broadcast, but I want to know if A) this really happened and B) what the name of the movie is.

I want to say that Jane Badler was in it but perhaps my memory is conflating this science fiction contest with "V"?

I just found this similar question but the answer doesn't seem to match my memory at all. So perhaps there was a similar event in different parts of the world?

Write Fight!

The Power Nap — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:33:52 -0800

I'm looking to create a competitive writing site, does such a thing exist? We're not talking a fanfic site either. Something more along the lines of Song Fight only for short stories. I've been asking around the water cooler and people seem to believe that writing is a solitary activity and not something people would want to do in a forum type enviroment.

Take it as a given that good tools would be provided to members to colaberate/critique/publish/workshop, that leagalese would be provided to protect the authors, and that there would be enough flavors of competition to keep people challenged. Think it could fly?

Giants, Jets, Yankees, Mets, Knicks, Rangers, Liberty?

allkindsoftime — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:45:16 -0800

Conference-room-naming filter (since yall are so damn good at it). My company is remodeling the 5th floor of our midtown NYC offices. Here's the deets:

"In order to align our office with the City in which we live and work, we’re interested in naming our seven conference rooms – six on the Fifth Floor and one on the Sixth Floor – after local landmarks, streets or neighborhoods (e.g. Brooklyn Bridge, Cobble Hill, Tribeca, Yankee Stadium, Coney Island/Cyclone, you get the idea). However, we are not limited to these suggestions - feel free to use your creativity."

That's about the long and the short of it - I need 7 preferably related names for conference rooms that deal with NY places. There's too many neighborhoods, not enough boroughs, etc., so I'd like to use your creativity.

Hey Mr. DJ

white light — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:22:46 -0800

What movie is this screen capture from? (girl playing a record) Someone I know is trying to win a contest that requires identifying very short clips from tons of movies, and only has one more to go!

here is the image

Thanks!

21 judges give 4 contestants a 4, 3, 2, or 1. How often is there a first place tie?

23skidoo — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:22:02 -0800

Imagine a contest, with 21 judges and 4 contestants. Judges must give one contestant 4 points, one contestant 3 points, one contestant 2 points, and one contestant 1 point. The winner is decided by summing the scores of all 21 judges. Mathematically speaking, what percentage of the time would you expect there to be a tie for first place after all 21 scores have been added?

Drop and give me 100!

um_maverick — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:43:47 -0800

My friends and I are about to embark on a 6-week push-up training program. Obviously, this has to be a competitive event. The problem, though, is finding a fair way to measure who wins... I came across Hundred Pushups last week and, being terribly out of shape, decided to do it. After telling some fellow type-A friends, we're turning it into a competition, but running into difficulty figuring out how to measure. All of the identified options have drawbacks, so we're looking for new suggestions or ways to modify any of the items below:

(1) Who can do the most pushups after 6 weeks - Some people are more in-shape now than others, so this would be unfair towards those starting behind
(2) Absolute increase in pushups - Requires a "weigh-in" at the beginning, where people can cheat (consciously or subconsciously) and not do as many pushups as they're cable of. Also probably has starting-point issues like point (1).
(3) Percentage increase - Has the same weigh-in issues as (2) and also gives advantage to people who start weaker. E.g., someone who starts at 25 would have to get to 250 in order to compete with the guy who starts at 10 and gets to 100.
(4) Something based on BMI - I was hoping to find a chart of "If you're BMI is x, y pushups are expected" online, and measure success relative to the chart. No dice finding such a chart, though
(5) Everybody over 100 wins, everybody under 100 loses - same starting point issues at (1), nobody in the group likes ties

Thanks!

Make Small Money Sound Big

my homunculus is drowning — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:09:07 -0800

I need a really great, somewhat poker related prize (or a couple of prizes) that will cost less than $1200. I'm giving it away in early August (somewhat flexible on the date). Right now the best I can think of is a trip to Vegas for 2 and a $500 gift card. . . but I'd like something even better/cooler/more expensive sounding than that. I'm also considering a trip to Commerce Casino in LA with Disneyland tickets and stuff, so anything is possible. Travel anywhere is definitely an option, local events are an option. . . it just really needs to sound good.

Hey, you got your Puzzle Contest in my movie! And it tastes like crap!

not_on_display — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:31:10 -0800

In the mid-eighties, there was some "event" on television. It was a (crappy) movie, but embedded within it was a contest and/or puzzle. You had to figure out the location of ... a treasure? ... from the clues in the movie; there was also a puzzle, perhaps, embedded in the movie which, when solved, would reveal the 800-number to call when you've figured out the location of the booty. The winner would receive $N00,000. (I remember counting ashtrays in each scene, or fruits, or chairs, maybe, to try and find the right phone number.) So: what was the title of this? Is it on the web? Where was the booty?!

(My parents' friends had a VCR and we all gathered at their house to watch, tape, and analyze. I also remember thinking, "We are getting nowhere with this; someone else has surely won by now; and I'm really bored and want to go home.")

What's the fairest way to rank entries to a creative contest?

stokast — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:13:01 -0800

I ran a creative contest. 17 people submitted. 8 judges each chose their top three, in order of preference. What is the fairest way to rank each entry?

Help me create a database to give money away

kc0dxh — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:41:03 -0800

Help me design a small Access application to run a prize drawing. As I see it, the MC will open the application and click the Draw button, which will select from the available prizes for that month. Once drawn, that prize becomes unavailable. MC will then type in the winner's name and click Save, setting the form ready for the next contestant. Specs and examples follow. Prizes will be one of the following dollar denominations: 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, or Consolation Prize.

There may be more than one prize of a particular denomination, that will change from month to month.

Prizes should be chosen randomly.

Prizes cannot be given more than once. (obvious)

As an example, this months drawing may have 12 $5 prizes, 9 $10 prizes, 5 $20 prizes, 2 $50 prizes, 1 $100 prize, and 50 consolation prizes.

The application will need to be opened and closed a few times before the month's drawing is complete. Freeware applicaitons that interface with Access or Excel will be considered.

Photography Laureates - info please

ObscureReferenceMan — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:09:04 -0800

Is anyone familiar with the web site Photography Laureates? My Dad (a retired aerospace engineer) works as a professional photographer taking pictures of local high school and little league sports. Although relatively new to the field, he is quite good - both technically and artistically. But he has not been "in the game" for a long time to know the ins & outs, and potential scams.

He found a web site that runs photo contests. It is photolaureates.org. He submitted a photo, and they let him know he was a finalist for the $6500 prize. However, to confirm his entry he must pay a fee ($59).

Doing a google search on Photography Laureates resulted in a LOT of links to photography forums where people are asking the same question: is it a scam. And the concensus is, it is.

On the other side of the coin, I managed to find a link to a PR statement from Photography Laureates saying that they they are legitimate company, don't believe what people are saying, blah blah blah.

My feeling is Photography Laureates is like "Who's Who". You pay a fee to be listed in the book, then you buy the book, and can show your friends that you're in "Who's Who".

One other data point... One of the forum links I found asking "Is it a scam" was a recent one. This guy was told that he had to respond by November 3 to enter the 2007 contest. My Dad just recently got his email, but it is also for the 2007 contest. And his deadline is 12/4. (One yearly contest/month??)

So... My question is not is this a scam (I am 99% convinced that it is). But rather, does anybody know anything about this company at all? How long have they been around? How often do they run contests? Stuff like that. Thanks!

What type of story wins the Toronto Star's short story contest?

winston — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:27:37 -0800

What type of stories win the Toronto Star's short story contest? I mean, beyond what's in the Star's rules and guidelines -- does history show a bias towards a certain subject matter or style, etc.? The judges are from the Humber College creative writing program -- does that mean there are any types of writing that are especially in/out of favour?

Real Genius 2.0?

hypersloth — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 06:20:57 -0800

Is there a online repository for ongoing consumer contests? As in "every purchase is a chance to win." Lately, instead of "one free soda" or "please try again" underneath the bottlecap, it's an alphanumeric string to enter at their site to see if it wins. I first noticed the online shift when McDonald's expanded their Monopoly game so that there were more chances to win. Now I see it all the time in junk mail.
It suddenly occurred to me that I've literally thrown away millions of chances to win whatever by not bothering with tons of whatever, because we all know the law requires:
"No Purchase Necessary"
So, I guess I'm thinking of the movie Real Genius here (except Laslo wasn't online!)
I know there are coupon-tracking sites; does anyone know of a no-purchase-necessary forum/wiki/something which saves consumers from actually having to consume first?

Yes, I've read Plato already

StrikeTheViol — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 10:03:50 -0800

Help me find debates with a clear winner. I'm looking for written or spoken debates or arguments, regardless of particulars, where someone prevailed through sheer strength of argument and debating competence, and even supporters of opposing viewpoints would concede one side "won that one". I'm not looking for a "professor versus four-year-old" mismatch, but something where argumentative skill was clearly on display.

Advice on a donut eating contest

Wolfie — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:11:07 -0800

We have a krispy kreme donut eating contest in my office tomorrow. What can I expect if I actually manage to consume 24 donuts? I've been trash talking a lot about my ability to consume a lot of donuts - hence this contest. The rules are "how many glazed krispy kreme donuts can you eat in 10 minutes - or the first person to get to 24 donuts". I'm pretty sure I can get all of them down - but I'm looking at 4800 calories, nearly 300 grams of fat, and 250 grams of sugar. I realize this isn't good for me - but if I'm otherwise healthy - I don't really have anything serious to worry about other than feeling pretty ill and gaining a few pounds - right? People have been joking about diabetic shock - is this even a remote possibility? Anyone done anything nearly this stupid before? How did you fair? Strategy advice?

Is there a Halo 3 master list of promotions/drawings?

Quarter Pincher — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 07:27:15 -0800

Is there any kind of master list of Halo 3 promotions? There's the gamestop/mt.dew sweepstakes, the xbox.com "unite" drawing.. is there some kind of long list of stuff I can enter for?

There's also a site listed on Xbox Live about Best Buy Gold Days, but the address they have listed comes up 404 (that)..