wizardwatson
05-12-2013, 09:54 PM
[REMINDER AND IMPORTANT NOTE: As indicated below this thread is the contest thread. For general questions about the project to which it refers and general questions "about" the contest please use the other "Candy Corn Clouds" thread linked below. This thread is only for contest entry posts and specific questions about contest rules. Thank you.]
[UPDATE 5/13/13 Contest now new poster/member friendly. Rule requiring minimum membership length at RPF removed. See post #3 for details.]
This is the $100 Candy Corn Clouds RPF Discussion contest thread.
The contest is based on this thread and it's assumed that you have read it or will read it before submitting your round 1 answer:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?414225-Candy-Corn-Clouds
The contest is open to 14 contestants. In order to participate you must be an RPF member. with a start date in 2011 or before with a post count of at least 500 or be entered by an RPF member that meets those criteria. Each RPF that meets the criteria can only enter themselves or 1 non-qualifying member.
To enter simply post to this thread the text "I want to enter the Candy Corn Clouds contest". For nominating you must post "I want [username] entered into the Candy Corn Clouds contest" and then the nominee must post the former text themselves to enter. Entry is on a first post first served basis. Once declared and once I have acknowledged the declaration via a post in this thread you are entered and have three days from my acknowledgement time to submit your first round answer to the contest question (below in blue).
The contest will be 3 rounds and each answer/response must be between 1000 and 5000 words. After each round a public RPF vote will be held to eliminate contestants. Round 2 will only have 9 people and round 3 will only have 6 people. The final vote will eliminate all but one contestant with any ties determined by myself. The winner will receive $100.
The format is you answer the question then I give a response. In round 2 you respond to my response and again for round 3. However the vote will take place 1 day after I receive all responses so I may not have responded to all contestants at the time of voting. And I may not respond to your response before the beginning of the next round in which case you can respond to others responses or my response to others responses or simply elaborate on your original answer. It takes time to respond to everyone but in the interest of time I will conduct the voting even if I haven't responded to everyone.
When the voting threads are created I will compile all the responses into a single document for the voters to read (and the plan is to update the document as I receive them even before the voting). There is no specific criteria for voting and contestants can also vote. It will be a simple "which contestant(s) do you want to eliminate" vote.
Round 1:
The contest is open to 14 people who have three days from entry to answer. If they don't make the deadline the contest will start with as few as 12 people. If less than 12 people submit answers the entry process will continue until 12 people do submit answers or until 10 days have passed in which case the contest will continue with however many contestants there are and I will post modifications to the elimination rules if necessary. If only 1 person submits an answer in those 10 days then they will win by default but will still be required to complete rounds 2 and 3. The 3 day response rule is constrained in the first round by the 10 day cutoff. If only 8 contestants are registered and on day 9 someone enters the contest they only have 1 day to submit their answer.
The idea is that the answer submitted be in the spirit of the question and the project but there are no hard and fast rules. I do reserve the right to reject and disqualify someone's answer in round 1 if say they submit random characters or garbage, or song lyrics, or meaningless responses in which case I will disqualify them and post my reasons for doing it. For example talking about esoteric economic theory or your personal struggle with figuring out what the meaning of life is might be fine but submitting a poem about garden snakes might disqualify your answer. This condition only applies to round 1 though. As long as you meet the word limit range for rounds 2 and 3 your response will be counted as qualifying.
Round 1 Vote
A public RPF vote will be held in a separate thread where contestants will be eliminated until there is only 9. The vote will be for 48 hours. A document will be linked from the thread that compiles all responses for the voters to read and my responses if any.
Round 2
After the closing of the Round 1 vote the remaining contestants will have 3 days to submit their round 2 response. As long as the response meets the word count range the response will be qualified.
Round 2 voting
Same as round 1 voting except contestants will be eliminated until only 6 remain
Round 3
Same as round 2. Contestants have 3 days to submit response before final vote.
Final vote
After round 3 responses are submitted a final vote will take place that chooses only 1 contestant as winner and they will receive the $100.
How submitting responses and answer works
After entry is confirmed you need to email me your response and pm me from your RPF count that you have done so and put in some kind of random code that let's me know who sent the email as your username may not be related to your email and someone may submit a response on your behalf. I will link the response compilation for each round in a public web document as soon as I can after receiving them. I will put that document address in this post. You can post your answer/responses in this thread if you wish (thought readers might have trouble finding it depending on thread length) but I will try to update the public document as I receive them which as I said will be linked in this original post.
Dates and times
I will email you and PM you the cutoff dates/times for each vote and for when the round submission is due. I will also post these in this post.
The plan is to conduct the vote 1 day after receiving all the submissions and for each vote to last 48 hours. I will post the cutoff date for the next round submissions right after the vote closes. I will notify the contestants whether they were eliminated or not and the cutoff date via email and PM.
Receiving the money
I want the transmission of the money to be public so the winner needs to publish a crowd-funding page via gofundme.com which means they need a paypal account. I plan to transfer the $100 via paypal into the fund within 3 days of the final vote. If you win you can waive receiving the money. If you don't create the crowd-funding within 15 days I'm not going to pay it out unless I agree to some alternate method for paying you that can be verified by the other contestants. I don't want a situation where the other contestants and voters think that I've lied about paying out the money.
Questions
Please ask general questions in the thread linked above and keep this thread clean for entries and for answers/responses. For specific rule questions you can use this thread.
Hopefully it's fairly clear and again, general questions "about" the contest should be asked in above thread. Specific rule clarifications and questions can be asked in this thread.
Statistics and status of contest
I will update this thread with who has entered, the status of each contest, vote dates and results, etc. in this post.
My availability
I'm not online 24/7 so give me time to respond to email or this thread and the one linked above.
Contacting me
Please don't contact me via email or PM unless you are a contestant. If you have questions and aren't just use the threads.
My email is wizardwatson at gmail dot com
************************************************** *************
CONTEST QUESTION:
"The idea that prompted this contest is related to a strategy for improving social conditions by promoting transparency and intelligent participation in government. The target audience for this idea are those individuals who express interest in promoting a social order that is made up of individuals who through nonviolent means inhibit and diminish the propagation of organized deception and aggression. What are your thoughts on such a society and what strategies do you see as being a means to bring people closer to it? How does your personal philosophy or spirituality and your technical and theoretical knowledge factor into your action towards these goals? Do you have any specific opinion on the strategy that prompted this contest? What is your opinion on the goals of the movement you see yourself or others as being part of?"
************************************************** *************
Updates to rules/Clarifications
[5/13/13 8:50PM US Central Time - Requirement for minimum membership length at RPF removed - see post #3 for details.]
************************************************** *************
Contest Status and Statistics
[No contestants yet]
10 day cutoff date for round 1: 5/22/13 11:00 PM Central Time US
[UPDATE 5/13/13 Contest now new poster/member friendly. Rule requiring minimum membership length at RPF removed. See post #3 for details.]
This is the $100 Candy Corn Clouds RPF Discussion contest thread.
The contest is based on this thread and it's assumed that you have read it or will read it before submitting your round 1 answer:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?414225-Candy-Corn-Clouds
The contest is open to 14 contestants. In order to participate you must be an RPF member. with a start date in 2011 or before with a post count of at least 500 or be entered by an RPF member that meets those criteria. Each RPF that meets the criteria can only enter themselves or 1 non-qualifying member.
To enter simply post to this thread the text "I want to enter the Candy Corn Clouds contest". For nominating you must post "I want [username] entered into the Candy Corn Clouds contest" and then the nominee must post the former text themselves to enter. Entry is on a first post first served basis. Once declared and once I have acknowledged the declaration via a post in this thread you are entered and have three days from my acknowledgement time to submit your first round answer to the contest question (below in blue).
The contest will be 3 rounds and each answer/response must be between 1000 and 5000 words. After each round a public RPF vote will be held to eliminate contestants. Round 2 will only have 9 people and round 3 will only have 6 people. The final vote will eliminate all but one contestant with any ties determined by myself. The winner will receive $100.
The format is you answer the question then I give a response. In round 2 you respond to my response and again for round 3. However the vote will take place 1 day after I receive all responses so I may not have responded to all contestants at the time of voting. And I may not respond to your response before the beginning of the next round in which case you can respond to others responses or my response to others responses or simply elaborate on your original answer. It takes time to respond to everyone but in the interest of time I will conduct the voting even if I haven't responded to everyone.
When the voting threads are created I will compile all the responses into a single document for the voters to read (and the plan is to update the document as I receive them even before the voting). There is no specific criteria for voting and contestants can also vote. It will be a simple "which contestant(s) do you want to eliminate" vote.
Round 1:
The contest is open to 14 people who have three days from entry to answer. If they don't make the deadline the contest will start with as few as 12 people. If less than 12 people submit answers the entry process will continue until 12 people do submit answers or until 10 days have passed in which case the contest will continue with however many contestants there are and I will post modifications to the elimination rules if necessary. If only 1 person submits an answer in those 10 days then they will win by default but will still be required to complete rounds 2 and 3. The 3 day response rule is constrained in the first round by the 10 day cutoff. If only 8 contestants are registered and on day 9 someone enters the contest they only have 1 day to submit their answer.
The idea is that the answer submitted be in the spirit of the question and the project but there are no hard and fast rules. I do reserve the right to reject and disqualify someone's answer in round 1 if say they submit random characters or garbage, or song lyrics, or meaningless responses in which case I will disqualify them and post my reasons for doing it. For example talking about esoteric economic theory or your personal struggle with figuring out what the meaning of life is might be fine but submitting a poem about garden snakes might disqualify your answer. This condition only applies to round 1 though. As long as you meet the word limit range for rounds 2 and 3 your response will be counted as qualifying.
Round 1 Vote
A public RPF vote will be held in a separate thread where contestants will be eliminated until there is only 9. The vote will be for 48 hours. A document will be linked from the thread that compiles all responses for the voters to read and my responses if any.
Round 2
After the closing of the Round 1 vote the remaining contestants will have 3 days to submit their round 2 response. As long as the response meets the word count range the response will be qualified.
Round 2 voting
Same as round 1 voting except contestants will be eliminated until only 6 remain
Round 3
Same as round 2. Contestants have 3 days to submit response before final vote.
Final vote
After round 3 responses are submitted a final vote will take place that chooses only 1 contestant as winner and they will receive the $100.
How submitting responses and answer works
After entry is confirmed you need to email me your response and pm me from your RPF count that you have done so and put in some kind of random code that let's me know who sent the email as your username may not be related to your email and someone may submit a response on your behalf. I will link the response compilation for each round in a public web document as soon as I can after receiving them. I will put that document address in this post. You can post your answer/responses in this thread if you wish (thought readers might have trouble finding it depending on thread length) but I will try to update the public document as I receive them which as I said will be linked in this original post.
Dates and times
I will email you and PM you the cutoff dates/times for each vote and for when the round submission is due. I will also post these in this post.
The plan is to conduct the vote 1 day after receiving all the submissions and for each vote to last 48 hours. I will post the cutoff date for the next round submissions right after the vote closes. I will notify the contestants whether they were eliminated or not and the cutoff date via email and PM.
Receiving the money
I want the transmission of the money to be public so the winner needs to publish a crowd-funding page via gofundme.com which means they need a paypal account. I plan to transfer the $100 via paypal into the fund within 3 days of the final vote. If you win you can waive receiving the money. If you don't create the crowd-funding within 15 days I'm not going to pay it out unless I agree to some alternate method for paying you that can be verified by the other contestants. I don't want a situation where the other contestants and voters think that I've lied about paying out the money.
Questions
Please ask general questions in the thread linked above and keep this thread clean for entries and for answers/responses. For specific rule questions you can use this thread.
Hopefully it's fairly clear and again, general questions "about" the contest should be asked in above thread. Specific rule clarifications and questions can be asked in this thread.
Statistics and status of contest
I will update this thread with who has entered, the status of each contest, vote dates and results, etc. in this post.
My availability
I'm not online 24/7 so give me time to respond to email or this thread and the one linked above.
Contacting me
Please don't contact me via email or PM unless you are a contestant. If you have questions and aren't just use the threads.
My email is wizardwatson at gmail dot com
************************************************** *************
CONTEST QUESTION:
"The idea that prompted this contest is related to a strategy for improving social conditions by promoting transparency and intelligent participation in government. The target audience for this idea are those individuals who express interest in promoting a social order that is made up of individuals who through nonviolent means inhibit and diminish the propagation of organized deception and aggression. What are your thoughts on such a society and what strategies do you see as being a means to bring people closer to it? How does your personal philosophy or spirituality and your technical and theoretical knowledge factor into your action towards these goals? Do you have any specific opinion on the strategy that prompted this contest? What is your opinion on the goals of the movement you see yourself or others as being part of?"
************************************************** *************
Updates to rules/Clarifications
[5/13/13 8:50PM US Central Time - Requirement for minimum membership length at RPF removed - see post #3 for details.]
************************************************** *************
Contest Status and Statistics
[No contestants yet]
10 day cutoff date for round 1: 5/22/13 11:00 PM Central Time US