Pre-may Crunching competition brainstorm thread

[KieX]

After some discussion on the WCG Team thread, I've opened this thread so that we can have all the ideas put together in one place.

The idea is to create a competion that will take place or end in May to try and recruit new members. Below I will try and keep it simple:

The Purpose
Many of us are already doing a good job crunching for the TPU team. And we are still seeing new members join every day making it much stronger. It is these new people that are a real valuable asset to our Team. The purpose of this (to be) competition is to welcome many more members!

Prizes
To start with I will put my Q8400 rig (MB+CPU+RAM) combo into the pot as I will be retireing it for an i7 cruncher. It's power efficient so good for anyone starting out. Anyone else who has stuff to spare or willing to donate, please bring forward your stuff. Imagine this as an exotic version of "crunchers helping crunchers" for now.

Rules
To be determined by this thread!
For now the intention is to make this a fair competition so that everyone who joins has a chance, and we can weed out anyone traying to take advantage.

I will change/edit the OP as we start finalizing things, so post away! Let's make this work! :toast:

[KieX]

Sorry for double post, but for the sake of compiling previous posts that I want to gather here but not part of the OP:

Maybe if someone where to win a contest of this type would have to put up a certain number of units/points. The machine would be tagged with a name so that "we" (all of us) can monitor its progress. Once it reaches the number/unit it could then be used in any way the owner wants.

A realy cool contest would be one that actually recruits new crunchers to the team.That would also level out the playing field of computing horsepower so no one would have an advantage at all.And give the chance to win to any member.:)

we could make it a lottery, for which to be in, you need a certain,fixed amount of points, in a fixed amount of time. from there on, the fortune will chose the winner,randomly (wasnt it like that during the wcg/fah contest?)

i think there should be like 1st 2nd and 3rd places, depending on how much people are donating

so there wont be 1 person taking the whole pot, but thats just me

and imma join it anyways, dont really care about winning anything

The last contest spanned 90 days (IIRC) that way even if you just joined for the contest you at least contributed a good amount to the team. Its going to be impossible to 'make' the winner continue to crunch unless the winner is one of our long term dedicated members.

We could announce a "closing date" giving new people time to get in and set up to run. Then close the door during the competition.

I agree with KieX, it needs to be planed and carefully thought out. You will have a big influx of people from who knows where when it goes public. We need to make sure all the loopholes are closed. It would just be a matter of time before someone found a "backdoor' to cheat the system.

It's unfortunate but it is true we can't force someone to crunch. Nor should we resort to that. The real pain is the thought that if we did achieve to get say 50 new members to the team, that 49 truly dedicated people may loose a prize to 1 person who only wanted to take the pot. And being fair is important.

Another thing I am considering is the possibility that maybe a true dedicated future cruncher may be impeded by monetary issues. A purely points based competition would favor those with the resources/money rather than those dedicated. After all it's those who will make the biggest difference to a team, not just the points.


EDIT: Here is a link to a previous competition (thanks to theonedub)
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=105629&highlight=WCG+Contest

[RAMMIE]

Make it short 30-60 days.
New crunchers only.
1 Rig only
After ya'll agree on criteria,points,run time whatever,let the best rig win.You won't have to worry about farmers and someone with Gulftown won't bother to win a Q8400.

A couple of new crunchers is a win!

[Paulieg]

This is good timing. I was getting ready to ask for suggestion for a new competition.

Make it short 30-60 days.
New crunchers only.
1 Rig only
After ya'll agree on criteria,points,run time whatever,let the best rig win.You won't have to worry about farmers and someone with Gulftown won't bother to win a Q8400.

A couple of new crunchers is a win!

Only problem with this is that it will rule out members with weaker rigs.

[theonedub]

Lottery is the way to go so we don't exclude anyone, like Paul mentioned.

[RAMMIE]

60 days running will show enough dedication.The goal is to recruit some long term members. 99.99 % of people who try any DC project give up before one week.One or two new permanent members of TPU WCG is a win.

[AlienIsGOD]

I would hope we can get more than 1 or 2 members out of a contest like this :) 20k credit and above monthly would be huge if we could double digit members from the contest.

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

how do i crunch?

i suggest a minimum level of cruching, i dunno whats a fair number though

[Paulieg]

60 days running will show enough dedication.The goal is to recruit some long term members. 99.99 % of people who try any DC project give up before one week.One or two new permanent members of TPU WCG is a win.

I do agree with Rammie on it being a brief competition. I almost think that it should be a 30 day competition. We may get more people to try it if they don't think they are in for a long term commitment.

Sneekypeet PM'd me a great suggestion. We should have different requirements for different platforms (1366, Phenom II etc.). The winners from each platform then goes into a lottery for the prize.Thoughts?

[AlienIsGOD]

@ Paulieg... If we have different platform segments then we could maybe have more donations peice to hand out for each category? might encourage more ppl if there was more than one prize; doesnt even have to be another rig could be a single piece of hardware, with a lottery for the Q8400.

[blkhogan]

I like peet/Paulie's idea. I would donate some hardware or cash to a respected TPU members paypal. What about a couple different classes, the winner of the respective class gets a smaller prize, like a good psu or a decent gfx? Then those winners are put into a drawing for the big prize.
edit:
sorry my punctuation is god awful today.

[KieX]

I'd firstly like to thank everyone who's answered so far.

As RAMMIE and Paulieg have mentioned, 30 day or 60 day is a good run-time for the competition. It will definitely keep the crunchers staying and the unconvinced turning away. So at the very least this way we should have new dedicated members, which is the aim. So this could be the first confirmed rule, if we decide on 30 or 60 days.

With prizes, the extent of the categories or different competitions will be determined utlitmately by the number of prizes. I am happy to put my Q8400 rig as a whole or in parts, but to really encourage newcomers we need more parts people are able to donate. Certainly would make a big difference I'm guessing. So I would politely ask that in the run up to confirming this people bring stuff forward.

My only concern with the way the competition is run is that we try and be as fair as possible to as many as possible. We could have a points based competition for those with good rigs. And we could have other sub competitions that are lottery based for those who can't donate as much (such as those crunching when idle only). Let's not forget everyone counts. What you guys think?

[blkhogan]

How about something like this:
Group 1 - New joins (best point total for the given time)
Group 2 - Most points produced in the given time.
Sub Group 2 -
Intel x2 (includes i3 & i5)
AMD x2
AMD x3
AMD x4
Intel i7
Then the winners of those groups go into a "lottery" for KieX mobo/memory/CPU.
The individual winners would win a new 500GB HDD.

[hat]

I think it should be like the contest we recently had where you had to be an already existing member of the TPU forums (iirc) so we don't get a shitstorm of new recruits coming in just for a crack at the prize at the time of the contest creation date, and having the people in the top 10 of the team excluded (god bless thier souls for giving so much, but obviously they already have enough circuitry under thier thumbs if they're in the top 10...).

[Delta6326]

60 days running will show enough dedication.The goal is to recruit some long term members. 99.99 % of people who try any DC project give up before one week.One or two new permanent members of TPU WCG is a win.

very true i tried crunching but i just got board of it maybe if there was a game involved i got up to 7k in like 4days

[theonedub]

Sneekypeet PM'd me a great suggestion. We should have different requirements for different platforms (1366, Phenom II etc.). The winners from each platform then goes into a lottery for the prize.Thoughts?

That sounds like a great idea. I would love for the contest structure and rules to be ironed out as quickly as possible so I can plan ahead and see if I can arrange to donate some hardware prizes :D

[KieX]

Just a heads up! Paulieg had already planned on starting a competition, so we're ironing out the specifics through PM and looks as though we may combine the two. I'll update this thread as soon as more info is finalized.

For now, looks like we can say the competition would run from first of April to first May.

[neoreif]

Just a heads up! Paulieg had already planned on starting a competition, so we're ironing out the specifics through PM and looks as though we may combine the two. I'll update this thread as soon as more info is finalized.

For now, looks like we can say the competition would run from first of April to first May.

Hmmmm? a competition? This is NICE! And oh, I'm a new cruncher! Can I join????:D
Kidding aside, hope this turns out more crunchers! Hope it starts soon!:toast:

[dhoshaw]

Contests can be a great way to entice new people to start crunching; I got sucked in last year for a contest and now I'm approaching the 1 mil mark.

I don't think we should require that contestants already me members of the TPU team before the contest starts; we could gain quite a few members from word of mouth after the contest begins. In fact, Maybe the contest run 60 days and the rules require everyone to crunch at least the last 30 days to qualify.

[XZero450]

I think it should be like the contest we recently had where you had to be an already existing member of the TPU forums (iirc) so we don't get a shitstorm of new recruits coming in just for a crack at the prize at the time of the contest creation date, and having the people in the top 10 of the team excluded (god bless thier souls for giving so much, but obviously they already have enough circuitry under thier thumbs if they're in the top 10...).

The important thing is that we get machines crunching, is it not? If WCG gets 30k points from systems it wouldn't normally get those points from, that's 30k points it doesn't have to wait for current crunchers to do.

Anyway, I'm all for a contest. Even for a minimum points/time setup. Since the idea of 30-day and 60 periods have thrown about, how about meeting in the middle at 45-day(finishing the end of May)?

[KieX]

How about something like this:
Group 1 - New joins (best point total for the given time)
Group 2 - Most points produced in the given time.
Sub Group 2 -
Intel x2 (includes i3 & i5)
AMD x2
AMD x3
AMD x4
Intel i7
Then the winners of those groups go into a "lottery" for KieX mobo/memory/CPU.
The individual winners would win a new 500GB HDD.

I've been thinking about this model. For it to not be exploited the only solution I could come up with is having a rule that states each member only gets 1 entry into the prize draw. And if same person wins Group 1 & 2, they are deemed to win the first. (So that Group 2 remains a truly fair chance contest).

If there are no objections I propose this be the approved format for now :toast:

[blkhogan]

Also we could have the people that are going to be in the contest "tag" their rig that is going to be in the running. once they "tag" their rig, that is the group they will be in the running for.

[mjkmike]

The reason for the contest should be the contest. Have a contest to see who can recruit the most new members. Every new recruit credits the person who recruited them somehow and must crunch a certain amount. Win, Win.

[KieX]

Also we could have the people that are going to be in the contest "tag" their rig that is going to be in the running. once they "tag" their rig, that is the group they will be in the running for.

Not entirely convinced on this idea, lol. It would "restrict" the ability for people with more than one computer to join. So you limit the number of points this contest could bring, as well as giving those with an i7 a better chance to win either Group1 or their Group2 subgroup. Hope that makes sense.

The reason for the contest should be the contest. Have a contest to see who can recruit the most new members. Every new recruit credits the person who recruited them somehow and must crunch a certain amount. Win, Win.

It's good idea although I think it may not be suited to this contest in particular. New recruits is definitely the aim. But by crediting a recruiter it would be more about about a person's social networking abilities rather than the work done by each new member.

Sorry I'm not trying to be dismissive of anyone's posts, just trying to make everything as watertight as possible. I'm a little tired so correct me if I'm being sloppy :slap:

[mjkmike]

I think you have a good point. It was just something I thought I should share and see what everyone thought about it.

[blkhogan]

Not entirely convinced on this idea, lol. It would "restrict" the ability for people with more than one computer to join. So you limit the number of points this contest could bring, as well as giving those with an i7 a better chance to win either Group1 or their Group2 subgroup. Hope that makes sense.



It's good idea although I think it may not be suited to this contest in particular. New recruits is definitely the aim. But by crediting a recruiter it would be more about about a person's social networking abilities rather than the work done by each new member.

Sorry I'm not trying to be dismissive of anyone's posts, just trying to make everything as watertight as possible. I'm a little tired so correct me if I'm being sloppy :slap:
Its just a brainstorm, its ok. :toast:

[xrealm20]

--- Instead of awarding prizes on PPD, why not set a baseline qualifier total points number and have a random drawing out of those people who hit the baseline.

Like --- Tier 1 would be X,XXX,XXX points and you would get your name in the drawing for X prize
Tier 2 would be XX,XXX,XXX points and you would get your name in the drawing for a nicer prize

Etc...

that way you aren't awarding prizes to people just by how many computers or what type of CPU's they are running.