by Quu » Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:14 pm
i was mainly trying to get feedback...
personally I like to work backwards... i look at when i need to have certain information or files then figure out how long it takes, when things go wrong, to get it. So if i need the files by the 14th, i will normally set the deadline to the 7th, to give me 7 days to prep everything. Now... due to my new submission system, i am actually prepping and managing the files as they are revived... so i am finding that i need maybe 30 minutes to prep a contest... the delays and problems have all been on the creators side... such as encoding problems or broken files.
The pro contest deadline slipped so much this year because we were not sure how much time we would need for prep (new system) and expected the worst. as the deadline approached, we found we did not need as much time, so kept moving it back. I felt bad that we moved it so often, but strangely i got so much positive feedback every time it moved, so i was confused.
Pro is weird though... the time dependency for pro is knowing the final categories so the trophies can be ordered (end of phase 1)... so i find out that deadline, then create the due date based on how long i need for people to download the files and then create the categories (I guess one week each). After the trophies deadline i have this large swath of time until the convention, so that is why phase 2 and 3 have the longest phases. I only need 30 minutes once the final voting is over to review the results and generate the final report. I end the contest the Monday before the convention... mainly just because that tends to be the least busy day of the week for me... i could end it Friday night of the convention... but i am normally to busy then.
Lead me not to temptation, for I have deadlines