A question about contest deadlines

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A question about contest deadlines

Postby Quu » Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:39 pm

I have an honest question about contest deadlines...

Let say there is a contest FooBar... and to prep the videos for the contest, all of the videos have to be received by April 1st. Internal judging would start April 2nd, so that means that the April 1st deadline would be true deadline, nothing could be pushed back.

would it be better to publish a due date of March 18th (two weeks before the real due date) and just extend the deadline by a week twice... or publish an April 1st deadline and never push things back.

In my experience you always have people who don't finish in time... and just want a few more days... no matter when you set the deadline. The same editors who love the deadline push backs and finish their videos on time because of them would not have finished if the deadline had originally been set to the final one all along. But that also punishes people who edit on time and make it on the original deadline.

and then there is the case of a contest coordinator liking a bit of a buffer to deal with any videos that have issues.
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby TritioAFB » Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:54 pm

Lots of editors like to work under pressure. It´s like when we realize that we have more than a month of deadline, at my case I start editing 8 seconds per day, different than when it´s almost time for the deadline that I even reach 1 minute per day. Unless you don´t have enough entries it will be a good idea to start posting something like 4 weeks to go before deadline
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby Fall_Child42 » Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:47 pm

You could just tell the people that.

If you are straight with people they'll either get it to you by the dead line or tough.

But remember to include the reasons as you have here as to WHY the deadline cannot be extended.
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby Quu » Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:54 pm

TritioAFB wrote:Lots of editors like to work under pressure. It´s like when we realize that we have more than a month of deadline, at my case I start editing 8 seconds per day, different than when it´s almost time for the deadline that I even reach 1 minute per day. Unless you don´t have enough entries it will be a good idea to start posting something like 4 weeks to go before deadline


i guess i was asking more about setting the deadline... should a contest coordinator set the deadline to what is absolutely the latest, or should they set it sooner, and push it back if possible?
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby kireblue » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:14 pm

I think that you should set a deadline exactly 7 days before the absolute latest day that you can accept entries. If you don't have enough entries about a week before the initial deadline, or if you have a large number of people expressing concerns about not finishing in time, them you should extend the deadline by 5 days. This will give you 2 days to sort out any unpredictable and random problems that may come up.

Example: Set the deadline for March 7th even though you don't plan on judging till March 14th. If you see the need for an extension on or after March 1st, then extend it till March 12th. And to be fair to everyone, I think that March 5th should be the absolute last day to announce an extension. If you wait till March 7th, then the people that rushed to finish their videos might get upset.
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby Shin-AMV » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:15 pm

I think for contests that require exclusive premiere type stuff, then its nice to have a little bit of flexibility in the deadline. So I would set it a week or two earlier and just push it back if it seems like enough people need some more time. If its a non-exclusive type contest, then tough beans.
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby Warlike Swans » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:22 pm

I say you should give yourself a grace period but not push a deadline back unless there is a truly compelling reason (like a hurricane knocking out power in a region that many of the local editors are from). A grace period could also allow corrections to videos that would otherwise be DQ.
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby TritioAFB » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:27 pm

Quu wrote:should a contest coordinator set the deadline to what is absolutely the latest, or should they set it sooner, and push it back if possible?


If I were coordinator, set it sooner will be my option, but I´ll have to consider also several facts like how big is my team for reencoding files, or if I´m the only guy doing the job, if there are other contests deadlines near mine that might affect my editors, how much time I got for doing everything, if the fest, event coordinator gives me the chance of extending the deadline, etc. Also affects the fact that how famous is the contest.

Normally I read all about the contest deadlines. If the coordinator has already set an ultimate deadline, then I´ll have to deal with it. But since I´m curious I end asking the coordinator about reasons why the deadline can´t be extended. Reason I find common: 1-2 day will be the prejudging and next day is the contest
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby CodeZTM » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:31 pm

I've never really been a pressure editor [I usually enter as soon as they get revealed], but I think it's nice if there is a one-two day grace period for late uploading.
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby Zarxrax » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:44 pm

If a procrastinator KNOWS that a deadline will be extended, then he simply wont take the initial deadline seriously :p
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby Pwolf » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:03 pm

Zarxrax wrote:If a procrastinator KNOWS that a deadline will be extended, then he simply wont take the initial deadline seriously :p


Everyone knows most contests will allow you to send the form in by the deadline but give you a grace period to upload it via ftp (at least the ones that offer that). I think more times then not, people are still editing their videos during that upload grace period.

Personally, if the deadline is on a specific date, the video and any other information should be in my hands by that date, no ifs or buts. Only exceptions would be if a video had been watched and there was a playback error. I would probably allow a few days of leeway. So basically... the judging is on April 2nd, I would give a submission date of march 18th. For any videos that had issues during initial QA, i would allow them until the 20th or 21st to upload a new video.

That's just me though, I'm kind of a hardass when it comes to these things.
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby Koopiskeva » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:01 pm

Say 'no deadline' but then a week or two before the contest announce.. "Surprise! Deadline is today! No exceptions! Wheeeeee..!"
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby ZephyrStar » Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:04 pm

Two weeks is a little much I think, but if I were running a contest I would build a week in at the end. Mainly this would be for those people who might have just made it under the wire, but more importantly for the people who actually DID meet the original deadline but then are able to go "oh hey, a week to fix that stuff I didn't like about my vid!" Bumps up the quality.
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby Mr Pilkington » Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:16 pm

If *I* were to run a contest it would be all deadline between Aug 1st and Oct 26th, TBA. The randomly on a Thursday at 3am be like "HOLY CRAP YOU ALL HAVE 15 MINS TO SEND AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE." Winner take all.

Guerrilla deadlines FTW
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Re: A question about contest deadlines

Postby BasharOfTheAges » Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:50 pm

I've intended to build in buffers for the past two years in my contests, but I end up releasing the rules (and therefore the deadline) before I know for sure what I have for prescreener availability. When the majority of your people that help prescreen work retail and therefore don't know their schedule 3 weeks in advance, let alone 3 months, it's kinda tough unless you want to set artificial deadlines a month out.

As zarx said, once they know it's artificial, you won't fool them again, and you're hurting the other contests that just simply won't get entries because you and others like you trained the submitting pool to always expect deadlines to be soft. In that vein, my advice is to not be a part of the problem by enabling.
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