A question about contest deadlines

[l33tmeatwad]

Personally I think it's best to have a build in soft deadline that CAN be used, not one that WILL be used, that way it's taken more seriously. By that I mean, only use it if you are short on entrants, not if people beg you.

[Quu]

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.

[ngsilver]

Generally, I prefer a hard deadline with some leeway afterwards for fixing errors. Generally, when I build my deadline I take into count the expected number of entries and the time it will take my judges to judge said entries. I then look into time to build other things related to the contest and decide how early I need the videos. Generally I find this is 1 month before the con. I allow for upwards of 1 week after for fixing errors. However, I also allow for large file uploads which takes time, so I add in a buffer for FTP entries. Hence, I set the deadline for a Friday, I allow a buffer through Sunday for FTP.

In a way I suppose this is a soft deadline, but it requires that users submitting FTP to essentially commit to which videos they send in before they can send it, rather then allowing and editor to come up with an idea during the final upload time.

While I appreciate a little extra time if I'm close to the deadline, I still prefer the deadline to be hard as it gives me a real goal for finishing my vid(s) in time. As a coordinator I also prefer hard deadlines, as they allow for a rigid cut off.

Make any sense?

[Vlad G Pohnert]

I like hard deadlines myself and used thos for contests I run. The only time I feel an extension is nessesary is if you lack in the amount ot entires (or in the case of categories, in one category).

As for how long, I think as mentioend that 1 month is usually pretty good considering all the factors such as judging, fixing and preping. It also depends on your judging methodology as if you have to have peopel DL and time to watch, then you might need more time

Vlad

[TritioAFB]

I'm planning to organize my own con soon so thanks for the advices guys.