A question about contest deadlines

[Quu]

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.

[TritioAFB]

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

[Fall_Child42]

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.

[Quu]

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?

[Kireblue]

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.

[Shin-AMV]

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.

[Warlike Swans]

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.

[TritioAFB]

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

[CodeZTM]

I've never really been a pressure editor , but I think it's nice if there is a one-two day grace period for late uploading.

[Zarxrax]

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