Talk:Event E2/Proposal Astrolabe

FORUM ANNOUNCEMENT: Puzzle Tutorial Contest

REQUEST TO READERS
If you see something unclear in the contest description, or know of a good link (to a collection of existing tutorials, a video editing program, a public storage site etc), could you please note it below so that I can add/change/update/improve the contest description please? Mucho thanks... --Astrolabe1 20:25, 21 February 2006 (PST)

Squashbuckle's Comments
Just so ye know, there is no need for OM assistance if you want to post winning entries into the Wiki. Anyone can update the wiki.

But you may want to be careful about updating the wiki with new puzzle tutorials. Some of the puzzles have pretty good ones already, because of the collaborative nature of the wiki. (I did a pretty big edit to the carp one a while ago, and it was pretty good even before I got to it to add a few more expert tips.) --Squashbuckle 23:09, 3 February 2006 (PST)


 * Reply: True -- I was thinking more of OM assistance if it were to get integrated into forums... I should have said it that way. (I've fixed that in the proposal now). One trick is finding hosting space if people do movie clips... those can get a little big for some of the more convenient free sites if you have several.


 * I agree that there's lots of good stuff in the wiki & forums. But there tends to be good stuff scattered about... an additional incentive to people to pull it together as well as to add to it might not be a bad thing.


 * What I'd really like to see is more video clips & illustrations -- I've prepared some on the bnav tutorial I'm working on, and it helps a lot. Personally I'd love to see some for other puzzles... but, from my experience on bnav, it's a TON of work to do an illustrated guide well and thorougly. An event/contest seems a good way to inspire people to take that time w/ their best puzzle(s)... or so I'm hoping.


 * But, naturally, the public information in the wiki will be available for contestants to use, and they'll have to substantively add to it if they hope to win.

Questions from Muroni
First of all, I love this idea, and I intend to compete! Are pirates limited to one entry, one entry per category, one entry per puzzle, or no limitations on entries at all? 
 * Reply: My thought was to make it one entry per puzzle per pirate. If someone is good at several puzzles, I don't see any reason that they shouldn't be allowed to submit guides for each of them: after all, the real goal of this event will be to create a resource to help all the pirates on all the oceans, so the more material the better!
 * My hope is that the winning entries will be of sufficient quality so as to require a fair amount of time to produce, so that it won't be realistic to attempt more than 2-3 and still hope to win. Still, it would be fair to prevent some pirate from "sweeping" the contest -- perhaps there should be some limits on multiple wins: e.g. only one entry from a single pirate may be in the top three or something like that. This would be a good issue for the Workshop stage. -Astrolabe (known on forums as Astrolabe1)

Are pirates permitted to use tutorials they may have already created, either on the public forum or private crew/flag forums?
 * Reply: One of the criteria for judging is that the entries should add to what is currently publicly available. An existing public tutorial, if entered, wouldn't add to public knowledge. A "private" one -- e.g. a private crew/forum tutorial made public -- would.
 * I think it would be appropriate, too, for entries to acknowledge their sources. Perhaps each entry should be required to have an annotated "links" section at the end showing all the other tutorials they consulted? Some of these are, of course, already gathered in the 'pedia and the forums -- but I know there are other ones, and a good entry would find, use, and list those.
 * Winners in the event won't be those who are merely good at the puzzles (they already win the competitions), but those who are good at researching, understanding, and teaching the puzzles. -Astrolabe

I'd like more information on the criteria you'll be using to judge. Are you looking more for ease of use and clear concise directions, or more for thoroughness, etc. --Muroni 06:12, 8 February 2006 (PST)
 * Reply: Both. Winning entries will be those which both present a clear and comprehensible introduction to basic strategy for greenies, AND also insights, tips and examples to benefit more experienced players as well.
 * What I especially hope to see is short video clips of "sample sessions" -- I've found the most useful tutorials are those which give examples of the techniques "in action"... e.g. that CC-12 video for distilling that's around somewhere. I'm using multiple video clips in the bnav tutorial I'm designing for my crew, and it makes all the difference.
 * If this event is a finalist and gets run, I'll make up a "submission guide" to help standardize contributions and give ideas/links/insights. -Astrolabe

From the desk of Artemis
Prizes: Fancy ribbons would do very nicely for the top prizes and regular ribbons for a runner up or two, you can add in your own personalized inscription to match the event. There are also plenty of furniture items which go with some of the puzzles which you could use for runner ups. I'd also suggest a big prize for the overall best, I'm not sure what you might want, nothing really springs to mind as being very suitable.

Assistance: I'm not sure how much assistance we can be, to be honest, we don't really have anything available to help with hosting of video files. As for putting new content into the forums or wiki, I'd refer you to the Librarians!

Thoughts: Looks like you have things pretty well thought out here, make sure you have your judging criteria down beforehand so you and your judges are judging it based on the same things.
 * Reply: yes, I plan to have both a submission & judging guide.

To save you time in judging you might want to have the actual contestants list any previous tutorial attempts and justify why theirs is better, just as you were required to show how your event was unique or different from previous ones!
 * Reply: agreed; I think I'll go ahead with my idea for a "links" requirement, as mentioned above.

I really really dislike having entrance fees, especially for forum events because it's clumsy trying to collect it from everyone and really not necessary. The goal of the event is to help others, if you can't get enough donations, let me know.

You probably have some room for expansion with your D category, I can think of a few different things that could also fit there, shoppes? Do you want to leave an open category as well, if somoene wants to come up with their own new idea/subject for a tutorial?
 * Reply: yes, shops would be great. Perhaps D can be "lead a pillage", "stalls", "bnav", and "miscellanea". While my intention was that the main focus be on puzzles, these other game-play elements such as stalls would also benefit from consolidated/expanded hints and (I think) be of great benefit to the whole community. I'll probably put up my own in-progress bnav tutorial at the same time as the entries go up, though it will, of course, be inelligible for any prizes.

I'm commenting so that you know I've looked at it, but I don't really have much to say unless you have specific questions. It looks fairly straightforward. I like the idea that they need to list previous tutorials - although really you could link to the current wiki pages, which contain previous tutorial links, in your event post. Good luck with it! --Crystal 15:50, 16 February 2006 (PST)

TO the desk of Artemis
(I'm told better to post here than via mail...)

I've got some questions about awards. I'm sure this is all fairly straight-forward, as obviously it's been done before for other contests -- I just haven't done it myself and so need a quick bringing-up-to-speed on Event protocol....

(1) You say a big prize for the winner would be appropriate. Sounds good to me -- would attract more entries and so help the whole YPP community more. Would the OMs be willing to grant a familiar for this? I'd love to see a *helper* not a *beat-you-up-er* get a familiar for a change. :-)
 * At this point lets keep it to a pig or turtle, I will promise to review this again next week and let you know for sure one way or another whether I think a familiar would be approrpiate. --Artemis 17:39, 21 February 2006 (PST)

(2) I can raise -- and am actively working on it -- POE on Viridian, where my pirate lives. But winners could come from any ocean. How do the OMs handle such a situation? Do I cash in Viridian poe for other ocean poe as appropriate?
 * I always prefer giving out items instead of poe, but I'll match what you come up with on Viridian on the other oceans. --Artemis 17:39, 21 February 2006 (PST)

(3) Appropriate furniture/ship/etc would be great for prizes 1-3 as well, especially if they could be coordinated to the type of puzzle entered. (E.g. a 3rd place SF tutorial getting a suit of armor). But, of course, there won't be enough time between judging and awarding to *make* the furniture, especially with the different-ocean issue. Can the OMs create ex nihilo items on the different oceans? (Even if paid for via poe from a different ocean -- see above)?
 * Additionally, please have the entries submit pirate and ocean names of where they'd like any prizes received, this'll help simplify matters near the end! To be honest, we are moving away from awarding furniture as prizes because of the difficulties in trading it around, someone has to be online to receive it, whereas trinkets can be left in display cases, etc.  We're also working on a better way of distributing prizes for this exact situation, so I'm going to hold off a bit on discussing and finalizing how prizes will be distributed because I'd like to see if we can get that finished first.  --Artemis 17:39, 21 February 2006 (PST)

(4) How would the prize awarding go? Would I create a pirate on the different oceans (easy enough) to hook up with someone to receive the trinkets and other prizes (donated or purchased), inscribe them, and then hook up with the winners to hand them out?
 * See above, I got ahead of myself!--Artemis 17:39, 21 February 2006 (PST)

--Astrolabe1 21:56, 20 February 2006 (PST)

Crystal's answers, rather than Artemis'!

(1) I suspect that Artemis didn't mean a familiar. I was wondering about an animal (a sleeping pig, piglet, turtle or tortoise). Those seem popular. Or there are some rare furniture pieces that sometimes come up. Something unusual, but I suspect probably not a familiar.
 * Reply: That works too -- just as long as there could be something suitably rare and impressive for the 1st place winner -- both to drum up more interest, and because the winning entry will probably reflect a great deal of work. How & by when might this possibility be confirmed?

(2) What they've done for previous events is to underwrite the prizes for any ocean for the situation where we can't provide them. It's always good for forum events to be open to all oceans. With my current event, people in the flag have been generous with their alts, and I think I'll be able to cover any prizes without using the OM underwriting, but it's a reassurance to have it there. I wouldn't envisage any problem with them agreeing to match prizes on other oceans, but have a go at raising some yourself as well - you may find you have flagmates or hearties willing to contribute some on other oceans if it's needed. Remember to acknowledge whoever helps you with prizes at the end!
 * Reply: Absolutely will acknowledge. I can understand if the OMs don't want to "create" wealth, but I'll be able to get a lot more on Viridian than elsewhere. Thus I wondered if the "moved" (albeit metaphorically) poe or items from ocean to ocean (to at least partially preserve the economics.

(3) This has also been done in the past, so shouldn't be a problem. It is nice to have custom prizes.
 * Reply: So the OMs _can_ wave a wand and whip up an item? That would certainly facilitate matters. Again -- how & by when might this be confirmed? I'd like to be able to put something more definite in the prize section of the proposal/announcement.

(4) Typically, if you're willing to distribute the prizes, it's a case of meeting with the OM dealing with your event and them handing the prizes over for you to find the prizewinners. The OM can probably do the inscription, as you'll know the winners by that point. So, yes, create a new pirate if necessary for the prizes. Arrange a meeting time by PM, btw, because it can sometimes take ages to meet otherwise, particularly if you don't play much on an ocean! --Crystal 01:57, 21 February 2006 (PST)

Query -- SILLY ENTRIES??
Should there be a "goofiest tutorial" or "worst tutorial" prize, for silly entries (e.g. "How to pick up a girl/boy-friend in YPP"), or should this contest be kept serious?

My instinct says this would change the nature of the contest significantly. I think I wouldn't go here for this contest. Might make an interesting contest to itself though. --Hawkings 11:00am, 21 February 2006 (PST)
 * Reply: perhaps an honorable mention without prize just for fun, if a bunch of goofy entries do happen to get submitted -- but no formal call for goofiness?

My gut instinct says that you'd be causing trouble for yourself if you do this, and that you should keep it serious. Having said that, I could see a very useful social puzzle tutorial getting in there somehow! But if there's any hint of a prize for nonsense, then you'll get a lot of nonsense. *grins* --Crystal 15:09, 21 February 2006 (PST)

Agreed, it's a great idea, but as a separate event... --Artemis 17:32, 21 February 2006 (PST)

Query: ANONYMITY?
I'd like submissions to be anonymous to the judges, to prevent any temptation for favoring friends.

The most straight-forward way would seem to me to be for the entrant to make their submission in wiki format, post it as a private entry (something with a random name like Fxj850#j48), and then email me their name, pirate identity, preferred email, and site of their entry. Then I would cut-and-paste from that entry to a new one (E.g. Tutorial Contest, entry #4) so that their name wouldn't appear in the page info/history. The judges would use those anonymous entries for their evaluation.

There are a few loopholes in this, but it's certainly a quick & easy solution.

Anyone have a better idea?

There have been a few contests that have used a central email address as a clearing house. That judge would not be judging per se but would handle accepting entries and posting them to the Wiki without the submitters name attached to it. That judge would be responsible for keeping track of who submitted which entry. All the judges casting votes would then not know who's entry they were looking at. Example of this is Synful's Piratey Love Song Contest. --Hawkings 11:00am, 21 February 2006 (PST)

The possible problem with that is that we're not dealing (presumably) with plain text. It's easy enough to do with a short story or a set of song lyrics, but if someone is putting together a good-quality tutorial for the wiki, it's likely to include graphics, links, etc, and good layout is part of the skill. I suppose they could try to send in a wiki-ready document, but how likely is it all to go right first time? I think coming up with a perfectly stupid random-letter account name for the wiki, putting the tutorial in as a user page, PMing Astrolabe with their fake account name and real identity, and having Astrolabe then checking that the page is correctly linked from a central event page might be a reasonable solution. The Wikimasters could probably help setting up a category and page for it, so that entrants can be instructed to cut and paste the category code at the bottom of their entry, ensuring that it will be linked to the right page. --Crystal 15:07, 21 February 2006 (PST)

Aye, I think you're probably going to be better off letting people post their own and making sure you have judges whom you trust to be impartial. --Artemis 17:41, 21 February 2006 (PST)

Again to Artemis & Crystal
At this point lets keep it to a pig or turtle, I will promise to review this again next week and let you know for sure one way or another whether I think a familiar would be approrpiate. --Artemis 17:39, 21 February 2006 (PST)


 * Reply: I think either an animal or a familiar would be exciting enough to inspire good submissions. Heck... a big animal for 1st place and baby animal for 2nd -- or >maniacal grin< a familiar for 1st, big turtle/pig for second, and baby turtle/pig for third -- would *really* inspire submissions... but just let me know what you think is best.


 * Given that you have to post this by Friday, I think you need to write the post with the overall best prize being a sleeping animal. It can always be upgraded later, but it's never good to have to downgrade something! --Crystal 00:04, 22 February 2006 (PST)

I always prefer giving out items instead of poe, but I'll match what you come up with on Viridian on the other oceans. --Artemis 17:39, 21 February 2006
 * Reply: Excellent -- this simplifies the money-raising. THANK YOU!!! And, of course, perhaps some good souls on other oceans will see this and be willing to donate too.

We're also working on a better way of distributing prizes for this exact situation, so I'm going to hold off a bit on discussing and finalizing how prizes will be distributed because I'd like to see if we can get that finished first.
 * Reply: If it helps, I'd be happy, ahead of time, to create an alt on the other oceans and get him his starter shack. You could put a display case in that shack (for ribbons), as well as have it be a place to put a created furniture item, if that becomes necessary. I'll certainly send in, to wherever you direct, the final prize list & ocean locations of prizes, and can arrange to meet you at a specified time at the shacks on each ocean for the handing off of prizes... and then handle the tracking down and giving prizes to winners. Then I'd let you know when all done, and you could remove the shack & its display case furniture.
 * Hopefully, this would minimize your bother, as it would let you create and place the prizes in those locations at your convenience, and then need only a 5-10 minute appointment to quickly hand them off for me to distribute.


 * For trinkets etc this method is very easy and has been used before. For furniture, you have to trade. With this one, as winners could win on any ocean, either an OM will have to meet you and give you prizes on every ocean after the event (or preferably after the judging is finished but before the results are announced!) or the OMs on duty will have to handle all the prizes. Either way, there's still time to discuss. :) --Crystal 00:04, 22 February 2006 (PST)
 * Reply: I was just thinking that this would, at least, create a "holding space" for created items to be put, to minimize trade-off time. Can any OM hand over an item, or are they restrained by 'possession' flags like any other pirate character?

My gut instinct says that you'd be causing trouble for yourself if you do this, and that you should keep it serious. --Crystal 15:09, 21 February 2006 (PST)... Agreed, it's a great idea, but as a separate event --Artemis 17:32, 21 February 2006 (PST)
 * Reply: Maybe I could just do a follow-up event if I raise enough poe to have a bit left over for a "goof" prize after? Someone has already suggested the "Guide to lousy bnav" tutorial, and I'd love to see a "Guide to being an annoying greenie" or a "How to lose money in running a shop" tutorial or a "12 steps to a dysfunctional YPP relationship" guide (complete with screenshots and chatlogs)...


 * Aye. It could be very very funny. Perhaps you're right, that running an E2(b) event later is the way to manage that. --Crystal 00:04, 22 February 2006 (PST)

Aye, I think you're probably going to be better off letting people post their own and making sure you have judges whom you trust to be impartial. --Artemis 17:41, 21 February 2006 (PST)
 * Reply: While I'm sure judges will be impartial, I'd still like (if possible & convenient) to remove any suspicion of possible partiality, just to keep everything as open and honest and reliable as possible.
 * What I was thinking was that if the entrants created their "random" wiki-entry and contacted me with its identity (and their name, ocean, prize request, etc), I could then go in and cut-n-paste the entry in its entirety to the "Submitted for judging" pages. That way the judges would see only my name in the "edit history", not the contestants', but what they would be judging would be identical to what was submitted... complete with links & formatting.


 * My understanding of the wiki (and honestly, my understanding is very patchy, so I may be wrong) is that there is no need for you to cut-and-paste anything. The way categories seem to work is that if you include a particular category at the bottom of a page, it automatically adds a link on the relevant category index page. So if you get the wiki people to help you create a category page entitled Guru Tutorial Entries, each added page can get linked there automatically with use of the category code. You could even have your top level page be an index of the different tutorial/puzzle types, and then have the entrants link their tutorials into the appropriate puzzle type page. This approach also means that the entrants can continue (with their random-name account) to edit and improve the tutorial right up to the deadline, without risking you cutting-and-pasting an earlier version. I'm not sure who all the wiki people are - I know Barrister, Thunderbird, Guppymomma are ones. Do you know any of them enough to shoot them a PM asking to confirm that this approach is feasible? Or even leave a note on their user talk page - that's the wiki way of doing things, I guess! --Crystal 00:04, 22 February 2006 (PST)
 * Reply: I'm not sure how it works either -- my impression, however, was that if judges went to the user-submitted page (via whatever links or categories) then with the "history" they could see who had been editing that page and thus figure out who the user/contestant is. Thus the idea of a source cut-and-paste into a new file so that only my name would show up. Of course, the other option would be for the contestants to create a dummy wiki-identity for posting.

Forum post: I've essentially been rewriting the wiki proposal page into the form it'll take on the forum -- does anything there need changing for clarity for that official post?


 * A tiny point, but here we'd spell the word "plagiarised". Obviously, you'd use the z, but check that the "er" is correct. :)
 * Reply: grrr... if everyone still spoke Latin, we wouldn't have these spelling/sound discrepancies of English to deal with. Fixed, thanks. :)


 * Prizes. I think that the best tutorial for each puzzle should win a prize, even if they're not shortlisted for the overall winner final. (I'm pretty confident that Artemis would agree that small change in terms of providing prizes). The ones put forward as finallists can perhaps have a slightly different prize, but they should all get one. Oh, I guess you might want to add the caveat that entries would have to meet a certain standard to get a prize, in case there's a very sparse category!
 * Reply: I'm going to set the judging up to award points... sort of like the new ice-skating system. :) So, if Artemis agrees that there could be prizes for each puzzle, it could be the best entry for each puzzle if it scores more than a certain minimum?


 * So your OM-given prizes would be something like: Overall best entrant chooses between a sleeping pig and a sleeping piglet. Overall runner-up wins the other one. Those two, and the other 5 shortlisted entries, get a fancy ribbon trinket. All other best-in-puzzle winners get a ribbon trinket. Add a disclaimer that prizes may be adapted or added, and you've given yourself space to upgrade next week if appropriate.
 * Reply: Plus, of course, poe & items. I really want to make some nice big prizes here -- the bnav tutorial I'm working on has already taken well over 48 hours of work... I'm hoping for a similar amount of effort from the winning entries, and I'd like to see it properly rewarded. So I'm thinking (provided I can raise the donations to justify it) some amount of poe for the top 7 (in addition to their fancy ribbons), and appropriate furniture/items/etc for the top 3, in addition to whatever OM prize Artemis deems appropriate.


 * Do you want an OM as one of the judges? It ought to be possible, and I think it's a good idea, especially if these documents are going to be linked on the wiki later as excellent tutorials (and I hope they are!). If you want an OM as part of your judging panel, or even just to provide initial feedback, let Artemis know, and she can start finding a volunteer. --Crystal 00:28, 22 February 2006 (PST)
 * Reply That would be great, if they are willing. I've been trying to minimize the OM-impact of the event, 'cause I know they're going to be swamped, but if one or two are willing to participate as judges -- so I'll have OM, ult & relative greenie judges (to make sure that the entries are judged on how useful & useable they are for as much of the YPP community as possible), that would be grand.

Timeline

 * Cripes, I forgot the single most important comment of all. Your timeline is incorrect. You have to have all YOUR judging and prize allocation completed by the end of March 19th. So your closing date must be earlier. The 24th March is the date by which the E2 judging and prize allocation finishes. We will need the period between 19th and 24th to do the E2 judging. --Crystal 00:35, 22 February 2006 (PST)
 * Reply: Blimey! I misunderstood the "levels". I've been metaed! Meta-stisized? Meta-forum-ically? Never met a meta I coulda liked bettah?.... >>>bouncing off wall with AM caffiene noises<<<...
 * Fixed.... So entries will be due about 3 weeks from now, with that work-week for judging and the weekend for handing out prizes... hopefully that'll be enough time for good entries! I assume it won't be held against E2 contestants if it takes them past the 19th to hand out all the prizes?... with your best-in-puzzle suggestion (which I think a good one), I could have a lot of people to track down (though I'll try to set up "appointment" times...)


 * No, prizes will need to be decided and announced by that date, but with the best will in the world, you can't force people to be online to receive prizes! --Crystal 15:06, 22 February 2006 (PST)

Prizes
Okay, pulling together the discussion so far for purposes of clarity, here's what's being suggested. I realize not all of this has been formally approved (especially the big stuff) but is still just in the "suggestion" category.

OM Prizes Top places: animal, animals and/or familiar. Finalists (top seven): fancy ribbon. "Best in puzzle" (for those who met a certain standard but didn't make the top seven): plain ribbon.

Items Awarded on contestant's home ocean -- paid for on Viridian (? -- if that's what Artemis wishes). Top 3 places: puzzle-appropriate items, valued up to 20k in contestant's "home" currency. (e.g. suits of armor for SF puzzle; ship for ship building puzzle; etc.)

POE To all award winners, exact quantity to be determined by how much is raised (and exactly what the other prizes wind up being/costing), but perhaps something along the lines of: Top 3 places: 20k Other 4 finalists: 15k Remaining "best in puzzle" winners: approx 5k each (depending on how many such awards there are).

Assuming that we're looking at winning entries which (I hope) will have taken on the order of 20 hrs or more to produce (because of movies & screenshots), plus (hopefully) heavy competition -- and entries which, if good enough, will be helping the whole YPP community -- does this seem appropriate? I'll keep trying to raise more poe contributions of course to make the awards a bit bigger if I can.


 * I think that looks a great set of prizes, yes. Go with that. Artemis'll be fine with it. (other than promising a familiar - that decision would have to wait until the lady herself is available!) --Crystal 15:04, 22 February 2006 (PST)

FORUM POST
Do I just post into the "Events" section of the forum and the other linkage will be taken care of? Is there anything special I need to do?
 * Lordkalvan writes: Post in Events section of Forum aye, but also here in the wiki on the "Current Events" page, linking to yer forum post. One of the OMs will add yer invent to the in-game "upcoming events" on the notice board.--Tcarr 04:37, 24 February 2006 (PST)

POSTED -- link at the top. Pls. let me know if there's anything I need to correct/edit/tweak! :-)

The event post eventually will get linked into the News/Event board within game, right? I see that a bunch of the E2 announcements are already there...
 * It takes a while afore events get posted in-game, and sometimes even when the event is posted both in YPP Events *and* in Wiki's Current Events, it still doesn't get added to in-game Upcoming Events. However, yer chances will be greater if ye also post it on the Wiki: http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Current_events  Do ye see how the other E2 events are starting to be added there? --Tcarr 12:02, 26 February 2006 (PST)

NOTICE BOARD (2/27)
It would be great if the rest of the E2 entries could get posted on the Notice Board ASAP. Looking on the forums, I see that those which have gotten linked there have gotten a lot more views than those which haven't yet been linked -- because the Notice Board advertises the events to a whole lot of pirates who might not otherwise read the forums or find out about the contests.

Since the E2 entries will be judged partly on quantity of participation, it seems a bit unfair for some entries to get extra (and very effective) advertising across all the oceans while others are neglected.

I realize the in-game Notice Board isn't under control of the E2 organizers... but if the OMs could be encouraged update it soon so the playing field doesn't keep remaining unlevel, favoring some E2 contests over others, that'd be really nice!


 * It's on the Notice board now, along (I think) with the other E2s that were missing... thanks! --Astrolabe1 10:34, 28 February 2006 (PST)

SCHEDULING (3/1)
-sigh- I'm wondering if I should withdraw this contest from the E2 competition so as to allow entrants more time to work on tutorials.

I've gotten complaints about the "timing" both in person and on the forums -- and the fact that this entry got posted on the notice board about 5 days (and a weekend) after some of the others, means that some people are only seeing it now, with less than 2 weeks before the submission deadline. That's not a lot of time to develop a good tutorial.

I really wanted a shot at that parrot, because I'm so hopeless at tourney puzzles that I have no chance of winning one that way -- nor rich enough to buy one at auction, nor good enough at poker to become one of the new millionaires -- but maybe for the good of the YPP community I should just forfeit here and give entrants a few more weeks so we can get more entries and of higher quality, so as to help out the YPP world more...

On the other hand, now that this event is on the notice board, number of reads on the forum has jumped about 6x in the last 48 hours, and more people seem to be considering entries.

PRIZE CONFIRMATION -- Attn. Artemis & Crystal (3/2)
Is Artemis back yet? I'd like to get the prizes confirmed and start making sure I'm up on how to facilitate their awarding (so as not to use up too much of the OMs' time in the process)... once she's back and it's convenient to her to get caught up on this E2 stuff.

Also, any word on which (if any) OMs would be interested in participating as judges? I'd like to have my finalized judge list by the start of next week...

Final Prize and Support Information
As of right now, this is the list of prizes and support I have listed for the OM's to provide for you, if anything is not correct or complete you need to get in touch with me as soon as possible, I will not around the whole weekend! Please give the OM's plenty of time to respond to any requests and speak to them in advance if at all possible, for some of you that will be more important than others. I've given a copy of the standard OM schedule to Jacquilynne as well if I'm not available.


 * Prizes: Sleeping Pig or Turtle for first place. 3 furniture items to be determined soon (as long as they're not too outrageous this should be ok, no gold/black or treasure chests) 7 Fancy ribbons to be awarded afterwards and a Sleeping Pig or Turtle for first place
 * Support: None
 * Post-Prizes: For all prizes being handled after the event you'll need to have the following information: Pirate, Ocean, Prize and any relevent inscriptions. Submit in a Petition and an Oceanmaster should either take care of it if they have time or leave it for someone to handle when they do, participants will be given prizes when the Oceanmasters onduty have a chance to do so, please don't have them petition.

--Artemis 10:24, 3 March 2006 (PST)

PETITION
The following will be petitioned, per your instructions: Need trinkets/prizes handed out for the Tutorial Contest E2 event, at an OM's convenience.

I'm submitting this petition per Artemis' directions (http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Talk:Event_E2/Proposal_Astrolabe#Final_Prize_and_Support_Information)

I've got a greenie "Astrolabe" set up on Sage & Midnight (where the recipients are) as well, in case you'd find it more convenient to set up a single appointment with me (perhaps later Sun eve or sometime Monday?) to give me the items (and for me to hand over poe) and have me handle the headache of distribution to the winners. Email is at astrolabeypp@yahoo.ca or forum PM at astrolabe1.

Artemis indicated that she'd match funds on the other oceans -- I can give you the requisite poe on Viridian to cover the awards on the other oceans if necessary. Also, I'm still not 100% clear if I'm to pay for the furnishing items or not... in case so, I've listed prices for them I got from Midnight (where, it turns out, they're all to be awarded).

The winner of the sloop (Successful Guppy) is on Viridian with me, and I have a green/white painted sloop to hand over. The winner wonders if you'd be willing to rename it to the "Masterful Sawfish", the made-up ship name he used for his winning Carpentry Tutorial entry. I can add another 10k to what I hand over to you if that would be appropriate for the rename.

Can ribbons be colored? If so, everyone seems to want maroon/yellow. If not, then whatever the default color is.

Awards: Hawkings / Viridian --- First Place Pet Pig Fancy Ribbon, inscibed "Hawkings, Master Carpenter" 20k poe Sloop -- green/white -- Successful Guppy (renamed Masterful Sawfish?)

Lordkalvan / Midnight -- 2nd AND 3rd place Fancy Ribbon, inscribed "Lord Kalvan, Whirlmaster" Fancy Ribbon, inscribed "Lord Kalvan, Bilgemeister" sword rack & maroon/maroon armor w/ sword (approx 11.5 k) fancy wardrobe & fancy dresser (approx. 15.5k) 30k poe

Longjohngrey / Sage -- 4th place Ribbon -- inscribed "Long John Grey, Shoppemaster" 10k poe

Getting Spectator Participation
Lordkalvan has a suggestion.... After the deadline hits, and the anonymous tutorials are posted in the YPPedia fer judging, are ye planning to post the links to them in yer forum thread? Methinks this would help involve more people, since they could discuss the various tutorials and express appreciation fer yer event inspiring people to make the tutorials. The judges don't need to be reading these responses (since contestants could get their hearties to form cheering sections). Ye might also post about them in Tips fer that matter. Just a thought fer ye to consider. --Tcarr 01:55, 7 March 2006 (PST)


 * Yeah, after the judging, they'll be posted more publically for people to see / respond to / comment on. (Unless the author doesn't wish that). Raising awareness might be a good thing -- there's been some talk of having a follow-up event with more prizes for additional or refined tutorials (or pre-existing ones for that matter... retroactively letting people who've made tutorials get recognition). --Astrolabe1 22:54, 8 March 2006 (PST)