Poll

How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?

As before, active forum members only (minimum post count)
195 (58.9%)
As before, active forum members only (NO minimum post count)
58 (17.5%)
Every viewer is equal. Include Youtube commenters, blog commenters, & all forum members
49 (14.8%)
It should be a contest of skill (describe below)
11 (3.3%)
Something else (describe below)
18 (5.4%)

Total Members Voted: 323

Author Topic: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?  (Read 101023 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Muttley Snickers

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 2333
  • Country: au
  • Cursed: 679 times
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #25 on: February 07, 2016, 09:10:53 am »
I think that this particular subject may require further clarification as to whom is able to participate and from where, I suspect that others are looking into this matter so that any or all discrepancy is removed.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2016, 10:00:39 am by Muttley Snickers »
 

Offline station240

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 967
  • Country: au
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #26 on: February 07, 2016, 10:52:47 am »
Nominations of those worthy of such a prize followed by a poll to build a shortlist, then another to find a most valued member.
Of course if they were to refuse the prize they would have the option to re-award it to a member of their choice or see it go to the runner up.

Would 100% become a popularity contest, complete with begging, PM spam, vote buying. I've seen all this crap and more pulled in a contest where the prize was only $1,000.
One contestant created over a 100 fake accounts to vote for himself, another paid his friends to vote for him. Company running it pulled the plug after 3 days, gave the prizes to who they thought deserved it 3 months later.

Do you seriously believe anyone is going to go an read every single post a user has made, then repeat 100 times ???
Then decide who helped the most.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2016, 01:24:40 pm by station240 »
 

Offline dgtl

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 183
  • Country: ee
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #27 on: February 07, 2016, 11:38:13 am »
I would propose keeping it in the forum, but weighing the probability to win by the activity on the forum. For example, number_of_entries=1+log10(post_count). This solution would give new viewers a reason to register, but the more active members have slight advantage. Depending on the preferences, you might include in the formula the duration of membership or perhaps the number of different days where the person has posted at least once. All of this metrics can quite easily be collected via SQL query.
 

Online Brumby

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 12288
  • Country: au
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #28 on: February 07, 2016, 12:14:59 pm »
Some interesting points...

since keysight have exclusion countries where their official contest is NOT applicable.

which is really the entire world (excluding Austria, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States (excluding Florida, New York, and Rhode Island), and Venezuela.)

will EEVblog run the contest including the entire world?

I think that this particular subject may require further clarification as to whom is able to participate and from where, I suspect that others are looking into this matter so that any or all discrepancy is removed.
 

Offline SeanB

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 16272
  • Country: za
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #29 on: February 07, 2016, 05:20:29 pm »
I did a give away, and limited it to members over 3 months registered, and who had at least 6 posts prior to the competition start date. Worked well enough to keep the spam post level down, but did generate extra forum views.
 

Offline Dave

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1352
  • Country: si
  • I like to measure things.
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #30 on: February 07, 2016, 07:00:46 pm »
Heh heh... You're asking active forum members (which usually means they have a considerable number of posts) to decide who gets to win an expensive scope? Can you take a guess which poll option is going to get the largest number of votes? ;D

I voted for the contest of skill. Give a vague description of a problem and then leave the creative freedom to the contestants. The best solutions get picked by you and David the helper elf.
The only problem with this is that the deadline is much too close for anything worth while to come out of it. If people design PCBs and send them to the Chinese for fabrication, that means like 3 weeks of waiting for the PCBs alone. Would Keysight be happy if you shifted the contest draw for a month or two? ::)
<fellbuendel> it's arduino, you're not supposed to know anything about what you're doing
<fellbuendel> if you knew, you wouldn't be using it
 

Online tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 28139
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #31 on: February 07, 2016, 08:16:57 pm »
Nominations of those worthy of such a prize followed by a poll to build a shortlist, then another to find a most valued member.
Of course if they were to refuse the prize they would have the option to re-award it to a member of their choice or see it go to the runner up.

Would 100% become a popularity contest, complete with begging, PM spam, vote buying. I've seen all this crap and more pulled in a contest where the prize was only $1,000.
One contestant created over a 100 fake accounts to vote for himself, another paid his friends to vote for him. Company running it pulled the plug after 3 days, gave the prizes to who they thought deserved it 3 months later.

Do you seriously believe anyone is going to go an read every single post a user has made, then repeat 100 times ???
Then decide who helped the most.
Of course not but general forum browsing most observant members will notice the detailed and quality replies given buy a few with outstanding knowledge and how any possible newbie or existing member could rig results to surpass the contribution and following that those long serving existing members have is beyond me.  :-//
Avid Rabid Hobbyist
Siglent Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SiglentVideo/videos
 

Offline DimitriP

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1288
  • Country: us
  • "Best practices" are best not practiced.© Dimitri
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #32 on: February 07, 2016, 08:45:13 pm »
Quote
long serving existing members

I get the impression you are feeling the wrong side of the elephant...go all the way around, don't just stand on the same spot. That thin fuzzy thing is the tail.


   If three 100  Ohm resistors are connected in parallel, and in series with a 200 Ohm resistor, how many resistors do you have? 
 

Offline gnavigator1007

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 374
  • Country: us
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #33 on: February 07, 2016, 10:35:24 pm »
I haven't been active on the forum very long but I voted for viewer equality even though I agree with many of you that a skill based contest would be much more interesting.  The prize scopes are far beyond anything I'll ever need (wouldn't turn one down of course ;D)  I figure the contest scopes are given to Dave as a sort of advertising for the company and that the more people included in the giveaway will then be incentive to target that audience again in the future with more fancy giveaways.  I understand that a rush of new forum members can end up being both a blessing and a curse.  I would suspect that leaving it open to everyone would prevent the youtube hordes from overwhelming the forum
 

Offline RogerRowland

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 193
  • Country: gb
    • Personal web site
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #34 on: February 08, 2016, 09:45:48 am »
My opinion FWIW:

1. Don't just randomly select anyone - they may not want/need it - people should opt-in to the giveaway.
2. Opportunists should be discouraged - so use forum membership length and/or minimum posts to determine who can opt-in.
3. Opting in should require some declaration/honour code/whatever - to try to avoid a quick eBay resale.
4. Don't base it on skill. Receiving a high end scope might just kickstart a career in a novice.
5. No contest, no voting, therefore less chance for pointless arguments or attempts to game the system.

Also, I suggest not to give it to a maker group or charity or whatever. Give it to an individual. The people who subscribe to your YouTube channel and register on your forum are individuals - they keep your view counts up and engage on the forum and keep the whole thing rolling. If people see there's a small chance of a big reward, more people will sign up and more people will engage.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2016, 10:01:05 am by RogerRowland »
 

Online tszaboo

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7307
  • Country: nl
  • Current job: ATEX product design
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #35 on: February 08, 2016, 10:48:28 am »
since keysight have exclusion countries where their official contest is NOT applicable.

which is really the entire world (excluding Austria, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States (excluding Florida, New York, and Rhode Island), and Venezuela.)

will EEVblog run the contest including the entire world?
Maybe we should actually exclude those countries. If you live there, just do it on Keysight, you have 15+ times the chance.
 

Offline Keysight DanielBogdanoff

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 777
  • Country: us
  • ALL THE SCOPES!
    • Keysight Scopes YouTube channel
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #36 on: February 08, 2016, 10:19:02 pm »
Maybe we should actually exclude those countries. If you live there, just do it on Keysight, you have 15+ times the chance.

But then you don't have a chance of winning the EEVBlog Special Edition scope!
 

Online Brumby

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 12288
  • Country: au
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #37 on: February 09, 2016, 01:43:54 am »
Don't think Dave is getting a supply deal on these scopes for any custom artwork.

But I could do a couple of waterslide decals for him......
 

Offline PointyOintment

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 327
  • Country: ca
  • ↑ I scanned my face
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #38 on: February 09, 2016, 11:51:58 am »
I voted for "something else". I support a random draw or contest of some kind where the entrants are (or represent) hackerspaces/makerspaces. I believe this will result in the scope getting more use, and Keysight and EEVblog getting more exposure among the space's members as a bonus. Theft (and damage) shouldn't have to be an issue; the group will know it's valuable and take appropriate measures to keep it secure.

Now, everyone knows hackerspaces already have oscilloscopes. But they're often old ones, which work but don't do everything the members want. And some spaces are expanding and increasing in quality, but don't yet have oscilloscopes and other equipment to match. (Full disclosure: I am a member of Protospace in Calgary, which fits those criteria.)

If the draw is to be among forum members, I second wraper's suggestion of ~10 post threshold, without those posts all being within a few days after the contest was announced. (I may be a bit biased on this too, because my post count is currently below the 100 that others have suggested. But I think the suggestions of 100 were not well thought out in other ways, which wraper's solves.)

I also think the idea of entrants having to pass a quiz on content from older videos is a good one. However, while I've been subscribed for ages, I haven't watched even half of the videos because a lot of them just don't interest me, so I might fail that.
I refuse to use AD's LTspice or any other "free" software whose license agreement prohibits benchmarking it (which implies it's really bad) or publicly disclosing the existence of the agreement. Fortunately, I haven't agreed to that one, and those terms are public already.
 

Online Brumby

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 12288
  • Country: au
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #39 on: February 09, 2016, 11:54:52 am »
..... I haven't watched even half of the videos because a lot of them just don't interest me, so I might fail that.

Same here.  I'd have at least 600 on my 'unviewed' list.
 

Offline 84GKSIG

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 58
  • Country: au
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #40 on: February 10, 2016, 08:15:08 am »
not sure if this has been mentioned, Jaycar in SA ( probably in other states as well i duno ) have run a contest to win a 3d printer, all they wanted was a picture of your work area/room type arrangement where you do your thing with a brief description of the area and i can only assume they would gauge who it would benefit the most from those pictures ? sorry if this has been mentioned before

Edit  so have a register for those who want to participate to be " subscribed " so every one who wants to participate would have to let you know they're taking part in the give away then every one can email their submission to you- shouldn't be too hard every one has a phone with a camera these days yeah ? you can then have your piece of software youve used before to select  name at random then check the entrant for worthiness to save you from having to look at 1000s of pictures and read 1000s of descriptions.
sorry forgot to explain how id be doing it
« Last Edit: February 10, 2016, 08:21:14 am by 84GKSIG »
 

Offline PointyOintment

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 327
  • Country: ca
  • ↑ I scanned my face
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #41 on: February 11, 2016, 04:59:07 am »
shouldn't be too hard every one has a phone with a camera these days yeah ? you can then have your piece of software youve used before to select  name at random then check the entrant for worthiness to save you from having to look at 1000s of pictures and read 1000s of descriptions.
I guess this is to prove that the randomly chosen entrant is a real electronics person? If so, they should include a piece of paper in the photo(s) with their username on it, just like is done for reddit AMA proof images.
I refuse to use AD's LTspice or any other "free" software whose license agreement prohibits benchmarking it (which implies it's really bad) or publicly disclosing the existence of the agreement. Fortunately, I haven't agreed to that one, and those terms are public already.
 

Offline mtdoc

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3575
  • Country: us
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #42 on: February 11, 2016, 05:11:24 am »
shouldn't be too hard every one has a phone with a camera these days yeah ? you can then have your piece of software youve used before to select  name at random then check the entrant for worthiness to save you from having to look at 1000s of pictures and read 1000s of descriptions.
I guess this is to prove that the randomly chosen entrant is a real electronics person? If so, they should include a piece of paper in the photo(s) with their username on it, just like is done for reddit AMA proof images.

Or, just do it as he has for previous contests:  Have a thread that people post to as an entry. If a photo is needed they can post it there - though personally I don't see the point of that - it's easy to mock up a photo.
 

Online Brumby

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 12288
  • Country: au
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #43 on: February 11, 2016, 05:17:18 am »
Or, just do it as he has for previous contests:  Have a thread that people post to as an entry. If a photo is needed they can post it there - though personally I don't see the point of that - it's easy to mock up a photo.

I've just checked an old giveaway thread - and that's the idea I found there.  An additional requirement was to have posted a few meaningful posts on other topics.  Once closed, Dave runs his wobbulator program to find a candidate, then checks their posts.  If their posts qualify, they are the winner.  If not, run the wobbulator once more.
 

Offline rdl

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3665
  • Country: us
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #44 on: February 11, 2016, 05:48:03 am »
Active members only, but no one who registered after January 2016, chosen randomly from posts in a thread specifically for entering the draw.

Maybe for fun, a photo of the member's lab bench...with their forum name spelled out in dip ICs or other parts.
 

Offline kaz911

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1052
  • Country: gb
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #45 on: February 11, 2016, 08:43:01 am »
How about a slight modification - as Dave also wants to attract new forum members

You get 10-20-30 (whatever) "lottery" tickets if you are an active user (how ever that gets defined)
You get 1 ticket if you are a new or inactive user profile

Then odd's are in active users favor - but new users does have a chance.
 

Offline BravoV

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7547
  • Country: 00
  • +++ ATH1
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #46 on: February 11, 2016, 09:07:14 am »
Voted "Others"  ...

Nominate and vote for "OTHER" forum members ... I have few in my list, imo they are exceptional members which shared and contributed a lot of their time, money (some I believed) , effort and resources just to help/contribute to this forum.

Of course voters also need to be qualified like minimum post count "and" join date to prevent the huge spike of new members and junk posts flood like in the past.

Although I really love to have this scope too, as an enthusiast, honestly they are just way too overkill for my need. Much better that they fall to the right person.

Just love to see these members earn from their contributions by having "bigger chance" to win this giveaway.

Should this method is selected, members can start to discuss and talk the other details of the mechanism and rule, like nomination stage, voting stage and etc.

My 2 cents ...
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 09:12:23 am by BravoV »
 

Online tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 28139
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #47 on: February 11, 2016, 09:16:37 am »
Voted "Others"  ...

Nominate and vote for "OTHER" forum members ... I have few in my list, imo they are exceptional members which shared and contributed a lot of their time, money (some I believed) , effort and resources just to help/contribute to this forum.

Of course voters also need to be qualified like minimum post count "and" join date to prevent the huge spike of new members and junk posts flood like in the past.

Although I really love to have this scope too, as an enthusiast, honestly they are just way too overkill for my need. Much better that they fall to the right person.

Just love to see these members earn from their contributions by having "bigger chance" to win this giveaway.

Should this method is selected, members can start to discuss and talk the other details of the mechanism and rule, like nomination stage, voting stage and etc.

My 2 cents ...
+1
We are on exactly the same page.  ;)
Avid Rabid Hobbyist
Siglent Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SiglentVideo/videos
 

Offline mswhin63

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 299
  • Country: au
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #48 on: February 11, 2016, 12:16:30 pm »
True.
As for Youtube commenters, as mentioned, no real way to tell if that person is an active commenter, so they video will just get 10,000 "I'm In" comments and odds are that is the first time they have ever contributed.

I would have thought with YouTube the key; is active watcher's not so much commenter's, This was your primary source of income until YouTube made it harder and it is the watchers that are the real supporters. Unfortunately once a post become flooded with comments either the assistance you offer has already been mentioned or the post become out of control and all that is left is in-fighting. YouTube I leave comments though only if there is a few comments made, otherwise the comments become way too long winded and usually loaded with trolls. The same can be said for this forum too.

There are what seems to be full-time commenter on this forum so usually most suggestions have been mentioned and is not really necessary to offer the same advise again.

Mal
.
 

Offline Fred27

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 726
  • Country: gb
    • Fred's blog
Re: How Should The EEVblog Giveaway be Run?
« Reply #49 on: February 14, 2016, 05:17:25 pm »
As far as it seeming fair to entrants, I'd suggest the following. As it's quite a high value prize, it would be annoying if it went to someone who didn't have any use for it or was just going to sell it. How about an "I'm in" thread for entry where each participant says what they'd use it for and that they won't sell it.

Of course it shouldn't be about what's best for us, but what's best for EEVBlog. What makes it easiest and gets the most back for Dave? He's the one generously giving it away. What would encourage the most involvement in the site and YouTube channel?

How about a rule that you've had to make one genuine helpful contribution to a thread or YouTube comment between now and the giveaway? Anything. Just something positive - advice, encouragement, whatever. If everyone made a bit of effort to do that even for the "wrong" reason it should have a positive effect. You never know - some of the lurkers / trolls might even find they like it. You'd only have to check the winner's posts, but it should mean everyone's on their best behavoiur.

I just realized - it'll be like a load of kids just before Christmas, making sure they're on the good list.
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf