EEVblog Giveaway Contests

[PetrosA]

I'm erring toward the idea of:
1) You have to be an active forum member (1 useful post is fine), and use your forum name to enter.
2) You have to opt-in to each contest
3) The drawing would be random so everyone of different skill level, attention span, and time zone gets a fair go. (is there an online program/plugin that does this?). Minimum effort required on my part and the participants.
4) The prize is free, postage paid anywhere in the world.

Dave.

This sounds totally fair. You might contact Andre Rebelo or Vatche Arabian over at planetextech since they've organized giveaways like that before.

[squeezee]

I'd prefer a combination of giveaways and longer running contests.

The giveaways could just be simple random "leave a comment", "identify this widget" or perhaps something like picture/video submissions; take a pic of your workbench, inside an old/unsual piece of electronics, best dave jones impersonation, etc.

For contests i think a few shorter ones that focus on doing a simple task or making something novel within specific constraints "No ICs/MCUs", "What can you do with XXXX".

And perhaps a longer more open-ended contest, such as creating a Project that is resonably inexpensive and would be useful for a beginner/hobbyist. Like a function generator, LED tester, power supply, etc. something similar to what you find published in an electronics magazine. Train of thought is basically even though a beginner may not have a chance at winning they still benefit from the contest. (a nice $400 multimeter or 'scope should be a good incentive to get some quality submissions.)

[Mechatrommer]

anything relating to a random unknown probabilistic is an utter bullshit for me eg: lucky draw, fortune wheel, gambling etc, i'm not going to enter! but well.... thats just me.

[Zad]

It would be nice if a bit of skill and effort were involved somehow. I was thinking something along the lines of short 2-5 minute webcam videos on an informative topic of the persons choice. Maybe even a rant!

[alm]

Doing some kind of judging would require a lot more time and effort on Dave's part. I think Dave's idea is fine. Might want to require some very basic electronic question to keep bots/traders away. It could be posted in a forum that's only visible for logged in users. A manual sanity check like looking through the user's post history and seeing if they look on-topic and human should be enough to filter out people that don't care about electronics and just want free stuff to put on Ebay.

If it leads to a large number of registrations just for the give away, we can figure out a solution for that.

[Joshua]

I really like the idea of a giveaway.

I think the idea where some sort of effort and skill is involved is good. HOWEVER, if you have a contest where you are judging an entry, you are just asking for angry people. There is no doubt that you will get two entries, that are a completely different approach, but serve the same purpose, and someone will end up mad, because their idea works just as well.

Joshua

[.o:0|O|0:o.]

I was thinking that it would be cool if the prizes could be autographed, with a thumbs up, down or sideways verdict, if it was one of the models rated on the show. or for other prizes, a card, photo or T-shirt with Dave's motto on it... Imagine something like that on your desk!

.o:0|O|0:o.

[SnakeBite]

woohoo free giveaway! way to go Dave!!
hope to win the Rigol DS1052E i don't have the money to buy one (EE student  )

Ido

[johnboxall]

Now and again I have giveaways on my site. Usually I post a few questions hidden inside articles, and the persons who email with the correct answers at the end of the month go into a draw. You could ask one question per video post, then ask for the answers after x amount of videos perhaps? Put those who reply with the correct answers into a draw, then pick one out at random.

[ChrisGammell]

I was thinking about suggesting that people link back to EEVblog, but that could get nasty fast. It'd be like a human realization of a spam bot.

However, you could do something with the show name and work that in somehow.

What about a picture contest? Have people take pictures of "EEVBlog" or a logo (if you ever pick one) in different locations around the world? It'd provide a fun bit of geographical trivia, would allow creativity and would be more fun than just a random drawing. Plus the slight amount of effort (i.e. not allowed to just take a picture of yourself in your bedroom) would weed out people that aren't active.

[TopherTheME]

I think Dave should just give the cheaper shit away to active members through some kind of random drawings. Things like multimeters from the shootouts, etc. Little time and effort on Dave's and the contestants part. Build contests and challenges are fun but not everyone has that kind of time on equipment on their hands, so the expensive stuff like o-scopes could be saved for things like that.

[EEVblog]

I think Dave should just give the cheaper shit away to active members through some kind of random drawings. Things like multimeters from the shootouts, etc. Little time and effort on Dave's and the contestants part.

That's what I plan on doing. Only problem is finding a transparent way to do it. Both in terms of my random drawing, and people entering twice etc.
Would be nice if there was simply an SMF forum plugin that just picked a random post from a contest thread (ignoring duplicate entries).

Dave.

[GeoffS]

Dave,

There's a woodworking forum that I'm a member of , that have a prize draw every month or so, depending on donations.

The admin starts a new thread every 3 months to cover the next 3 months draws.

To be included, a user has to reply to this thread with a simple message "I'm in".

If the message contains more than those words, the use is disqualified from the next 3 months draws.

If the user replies to the message more than once, they are disqualified

In addition to this, to be considered for a draw, the user must have been a forum member for 3 months and must have made at least 3 posts.

I'm not sure how automatic the whole process is, that forum runs vBulletin.
I can get more details if this sounds OK as a basis for give aways here.

[EEVblog]

That sounds like what I want, but this forum uses SimpleMachines, so any script likely won't work here.

Dave

[GeoffS]

I have the alternative of getting more familiar with SMF source code or finishing off cleaning out the shed.

I think I'll take the indoor option 

[sonicj]

I have the alternative of getting more familiar with SMF source code or finishing off cleaning out the shed.

I think I'll take the indoor option 

whats all that stuff mounted on the pole in the top left of the picture? looks like science! 
-sj

[GeoffS]

whats all that stuff mounted on the pole in the top left of the picture? looks like science! 
-sj

Close! It's an el-cheapo eBay wireless weather station.

Some technical issues at the moment. Rainfall indicator not working and wind speed indicator not working.
It probably just needs to have the spiders removed. 

[armandas]

Close! It's an el-cheapo eBay wireless weather station.

Some technical issues at the moment. Rainfall indicator not working and wind speed indicator not working.
It probably just needs to have the spiders removed. 

s-s-s-piders??

[Neilm]

whats all that stuff mounted on the pole in the top left of the picture? looks like science! 
-sj

Close! It's an el-cheapo eBay wireless weather station.

Some technical issues at the moment. Rainfall indicator not working and wind speed indicator not working.
It probably just needs to have the spiders removed. 

Isn't the correct term "a hardware bug"?

Neil

[dengorius]

How about using something like THIS to get a list of participants from a specific thread and the pick one at random? A cool way could be to choose the winner during a live show, maybe using an electronic gadget or something like that.

I haven't tried the mod, so I don't know how it works, like how it manages duplicates etc.

Hope it helps

[EEVblog]

How about using something like THIS to get a list of participants from a specific thread and the pick one at random? A cool way could be to choose the winner during a live show, maybe using an electronic gadget or something like that.
I haven't tried the mod, so I don't know how it works, like how it manages duplicates etc.

That sounds like it will do the job.
But unfortunately not compatible with my version of the forum (was 1.1.11, now 1.1.12) :-(

Dave.

[dengorius]

How about using something like THIS to get a list of participants from a specific thread and the pick one at random? A cool way could be to choose the winner during a live show, maybe using an electronic gadget or something like that.
I haven't tried the mod, so I don't know how it works, like how it manages duplicates etc.

That sounds like it will do the job.
But unfortunately not compatible with my version of the forum (was 1.1.11, now 1.1.12) :-(

Dave.

Oh ok, didn't notice the forum version. I guess you can always use the "print" button to get a text version of the topic, save it and then write a little program/script to extract the authors

[JohnS_AZ]

90 seconds with TextPad editor :

EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
EEVblog => General Chat => Topic started by: EEVblog on November 04, 2010, 02:25:58 AM

EEVblog on November 04, 2010, 02:25:58 AM
scrat on November 04, 2010, 03:31:48 AM
Kiriakos-GR on November 04, 2010, 04:58:34 AM
cksa on November 04, 2010, 05:09:14 AM
orbiter on November 04, 2010, 05:10:00 AM
XynxNet on November 04, 2010, 05:11:18 AM
Hypernova on November 04, 2010, 05:18:12 AM
cksa on November 04, 2010, 05:20:44 AM
shafri on November 04, 2010, 05:35:54 AM
Strube09 on November 04, 2010, 05:46:12 AM
adam1213 on November 04, 2010, 06:16:13 AM
Kiriakos-GR on November 04, 2010, 06:16:49 AM
Kiriakos-GR on November 04, 2010, 06:20:17 AM
migsantiago on November 04, 2010, 06:22:40 AM
.o:0|O|0:o. on November 04, 2010, 06:42:20 AM
orbiter on November 04, 2010, 07:03:00 AM
mikeselectricstuff on November 04, 2010, 07:10:06 AM
scrat on November 04, 2010, 07:20:49 AM
Strube09 on November 04, 2010, 07:38:13 AM
shafri on November 04, 2010, 07:46:49 AM
scrat on November 04, 2010, 07:54:54 AM
Nermash on November 04, 2010, 07:59:19 AM
shafri on November 04, 2010, 07:59:44 AM
orbiter on November 04, 2010, 08:02:11 AM
polossatik on November 04, 2010, 09:25:09 AM
FreeThinker on November 04, 2010, 09:34:55 AM
FreeThinker on November 04, 2010, 09:40:00 AM
.o:0|O|0:o. on November 04, 2010, 09:46:25 AM
JohnS_AZ on November 04, 2010, 09:55:32 AM
FreeThinker on November 04, 2010, 10:07:33 AM
shafri on November 04, 2010, 10:09:27 AM
orbiter on November 04, 2010, 10:22:50 AM
BoredAtWork on November 04, 2010, 10:48:58 AM
FreeThinker on November 04, 2010, 11:35:16 AM
.o:0|O|0:o. on November 04, 2010, 12:42:51 PM
MrPlacid on November 04, 2010, 01:27:32 PM
EEVblog on November 04, 2010, 02:04:51 PM
EEVblog on November 04, 2010, 02:07:32 PM
kaptain_zero on November 04, 2010, 02:13:54 PM
EEVblog on November 04, 2010, 02:20:31 PM
kaptain_zero on November 04, 2010, 02:21:48 PM
EEVblog on November 04, 2010, 02:22:40 PM
FreeThinker on November 04, 2010, 03:03:27 PM
.o:0|O|0:o. on November 04, 2010, 03:16:23 PM
quantumfall on November 04, 2010, 03:36:49 PM
DavidDLC on November 04, 2010, 03:54:53 PM
Feanor on November 04, 2010, 04:09:06 PM
mikeselectricstuff on November 04, 2010, 04:22:17 PM
tyblu on November 04, 2010, 04:23:29 PM
logictom on November 04, 2010, 05:42:56 PM
PetrosA on November 04, 2010, 10:20:55 PM
squeezee on November 04, 2010, 11:06:17 PM
shafri on November 05, 2010, 12:50:00 AM
Zad on November 05, 2010, 04:51:35 PM
alm on November 05, 2010, 05:11:05 PM
PianoKid1994 on November 05, 2010, 06:26:27 PM
.o:0|O|0:o. on November 06, 2010, 09:29:02 AM
SnakeBite on November 07, 2010, 01:07:17 AM
tronixstuff on November 07, 2010, 02:54:34 AM
ChrisGammell on November 09, 2010, 07:07:51 AM
TopherTheME on November 10, 2010, 04:49:54 PM
EEVblog on November 10, 2010, 07:38:07 PM
GeoffS on November 10, 2010, 08:32:10 PM
EEVblog on November 10, 2010, 08:57:03 PM
GeoffS on November 10, 2010, 09:16:34 PM
sonicj on November 10, 2010, 11:15:10 PM
GeoffS on November 11, 2010, 12:32:13 AM
armandas on November 11, 2010, 04:50:32 AM
Neilm on November 11, 2010, 12:10:10 PM
dengorius on November 11, 2010, 01:04:49 PM
EEVblog on November 11, 2010, 02:02:23 PM
dengorius on November 11, 2010, 02:47:26 PM

[dengorius]

you've got to remove duplicates
Plus if you sort the names alphabetically it is going to affect the extraction

but yes all that you need is one regexp and a O(n^2) algorithm

[JohnS_AZ]

60 more seconds.  ...

.o:0|O|0:o.
 adam1213
 alm
 armandas
 BoredAtWork
 ChrisGammell
 cksa
 DavidDLC
 dengorius
 EEVblog
 Feanor
 FreeThinker
 GeoffS
 Hypernova
 JohnS_AZ
 kaptain_zero
 Kiriakos-GR
 logictom
 migsantiago
 mikeselectricstuff
 MrPlacid
 Neilm
 Nermash
 orbiter
 PetrosA
 PianoKid1994
 polossatik
 quantumfall
 scrat
 shafri
 SnakeBite
 sonicj
 squeezee
 Strube09
 TopherTheME
 tronixstuff
 tyblu
 XynxNet
 Zad