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nertzmaster wrote:I did not get a pm yet but I will be taking the Mystery Brick from JP Games as well since the unofficial list says Dolape did opt out. To move things along, I will pm easyshuffle. I hope this is ok with everyone.

As I stated before I'll go for the JP Games mystery brick as well, I've contacted them and received confirmation that my price should be shipped very soon
Huge, huge thank you to all the contributors, especially JP Games giving away 180 decks, that's sick!

Hsbc you're next, PM sent!

I will also take a JP Games brick PMing Naychurboy now

Oh boy, another infrequent member

So I emailed JP Games after posting here - and I've already gotten an email back telling me that they've sent me an overnight DHL package from the UK, supposed to get here tomorrow

shkorc wrote:Oh boy, another infrequent member

The message I sent is still in my outbox too

So tell me again went hyping up the awards outside UC to bring in people for free prizes it's a good thing? They don't contribute to discussions and cannot even speak up for said free prizes. They just push regular, contributing members off the prize list.

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I think what you guys should do for DOTY is not focus on telling people about the giveaway. I came because I saw that there was a place for me to run my mouth talking a lot about decks. I think that should be the focal point of the advertising and attempt at gaining organic users. People who only want prizes will join 100% if you advertise it as a 1 per year giveaway but if you focus more on emphasizing cardistry and card collecting I believe we would get more active users. But that's just me rambling about marketing.

Basically DOTY Prize giveaway = false growth, focus on cards n stuff = organic growth with more active user base. We should look for new members with this incentive in mind but not as the main focus since I do believe a great deal of people joined just for the prizes. Though I do have to say I also did think that it was cool that this was a thing. You want a honey pot to attract the bees but to only with enough honey so that they don't break it. Meh, I might just be overthinking things.

STLBluesNut wrote:So tell me again went hyping up the awards outside UC to bring in people for free prizes it's a good thing? They don't contribute to discussions and cannot even speak up for said free prizes. They just push regular, contributing members off the prize list.

That is kinda true, but some will stay for the conversations around here.

OVSUB wrote:I think what you guys should do for DOTY is not focus on telling people about the giveaway. I came because I saw that there was a place for me to run my mouth talking a lot about decks. I think that should be the focal point of the advertising and attempt at gaining organic users. People who only want prizes will join 100% if you advertise it as a 1 per year giveaway but if you focus more on emphasizing cardistry and card collecting I believe we would get more active users. But that's just me rambling about marketing.

Basically DOTY Prize giveaway = false growth, focus on cards n stuff = organic growth with more active user base. We should look for new members with this incentive in mind but not as the main focus since I do believe a great deal of people joined just for the prizes. Though I do have to say I also did think that it was cool that this was a thing. You want a honey pot to attract the bees but to only with enough honey so that they don't break it. Meh, I might just be overthinking things.

You are also kinda true, but if we do a more hard ruleset for next year, they will just go off the list and make place for new ones. So maybe we could add that existing members have a longer time frame than just the ones who joined immadietly for the DOTY.
Don't know if this would be unfair. Otherwise just a harder ruleset and we should make USE of the rules we set.

Maybe limiting the prize-winners to people with over a certain number of posts (10? 15? Nothing too high at all but enough for a user to be demonstrably active on the site?

Maybe 2 or 3 people can be in charge ( moderators ) of keeping track of the list next year and be responsible for contacting winners and giving them 24 hours to respond, if not they move on to the next person. The committee could keep things moving and update the list periodically. I think PipChick has done a great job, but having a committee to help would probably make things run smoother. Just a thought.

GNS MAGIC wrote:Maybe 2 or 3 people can be in charge ( moderators ) of keeping track of the list next year and be responsible for contacting winners and giving them 24 hours to respond, if not they move on to the next person. The committee could keep things moving and update the list periodically. I think PipChick has done a great job, but having a committee to help would probably make things run smoother. Just a thought.

You do the following:
- A committee of 3-5 very active users/mods manage the list and move it along.
- All actions by the committee will be transparent via posts in the actual thread.
- When entering the contest, you provide secondary means of contact of your choice (or none at all). Could be FB, IG, phone number, email, etc.
- When your turn comes up, a committee members makes a post stating they are going down the contact list for next winner. From the time of that post, the winner has 24 hours to claim their prize.
- If no claim is made by the 24 hour mark, a committee member marks the entrant as forfeit and moves to the next on the list while also alerting PipChick so that the next winner can be added to the end of the list.

Look, I know the slow pace of prize selection is pretty frustrating, but it's really a by-product of how wildly successful this year's DoTY contest has been. We really shouldn't complain about having too many prizes or too many participants, can we? Having said that, we can always make tweaks to make the following year even better, and we definitely have to reform the prize selecting process. A lot of you have made good suggestions, and we can continue to work things out so next year we have a system in place so we don't have individuals holding up everyone else.

I think one fundamental principle to be established is that selecting a prize in our DoTY contest is a privilege, not a right. If you can't show up at the appointed time to make your selection in the prescribed manner as clearly set forth in the rules, then you shouldn't participate. This is why I don't see the need for 72, 48, or even 24 hour windows given to people. In last year's contest, I thought that if someone failed to claim their prize in a timely manner, they didn't forfeit their chance at a prize, they just got bumped to the end of the list so the next person can move forward, and they got a second chance when their name came around again. If they failed to select even after getting bumped to the end of the list, then their spot was given to the group of runner-ups who didn't make the initial cut to get prizes. I wish we clearly instituted that rule again this year, at least then one individual can't hold up the entire group for too long.

In any event, I think we should be able to get some concrete rules in place for next year so prize selection can go smoothly and quickly, even if there is a massive prize list like this year.

I think the fellas that've been here longer have just been pointing at the annoyance of users that only pop up for the raffle. I personally don't mind the pace at which we are going I mean 86 people and we're down the list quite fast.

Most unusual that there's been no tracking update in 2 weeks on my prize.

Happened to me with international parcels as well. Tracking stops at some point and suddenly a parcel was on my doorstep while tracking still showed it is in transit. Sometimes it switches to another delivery service so that tracking has to be checked on another carrier.

portcullis wrote:Most unusual that there's been no tracking update in 2 weeks on my prize.

Welcome to the life of us Germans.
Happens to nearly every tracking from US to me.
After transfer from US to EU it stops tracking, and maybe it shows up again or I get my packages at surprise.
So don't worry, it will show up soon probably.

Not worried about the lack of tracking per se. It's just most unusual -- in my experience -- that the Royal Mail would take nearly 3 weeks (with the bank holiday weekend here, I'm crediting them a few days) to deliver anything.

so where are we at?

badpete69 wrote:so where are we at?

#46 Naychurboy I believe

JacksandJokers wrote:

badpete69 wrote:so where are we at?

#46 Naychurboy I believe

...who has been on the clock since Wednesday afternoon around 3pm. At about 75hrs no response

I think we've given Nachurboy enough time. I'm going to select the mystery mixed brick by JP Games LTD. Talk about support for our DoTY contest, JP is donating FIFTEEN bricks! This level of generosity is simply amazing! I'm also going to PM the next 2 people on the list, limitededition and GetABox, in hopes of moving this along.

I'm here, and I've got an idea of what I want to choose, but are we just skipping people now? I know people are getting frustrated, but the main post and the spreadsheet to keep track of what is being claimed isn't getting updated either.

Maybe instead of RNG for a spot in line to pick something, you assign a random number to each prize and whoever matches said number via RNG gets said prize? Or does everyone really like the idea of "picking" their prize?

We've given Nachurboy over three days to make his selection. I would normally be loath to skip anyone, but holding up the contest for over three days is kind of a slap in the face to everyone else. I appreciate that he participated, which gives him the opportunity for a prize, but at least show the common courtesy to come back and make your prize selection. If he participated, he should also know an follow the rules. I have been checking this thread regularly, not because I'm jonesing for a prize, but to make sure I'm not the one holding up the contest. If Naychurboy finally does show up sometime in the future and is bent out of shape for getting skipped, then he is welcome to my prize, I just want to get this moving along.

GetABox wrote:Maybe instead of RNG for a spot in line to pick something, you assign a random number to each prize and whoever matches said number via RNG gets said prize?

Next year we could randomly pick winners and randomly assign them prizes -- that would be a LOT easier probably

Since this thread has been going on for a month at least and Nachurboy knew he was number #46 ( at least he should have known) then he has had plenty of time. I have been looking daily at this thread knowing I am number #50.. I takes 2 min to check

And i probably agree that we can improve this next year...

GetABox wrote:... and the spreadsheet to keep track of what is being claimed isn't getting updated either.

100% false statement. I can guarantee the spreadsheet has been fully up to date. I (nor anyone else has I suspect) updated the spreadsheet with sinjin's pick because no matter what we think, it is not our call. A UC official needs to make that call if we are skipping someone that is non-responsive.

kem-collector wrote:

GetABox wrote:... and the spreadsheet to keep track of what is being claimed isn't getting updated either.

100% false statement. I can guarantee the spreadsheet has been fully up to date. I (nor anyone else has I suspect) updated the spreadsheet with sinjin's pick because no matter what we think, it is not our call. A UC official needs to make that call if we are skipping someone that is non-responsive.

I think thats what he meant. No mod upgreaded it so he is unsure if we skip.

GetABox wrote:Or does everyone really like the idea of "picking" their prize?

I really do like the point that we can pick our prizes. It does take some time, but like the most agreed we should change it for next year.
But I don't think we should just assign numbers to prizes and RNG it out.
A better way of that option was to make a list like 10 prizes from 1 to 10 and just get the prizes according to the list in number of winners.
I can't find who came up with this idea, but it was already mentioned somewhere before in this thread.

Seems to me like we've been operating with a 72hr window for each prize winner to post and claim (which is incredibly lenient and might be a misinterpretation of the rule, but I didn't write it so I can't know for sure), so I see no problem with moving to the next person if it's been three days.

hsbc wrote:So I emailed JP Games after posting here - and I've already gotten an email back telling me that they've sent me an overnight DHL package from the UK, supposed to get here tomorrow

JP Games gets a million stars


DHL gets no stars because wherever they delivered my package, it wasn't at my house EDIT: I have it! My neighbors got it

GetABox wrote:I'm here, and I've got an idea of what I want to choose, but are we just skipping people now? I know people are getting frustrated, but the main post and the spreadsheet to keep track of what is being claimed isn't getting updated either.

Maybe instead of RNG for a spot in line to pick something, you assign a random number to each prize and whoever matches said number via RNG gets said prize? Or does everyone really like the idea of "picking" their prize?

So please don't make us wait 72 hours since you already know what you want... Let's get this moving along before I die of old age

badpete69 wrote:So please don't make us wait 72 hours since you already know what you want... Let's get this moving along before I die of old age

We're waiting on limitededition before it's GetABox's turn