You got a great idea of twisting the #payitforward contest a little bit with this opinion contest! Here is what I think...
I like the #payitforward initiative because...
Just the thought that its goal is to help boost up newbies is already enough reason for this project to be a great initiative. Add to that the fact that there is nothing in return for the sponsors and judges in spite of spending time and effort to go through all the entries (more to the judges).
It fosters the sense of camaraderie and social responsibility by helping others. We never know how things are done or going in other ends of the globe. This is an avenue of getting to know people who we can change each other's lives.
It fosters communication, connection and thus the real sense of social networking by directing people to others' post.
Aside from plain socializing over the network, it enables avenues for people to learn more from others - different culture, values, belief, or even perspective. As I remember @headchange once mentioned that her joining the contest is an eye-opener to her. I agree, and I believe this is also the case for some if not all participants.
This only not help the featured bloggers but also the curators because it gives the curators an idea of what to post. That spares the curators from thinking about a topic for at least once a week.
How to improve it? I do not have the details in mind on how to do it but I am looking at a possible challenge when the community grows. If the participants would significantly increase, I see a lot of time needed for the curators (add to the judges) to be visiting each featured blogs and such amount of time can be a challenge. I speak for my experience last week when there were 19 entries and I really had to squeeze in going through the blogs. I believe there was even a week when I was not able to visit all of them. I once thought of scheduling but that will hamper the timing when the blogs to be featured are out and when the curators are available. Maybe other participants can give their thoughts about this.
To my featured bloggers, your opinions are being sought. Your inputs will help the project do better.
@andyalaby, @daniel4real, @island-girl, @alexbiojs (though I already saw your comment here), @febemarie25, @jazzhero, @gabbynhice.
Thank you!
Managing Voting Power is always a challenge. If you are having an issue I might suggest not voting on all of the featured blog posts, but leave a comment.
As for total time invested, there is no question on a week like last week it's hard to reach everyone. What the Judges do is 1/2 of the entries to keep it manageable. If this grows future the idea for scaling is to split into 1/3's or even 1/4's if needed. This will allow for all Judges to be able to visit a manageable amount of entries and give proper attention. When we split the entries in half it really helped the Judges with their time commitment as it was getting close to burn out level.
As for my time, well that is another story. We will likely look into a way to allow the judges to use the @pifc account to do some of their visits. Not exactly sure how this will work yet, but it will likely be required at some point or I will end up burning out.
I guess that explains why there were not much comments or upvotes on all the entries when I had my rounds for last week. I am not sure how the entries were split but if it is something like picking entries to be judged while others are left out, that may not sound so ideal. The left out ones may be more qualified and yet were not given attention.
How about splitting the entries equally among the judges and the judges use score cards? Like if there are 19 entries and four judges, three of them get five entries and the fourth judge gets four. Then when all of them are done, someone (maybe you as the contest host) consolidates their score card results, do a tabulation and come up with the best among all 19 entries. I am not sure how time and effort will impact the judges but I think this is better to ensure that all entries are given attention.
It's 2 Judges on Evens and 2 on Odds and has been this way for probably 8+ weeks. There just was no way for the judges to keep up with visiting all of the entries. We try to then pick 2 even and 2 odd entries for the Judges choice, but sometimes if a judge visited more then just their 1/2 (which happens a good amount) then they might pick from any they visited.
Each judge picks their own choice 100% on their own. This helps spread out who wins as each judges had their own opinions on quality and what they enjoy reading. By letting each pick who they will be awarding the SBI (which they pay for) it adds to the variety of winners. There have been many times that some of the Judges Choice winners are ones I's place in the middle of the pack at best...but they just happened to write about topics I'm not interested it.
Hope that all makes sense.
BTW, last week I don't think that knircky left many messages and I know that at least 1 judge was very far behind in visiting the posts. So that effect when the comments come in. Plus I worked over 80 hours last week so my time was severely limited and while I read the posts there were a number I didn't have time to comment on. This week is shaping up to be much the same as will next week. After that things get a little more normal for me....well hopefully they do.
I don't mean to pry for any explanation from the judges as to why they did or did not do this or that. I fully understand you guys are doing it on your own accord and even personal fund. I was just trying to suggest what may work better and still cover all entries.
Now that you mentioned about judges having their own opinions, how about having a set of criteria for everyone to use instead of each of them having their own? I think that is basic in every contest.