Holiday Sleeper Contest

For the dates of November 23, 2010 to the end of January 2, 2011.

Every "sleeper" hit you get earns one point. I'm thinking of defining "sleeper" as over 90 days, but if people want to feedback and suggest a higher number, please do so.

I'm good with whatever you want...but that other site...calls anything over a year a "sleeper." Under a year, but close...is a "napper." According to them, anyways.

So...what do we do with these "points" we are earning...or do you mean it earns an extra Track Point?

Incidentally, 90 days is about the best I'd be able to manage, since I only joined in August.

I figured the person with the most points wins my standard $ 10 prize.

It is my hope to make these contests competitive with an opprotunity for any of our active members to win.

Perhaps I should consider a percentage applied against a users join date.

In your case, you joined July 29 so it has been 103 days since you joined. If I multiply that by 25 % (and round), that would mean that if you got a hit from your first 26 days, it would count as a point.

It would (perhaps) be tougher on Markus. He started the site Sept 20, 2008 and has been active for 780 days. That would mean only bills from his first 195 days would qualify.

I am closer to him than I am to you. I have been active 543 days and only bills from my first 136 days would qualify.

I don't have this completely figured out yet since I am calculating from today's date.

BTW, I am not at all concerned about how anybody else does anything. This is TrackDollar - we get to do things our way.

dctim wrote:For the dates of November 23, 2010 to the end of January 2, 2011.

Every "sleeper" hit you get earns one point. I'm thinking of defining "sleeper" as over 90 days, but if people want to feedback and suggest a higher number, please do so.

I'll donate my winnings to the site.

Likewise.
Anything I win I'll cheerfully donate to this site.

And, by the way, I have an idea for - not so much a contest, as in there is no actual "prize" but I have an idea for a project starting January 1.

Would I post it here, or in a different section?

The idea I have is this: I have a nice, pretty map of the US with all the Counties...and insets for ALL territories, and their subdivisions, if any...for example, the 78 municipalities of PR....

Anyway, my idea is to color in the map...collectively, as a team...every time someone gets a hit in a county that has not yet been claimed...then we light up that county on the map - see if we can fill in the whole map in 2011.

The idea here is that it has to be hits in 2011 - no matter when entered.

If someone wanted to make a contest out of it...we could award a point for each county hit by a specific person...and weight that against say, one year on the site...so that new people would have an equal chance to win.

For example...if you were one year on the site, at the start of the contest, then all your points would be multiplied by 1.
If you had been here 2 years, then your points would be multiplied by 0.5
If you had been here just six months, then your points would be multiplied by 2.

We would round to the nearest month - and use that to weight points so that everyone...new user and old hand...would have an equal chance of winning.

What does everyone think about this idea?

I would volunteer to keep the map and a spreadsheet up-to-date (I have been doing a similar thing on that other site this past year) and a few pets over there don't like it, so You-Know-Who won't let it happen next year, and will take the enjoyment away from everyone over there who DID like and appreciate the game...just because a few of his pets didn't like it...and probably more specifically because they...and he...do not like me.

SO....I'd like to take the game over here for next year. Who knows, maybe a few of the people who liked the game will come here from that other site, when they find out it's happening here.

Kalisiin, I think your idea has merit. While there maybe some details to work out, it certainly could be fun.

Would you be using something similar to XineGirl's US Counties Coloring Book? (i've got one around here somewhere..) I don't recall it having the PR "counties", but then it has been quite some time since I've looked at it.

dctim wrote:Kalisiin, I think your idea has merit. While there maybe some details to work out, it certainly could be fun.

Would you be using something similar to XineGirl's US Counties Coloring Book? (i've got one around here somewhere..) I don't recall it having the PR "counties", but then it has been quite some time since I've looked at it.

Well, actually, I'd be using THIS

What do you think?

And, mind you...all the insets, except Alaska and Hawaii...I did myself. I drew them. I used maps as a guide, but I spent many, many hours on the insets in that map, especially the detail work of drawing the lines.

P.S. had a bit of an idea for a prize, too...see what you think - everyone chips in a bit towards the prize or we find us a sponsor...and the prize could be an FRB brick. That's a pretty huge prize. But it might motivate some people to chip in (because if ya don't chip, ya can't play) and might draw in some new users.

Nice map. I like it a lot. As far as I am concerned, I don't mind if we use it.

An FRB brick? As in 1,000 Ones? That is a big prize, indeed. I would contribute some cash toward that, or some other prize.

dctim wrote:Nice map. I like it a lot. As far as I am concerned, I don't mind if we use it.

An FRB brick? As in 1,000 Ones? That is a big prize, indeed. I would contribute some cash toward that, or some other prize.

I believe a brick is 500 ones.
but yeah. I would want to make this one a large prize, since it is such a long contest...all year long.

And here's my thoughts on point-weighting...

We would go by the number of months they would be a TD user at the END of the contest...not at the beginning...otherwise, newbies would have a decided advantage in that their points would get multiplied by, like, 12!!

Example of weighting:
Someone who had just signed up when the contest started, would be a TD'er 12 months when the contest ended, their weighting would be 12/12 or 1.
someone who signed up in June of next year, would be a six-month TD=er at the end of the contests, thus they would get weighted by 12/6 or 2.
Me...I started in August 2010 - so I would be a 17-month TD-er at the end of the contest, so my weighting would be 12/17 - or 0.7059.
That way, someone who has been on here super-long...well, they would have that advantage somewhat neutralized, and it would give everyone, I think, an equal chance to win.

I'm not certain how much we ought to consider for everyone to chip in towards a prize pool...there's still time to kick the idea around a bit.

Thanks for the compliments on the map...I thought it was pretty beautiful myself.

Hi,

this map is really great. I programmed a lot of maps, so I know how much work it is.
Perhaps we should use this map as an auto created map for the profile.

A FRB Brick is 1000 ones. Starting with e.g. E99990001A and Star Notes at the end.
That is a pretty big price.

I have the olderst TD bill in the system, good chance for me ;-)

Perhaps we find a sponsor. I got rid of all ADS on Trackdollar, they did not pay good, sometimes they were not safe or just made the side slow.
I could offer ads on the server to any sponsor helping with a price like that. Perhaps anybody knows a company willing to help.

And if not a FRB Brick, perhaps a stack of 100 ones new and in order is enough too.

Markus

Admin wrote:A FRB Brick is 1000 ones. Starting with e.g. E99990001A and Star Notes at the end.

Here are a few clarifications ...

A "brick" of 1,000 notes usually start with "001" (or "000") and go through "997", although there can be odd occurances.

As Markus said, usually the notes ending with "9998" and "9999" are replaced with Star notes. These Star notes are worth special attention because they can be from very small print runs.

EDIT ...
The ONLY bricks that get the replacement Star notes are the ones at the end of every 10,000 notes.

"95999997" is the highest serial number of most printed currency for the last 20+ years. If you find a serial number higher, it is likely that it is from a "un-cut" sheet that someone decided to cut. There are exceptions to this "rule", as well - especially in $ 100 notes.

Check http://www.uspapermoney.info/ to see if the Star notes you find are from short runs - they could be worth enough money to make it worth your while to put them into a collection or sell them to those who will.

Admin wrote:Hi,

this map is really great. I programmed a lot of maps, so I know how much work it is.
Perhaps we should use this map as an auto created map for the profile.

A FRB Brick is 1000 ones. Starting with e.g. E99990001A and Star Notes at the end.
That is a pretty big price.

I have the olderst TD bill in the system, good chance for me ;-)

Perhaps we find a sponsor. I got rid of all ADS on Trackdollar, they did not pay good, sometimes they were not safe or just made the side slow.
I could offer ads on the server to any sponsor helping with a price like that. Perhaps anybody knows a company willing to help.

And if not a FRB Brick, perhaps a stack of 100 ones new and in order is enough too.

Markus

Well, if the price be a whole brick, I think we'd need a sponsor. If it was a stack of 100...we should be able to all chip in and pony that up on our own.

Given that we are ad-free, I'm inclined to go the 100 route, instead of the brick.

And you are more than welcome, Markus, if you wish...to grab that map of mine for use as an auto-created map for profiles. I'm totally cool with that.

dctim wrote:For the dates of November 23, 2010 to the end of January 2, 2011.

Every "sleeper" hit you get earns one point. I'm thinking of defining "sleeper" as over 90 days, but if people want to feedback and suggest a higher number, please do so.

Hey dctim,

Are we still doing this? If so, I can help you compile the data.

We ought to be doing this, and I feel a bit bad if my contest idea hijacked this thread.

I will create a new thread to continue any discussion of my idea...please don't discuss it here anymore...let's not ruin dctim's thread/contest here.

Had to lol that last comment, Kalisiin. Topic creep is fine with me.

I am happy to run the contest as stated and clarified above.

All contestants will have their join date compared to Jan 1, 2011.
The number of days between their join date and 01/01/2011 will be multiplied by 25 % (rounded up to an integer).
For each hit they get from their first 25 % of time on Trackdollar, they receive 1 point in the standings.
I will update the standings a few times a week, depending on how busy I am.
Standard $ 10 prize.

I will backfill the standings to Nov 23 as stated above.

Here is my table of qualified hits between Nov 23 and Nov 28. If you see anyhting in error, let me know.

The items in the "Hits" column are the original dates of entry for the hit. I have not figured out how I am going to handle multi-hit bills.

Who	Count	Joined	# Days	Compare Date	Hits
Dr.WillStamper	5	2/6/2010	82	4/29/2010	2/17/2010 -- 3/26/2010 -- 2/18/2010 -- 2/17/2010 -- 3/15/2010
Kalisiin	4	7/29/2010	39	9/6/2010	8/22/2010 -- 8/26/2010 -- 9/4/2010 -- 9/4/2010
Darrel	3	3/30/2010	69	6/7/2010	4/21/2010 -- 5/8/2010 -- 5/29/2010
Tony	2	2/26/2010	77	5/14/2010	3/26/2010 -- 4/6/2010

VERY NICE!!
And I didn't have to do a thing...totally painless, lol

And thanks for being gracious about topic creep, but, sincerely, this thread needs to be about your contest, Tim, not mine.

EDIT: I had a thought about multi-hit bills. It seems to me that for the purposes of this contest, it would not be possible to have a multi-sleeper.

Suppose I had a bill from my first days, just now hit in Los Angeles. That is a sleeper hit. If it is then hit 2 days later, in San Diego...it wasn't a sleeper anymore. So the San Diego hit would not count for the purposes of this contest.

Similarly...if a bill from my first days had been hit in Seattle on Nov. 15th, prior to the start of this contest...and then got hit on Nov. 30th in Portland, Oregon...the Portland hit would not count as a sleeper hit, since the bill was not, by any definition, a sleeper, as it had been heard from two weeks previously.

A "sleeper" is a bill with a long time between the previous hit and the current hit. This contest is not long enough duration to occasion a sleeper bill to get hit...then to again become a sleeper...and then hit again...which is the only way, I believe, one could count it as a sleeper being hit twice. After all, the month and a half duration of this contest...does not qualify as a long enough time between hits for a bill to once again become a sleeper.

Thus, a sleeper hit once, would become not a sleeper. And when hit again, it is not a sleeper being hit...but a recently-woken-up bill gaining a second hit.

Does this make sense?

Now, as to "days" which is where your weighting is coming into play...it seems that any bill by Dr. Stamper...which had not been heard from in at least 82 days...would be, for his purposes, considered a sleeper. In my case, it is 39 days. SO...it wouldn't be just bills entered in his first 82 days that mattered...but ANY hit he got in the time period - which had not been heard from for at least 82 days prior. Likewise, for me, it would be 39.

Unless you want to make it not a "sleeper" contest...but rather a "how many bills from your first 25% of your time on TD got hit?" contest. Again...if one from my early days (see above example of the Seattle/Portland hit) well...as a sleeper it would not qualify for this contest...but if what you're measuring is "how many hits on bills initially entered in the user's first 25% of time on TD" then the Portland hit WOULD count.

Did I confuse anyone here?

Basically, we should clear up whether this is a "sleeper" contest...or an "early entrants" contest.

I went with the 25 % rule for one main reason - it levels the playing field. I would need a hit from my first 149 days, much tougher for me than you getting a hit from your first 39 days. Since many of us have not been at Trackdollar for a year, it seems only fair that this "sleeper" contest have a different definition.

In regard to multi-hits, I was thinking they could count in the contest in a couple of different ways.
(A) You get a hit on a bill that is already a "sleeper". I would like to see at least a day or two between hits to assure circulation.
(B) You get a second hit on a bill that was first hit in your 25 % window. Most of our users have been around long enough that I think this is valid to count.

Neither of these have happened so far.

SJPnightowl82 enteres the standings with a hit on his Fourth bill entered - nice!

Who	Count	Joined	# Days	Compare Date	Hits
Dr.WillStamper	8	2/6/2010	82	4/29/2010	2/17/2010 -- 3/26/2010 -- 2/18/2010 -- 2/17/2010 -- 3/15/2010 3/30/2010 -- 3/3/2010 -- 3/26/2010
Kalisiin	4	7/29/2010	39	9/6/2010	8/22/2010 -- 8/26/2010 -- 9/4/2010 -- 9/4/2010
Darrel	3	3/30/2010	69	6/7/2010	4/21/2010 -- 5/8/2010 -- 5/29/2010
Tony	2	2/26/2010	77	5/14/2010	3/26/2010 -- 4/6/2010
SJPnightowl82	1	2/10/2010	81	5/2/2010	2/10/2010

dctim wrote:I went with the 25 % rule for one main reason - it levels the playing field. I would need a hit from my first 149 days, much tougher for me than you getting a hit from your first 39 days. Since many of us have not been at Trackdollar for a year, it seems only fair that this "sleeper" contest have a different definition.

In regard to multi-hits, I was thinking they could count in the contest in a couple of different ways.
(A) You get a hit on a bill that is already a "sleeper". I would like to see at least a day or two between hits to assure circulation.
(B) You get a second hit on a bill that was first hit in your 25 % window. Most of our users have been around long enough that I think this is valid to count.

Neither of these have happened so far.

I doubt either one will. But, just my thoughts on it...you make the contest, you make the rules.

I understand all about the 25% thing, as a means of leveling the playing field so that newer Trackers have a fair chance of winning, and the huge advantage of being a long-timer is minimized...thus all get a fair shot at winning.

luvun8 joins the contest today with a hit from her first day at TrackDollar.

None of the many direct hits yesterday for runninchik or Crazy Capercaillie qualify, sorry folks.

Who	Count	Joined	# Days	Compare Date	Hits
Dr.WillStamper	8	2/6/2010	82	4/29/2010	2/17/2010 -- 3/26/2010 -- 2/18/2010 -- 2/17/2010 -- 3/15/2010 3/30/2010 -- 3/3/2010 -- 3/26/2010
Kalisiin	5	7/29/2010	39	9/6/2010	8/22/2010 -- 8/26/2010 -- 9/4/2010 -- 9/4/2010 -- 8/26/2010
Darrel	5	3/30/2010	69	6/7/2010	4/21/2010 -- 5/8/2010 -- 5/29/2010 -- 5/19/2010 -- 5/7/2010
Tony	2	2/26/2010	77	5/14/2010	3/26/2010 -- 4/6/2010
SJPnightowl82	1	2/10/2010	81	5/2/2010	2/10/2010
luvun8	1	3/10/2010	74	5/23/2010	3/10/2010

dctim wrote:luvun8 joins the contest today with a hit from her first day at TrackDollar.

This is my mom I'm hoping to do a trade of several hundred georges when I go for a visit next month

Well, hello Aaron's mom, and welcome to TD!

The only 2 hits that qualify from December 1 were both Aaron's.

Who	Count	Joined	# Days	Compare Date	Hits
Dr.WillStamper	10	2/6/2010	82	4/29/2010	2/17/2010 -- 3/26/2010 -- 2/18/2010 -- 2/17/2010 -- 3/15/2010 3/30/2010 -- 3/3/2010 -- 3/26/2010 -- 3/30/2010 -- 3/26/2010
Kalisiin	5	7/29/2010	39	9/6/2010	8/22/2010 -- 8/26/2010 -- 9/4/2010 -- 9/4/2010 -- 8/26/2010
Darrel	5	3/30/2010	69	6/7/2010	4/21/2010 -- 5/8/2010 -- 5/29/2010 -- 5/19/2010 -- 5/7/2010
Tony	2	2/26/2010	77	5/14/2010	3/26/2010 -- 4/6/2010
SJPnightowl82	1	2/10/2010	81	5/2/2010	2/10/2010
luvun8	1	3/10/2010	74	5/23/2010	3/10/2010

dctim wrote:The only 2 hits that qualify from December 1 were both Aaron's.

Unfortunately over 95% of the 27,000+ bills I have entered were submitted before early August. So nearly every hit I get will put me further ahead in this contest

I feel like I have an unfair advantage, even with your scaling system