Competitions should be a good source for inbound traffic - Where good prizes are available, people will tell other people. Competitions can range from very simple "post in this thread" / "vote in this poll", to full on script writing to solve a problem or serve a purpose. The complexity of the competition should be directly relative the the value of the prize(s).
The competitions should have their own area on the website, and be linked to from within the main navigation. Although there is no 'widget' available for competitions on the home page, they can be publicised using the blog system, or if more appropriate, the news system.
Competition instances should consist of the following things:
Outline (What you have to do and how it will be judged, how to enter)
Rules (What you are, and are not, allowed to do; deadlines)
Judging Panel (Who is judging the entries)
Prizes (What is up for grabs, can be more than one winner)
Winners (Updated with winner(s) information when decided)
No elaborate tools are required for authoring competitions - PHP Freaks flavored markdown should be provided for any inputs and it is up to the author to create the required headings and content; the bullet points above are purely a suggestion. A tagging system would be useful where a competition could be tagged with the language name (if the task is to write code) allowing people to narrow down the competitions that are suitable for them.
Due to the varied nature of the competitions, it is difficult to define a consistent method of accepting entries into the competitions, as some might be a case of posting in a thread; voting on a poll; submitting a code package; submitting a picture etc. It should be up to the author how submissions are managed. We could set-up a competitions@phpfreaks.com address for accepting file based submissions with the competition identifier used as the subject line, alternatively, a system could be developed/integrated that allows file upload and management which links to both the user and the competition.
Competitions should be archived 7 days after the winner has been announced, this gives sufficient time for all those involved to check the outcome - Although it would be helpful if the competition organiser messaged all those who participated with the results.
Competitions should be a good source for inbound traffic - Where good prizes are available, people will tell other people. Competitions can range from very simple "post in this thread" / "vote in this poll", to full on script writing to solve a problem or serve a purpose. The complexity of the competition should be directly relative the the value of the prize(s).
The competitions should have their own area on the website, and be linked to from within the main navigation. Although there is no 'widget' available for competitions on the home page, they can be publicised using the blog system, or if more appropriate, the news system.
Competition instances should consist of the following things:
No elaborate tools are required for authoring competitions - PHP Freaks flavored markdown should be provided for any inputs and it is up to the author to create the required headings and content; the bullet points above are purely a suggestion. A tagging system would be useful where a competition could be tagged with the language name (if the task is to write code) allowing people to narrow down the competitions that are suitable for them.
Due to the varied nature of the competitions, it is difficult to define a consistent method of accepting entries into the competitions, as some might be a case of posting in a thread; voting on a poll; submitting a code package; submitting a picture etc. It should be up to the author how submissions are managed. We could set-up a competitions@phpfreaks.com address for accepting file based submissions with the competition identifier used as the subject line, alternatively, a system could be developed/integrated that allows file upload and management which links to both the user and the competition.
Competitions should be archived 7 days after the winner has been announced, this gives sufficient time for all those involved to check the outcome - Although it would be helpful if the competition organiser messaged all those who participated with the results.