Looking for ideas for contests!

[TaliaNCo]

As the title states, im looking for ideas for contests. Feel free to post your ideas here or PM me directly.

If someone posts an idea you dont like, please keep your comments to yourself. I will not tolerate rudeness toward other members.

Thank you for your help and support. Feel free to ask questions as well.

[Sarah]

What happened to the results of that Southperry Q&A?

[TaliaNCo]

What happened to the results of that Southperry Q&A?

Honestly Sarah, we didn't get a huge response on that one unfortunately. :(

[SwordStaker]

Lets seeeeee.
1)In forum Pokemon tourneys
2)Same with Yu-gi-oh
3)Drawing contest
All.I can think of for now

[chrome]

story writing contest do a story writing contest

[Rayquaza2233]

story writing contest do a story writing contest

I think some kind of art contest would be cool, be it story writing, drawing, whatever.

[Raul]

Debate Tourney?
Mud Wrestling?
Southperry Scavenger Hunt?
IRC chat with GMS GM's?

[Shidoshi]

I support the idea of a scavenger hunt, make us go around our cities and take pictures of us doing silly things.

[chrome]

or you could do something similar to weffriddles (http://www.weffriddles.com/). you should probably solve them for a few levels if you don't know what i mean.

[Sarah]

I agree with Ben (chrome), a Maple-related story writing contest, like the one Nexon has failed to produce results for, would be fun.

[Rayquaza2233]

IRC chat with GMS GM's?

This is not in our control.

[xLeviathan]

or you could do something similar to weffriddles (http://www.weffriddles.com/). you should probably solve them for a few levels if you don't know what i mean.

You just got me addicted to this. Dang you...

[Jon]

or you could do something similar to weffriddles (http://www.weffriddles.com/). you should probably solve them for a few levels if you don't know what i mean.

This this this, oh please, this.

[Corn]

I'm 1upping the Pokemon tourney. I could help you with the OU and UU stuff :f3:.

Even though this is a Maplestory forum...

[Raul]

I could do riddles.
I mean, I did do All (http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/2113563/0/Its_Riddle_Time_IIX.html) of (http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/1990089/0/Its_RIDDLE_TIME.html) these ("http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/2023039/0/Its_RIDDLE_TIME_IV.html), plus a couple more.
I'd be up for that, if you guys want.

[Sarah]

This this this, oh please, this.

Couldn't get passed the instructions.

[Abysseon]

Possibly another banner contest or one of the suggested writing contests.

[Shidoshi]

I'm 1upping the Pokemon tourney. I could help you with the OU and UU stuff :f3:.

Even though this is a Maplestory forum...

This could just as well be on Forum Games. I'd participate for sure (and fail greatly).

[Eos]

What happened to the results of that Southperry Q&A?


Donation Related Questions




2nd:
I'd Like to help southperry money wise but I'm not a fan of the current payment options. I click the ads but I'm not even sure that helps, anyways will there be new options to donate to southperry?


Ads are the single best revenue source the site has. Clicking them definitely helps.
Purchasing any items you get from Amazon.com via the Southperry referral link so we get 6% is probably your second best chance to contribute. Even unregistered users/lurkers can do that and no information about you is shared with the site, keeping it anonymous. The only downside is you also can't be rewarded for doing it.
At this time there are no plans for other ways, if you have any ideas suggest them because everything we've considered has failed to get interest.
The biggest problem with finding ways to contribute is that the number of people who actually can/will/want to contribute is so small its more time and effort to create ways than they are ever likely to earn. (see #6)



6th:
Do moderators have any bias by infracting nondonators over donators?
Or is there any rule over that? I don't mean one time $5 donators, I mean consistent donators that really help to keep the site alive.


I'm effectively the only one who can see who's donated how much, so no. That's not a bias they're capable of.
That aside, there's also no one who does any such thing. There have only been 46 donations via the market since it's inception.
35% of those occurred the week of my disaster and another 30% the week the market opened. Keep in mind also that the total raised there was only ~200.
Donations are definitely not a massive source of income. Some people are very generous but as far microtransactions go they're only profitible in huge quantities and that is something we just don't have/get.


WeekStart|Bans|Warnings|Infractions|Threads|Posts| Blogs|SocialGroupPosts|KarmaPurchases|MarketTransa ctions
2010-11-14|3|0|3|319|6512|8|1|13|236
2010-11-21|3|0|3|342|6158|18|12|3|171
2010-11-28|1|0|1|344|6946|16|9|1|58
2010-12-05|1|0|1|526|9024|10|3|0|16
2010-12-12|2|0|2|410|6993|10|0|0|16
2010-12-19|2|0|1|438|6698|7|3|2|11
2010-12-26|0|0|0|415|5599|4|0|3|20
2011-01-02|0|0|0|376|5267|6|0|0|6
2011-01-09|4|0|4|425|6106|13|2|1|18
2011-01-16|0|0|0|407|6838|15|4|0|9
2011-01-23|1|0|1|346|5657|13|0|1|8
2011-01-30|0|0|0|381|5987|7|4|1|3
2011-02-06|1|0|1|349|5178|12|5|0|0
2011-02-13|0|0|0|292|5141|13|2|0|4
2011-02-20|0|0|1|427|6434|18|26|0|2
2011-02-27|0|0|0|329|6293|13|24|1|8
2011-03-06|1|0|1|383|6081|13|23|0|3
2011-03-13|0|0|0|299|5341|13|5|0|0
2011-03-20|0|0|0|305|5180|4|13|0|3
2011-03-27|1|7|3|301|5191|11|21|1|4
2011-04-03|0|8|3|284|4622|12|7|1|4
2011-04-10|0|9|1|278|5011|11|28|0|2
2011-04-17|1|3|2|294|5343|18|51|0|0
2011-04-24|1|3|4|308|6290|12|68|16|87
2011-05-01|2|5|7|309|6200|16|88|1|1
2011-05-08|2|7|7|301|6226|11|32|0|14
2011-05-15|1|4|5|269|5992|15|19|0|15
2011-05-22|0|7|5|258|5294|10|30|0|14
2011-05-29|3|19|15|285|5313|10|11|0|8
2011-06-05|2|5|5|250|5428|8|16|1|3
2011-06-12|3|11|7|285|5485|6|53|0|5
Total|35|88|83|10535|183828|353|560|46|749








Obscenity Related Questions




3rd:
This is a completely serious question, and I swear I'm not pulling your leg.
I'm pretty sure I heard someone say I can't post pictures of shirtless men. Is this true?



http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=1#Obscenity

rr_obscenity

Key point being "in any degree of undress, including but not limited to bathing suits, or in a manner that sexualizes or eroticizes them."



8th:
If an anthropormorphic something or other is normally undressed, is it against the rules to post them at all?
Example:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wuSqJG5bIKE/S2qtxHzrgQI/AAAAAAAAARA/eE6QmhJiZJ4/s320/CalvinHobbes.gif


If they're not anatomically anthroporphic and not being sexualized or eroticized in any way, including implication.

Sailor Moon's transform scene is normally undressed, but being anatomical would be a violation.
Winnie-The-Pooh is pantsless naturally but not anatomical and would be acceptible providing he's not being sexualized in some way.





Feature Related Questions





5th:
The site gets most of its traffic when new extractions are available.
Would the amount of registered users go up if it was only for members? Would the traffic go down because of the hassle to sign up? Those 100 guests could become regular members? Just something i always thought of asking.


If extractions were only available to registered users we'd have less traffic, not more registered users.
The extractions as you say are what lure people in, making them more available makes them a better lure. To grow we have to put our goods out where they can be seen.

Not to be mean but registered users are not particularly valuable, compared to unregistered users. Registration is mostly a convenience for the user, letting them change how they interact with the site, and letting them communicate with each other for the particularly social ones.
The site gets virtually nothing out of you registering here, unless you happen to donate, but we get far more money from ads than donations.

Here's some data for the curious;


LogDate|UnReg|Reg|Grand Total|% Reg||LogDate|UnReg|Reg|Grand Total|% Reg
2011-05-01|55935|13997|69932|20%||2011-05-01|6693|809|7502|11%
2011-05-02|49251|15237|64488|24%||2011-05-02|6025|856|6881|12%
2011-05-03|47438|13044|60482|22%||2011-05-03|5889|818|6707|12%
2011-05-04|54739|12590|67329|19%||2011-05-04|6214|846|7060|12%
2011-05-05|72675|13292|85967|15%||2011-05-05|6109|836|6945|12%
2011-05-06|60191|15579|75770|21%||2011-05-06|5983|854|6837|12%
2011-05-07|43937|14115|58052|24%||2011-05-07|6723|827|7550|11%
2011-05-08|66457|16888|83345|20%||2011-05-08|6820|856|7676|11%
2011-05-09|54892|19661|74553|26%||2011-05-09|5310|870|6180|14%
2011-05-10|50026|13476|63502|21%||2011-05-10|5479|825|6304|13%
2011-05-11|64563|13496|78059|17%||2011-05-11|5620|812|6432|13%
2011-05-12|55316|12070|67386|18%||2011-05-12|5701|783|6484|12%
2011-05-13|46729|11682|58411|20%||2011-05-13|5837|792|6629|12%
2011-05-14|44746|11215|55961|20%||2011-05-14|6651|770|7421|10%
2011-05-15|46027|11053|57080|19%||2011-05-15|7020|805|7825|10%
2011-05-16|51342|15082|66424|23%||2011-05-16|6902|866|7768|11%
2011-05-17|93536|16625|110161|15%||2011-05-17|7063|904|7967|11%
2011-05-18|67051|14344|81395|18%||2011-05-18|7506|889|8395|11%
2011-05-19|68415|18578|86993|21%||2011-05-19|9585|904|10489|9%
2011-05-20|60044|15714|75758|21%||2011-05-20|8036|872|8908|10%
2011-05-21|77108|19694|96802|20%||2011-05-21|8075|808|8883|9%
2011-05-22|93793|16440|110233|15%||2011-05-22|8601|772|9373|8%
2011-05-23|64220|17950|82170|22%||2011-05-23|8003|775|8778|9%
2011-05-24|63172|14468|77640|19%||2011-05-24|7937|699|8636|8%
2011-05-25|76358|13083|89441|15%||2011-05-25|10159|549|10708|5%
Grand Total|1527961|369373|1897334|19%||Grand Total|173941|20397|194338|10%



Left set is hits, right set is unique IP addresses.

So registered users make up about 20% of traffic but only 10% of unique sources of traffic.
Or another way, registered users are about twice as active as unregistered, but a drop in the bucket.
At best registered users are an incremental credit to the site based on the volume of traffic generated reading their material but most registered users are lurkers, not posters (see chart below).

UnderTen|AboveTen|AboveFifty|AboveHundred|AboveFiv eHundred|AboveThousand
6294|874|257|451|109|95


Which again is 22% of registered users who have posted more than 10 things, ever.








7th: (the only reason I even posted this one was because maybe we should let users know who to contact for such things?)

Question: I know a mathematical formula which MapleStory-users of Southperry may/will have use for.
I have programmed it and it runs fast (i.e. it will not burn resources) - or I have made the program client-sided.
I do not wish for any credit, though I want the formula to stay on this website only.
Who do I contact, and what is the requirements for formulas (so I do not waste anyone's time), if any?



Formulas belong in the Game Mechanics section of the forum.
http://www.southperry.net/forumdisplay.php?f=9037

Calculators for formulas are handled on a case by case basis. Client sided calculators are frowned upon unless they're open source or an interpreted language like python/vbscript/jscript.

For any functional content you want to contribute to the site you should PM the site owner to discuss feasibility, terms, issues and options.






Miscellaneous questions





1st:
a) What's with the word filters?
b) Am I allowed to bypass them?
c) Is cursing allowed in general?
d) Why is there a chinchilla, pineapple, goggles and toast emoticons?





a) They amused Fiel and became part of the local sub-culture. They're effectively inside-jokes.
b) There is no penalty for bypassing them other than looking gormless. Clever users actually know what to type to swear effectively & clearly when they want to.
c) There is no profanity restriction provided you do not flame someone or wander into obscenity. The full list of rules can be viewed here.
d) They amused us.






4th:
What do you use to extract MapleStory wz. files and is there a guide to use it or something?
And will Nexon ban you for this?


Fiel designed his own system for extractions. It's not a publicly available tool. You can search the internet for public extraction utilities and code but should be wary of potential viruses and worse.
Nexon can not ban you for extracting their file info, they have no way of knowing you've done it. If you try modifying your .wz files you can and most likely will get banned for it. Reading them is perfectly fine.

[Raul]

I'm now addicted to Weffriddles.
Let's hold off on this, and just do those for a while, k?

[Shidoshi]

Though there weren't many entries they still look useful for FAQ.

[Eos]

Lol, looks like I was the first to submit something to that questions thing.

The order was randomized, once by Tals when she posted and again by me when I grouped them for answering.

[Berzerk]

It's kind of sad that the themes we had were never imported over when we received the vBullitin upgrade, especially since we had some really nice themes done by Isaac and Mira. We should do a theming contest, best 2-3 themes get implemented, best theme gets a grand prize. You could also do subcategories, like Banners, Icons, whatever if people don't want to create a whole theme, because that would require a lot of work.

Also, since Southperry is known for it's extractions, it'd be nice if someone could put together a pack of sprites for us to use.

[Eos]

We're still waiting for vBulletin to unfrelck the theme system before we implement any new ones.
To add a new theme right now requires effectively rewriting a quarter of the actual logic of who sees what for some idiotic reason. Every time.

[Retalion]

I'd like to see some in game events. Perhaps like the original Southperry Zakum/Scar/Targ run (okay, so zak is a pushover for many of us, but it'd be fun either way, minus how hard it is to get in).

One that I think would be really cool, given we have the participation is a CPQ tournament (remember back when people did these without trading wins?) in a world with almost none of us playing in (Chaos?), and just battling it out to see who Southperry's best CPQer is or something.

Other ideas: Omok/match card tournament (Do people still play these?...do they still exist?), jump quest race.

And of course, the others suggested here that allow for expression of mind (art contests, writing contests, music contests?)

[Shidoshi]

I'd like to see some in game events. Perhaps like the original Southperry Zakum/Scar/Targ run (okay, so zak is a pushover for many of us, but it'd be fun either way, minus how hard it is to get in).

One that I think would be really cool, given we have the participation is a CPQ tournament (remember back when people did these without trading wins?) in a world with almost none of us playing in (Chaos?), and just battling it out to see who Southperry's best CPQer is or something.

Other ideas: Omok/match card tournament (Do people still play these?...do they still exist?), jump quest race.

And of course, the others suggested here that allow for expression of mind (art contests, writing contests, music contests?)

In game events are kind of hard considering a lot of the active people on the forum don't play anymore and even then we are spread through different servers.

[Eos]

Other ideas: Omok/match card tournament (Do people still play these?...do they still exist?)


Can you even play omok/match cards on servers that have come out since monster cards stopped dropping?
IE: Have they actually made a way to get sets now?

[Raul]

In game events are kind of hard considering a lot of the active people on the forum don't play anymore and even then we are spread through different servers.

Yeah, those would be nice for the people in Windia or Scania, but I only know of 1 other (common) person from Gali.

[Retalion]

In game events are kind of hard considering a lot of the active people on the forum don't play anymore and even then we are spread through different servers.

Well, the idea I was mostly referring to was maybe a CPQ competition. I understand that not many people play the game anymore, and that everyone's spread out through different servers, but getting to 50 nowadays is really easy, and it wouldn't be too tedious, especially if you're doing it together with a bunch of people on the forums. So why not log in for a few hours, get to 50, and take part in such a competition?

I'm not entirely sure, and you'd have to ask Rusty, but when he hosted the All-SP zak run, people from other servers showed up on noobs to hang out and whatnot. So while they arent actually participating in the event, the gathering itself is fun.

[ImagineAll]

Not to be rude, but as the event coordinator, isn't it your job to create and coordinate these events? It's been awhile since we've seen our last event, and nothing thus far has really stood out or been that interesting. I don't mind the solicitation of ideas from the forum, but I feel as though you're always calling on others to do your own job :<

[Eos]

Not to be rude, but as the event coordinator, isn't it your job to create and coordinate these events?

Her job is to be the staff member that runs events and ensures they go smoothly with appropriate supervision and free from any bias.
There's no requirement for her to think of them, though she has actually provided several that are on hold for various reasons.

Since one of the most common complaints is lack of community involvement it's rather hypocritical to complain when she tries to involve the community in her role, isn't it?

[xBTAx]

I know another site I go on once did an art contest for forum avatars and then all the entries got added to "Edit Avatar" as choices for people who didn't want to use their own custom one. Don't know if that's worth doing here, but I thought it'd be worth suggesting.

[Eos]

That would be an interesting contest idea, and one we could support easily.

[MetaSeraphim]

Do we really need another art contest though? I believe all the past contests have been art related as well and that kind of limits the field on who can enter.

Not that I have any non-art contest ideas, just putting it out there.

[chrome]

if we actually do go through with a story writing contest i'd happily judge it; i was an active contributor to sleepywood's writer's corner for the 2 years it was active and i enjoy reading others' works.

[Eos]

Do we really need another art contest though?

Having the ideas available is better than nothing. Avatar contests are a lot easier than most of the other art ones, too, because almost anyone can make avatars. The extra skill only comes in handy for going the extra mile, which doesn't always help when you're making something for generic usage.

Another art contest we haven't done yet but has already been on the waiting list I'll mention just because;

An ETL signature banner template.

Similar to what Perion corner used to make, you'd plug in an IGN and get a banner you can use in your signature that includes your ETL info for whatever range you gave it. ie: southperry.net/ETLIMG.php?ign=bob&level=150 would show how long till bob would reach 150, with avatar, xp per day, time till 150 and a southperry watermark.

The background/template for that has to be designed from scratch still. The flood and rewriting of the ETL system has put that one on hold but the ETL system will be back again soon so it's time to reconsider whether that will be a good means of advertising and info or not.

[Rick]

Southperry's Next Top Model.

[aslemn]

I agree with Ben (chrome), a Maple-related story writing contest, like the one Nexon has failed to produce results for, would be fun.

This, for god's sake, this. :>

[MrTouchnGo]

Create your own class with skills?
I've not been on Southperry for long, so I don't know what kind of events you have hosted in the past. O:

[Fius]

South Perry's very own Chinchilla appreciation day!
Cake and snacks. BBQ and liquor. Louis CK hosting the event, and lots of high class musical performances, and of course everyone dressed as chinchillas.
Free goggles for everyone~!
Edit: Well it's not a contest. More of an event..crap.

[Shidoshi]

I think member participation has been low because most events are utility events, without much entertainment involved.

[Pixie]

Since it's hard to do some in-game activities, how about holding events on other websites. Games, most likely? Like OMGPOP, TetrisFriends, something along those lines. At least in OMGPOP rooms people that aren't playing can spectate the games.

Or is there a vB game server you can attach to the site? Not sure if Eos remembers this but a forum from long long ago there was an arcade, which was quite fun. More like an ongoing thing rather than event, but you could make tournaments between members.

[Eos]

Or is there a vB game server you can attach to the site? Not sure if Eos remembers this but a forum from long long ago there was an arcade, which was quite fun. More like an ongoing thing rather than event, but you could make tournaments between members.

I remember it and it's been brought up before, just never found a decently feasible way to do it here, except from scratch.

[Locked]

Arcade games sound fun.
An old forum I used to visit used to do it and I played the bubble shooting game to pass time when I was bored.

[Sarah]

Since it's hard to do some in-game activities, how about holding events on other websites. Games, most likely? Like OMGPOP, TetrisFriends, something along those lines. At least in OMGPOP rooms people that aren't playing can spectate the games.

Or is there a vB game server you can attach to the site? Not sure if Eos remembers this but a forum from long long ago there was an arcade, which was quite fun. More like an ongoing thing rather than event, but you could make tournaments between members.

Oh this is a good idea.

iSketch tournament!

[Mazz]

Having a contest for OMGPOP games would be fun! Also, since gMS just got PvP, if there are enough people interested maybe there could be some sort of Southperry PvP tourney? Different servers would be a bit of an issue, but this might work for the bigger servers.

[Raul]

First to 200 event.
trollface.jpg

[Berzerk]

We're still waiting for vBulletin to unfrelck the theme system before we implement any new ones.
To add a new theme right now requires effectively rewriting a quarter of the actual logic of who sees what for some idiotic reason. Every time.

Wow, that's fucking retarded. Well, maybe in the near future, eh?

[Eos]

Wow, that's fucking retarded. Well, maybe in the near future, eh?

I'm not sure they can ever fix it. If they do it'll require us rewriting the entire existing theme into whatever they do to separate out the pieces.

I think they've abandoned multiple themes as a concept entirely in favor of letting users pick their own individual theme settings like you can do in your profile.

[Ladon]

The game thing sounds fun.

I kind of disagree with any "artistic" events due to the fact that a lot of times they rely on were you lucky enough to be born with that talent, and art can be...very subjective. What one person might find amazing, another could find to be disgusting.

[Shidoshi]

The game thing sounds fun.

I kind of disagree with any "artistic" events due to the fact that a lot of times they rely on were you lucky enough to be born with that talent, and art can be...very subjective. What one person might find amazing, another could find to be disgusting.

The same could be said about gaming abilities.

[octopusprime]

The same could be said about gaming abilities.

But we've had less of them.

[Manu]

Oh this is a good idea.

iSketch tournament!

That sounds fun.
Also I got addicted to weffriddles too, that'd be fun too. No cheating though!
One last thing, if there's a pokemon thing there could be a League of Legends too since there's a few players here and I know I'm not the only one that would enjoy some SP tournament or something.

[Mike]

Ooh! Something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzxROmIXxjU&feature=fvst

Everyone records a short Maple clip (like a small skit) and we all compile them into one video. Best clip is chosen the winner. Too bad I don't know any recording programs.