Managing the admin for our Brute Force Competition has become a tedious and time-sucking task. To @Solitude’s credit, he has stuck with it through all of the BFCs since the first one here back in 2018. And, if memory serves, he managed a similar challenge before then when the old guard were posting on MyGaming. As we ran through the competition last year it became apparent that the admin side of things was becoming increasingly hard for Soli to find the time to dedicate to. Totally understandably so, in my opinion. <insert “ain’t no one got time for dat” meme here>
With that in mind, I started to think of ways to streamline the competition’s administration for future iterations. Subsequently, with Soli indicating that he’d be unable to manage the BFC this year, I am here to pitch my proposed changes to the competition and to call for other suggestions and ideas from the collective.
First off, I want to start calling it the Brute Force Challenge rather than competition. It’s a me thing.
Obviously, we don’t want to stray too far from the original reasons that the Brute Force Challenge was started in the first place: to create a continual stream of new content for the Most Epic Win site and forum. Even now, five plus years later, new content being added to MEW is still important. I have other ideas about increasing MEWs profile using social media and content platforms like Twitch and YouTube. They’re all secondary to having content to promote and share online in the first place. We want eyeballs, we need stuff for those eyeballs to look at first.
With that in mind, I feel that we need to continue to keep the Challenge’s focus on building the site’s content through the posting of new articles to the site, and through the creation of new topics on the forum. With just three fundamental changes, I think we can still keep to that ideal and to the spirit of the original competition.
First big change: we switch from a Weekly to a Monthly system. This one change will immediately, and significantly, reduce the number of occasions the Challenge Administrator would need to find dedicated time to calculate, count, check, update, and tabulate the scores. If we run the Challenge from February to November, there’ll only be 10 times that points need to be calculated, as opposed to the over 40 we have on a weekly basis.
Second big change: we focus attention on the creation of new content and reward it. At the moment, creating a post, creating a new topic, and posting a relatively small number of comments, are all of equal value. I propose that we make the creation of new articles significantly more beneficial, add more value to the creation of new topics, and make the number of replies a shared value thing.
Third big change: no “must do x amount” weekly requirements for the participants. If you can’t think of something to post this week because it’s a quiet week nerd stuff wise, or you’re just too busy with the real-life stuff, you don’t have to force out a random topic late on Sunday evening just to feel that you’ve met your obligation. You can go for weeks without making any new posts or articles, and then create two new articles and three new topics all on the same day.
So, some suggested revised BFC rules to start the conversation:
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The Challenge runs over ten calendar months, from 1 February to 30 November. Points are tallied on the 1st of each new month for the previous month. Points will be tabulated on a publicly accessible Google Sheet.
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In any calendar month, participants can earn points by posting up to 5 new site articles and creating up to 10 new forum topics. Additional monthly bonus points can be earned on a weighted scale, based on the total number of comments made by all Challenge participants in that month. (Of course, participants can create more than 5 articles and 10 topics in any month, if they’d like.)
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Challenge Points are calculated at the end of each calendar month by the Challenge Administrator, based on the following:
- Each published site article, to a maximum of five articles, earns the Participant 3 points. A maximum of 15 points for articles per month can be earned.
- Each new topic created, to a maximum of ten topics, earns the Participant 2 points. A maximum of 20 points for topics per month can be earned.
- A monthly pool of 100 points will be shared amongst all Challenge Participants for topic comments and replies made through the month. The share of these 100 points earned will be weighted based on the proportion of comments made by the Participant in relation to the total number of comments made by all the Participants in that month. (See example below.)
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The system generated value of each Participant’s “Posts Created” will be used for the calculation of each Participants monthly topic comments and replies, and subsequently, the combined number of comments and replies made by all Participants in that month. (See example below.)
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Prize money pledged is divided amongst the three participants with the highest scores at the end of the Challenge period with a 55:30:15 split. Should any of the top three point scores finish the Challenge on equal points their prize amounts will be combined and shared equally.
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The Challenge is open to any MEW member, with a user account in good standing (no Admin flags) older than 3 months on 1 February, who wants to participate. Participants should ideally declare their intention to participate by 31 January in order to maximise their point scoring. However, members can join the Challenge as Participants at any point before 31 May, but points will not be retroactively awarded for contributions made in months prior to joining the Challenge. Participants must formally declare their participation in the main BFC topic.
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Prize money sponsors must indicate their prize pledge amounts by the end of September at the latest. Sponsorship pledges should be made in the main BFC topic. Should a prize sponsor wish to remain anonymous, they will still need to declare their pledge to either the Challenge Administrator in private, or to @SigStart The Grand Poobah, either of whom will act as facilitator.
Monthly topic replies/comments example:
| Participant | Number Comments | % of Total = Points |
|---|---|---|
| Alpha | 45 | 28,5 |
| Bravo | 12 | 7,6 |
| Charlie | 38 | 24,0 |
| Delta | 63 | 39,9 |
| Total | 158 | 100 |
Participant’s number of comments will be based on the “posts created” value found in their MEW Profile Summary:
There’s a couple of other thoughts I have that can come later. In the meantime, thoughts, ideas, and opinions from others please.
But from what I have read in some of the comments, all the new ideas seem pretty solid!
You manually entered your post and article count on the main sheet, instead of listing your articles and topics on the sheet for March. Check the tabs at the bottom of the screen.