I understand that all voting and judging process may have flaws, but my project was the most featured in the LED class (http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-technology/channel-leds/?sort=FEATURED): the 10W LED lamp, and don't won ANY of the 13 prizes of the contest. Well, this is not very consistent, isn't it?
I understand where you are comming from. One of my projects got featured, which I was really chuffed with, even more so when it said it represents the cream of the crop (my words but the right sentiment). Then I noticed another project that I thought looked very interesting. I started to read it and noticed that while it done a resonable job some of the information wasn't exactly right. Then I noticed it got featured as well.
For me it toke some of the shine off of my featuredness. I don't begrudge anyone who has won, I didn't but that is life. However it has tarnished my desire to add more 'ibbles. I have a flourescent tube conversion waiting in the wings, but now lack the desire to complete it.
I'll finish saying well done to all those who have won!
It's unfortunate that your projects didn't win, but "thems the breaks". Hey, W was handed the election for president of the US, not once, but even more unbelieveably, twice! Weird things happen, even to regular people.
As for motivation to finish a project- all I can say is real makers make and it doesn't have anything to do with prizes.
Well, life is not fair... But I'm not a child, it's OK. Look my another instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Fast-hot-glue-mold-for-small-things/
I thought he was reefering to this being a retrofit , also any light that could put out this much light with this few watts should be considered futuristic .
One could also look at the "Jetsons" ,this would be the way people imagined the future long ago (retro-futuristic).
Instructables Team doesn't upload I'bles in the contests and purposely delays till last few days. I also don't believe how winners are voted ! After many emails, they finally host ur I'ble in the contest, as if they are doing u a favour !!
See my revolutionary design and judge for urself !
Ur I'bles are for babies & the circus. So i guess THOSE are revolutionary, not the energy saving ones ! ;-D
reg ketan -------------------------------------------------------- "May the good belong to all the people in the world. May the rulers go by the path of justice. May the best of men and their source always prove to be a blessing. May all the world rejoice in happiness. May rain come in time and plentifulness be on Earth. May this world be free from suffering and the noble ones be free from fears" ---- Vedic blessing
Your instructable is nice. Your pictures are blurry, though; I know they prefer lots of very clear, sharp pictures in instructables. The team also seems to like at least one picture for each step.
The contests aren't simply about who made something cool. Some of the criteria are the quality of the written instructions and the pictures that accompany them. It seems that the winning entries of contests in general tend to be really creative, unusual, and just plain neat, in addition to the (required) very clear instructions and photos.
Now I know., I just did a little observation with some of the finalist, with whom i thought the project seems hmmmm, sample the CREEPY CREATURE is a very simple project that anybody can make, yet the instruction provided was put into all its complexity that even shakespeare would mark 90%. I hope my observation was right..
Since this is a DIY site, the instructables are supposed to be explained so clearly and with enough detail and pictures that anyone who reads the instructable can make the project. :) I would think that instructables that win contests are ones that are most likely to make people say to themselves, "Hey that's really neat! I never thought of doing that - but I'm going to go make one right now!"
I am truly stunned to have somehow outdone some of the runners up. And even a few of the projects that didn't get a prize. But thank you to the Instrucables team for the motivation to finally do something with that dead pinball machine that was taking up space in my living room!
My wife likes it enough that we might actually be keeping the thing! Played Dungeons and Dragons on it with her 11 year old son last night... as part of his 11th birthday celebration... Yes, geek in training!
I may not be a finalist cause its my first time, and i dont have any idea on what criteria the judges may have.. should it be as simply yet as functional or will it be as complicated yet no use... or maybe it depends on the judges personal hobby.. we all dont know., but what i know is that, i'm still going to try again next time.. and hopefully someday there will some form of CONCEPT or CRITERIA as to guide all participants. at least there will be reason on how they will go with the flow.
You know, I've entered in a lot of Instructables contests... Some I end up as a finalist, most not. But the process is still rewarding. And some of my projects - one that was just silly, and the other quite bland - have actually earned me more money than the contest prizes were worth that I wrote them for. With good content come good rewards (not that all the content i have is good) and everyone wins!
yea same here, especially with that elusive pocket knife! still haven't won one of those, but what I have won, well exceeds what I have put into all of my instructables combined if one wants to put a monetary value on it
just the positive feeling of being reasonably rated and the darn good amount of views (over 11,000 on this 20 min entry alone .. cant complain) is well worth it
Do I have issue with the "process"? yea, but really god could come down and bless a process and still there would be some issue, its just a silly contest you win some you loose a lot, if you had fun doing it, and people learn something or get to do something then IMO its worth doing
most of your instructables are featured, but i find the Doll very disturbing, it would make little girls cry... i'm sorry for that, but maybe it was chosen to be featured for that reason.. Now i'm more confuse, do I have to make disturbing item also? I'll just whatever I can next time... Thanks Bro
thank God its for halloween, i'm sorry., i would have not thought that someone as good looking as you could have created such with no reason. my bad, forgive me?
I think the way these should be judged is not by a vote then judging the top voted, because of all the ghost accounts and fake votes ppl get. They should get the JUDGES to JUDGE them! That's the judges job, an un-biased vote. I thought I had a pretty good 'Ible, somehow its in 100/117 or something...I think I beat more then 17 ppl...This site seems to be going down hill. More and more cruddy 'Ibles that are copies, aren't explained, are stupid ideas or are just plain dangerous. Sometimes I wonder how some of these get on here. They need to do better Moderating of new 'Ibles and periodically cleanse the site. I think after this contest and after my PRO membership runs out, I'm outta here, cause I can never find anything useful anymore. I find lots on the topic, but they are un-informant, shoty work or are poorly explained.
1.) They are judged by judges, but 12 of the 24 finalists are voted for, and the other 12 are picked by judges. Then the judges judge them and pick a winner. That way, the community has imput, but doesn't decide everyone for the judges to choose from.
2.) You are actually 58th. And you may have thought your Instructable was good, but just because people didn't vote for it doesn't mean it's not good. I thought it was very good.
3.) Some people don't put effort into their instructable, and don't take the time to think things through. And even though there is already an instructable on one topic, some people still post on that topic because they feel it wasn't explained well, and they can do better.
4.) Some people think their ideas are pretty good, or it is something they are passionate about. Other people may think that "stupid idea" is actually pretty good.
5.) The Admins don't take an Instructable off the site because it wasn't good quality, they give them a comment on improving it. Instructables is to share what you know, no matter the quality. It is not "Have good quality or don't get posted!"
6.) The dangerous stuff is sometimes just for instructional porpouse, or if not, give a very clear warning that it is dangerous.
7.) If you find a lot of Instructables on a subject that aren't explained well, combine them to get what you need. Or do research elsewhere and publish your own Instrutable on it.
8.) There are a lot of good instructables on this site. There are few that are so bad that you can't tell what they're trying to do.
Wow! 58th?!?! First time I saw it it was at 59, then dropped to 69 then 76, and all I saw was it dropping steadily. 58th is news to me!
I am not saying that some Instructables are stupid, they may not be on a topic I like, or they might be, but like you said its effort, more effort could be put in on some of them.
I agree with point 8 completely. But I always seem to find these more then anything else, so I think there is more then a few.
One thing though is that, I am not sating "High Quality, or you don't get it posted", but up the level of quality a bit. Its like if you go to an Encyclopedia. Its great that its filled with tons of facts and what not, but if half of its garbage, you have to weed through garbage to get good info. If you have all good info, there is less weeding out the bad facts on your topic and more good facts. So up the level of quality of new 'Ibles, not saying they have to be AMAZING, but make sure they aren't just adding mass to the site without adding some info.
I knew you were 58th by going to your profile page. Under recent entries it said, "Touch Sensitive RGB LED Mood Light by Wesley666, LED Contest rank: 58" And I kinda agree with the Iast paragraph.
P.S. I'm sorry for going on a rant. And I'm glad you just didn't post a mean, yelling-at-the-guy comment, but instead took it well.
I would like to make a TON of Instructables. I like creating projects and sharing. I also like the challenge and practice of making an Instructable that is complete, reads well, and has a little bit of levity.
I certainly don't have the free time to make all of the Instructables that I would like. So I use the contests as an excuse to get in an Instructable, provided that the subject is such that I can contribute intelligently. (Electronics related.)
I have one earlier Instructable of 70,000 views. This LED contest I entered the LED Array Module which has had less than 1% of the views. It isn't any less of an Instructable as I did my best to explain the subject as well as I could. It was entered in the contest certainly in the hope of winning, but it is an Instructable that will be here long after the contest is over.
You can enter something in the hopes of winning a contest. It can be a quality Instructable, or something hastily slapped together. All entered Instructables deserve a chance to win.
My motivation/excuse to enter is the contest. But I'm happy if I can look back at my Instructable and see that I made something with the clear explanation and quality that it takes to help someone learn.
I do enjoy knowing I made something useful that is clear and concise. However, if you entered a contest, with...I dunno, lets say some LED Clock that tells time by unscrambling the frequency from an Atomic Clock to give you precise time, and you were beaten by someone who taped an LED to a AA battery, would you not feel somewhat angry? Yes, everything should deserve a chance to win, but it should be fair, meaning no Ghost Accounts for votes.
Thanks for taking the time to write out your feelings. We take these concerns seriously.
- We do look at the votes that are cast after the voting ends. Many entries have been tossed out for unsportsmanlike behavior.
- Getting judges to judge ALL of the entries would be nice, but would never happen. The reality is that it takes time to get some judges together to judge and they need to be reminded to get the judging done on time, especially since we make an effort to get the results as soon as we can. Getting people to judge 20 entries is a feat on its own. Getting multiple people to judge 100 or more would be a disaster. There inherently needs to be an initial filter.
- Instructables are published on many, many different topics. Instead of taking on the massive task of examining each and every one, we let the Instructables on the site. Simply put, it would take too much time. Instead, Instructables are pushed up, not down. Instructables can be featured or get rated up by readers.
I think every one needs to remember instructables isn't just about contests, that's kinda like a perk. This is essentially a user supported site that gets better with more people and their contributions. Sometimes your gonna get great instructables, sometimes not, buts its through that process that we learn. Comment based feedback teaches us, when it's constructive. Sites like this are rare, the wealth of information here is astounding when you break it down. I don't know how many times I've come here, looking for how, to do something that's way out of my normal talent range or that no one can tell me. This is gonna sound sooooo Cheesy, but having this site is the real prize. Yep, cheesy but true.
Yes, and when I first made my account in...Jan. 2008 I think it was, it was very useful. I would say only 1/20 'Ibles I visited then were un-informative. Now it seems like 1/20 'Ibles I visit is informative. I just can't find what I need anymore, and I am finding it easier to Google it and find it on other websites.
To Fungus Amungus - That does answer some question and makes me feel a bit better.
That would be interesting to find out, maybe at the end they will tell us. I think if it was a daily count or something we'd all have anxiety attacks! : )
Are you aloud to vote for more then one? Are you aloud to vote for your own? It would be nice to vote for my own, at least I could guarantee one vote...
Any voting system has flaws. You just choose the system that works for you.
To balance out the finalists picked by user votes, an equal number of finalists are picked by Instructables staff. Often times an entry that has not gotten many views or votes is selected here.
After that, all of the finalists are judged by a mix of staff and respected members of the community.
Limiting the votes to Pro members or authors would drastically reduce the number of people who can vote for an entry, giving each vote much more weight.
A better idea would be to only let people with a certain number or above of instructables to vote. I've been on instrucables for a bit over a year and i dont post much but i look very often. Sometimes on contests their seems to be a pattern where only the top voted gets to be a finalist but sometimes it might just be that a really good instructable should be a finalist but does not get in because someone who just "happened" to get lots of votes took the spot.
luckily winning is not solely based one votes, there will also be judging.
Quoted from contest details above...... Instructables published from August 25 - September 19 are eligible for entry Multiples entries are accepted, but each entrant can only win one prize International entries are accepted Voting period: Sept. 20 - 22 Judging period: Sept. 23 - 27
Yes it would be interesting to see, Tis the problem with internet voting. I'd like to think we are a slightly more honest bunch, but... there are always a few. Other then the Pro idea, it might be difficult to track repeat voters using dummy instructable accounts, IP address i guess perhaps, might be too much trouble and viewed as a little big brotherish. As too how many vote, I would be curious. Hey maybe there should be an instructable on how to win instructable contests. Once again, I vote for honesty but the Pro idea wouldn't hurt. Though that will stop lots of people who can't afford the Pro membership at this time. I am a recent victim of lay-offs and if I had too chose about a Pro membership and buying my children a treat, the kids would win - hands down. As, i could still do almost everything I've done in the past on instructables.
I bet its not too expensive to pay for a pay per click website to create a membership on this site and vote for you
And people who pay for the pro status are serious about this website
ThIs leads to people who are in your situation I think that at the moment for you your children come first (as it should be) but for you pro status does not have enough benifits so it gets left on the side
If this site does not want to take the route of stopping everybody voting make it so that only people who have entered can vote this makes it fair, so people cant make multiple accounts vote for one person
They have to enter multiple times Making it very time consuming to cheat If thy implement this also make it so pro users can vote even if they did not enter
I also not finish my project in time, well, out of the contest, but a in few days I will publish it anyway. I'll will think in another one for next year now. Good luck to all participants!
I’m curating an exhibition of inventive Arduino and DIY electronic-circuitry projects at Manchester Art Gallery, UK and wondered if any entrants to the Intructables LED contest might also be interested in submitting their work to the exhibition?
I posted details in the Intructables Art Forum last week - http://www.instructables.com/community/Make-It-Yourself-Call-For-Existing-Works/ - but suspect not that many members actually got to see it.
The deadline is 12 midnight tomorrow - Monday,13th September - so I appreciate this is a bit short notice - but hopefully enough time to complete the brief application form if you’re at all interested. Full details and application form PDF download here - http://www.cybersonica.org/make-it-yourself-call/
Hope some of you are interested and find the time.
Ebay is always awesome for led's, the trick is to add the word "bulk or lot", that way you won't get 2000 adds for led flashlights, car accessories or blinking Wookie nipple rings, for real... On average I have picked them up for around $5 Canadian for 500. Usually they will also throw in the corresponding resistors for free, you just tell them your power source be it 3.5v all the way up to 12v. Did I mention the shipping is also for free, wow. I live way, way up north, the closest thing we have to electronics supply is "The Source - previously radio shack" and they no longer stock or order for that matter small components.
Remember the key with eBay is to set a price limit as to how much you are willing to spend, and stick to it! For example, a while back I was looking to buy side skirts for a car, I was trying not to spend more then 100$ and that's including the shipping. There were many times where I found them for 130$ to 200$, but I remained firm in my price allowance. This was over a 2 week period, on the 15th day I found them in my price range. Oddly enough the left one was 10$ more then the right one, yet they were from the same supplier. Total was 55$ with the shipping. The morale is, um, be patient if you have the time and you can get get great deals on eBay. But, if you live in large urban area where things are available close by and your in a hurry then sometimes the money you save on buying online is moot compared to the frustration of having to wait. In addition if you live in Canada, radio shack should be your last choice as they no longer really cater the the electronics hobbyist. They may have some old stock kicking around, but that's about it. Hunt out small family owned electronic supply stores. They are usually owned by people that have an actual interest in it and are usually quite helpful. Some even offer small electronic kits that will teach you valuable lessons in the basics.
In india, mumbai we have a place called lamington road..its an electronic heaven...everything id cheap....Led's are almost free...if you buy something and ask for led's they throw in some for free...for a dollar u get around 80 led's.... :D
Darn I should've saved my Aethersaber for this one over Flashlight. No worries, I have a few things up my sleeve. This will get the fire going under me to get them done.
what is the compition judged on the final product or the instructable (the writing bit) or a combination of both because i have started a little project but im half way through it and have not made any attempt to record my progress
What a great motivation to get my first Instructable out there!, ^_^, Hopefully the first of many. =), keep the contests coming, they're such a great idea!
To the 19th of September! There is no time to lose to do something great!!! Good luck to everybody a make us dream with RGB Table, bike wheel lighted, POV clock and much more as you can imagine...
For me it toke some of the shine off of my featuredness. I don't begrudge anyone who has won, I didn't but that is life. However it has tarnished my desire to add more 'ibbles. I have a flourescent tube conversion waiting in the wings, but now lack the desire to complete it.
I'll finish saying well done to all those who have won!
As for motivation to finish a project- all I can say is real makers make and it doesn't have anything to do with prizes.
Sorry about the bad news :(
One could also look at the "Jetsons" ,this would be the way people imagined the future long ago (retro-futuristic).
See my revolutionary design and judge for urself !
http://www.instructables.com/id/Sensor-LED-Flashlight-9-volt/
reg
ketan
--------------------------------------------------------
"May the good belong to all the people in the world.
May the rulers go by the path of justice.
May the best of men and their source always prove to be a blessing.
May all the world rejoice in happiness.
May rain come in time and plentifulness be on Earth.
May this world be free from suffering and the noble ones be free from fears"
---- Vedic blessing
The contests aren't simply about who made something cool. Some of the criteria are the quality of the written instructions and the pictures that accompany them. It seems that the winning entries of contests in general tend to be really creative, unusual, and just plain neat, in addition to the (required) very clear instructions and photos.
I hope this helps. :)
next time i'll do good.
My wife likes it enough that we might actually be keeping the thing! Played Dungeons and Dragons on it with her 11 year old son last night... as part of his 11th birthday celebration... Yes, geek in training!
good luck finalist
just the positive feeling of being reasonably rated and the darn good amount of views (over 11,000 on this 20 min entry alone .. cant complain) is well worth it
Do I have issue with the "process"? yea, but really god could come down and bless a process and still there would be some issue, its just a silly contest you win some you loose a lot, if you had fun doing it, and people learn something or get to do something then IMO its worth doing
2.) You are actually 58th. And you may have thought your Instructable was good, but just because people didn't vote for it doesn't mean it's not good. I thought it was very good.
3.) Some people don't put effort into their instructable, and don't take the time to think things through. And even though there is already an instructable on one topic, some people still post on that topic because they feel it wasn't explained well, and they can do better.
4.) Some people think their ideas are pretty good, or it is something they are passionate about. Other people may think that "stupid idea" is actually pretty good.
5.) The Admins don't take an Instructable off the site because it wasn't good quality, they give them a comment on improving it. Instructables is to share what you know, no matter the quality. It is not "Have good quality or don't get posted!"
6.) The dangerous stuff is sometimes just for instructional porpouse, or if not, give a very clear warning that it is dangerous.
7.) If you find a lot of Instructables on a subject that aren't explained well, combine them to get what you need. Or do research elsewhere and publish your own Instrutable on it.
8.) There are a lot of good instructables on this site. There are few that are so bad that you can't tell what they're trying to do.
I am not saying that some Instructables are stupid, they may not be on a topic I like, or they might be, but like you said its effort, more effort could be put in on some of them.
I agree with point 8 completely. But I always seem to find these more then anything else, so I think there is more then a few.
One thing though is that, I am not sating "High Quality, or you don't get it posted", but up the level of quality a bit. Its like if you go to an Encyclopedia. Its great that its filled with tons of facts and what not, but if half of its garbage, you have to weed through garbage to get good info. If you have all good info, there is less weeding out the bad facts on your topic and more good facts. So up the level of quality of new 'Ibles, not saying they have to be AMAZING, but make sure they aren't just adding mass to the site without adding some info.
P.S. I'm sorry for going on a rant. And I'm glad you just didn't post a mean, yelling-at-the-guy comment, but instead took it well.
I certainly don't have the free time to make all of the Instructables that I would like. So I use the contests as an excuse to get in an Instructable, provided that the subject is such that I can contribute intelligently. (Electronics related.)
I have one earlier Instructable of 70,000 views. This LED contest I entered the LED Array Module which has had less than 1% of the views. It isn't any less of an Instructable as I did my best to explain the subject as well as I could. It was entered in the contest certainly in the hope of winning, but it is an Instructable that will be here long after the contest is over.
You can enter something in the hopes of winning a contest. It can be a quality Instructable, or something hastily slapped together. All entered Instructables deserve a chance to win.
My motivation/excuse to enter is the contest. But I'm happy if I can look back at my Instructable and see that I made something with the clear explanation and quality that it takes to help someone learn.
- We do look at the votes that are cast after the voting ends. Many entries have been tossed out for unsportsmanlike behavior.
- Getting judges to judge ALL of the entries would be nice, but would never happen. The reality is that it takes time to get some judges together to judge and they need to be reminded to get the judging done on time, especially since we make an effort to get the results as soon as we can. Getting people to judge 20 entries is a feat on its own. Getting multiple people to judge 100 or more would be a disaster. There inherently needs to be an initial filter.
- Instructables are published on many, many different topics. Instead of taking on the massive task of examining each and every one, we let the Instructables on the site. Simply put, it would take too much time. Instead, Instructables are pushed up, not down. Instructables can be featured or get rated up by readers.
I hope that answers your questions.
To Fungus Amungus - That does answer some question and makes me feel a bit better.
How many votes were the projects? who won?
a bettwer idea would be only letting pro members vote instead
you will add a new feature to the pro member list
and
creating multiple accounts is not possible
(roughly how many people vote in these contests?)
To balance out the finalists picked by user votes, an equal number of finalists are picked by Instructables staff. Often times an entry that has not gotten many views or votes is selected here.
After that, all of the finalists are judged by a mix of staff and respected members of the community.
Limiting the votes to Pro members or authors would drastically reduce the number of people who can vote for an entry, giving each vote much more weight.
Quoted from contest details above......
Instructables published from August 25 - September 19 are eligible for entry
Multiples entries are accepted, but each entrant can only win one prize
International entries are accepted
Voting period: Sept. 20 - 22
Judging period: Sept. 23 - 27
we vote
the instructables staff votes 2
the finalist are the combination of the 2
then judging starts, which are selected members of the community
And people who pay for the pro status are serious about this website
ThIs leads to people who are in your situation
I think that at the moment for you your children come first (as it should be) but for you pro status does not have enough benifits so it gets left on the side
If this site does not want to take the route of stopping everybody voting make it so that only people who have entered can vote this makes it fair, so people cant make multiple accounts vote for one person
They have to enter multiple times Making it very time consuming to cheat
If thy implement this also make it so pro users can vote even if they did not enter
I've done the soldering, but I need a case, which needs a trip to the store.
I can't make it, but I'll post it before too long either way.
http://www.instructables.com/id/10W-Retro-Futuristic-LED-Lamp/
I’m curating an exhibition of inventive Arduino and DIY electronic-circuitry projects at Manchester Art Gallery, UK and wondered if any entrants to the Intructables LED contest might also be interested in submitting their work to the exhibition?
I posted details in the Intructables Art Forum last week - http://www.instructables.com/community/Make-It-Yourself-Call-For-Existing-Works/ - but suspect not that many members actually got to see it.
The deadline is 12 midnight tomorrow - Monday,13th September - so I appreciate this is a bit short notice - but hopefully enough time to complete the brief application form if you’re at all interested. Full details and application form PDF download here - http://www.cybersonica.org/make-it-yourself-call/
Hope some of you are interested and find the time.
Message ends ;-)
http://www.instructables.com/id/10W-Retro-Futuristic-LED-Lamp/
The # underneath your name is how many Instructables you've published. The color changes when you've put up more.