deltaH
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Sticky the competitions/challenges
Just wanted to suggest that competition/challenges be stickied right to the top... it will give them more exposure and help to attract new
participants to this excellent forum.
At the risk of sounding too commercial, I'd suggest the competition prize be displayed in the heading and perhaps the heading even capped.
Most challenges will expire, so things shouldn't get too cluttered. Once they expire, they can be unstickied.
[Edited on 6-12-2014 by deltaH]
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TheChemiKid
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I agree with this idea, it would make competitions more easily seen, resulting in more traffic and entries.
When the police come
\( * O * )/ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿'̿'̵͇̿̿з=༼ ▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿ ༽
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bismuthate
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Although if this happens too many people may make competitions and it could get cluttered. Just my two cents
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aga
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Separate topic would be simpler.
Current competitions will stay at the top, and completed ones will fall away naturally.
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bismuthate
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Yes, but say 5 people decide to make competitions that are on at the same time. What do we do then? That's too many stickies!
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forgottenpassword
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I concur with the need to sticky them in detritus, as examples of ego propelled to massive levels! Some people need to get over their usernames. 
I don't see it happening, though.
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bismuthate
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I don't understand the wink, but I know this first competition from Rador Labs was kinda a flop, but we promise we'll work to correct the mistakes we
made.
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deltaH
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I think all competitions are fantastic for chemistry. One of the huge problems of practicing home chemistry is money. Academics have grants, we have
competitions from patrons who can afford the good will.
If this grows and is guided carefully, it can be a very important step to really growing amateur chemistry significantly.
Now for something completely different...
Been meaning to congratulate Bert for becoming he-who-is-underlined. Do we have to call you Sir now 
[Edited on 6-12-2014 by deltaH]
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aga
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There's just 3 currently :-
Etoin
Rador
Mine
Hardly a Deluge is it ?
Still, it *does* keep obscuring actual proper chemistry & science questions in 'Chemistry in General', so a separate Topic would be a good plan.
Perhaps the notion is that these will stop soon, so no need ?
If there's ever a DAC#4 i'll stick it in Beginnings.
It's Lord Bert of Djelibi now, so mind your manners, commoners.
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deltaH
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I would advise against a separate topic. woelen once argued, and rightly so IMHO, that one of the beauties of SM is its lack of
clutter on the topic lists, something that other forums suffer from.
Also, have a top and bold sticky with prize money does better for exposure to those casually browsing the forum. The aim to get people interested from
casual browser to active participants/experimenters.
As an aside, it would be nice if these competitions could draw traffic for people googling 'science competition' for example.
[Edited on 6-12-2014 by deltaH]
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Chemosynthesis
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That would be interesting to get contest traffic. Might get more collaboration for Rador Labs as well. Kind of off-topic, but anyone know what
happened to the International Order of Nitrogen? Is there an archive of their site?
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aga
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Quote: Originally posted by deltaH  | | it would be nice if these competitions could draw traffic for people googling 'science competition' for example |
Now there is a great idea.
Wording, search phrases etc ...
Edit:
Perhaps a Sticky for each competition, stuck there by request to a mod, and then unstickied after it finishes, *if* there is good science in there, so
it falls down the list into the archives.
Could it work like that Lord Bert ?
[Edited on 6-12-2014 by aga]
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S.C. Wack
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| Quote: Originally posted by deltaH | | Just wanted to suggest that competition/challenges be stickied right to the top... it will give them more exposure and help to attract new
participants to this excellent forum. |
The last thing we need are new members of the sort we've been getting.
If no members want to participate, obviously the problem isn't enough exposure and we need new members?
There must be over a hundred more worthy threads.
My challenge: start threads with worthwhile content instead of "post something worth posting in this thread for me."
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Etaoin Shrdlu
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Yes, I agree with S.C. Wack. God forbid anyone should want to support amateur chemistry.
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Brain&Force
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| Quote: Originally posted by Chemosynthesis | | That would be interesting to get contest traffic. Might get more collaboration for Rador Labs as well. Kind of off-topic, but anyone know what
happened to the International Order of Nitrogen? Is there an archive of their site? |
We're kinda replacing the International Order of Nitrogen...whatever it did.
Say, what did it do?
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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Chemosynthesis
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| Quote: Originally posted by S.C. Wack |
The last thing we need are new members of the sort we've been getting.
If no members want to participate, obviously the problem isn't enough exposure and we need new members?
There must be over a hundred more worthy threads.
My challenge: start threads with worthwhile content instead of "post something worth posting in this thread for me." |
I very much understand your point, and would love to continue to garner high quality members, admittedly rare by the very nature of percentiles.
I do believe sufficiently well designed and phrased challenges would be of a nature to only really captivate those with an enthusiasm towards behavior
we can all admire, and titillate those observers striving for a stronger skillset.
Polverone did contribute to it, it seems. You are correct in that it did very much what we do/did about up until maybe 12 years ago IIRC. I was just
curious if any members transitioned over or if they were still a group in Oregon. I know there are professional nonprofit academic subject
fraternities such as chemistry, pharmacy, medicine, etc. Just wondered if the ION had a graduate chapter, got absorbed into a local student ACS, or
faded into the aether.
http://web.archive.org/web/20071218233301/http://www.nitroge...
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