Re: 2015 Word Ladder Contest Bonanza: June Boon

[SproutCM]

One final reminder:

The June Boon voting will go on until Midnight (PDT) on Saturday July, 18th (because I'm on an airplane all day Saturday so I'm clearly not going to count votes until I get back to Boston.

So far, 19 people have voted, and there are some ladders that are clear winners. I cannot wait to reveal the results to everyone. Also, I want everyone to be very proud of their work; 5 of the ladders from the contest have been published already, and many more are slated to come out in the next few weeks.

So, to vote just email me at sproutc...@gmail.com with your favorite quiz (to get 3 points) and all your other close favorites (to get 1 point).

Remember all the quizzes can be found here: June Boon Quizzes

Thanks again, everyone!

Chris/SproutCM

[El_Dandy]

Just realized I totally forgot to vote. Did that just now, so we're up to at least 20.

[SproutCM]

As I am writing this post, I'm looking on this page and I can see that already by July 19th, 8 different ladders from the June Boon contest have been published on the main page.  This is amazing. Not only are several of these users getting their first-time publication, there are also several other badges these users are now closer to, and I think some of them have now caught the 'quizmaking bug'.

And, I promise that more and more of these ladders are going to be published over the next few months to come. So many of them were wonderful and challenging, and a few might not get published despite  everyone loving them because they are too innovative to work on the word ladder app.  I've been working hard with Sporcle to get lots of these quizzes nominated for publication.  And don't let this stop you from keeping on making ladders. Everyone did such great jobs making themes.  Don't fret if you see your title change upon publication; remember that a lot of users coming to Sporcle or using the mobile app might not be able to figure out if the ladder is something they like from some of our creative witty rhyming titles.

So I would like to now give the results for the voting in the June Boon contest:

Bronze Medal - (2 quizzes tied with the same number of votes) - Primary Rhymery by Quizmaster91 and Ladder Chatter by needapausebutton

Silver Medal - Court Sport by LTH 

Gold Medal - (with 5 more votes than the next ladder) - Coop Troop by El_Dandy

I would also like to reward 5 honorable mention ladders that had a lot of votes, but were just below the medalists:

Duller Color by downstage

Happy Chappy by plkphoto

Hocus Pocus by Chenchilla

Seven? Heaven. by rer2121

Helter Skelter by plkphoto

I would also like to point out that 101 different of the 122 ladders got AT LEAST ONE vote from one of the votes in the contest and yes, over 20 people voted in the contest (voting for anywhere between 1 and 35 different ladders they liked). Believe it or not, the average ladder actually had almost 3 votes each!

So I want to thank everyone for participating and others for voting. I know it was a lot of time to even crack a dent in the 122 ladders in the contest. Taking them no doubt was the single largest factor in my getting the 'Give It a Try, July' badge. If you're interested in seeing how your ladders did, feel free to drop me an email and I can tell you all about their votes. I can also tell you what the status of your ladders is (ready to be published, needs some work, etc) and we can work together to keep making lots of ladders!

Thanks again, SO MUCH!

Chris/SproutCM

[LTH]

Nice going El Dandy! Well deserved. Same to Quizmaster91, napb and the honorable mentions.

And finally thank you to Chris for putting this fun contest together!

[MoMosMoProblems]

Yes, congratulations to El_Dandy and the rest of the winners and honorably mentioned folks ;-) Those were all terrific ladders, and memorable! I didn't even have to click on the links to remember which ones they were. This was a very fun contest. Thank you Chris for organizing it, and thank you to all the nice people who helped us newbies with great advice and encouragement.

[PLKphoto]

Ditto to all the above! 

Congrats and that was great fun! Thanks to everyone and lets do it again soon…. :-)

[Tizzle1984]

Congrats to everyone, especially the winner, and thanks to everyone, especially the organizer. :-)

[Cutthroat]

Congratulations to everyone who took part, especially the winners! Great fun :)

[El_Dandy]

Um...wow.

First, Quizmaster91, LTH, and napb, congrats on the runner-up finishes, and congrats to the HMs and really, everyone who entered. It was a LOT of fun playing through these ladders, and I think a lot of cleverness was on display with the theming of these.

For everyone who voted for me, I don't know what to say other than thank you. It means a lot to me that fellow Sporcle U members enjoy my quizzes enough to throw votes my way and is a sign that I'm doing something right!

Jason/El_Dandy

[downstage]

Congratulations to everybody! This was a great contest.

[Quizmaster91]

I'm (figuratively) speechless. I've played a lot of Word Ladders that were submitted (not all, but I hope to do so, sometime), and there were MANY great entrants. Probably around 122. The fact that one of my word ladders was voted in the top 4 is... overwhelming. I hope, and expect, to see a lot more publishes than the nine that were already published (congrats, by the way). Finally, I'd like to congratulate the other honorable mentions, and top 3 members in style.

Cangratulations napb,
LTH and El_Dandy,
For very deservedly
Finishing in the top three!

El Dany isn't too chicken for big ladders
Even a quiz with seven letters!

The tennis word ladder was a big hit
From symmetry to color scheme: I loved it!

Pause's poem was heartfelt and sincere,
I'm lucky to have come so near.

The overall quality was very high,
To find a favorite, I didn't even try.
And how to resolve the third place tie?
A duel. The money goes to whoever doesn't die!

Wait, there WAS prize money, right? Otherwise I'm calling off the duel.

[sporc...@gmail.com]

Congrats to the winners and those with the honorable mention! This was a fun (and surprisingly challenging) event to participate in, and I know I'm not alone in offering a big thanks to Sprout and all those "behind the scenes" that worked to make it possible. 

[Arnott]

Hey, Sprout,

It only just occurred to me to ask this: would you post a list of the people you've gotten votes from so far?  Or at the very least, confirm that you got my votes? :)  I sent you mine July 5th, but it only hit me today that I never got any sort of confirming e-mail back from you (not that I expected one, knowing you were in Vancouver).

Thanks.

-(Dave) Arnott

[Arnott]

LOL, nevermind :)

Congratulations to the winners!  One of these days I'll get better at checking/negotiating SU :)  But FWIW, my post above was not me replying to THIS thread, but to the other one.  Not sure why it posted here instead.

-Arnott

[needapausebutton]

Congrats to El_Dandy and the motley crew of runners up  ;)


The other big winners:

Ladder lovers -- all who get to play these quizzes

Ladder builders -- this new "generation" of already super-talented contributors

Ladder publishers -- the administrators now benefiting from (dare I say) a glut of quizzes now available

Ladder promoters -- he who put this format before us; tending to the proliferation of quality work before & behind the scenes, sproutcm

Ladder commenters -- people who make overtly lengthy posts, including in forums discussing word ladders, merely so as to create the visual effect of steps.

[iglew]

Note on bronze winner Primary Rhymery:  There are currently misspellings in "baggage" and "businessman's".  Fixing those would make it more publishable.

[Quizmaster91]

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. The typos are fixed because of your mention!

Op donderdag 23 juli 2015 00:35:59 UTC+2 schreef iglew:

[Chenchilla]

Looks like that did the trick, Quizmaster! ;)

[Quizmaster91]

It sure did!

Op donderdag 23 juli 2015 17:40:22 UTC+2 schreef Chenchilla:

[smac17]

I'm currently making my first word ladder having missed the deadline. I was wondering whether people think it's better to include a word that fits the theme but means that the same letter is changed twice in a row, or get rid of that clue? Getting rid would leave me with 49 rungs.

[JoeBeta]

You should never ever change the same letter twice in a row. If you have 49 or so rungs, there will be an alternate way to eventually wind up with an even number of rungs. I've made quite a few word ladders. Half the time I start with an odd number of rungs in the first draft. I just take the time to rework the ladder along different word paths until I get an even number. Sometimes it takes a few cycles of sleep before I figure out the solution.

[smac17]

Thanks Joe, I've had a rejig to get rid of it.

[iglew]

Personally I think it can be a good thing to change the same letter twice for the purpose of thematic content, and I have made a ladder that deliberately does so.

However, it is unquestionably the case that the great majority of the Sporcle word ladder community views changing the same letter twice as an absolute no-no.