Hi all,

I have a few suggestions for the staff about the DMoM. In my opinion, it is one of the greatest assets this site has and has a lot of potential.

We seem to have trouble getting beginners to enter. While I am open to the idea that separate contest galleries are futile, I think that the contest overall, and especially the beginner group, can benefit by a few changes.

As has been stated so many times recently, the staff here is frequently overworked, and because of that things like the contest suffer. IIRC, Henk is in charge of the MoM as well as being on the feature team. Recently there have been problems with punctuality, but in my opinion, it isn't really Henk's fault.

So here is what I propose.

1. Staff expansion: I think that it would be a good idea to bring someone onto the staff solely to take care of the MoM. This would free up Henk for features, etc. Actually, a site-wide staff expansion might be good, but that is another topic. This person would deal with all elements of the contest, from organizing the galleries for voting, to sending the winners' contact info to DML, to posting the winning entries as OD features.

2. Publicity: It seems to me that the contest isn't promoted very well. Aside for the banner on the front page, which isn't very prominent, there is no other mention of it other than occasionally in the forums.

a. List the prizes (I don't know if this is possible, given that Dragon may not tell before hand what the prizes are).

b. Prominently announce the results on the home page: Doing this would serve two purposes. It would further promote the MoM, and would serve to notify the winners. It seems that many members don't necessarily visit the forums every day, and thereby might miss the notification in the forum (I don't know if there has ever been any trouble with this, though). Seeing the results consistently advertised on the home page also might cause people to enter who might otherwise not. Of course, consistently posting the winner's models as OD features might also help. While I am here, I'll mention that an alternate/clearer method for the winners to contact the staff might be good. I know that when I first joined the site and saw the results announced in the forum, I didn't know what a PM was. That could just be me, though.

All this may require putting a better/bigger? banner on the home page. Maybe something like "Win this model kit!" (With a picture).

BTW, I don't have anything against Henk, nor am I trying to deprive him of his job. Quite to the contrary. I just sympathize with his problems (as well as those of all the staff), and want to try to help out. Also, since I dont' know much about the way things work behind the scenes, I may have mentioned things that are already being done and/or are not practical. If so, I apologize. I just hope that these suggestions will be taken in the spirit in which they were offered. I only want to help.

Many thanks to the staff for all they do!

Have a happy New Year!

sweaver

Those are great ideas! I've allready been volunteering for doing this.

Lars

Those are some good suggestions Sam, thanks for taking the time to post them.
Some of them are sensible, and I will take those on board going forward, others are not as easy to incorporate. I'm off to work now, but I'll get back to this when I get home.

i dont mind doing DMOM i have allot of free time and i spend most of that on this site =]

Lars, James: Thanks for your interest.

Henk: I will be looking forward to your comments!

sweaver

sam i think the banner on the homepage os a great idea i didnt know it exhisted until i spotted it on a forum thread

and something should be on the homepage dedicated to our sponsers (if it already isnt)

and the winner should be a feature and make it clear its DMOM

I know what you mean. There is already a banner on the front page, my suggestion was that we make it bigger/better. As far as sponsors go, there are ads on the right side and the top of every page and Dragon is clearly the sponsor of the Dragon Model of the Month, so I'm not sure what you mean.

According to the rules, the winning models should appear as OD features, but due to an overworked staff, it hasn't been happening much lately. As far as denoting it as a MoM winner, this is done when it is announced in the forum but I don't know if this is done in the feature itself. Here is an OD feature of the September 07 contest winner as an example. Are you thinking of something like this, where it is part of the title?

I appreciate your support of this.

sweaver

sam you said about the staff not having enough time to turnt ehm into features

why dont there be someone in charge of DMOM and he turn the wining entry into a feature?

yeah were like every month say "january's Dragon model of the month feature"

or something like that =]

A larger banner advertising the DMoM is a matter for Jim S to decide upon. The OD features of winners and entrants to the DMoM is within the realm of the features staff, and every entry I believe that has been supplied with the number of pictures requested of a suitable quality has had their work published as an OD feature. I will admit the OD feature is not published as soon as the winners are announced but that is down to scheduling, I will make a point of stating 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in whichever DMoM they were entered and ask Rick to do the same, as this is a good idea and one which I myself had overlooked and not thought about.

I'd personally rather not see the OD's listing what place the entrants came in, and just see them for what they are....well done models as photo features. It would be nice if the entrants included a bit of their modeling background and what brand model, AM kits, etc. were used.

A year-end photo feature would be nice also, showing 1 photo of each winner and again not listing what place they came in. That's where the 'plug' for the contest sponsor could be, and people can see all the winning entries for the year.

Just my 2 cents as usual

OK James for he who must be obeyed I will see what I can do.

Excellent suggestion James. This would be a perfect little OD feature in its own right.

You owe me a keyboard and monitor, and a cup of coffee!

I'm glad that Sam started this thread and gave some 'food for thought', and that others have chimed in showing that there is still great interest in this contest

I'm glad to see so much interest. Thanks, guys.

One thing I forgot to mention: Is there a possibility of linking to the thread announcing the winners, on the home page? I don't know if this is necessarily a good idea–just a suggestion.

sweaver




P.S. I eagerly await Henk's comments.

me too should be intreasting i found the features of past DMOM's so it does exhist

Hey, I was searching through the other forums and couldn't seem to find any information on what the current situation with the DMoM is. I know there have been some problems in the past but I would greatly appreciate a quick info on when we can expect to be able to vote for December's entries.

Cheers!

-Mike-

Mike,

If you click the banner on the home page, it takes you to the rules, LINK.

1. On the 1st of the month, voting will begin on entries for the prior month, with each user able to vote for one entry in each contest gallery. Voting ends on the 7th day of the month.

With all the holidays recently, the contest may not start exactly on time, though. Don't worry, it will happen.




I sent Henk a PM, so hopefully he will give us his opinion.

sweaver