First Month Champion Contest

[BillsBayou]

Sunday, October 3, 2010 will mark one month since the move from the old ABS Forum discussion group at Yahoo. Over the next two weeks, let's see who can do the most to kick-start the new forum.

The prize? Pride.
The winner will get to display the text "First Month Champion Contributor" in their signature (or some such text).

Scoring will be as follows:
1 point for participating in a thread
3 points for starting a replied-to thread (a thread with at least 1 reply by another forum member)
5 points for starting a replied-to thread with photos
10 points for the thread with the most replies by other members (to encourage interesting thread creation)

Rules:
Participation includes the "General" "ABS Information" and "News and Announcements" forums.
Threads must fit their respective forums.
Replies must fit the threads.
Threads and replies must advance the discussion of bonsai.
"I agree" and "Me too" short messages will not count (and may count negative, see below)
Posts must, of course, follow the Terms of Use for the forum.
Highest score wins.

Tie breaking:
In the spirit of encouraging participation, ties will be broken in this order:
1) If either winner has the 10-point bonus for most replied-to thread, they win the tie. If neither wins with this, then:
2) Which winner made the most replies to other people's threads, wins the tie. If neither wins with this, then:
3) Who started the most threads with at least 1 reply.
If still tied after this, all tied participants win as co-winners.

Gaming the Contest:
Tomfoolery, shenanigans, and other attempts to game the contest will count as negatives to your score.

Contest Run:
Contest begins at Noon, CDT, September 20, 2010 and ends October 4, 2010 at 12:00am.

Judge:
Bill (as such, I'm out of the contest)

The goal of this contest is to further the goal of ABS: To promote the knowledge and appreciation of bonsai. Now get out there and participate in the forum and may the best poster win.

[BillsBayou]

The results are in!

The most replied to thread belongs to:
rbecker: "Spider mites on Juniper" with replies from 5 other ABS members

rbecker finishes in third place with a score of 13
3 points for starting the thread
10 points bonus for the most replied to thread

In second place, we have the ever prolific:
plantmanky

plantmanky finished with a score of 23
15 points for participating in other threads
2 points for two threads with no replies (counts towards participation)
6 points for 2 threads (no photos) to which others posted replies

Our first place winner, as not determined by the prestigious accounting firm of Price Waterhouse:
lewisjk

lewisjk finished with a score of 39
21 points for 21 participatory posts
3 points for starting a thread (without a photo) to which people replied
15 points for starting a thread (with photo) to which people replied

lewisjk (Jim) is our First Month Champion poster!

Many thanks to Jim for all his work to advance the discussion of bonsai at the ABS forum. Thanks too, to everyone who has been stopping in to view the threads and participate. As time goes on, we will have many more threads to catch your interest. If not, then start one!

JOIN ABS NOW if you'd like to participate.