Deskthority Awards 2014 - Request for Comments

[Madhias]

"Released in 2014" is good because then everybody has to be creative, and only new, good and innovative devices will be there. Does this then count for modded devices too? For example a modded Kishsaver?

[webwit]

No, just the mod itself should be in 2014.

[Muirium]

The lazy buggers who like to award (and recommend to newbs) the HHKB and DataHand every year won't like this.

So that's a plus.

[mtl]

Some questions that may or may not matter: Is anything too old to qualify for the current-year awards in scope for the vintage award? Is there a need to draw the line between keyboard mod and self-built? Also there is a lot of great restoration work being done lately. Should those efforts be awarded, and under which category?

[Madhias]

That's what i wanted to know too, but i think as far as i understood webwits cryptic answer is both is one category. So the best space-saving keyboard could be a self-built 60% board, but also a completely re-done Kishsaver. But i could be wrong!

[JBert]

I agree with the list, but please put your description of what a category is or isn't meant for in the nomination thread.

[webwit]

Is anything too old to qualify for the current-year awards in scope for the vintage award? Is there a need to draw the line between keyboard mod and self-built? Also there is a lot of great restoration work being done lately. Should those efforts be awarded, and under which category?

Yes.

I put a line between keyboard mod and self-built because otherwise too much if under one award. If one category proves weak then we can consider merging again.

Restoration might be placed under keyboard modding, but I'm not sure.

[mtl]

Sorry, I should have phrased that question differently. Should the line between mod and self-build be defined somehow? Like when someone completely guts a keyboard and rebuilds the internals, for example wcass's XTant or lowpoly's M0110. I'm probably over thinking it.

[webwit]

Ah I see what you mean. Yeah maybe there is some gray area where a sophisticated mod or restoration turns into a self-made keyboard, of which there is no clear definition yet. Let's see what happens, I'll allow such a project to be nominated in either category, and then the voters can decide. If it turns out to be troublesome, we can more clearly define "self-made keyboard", for example that it must require a new pcb.

[bhtooefr]

That particular guideline wouldn't work, as there are some 100% self-builds that don't use a PCB at all...

[Muirium]

Yup, I had one of those in contention last year.

The XTant looks well worth a nomination this time. It's right in the middle of the grey area between restoration, mod and custom.



Another layer of rule lawyering required: Wcass has been working on this for years. He finally finished in 2014, so I'd say that makes him eligible this year.

Anyone remember if the project's already won awards, before completion? I'd much rather limit awards to 100% completed projects, rather than works in mid-progress or even just concepts. That way we reward people who've made it to the end, and it makes things easier to date when there's a finishing line to cross. I'm a hellish procrastinator, so I know how important this stuff is!

[bhtooefr]

This is going to be a comment regarding 2015, not 2014, but the "must have launched during 2014" rule is really cramping everyone's style, it appears, especially in the best standard keyboard category. I mean, we're having to dredge up the bottom of the Kailh barrel!

For 2015, maybe make it "must have been shipping during 2015"?

[Muirium]

Yeah, best "current" might be better than best "newly released", depending on how the nominations close. Full size keyboards was a slow category last year, as I recall.

[JBert]

Just a question: what does the "Select Prize winner" script look like again?

[webwit]

This was used last year:

Code: Select all

<?php
//
// Draws winners for the Deskhority Awards 2013 Voter Prizes
//

define('IN_PHPBB', true);
$phpbb_root_path = (defined('PHPBB_ROOT_PATH')) ? PHPBB_ROOT_PATH : './';
$phpEx = substr(strrchr(__FILE__, '.'), 1);
include($phpbb_root_path . 'common.' . $phpEx);

draw_winner('Mystery Prize from 7bit', '6986,6988');
draw_winner('Ducky, SkiData or Realforce from 002', '6987,6992');
draw_winner('Shine Special from Ducky Nordic', '6989,6991');
draw_winner('Keyboard cable from Pexon PCs', '6984,6994');
draw_winner('Keycap sets from Signature Plastics', '6983,6990', 4);
draw_winner('Minila from The Keyboard Company', '6985,6993,6995');

//
// Gets contestants from db, shuffles them five times, picks random winner
//
function draw_winner($title, $topic_ids, $nr_of_winners = 1)
{
    global $db;

    // Gets all unique voters in the right topics with at least 10 posts,
    // except admin and award ceremony guest stars:
    $result = $db->sql_query("
        SELECT
            distinct(b.username)
        FROM
            phpbb_poll_votes a
        LEFT JOIN
            phpbb_users b
        ON
            a.vote_user_id = b.user_id
        WHERE
            a.topic_id in ($topic_ids)
        AND
            b.user_posts >= 10
        AND
            b.group_id <= 4
        AND
            b.user_id <> 55
        ");

    $contestants = array();
    while ($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) {
        $contestants[] = $row['username'];
    }

    $drawn = 0;
    while ($drawn < $nr_of_winners) {
        $drawn++;
        echo "Deskthority Awards 2013 - $title Prize Winner"
            . ($nr_of_winners < 2 ? '' : ' ' . $drawn) . "!<br />\n<br />\n";

        show_contestants(count($contestants) . ' contestants: ', $contestants);

        for ($i = 5; $i--; ) {
            shuffle($contestants);
            show_contestants("<br />\nShuffling... ", $contestants);
        }

        $winner = mt_rand(0, count($contestants) - 1);

        echo "<br />\nDrawing random winner: " . $contestants[$winner]
            . "<br />\n<br />\nCongratulations!<br /><br /><br />\n";

        unset($contestants[$winner]);
    }
}

function show_contestants($title, &$contestants)
{
    echo $title . implode(', ', $contestants) . "<br />\n";
}
?>

The output is: http://deskthority.net/giveaway7a34Z.php

This year's script will need two changes: incorporate members who get extra entries in round 1, and exclude sponsors from their own draws.

[Muirium]

incorporate members who get extra entries in round 1

What's this? You mean give those of us who voted in the qualifying round an extra weight in the final?

Another feature request: When I ran the script just now, Ivan won two of the voting prizes. Perhaps running them sequentially would spread the loot out a bit better, by excluding winners too. As far as we humans are concerned, these are all awarded instantaneously, so it seems more like prize hoarding than righteous randomness!

[webwit]

http://deskthority.net/post194668.html#p194668