Grow Battles - What Do We Need to Fix or Change?

[Steviestash]

So this is the first battle for me, I initially thought our battle updates would go in the individual threads where I signed up for the battles, sort of threw me that they got locked and everything gets put in one thread - my first thought was “I pity the moderator who has to trawl through all of this to check off battle entrants update posts in amongst all the other chat and non comp plant pics”.

As a “contestant” I have no problem putting my updates in the one main battle thread, that’s easy, but must be a nightmare for @TheMongol .

The outdoor auto/photo battle thread, that @Waira mods, seems like a stand alone battle thread (I know it’s not a sponsored battle), so why not just keep the individual battle sign up threads as the place to post our updates for individual sponsor battles? Wouldn’t this make it easier for the sponsors to check in on peoples progress and offer any feedback/support if needed, and make it easier for a mod to check through for the contestants updates? I’m sure you had a good reason to do things the way they’re being done now though, I’ve not been around here long enough to know “the old ways” :smoking:

I think that's another thing is keeping the battle threads on topic

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Could make communal private messages for battle teams and upload through a common media folder with the forum option. Battle leader updates a thread or blog with weekly updates then opens a poll at the end. Managing private messages might be easier than one large thread with multiple topics and chatter all happening. I've missed things because there were several notifications that had nothing to do with the battle or too many @ gladiator tags.

Instead of battle thread could do a communal AFN1st/2nd/etc Leg Battle blog and each battle leader add their specific battle entry to the blog. Comments, polls, and general discussion can be done plus thread marks.

 

[MesaBoogie]

What I really liked about leg 1 and I'm not sure if the rules are still the same, but only requiring 6 updates. With multiple grows and consistently having to update it starts to becomes more of a chore than fun. I've done 5 back to back grow battles now and the more casual approach to updating really brought me around again.

Something else I liked was with the longer grow battles if you mess up a plant the mods were pretty cool with letting you start over. Nothing sucks more than having to walk over to your tent , head faced to the floor, knowing that your going to have to own up to the world your ugly ass looking plant for 3 months. The walk of shame !

Anyway, I thought it might be just as important to post what I liked about the current system.

 

[Waira]

So this is the first battle for me, I initially thought our battle updates would go in the individual threads where I signed up for the battles, sort of threw me that they got locked and everything gets put in one thread - my first thought was “I pity the moderator who has to trawl through all of this to check off battle entrants update posts in amongst all the other chat and non comp plant pics”.

As a “contestant” I have no problem putting my updates in the one main battle thread, that’s easy, but must be a nightmare for @TheMongol .

The outdoor auto/photo battle thread, that @Waira mods, seems like a stand alone battle thread (I know it’s not a sponsored battle), so why not just keep the individual battle sign up threads as the place to post our updates for individual sponsor battles? Wouldn’t this make it easier for the sponsors to check in on peoples progress and offer any feedback/support if needed, and make it easier for a mod to check through for the contestants updates? I’m sure you had a good reason to do things the way they’re being done now though, I’ve not been around here long enough to know “the old ways” :smoking:

-- you're right mate, the OD auto/photo gig has always been a bit of a fringe contest... It started 2 years ago, pretty much off the cuff and we had less than 10 people join, only 4 finished! Next year slightly bigger a few more finishers, but overall it's a small contest and more casual in it's rules and such...
No official sponsors, but some peep's did run seeds-for-grow&show plants there as part of the deal ... prizes were mooched off of very generous Dina/HSO-Mark and Mischa (SeedStockers) . I figure as long as some of their genetics get represented they will be happy to keep this good thing going! I'll see if Sweet is interested too,...
Anyway, since it's a small Comp', with no ties directly to breeders and sponsored seeds, it can be run much more loosely than the typical Battles that are seed sponsored by a breeder, and contestants obliged to follow through and keep their updates timely... Official Battles with a few to several times the number of contestants, it's a helluva lot more work and monitoring, organizing, etc., and has burned some people clean out at times! When they get too big, it's a fucking chore, no fun, and a confusing scrum that becomes something of a wash-out by the end,... For Battles in general, that specific format, the Solo Cup or 2L Comp's have proven to be the sweet spot between size, interest level and a good fun show for both contestants and the sponsor.
To me it seems it's the seeds/breeders that set the hook best... Nute lines, lights, simply don't translate well into such contests,...logistics, costs, catching growers at the right time are snags in execution.... best those stay as official testing only!

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Well you all know I have spent many hours pondering this very subject. I stand by the long format as the best solution I could come up with.

2 categories Indoors and outdoors.
No start dates = no empty grow spaces. Just start growing when the plant is ready put it in the next poll.
Six post thread rule, Must be journaled here, Germination (with code), showing sex, 2 - flower progress, Final Chop (poll picture with code) Dried bud porno shot.
Only end dates = your plant polls in the first poll after your plant is ready. Failed plant just start over and poll in the first available poll
Periods end April 10th Poll starts winners announced 420, October 20 Poll starts winners announced Halloween. The top winners from the 2 polls move to an end of the year poll for GOTY announced Jan1.

Individual vendor grows can poll on their schedule and winners can be added to GOTY poll.

No moderation until your polled plant is a winner then we go out and verify you followed the 6 post journal rules. Missing anything and you are disqualified.

I had no problem moderating a competition for 30 members but we do not have enough active moderators to run the many competition categories.
That is why we tried just to have two categories Indoors and outdoors.

 

[420Forever]

Well you all know I have spent many hours pondering this very subject. I stand by the long format as the best solution I could come up with.

2 categories Indoors and outdoors.
No start dates = no empty grow spaces. Just start growing when the plant is ready put it in the next poll.
Six post thread rule, Must be journaled here, Germination (with code), showing sex, 2 - flower progress, Final Chop (poll picture with code) Dried bud porno shot.
Only end dates = your plant polls in the first poll after your plant is ready. Failed plant just start over and poll in the first available poll
Periods end April 10th Poll starts winners announced 420, October 20 Poll starts winners announced Halloween. The top winners from the 2 polls move to an end of the year poll for GOTY announced Jan1.

Individual vendor grows can poll on their schedule and winners can be added to GOTY poll.

No moderation until your polled plant is a winner then we go out and verify you followed the 6 post journal rules. Missing anything and you are disqualified.

I had no problem moderating a competition for 30 members but we do not have enough active moderators to run the many competition categories.
That is why we tried just to have two categories Indoors and outdoors.

ya, me like that plan (more or less the way it is now, nice & lazy, lol ), but would like each breeder'z battle to have itz own thread, instead o' one big clusterfuck thread jus sayin & carry on plz...:smoking: ppp

 

[Only1Sky]

Howdy there dudes & dudettes, gurus & grasshoppers. Well, I first started growing cannibis here on AFN in early 2017. This is my only grow site. I've loved the quality of info and the discipline and behavior of the staff & membership. Priceless. I quickly discovered & embraced the grow-battle scene. In the past 3 years I have completed 38 grow competitions, plus a number of product tests. So I might have a couple of comments or observations. I also might need a 12-step program to get me over this addiction.

On a positive note: I do not find the "rules" complicated or confusing. Its gotten easier and more consistent. And having the rules, timelines and sign-ups organized and updated on the 1st couple of pages of each Battles Introductory thread has been a godsend. Thank you @TheMongol & others for that.

Initially I did not like all updates going into a single Big Battle Thread - for the reasons others have previously mentioned; lots of noise, banter, chatter. But as has been explained by staff in previous threads -- there is a real necessity for sponsoring vendors to get sufficient visibility. And frankly, us growers benefit from the added visibility as well. I saw in the past, when a breeder's battle had its own dedicated thread, there was a huge drop-off in views. I was in a couple of battles that were like "growing in a ghost town." So I am totally in support of the single Big Battle Thread.

BUT ... I sure would like to be able to navigate it easily/quickly to see whats happening with a particular battle/breeder. I don't see how to do this. Maybe threadmarks are an answer. But I don't know how, or am not authorized, to use them. When I look for threadmarks in the Big Battle Thread, I see only one (put in by St.Tom, of course). I would be fantastic if I could follow some marks or index that links together "true & legitimate" updates for a specific battle/breeder.

Which brings me to another peeve -- many battle contestants are god-awful sloppy or lazy in their updates. Kind of inexcusable now that the frequency requirement for updates has been significantly reduced. Would it be too much trouble to provide a single post for each battle, and to actually identify the breeder/battle? Seriously, folks, a post containing several pics of several plants, identified only by a strain name is of little interest to me. I'm supposed to know or figure out what breeder and what battle you are in? Last year one of the staff requested that folks open each update post with something like:

Battle: (name of battle)​

Update Number: #​

Strain: name​

Notes:​

This would be great, but almost no one is doing it this year.

Concerning the question of "how many competitions in a year?" I have mixed feelings on the 2 a year vs 3 a year. I did 19 battles in 2019, and it nearly burned me out. But whose fault was that, and besides, that was when updates were weekly. This year I'll only have a fraction of that number, and I'm feeling a little loss. So I could go either way on this 2 vs 3 a year question. ( Of course a big part of the problem is Covid which has delayed seed shipments and where folks have to focus their attention.)

Moving on, I disagree with Miss Universe (sorry). But more technology is not likely to be appropriate. I think we're pretty close to a good system. And God knows our strained & stretched IT resources are better focused on site performance & stability.

I do agree with Waira. Let nute lines, lights, grow containers & media, etc be handled in product testing threads. I also don't think they translate well into contests.

On a related but slightly off-topic peeve, I think individual member have abused the @_Gladiators and @_Global Moderators tags just to increase visibility to their personal posts. I find this highly annoying. I would rather have these tags limited for use just by admin & staff.

Thats my rant for now. Maybe more later, who knows. Thanks for the opportunity to sound off on such an important topic.

 

[420Forever]

Maybe threadmarks are an answer. But I don't know how, or am not authorized, to use them.

anybody can threadmark their own postz me luv threadmarkz & do it all the time in me own grow threadz i also did it in the solocup challenge thing, jus so i could keep track of me own postz/updatez more than anything & mossy said it was fine to do so, so... i haven't done it so far in the autoseedz battle i recently started, but am thinkin i might start to again, jus cuz :smoking: ppp

 

[Son of Hobbes]

anybody can threadmark their own postz me luv threadmarkz & do it all the time in me own grow threadz i also did it in the solocup challenge thing, jus so i could keep track of me own postz/updatez more than anything & mossy said it was fine to do so, so... i haven't done it so far in the autoseedz battle i recently started, but am thinkin i might start to again, jus cuz :smoking: ppp

Hold that thought, it may have been set for staff only as far as threadmarks? I'll have to double check. We can totally open that up though if it's not.

 

[420Forever]

Hold that thought, it may have been set for staff only as far as threadmarks? I'll have to double check. We can totally open that up though if it's not.

nah, me see newbz doin it here & there at prezent, so... it'z jus that few peepz realize how to uze em, and/or jus how ez it is to do so ppp