The pre-vet
thread (PVT) is for people that have not turned ECF veteran and will turn soon. Hence "PRE-vet". It was that way before there was a contest. It's still that way. We do often post congrats messages if someone pops in after turning (like a polite "congrats to you!") but we don't schedule any parties or, as far as we know, open any PVT welcome
threads for them.
That's why we're writing this up this way.... it's from a pre-vet perspective.
If you want to "open the contest to anyone turning in the current month, or whatever you define" go ahead. We cannot comment on what you do with the contest. We can comment on what we do with pre-vets and how it may relate to the contest... giving our opinions.
So, you could decide to open up the contest by using something other than a pre-vet welcome-thread. However, our pre-vet welcome threads are used for our purposes within the thread.
There are others who open their own welcome threads. Still others have threads opened by other vets. (We think.) OK. jj2 may accept those (with whatever conditions if any). We're not sure we need to comment on it much. We have, as points of discussion, considered how we could make welcome threads after the fact and/or hold an avatar party after the fact. Out of fairness to those we have already turned down in the last 5/6 months....we'd like to keep PRE-vet thread creation (by us, by request of the pre-vet) as "prior to turning" for what we do.
However that doesn't limit the contest... unless you tie it to our process exclusively. So if you want to open it up ...fine by us.
Things that created the most problems for us:
Grand Prize entry requiring pre-vet presence at a particular turning time (we think it's defined as earliest-possible-turning-time = 365 days after their join date/time at the next 25 minutes after the hour)...and it could not be rescheduled without penalty.
We've suggested that Grand Prize not be tied to avatar parties. A new end-of-year bonus drawing is added as an additional "perk" for those that attend an avatar party in the PVT. It's a small incentive to encourage participation and get people to check out the PVT. The Avatar Party scheduling is more open. Our understanding is that the forum won't "turn" them if they don't log in. So we use that to re-schedule the turnings with the pre-vet's help (by their not logging in until a mutually agreed upon prearranged time).
We'd like to know what the complaints are now, if any, so we can make sure we attempt to address them if they pertain to us.
how we think it works now....
1. welcome thread - (entitles the prevet to an entry in the monthly contests.) All that is needed to get a welcome thread is to ask for one or have an ecf vet start it in the new vets forum prior to turning. (In practice it has always come through PVT. )
2. avatar party- must request and be present on the PVT thread at the exact time they will turn into ecf vets (365 days after their join date/time to the minute, at the next 25 minutes past the hour...since that's when the checking process runs), times for our published list are provided by a moderator due to the pre-vet's request for participation, any deviations from the original timing or absence during the turning results in disqualification from the entry for the grand prize.
what we want
1. welcome thread - entitles the prevet to an entry in the monthly contests and the year–end grand prize drawing.This is not the only way they could enter, depending on what the contest people decide to do (out of our scope). Eligible threads are started in the new vets welcome forum prior to turning, either by us or a sponsoring vet. The welcome thread request should come through the PVT, in the form of 1 post minimum in the PVT either by the sponsoring vet or the prevet . Threads must be started prior to turning in the new vets' welcome forum and thus cannot be self-started since they don't have access to that sub-forum until they become an ECF veteran.
2. Avatar parties: the welcome threads of those who schedule avatar parties in advance in the PVT thread and attend them are eligible for entry into a bonus drawing at the end of the year. The party can be rescheduled with the PVT crew from the forum default time without penalty. However, the new vet MUST be present at the time of their turning to be eligible for the bonus drawing.
Attendance at the avatar party is defined as: present at the moment of their turning at the mutually agreed upon prescheduled time. If no committee members are available at the scheduled time, then the celebrant should make two posts, one right before, and one right after the scheduled time.
This is the mutually agreed upon time between the pre-vet and the PTV crew and assumes that the pre-vet's status has not changed to ECF Veteran earlier. Errors in determining this timing (by admins, moderators or the PVT crew) can happen and will be handled on a case by case basis.
The pre-vet can reschedule the turning to a later date/time than the earliest possible time per the forum's algorithm. However, this requires cooperation of the pre-veteran and he/she is now now informed that logging in at the wrong time could turn them to ECF Veteran status earlier than the re-scheduled time and may disqualify them from the bonus drawing.
Also note that the welcome thread is marked ++ if they attended the avatar party. However, disqualification from the monthly drawings disqualifies pre-vets for the Bonus Drawing also.
(in practice this means that threads marked -- are now eligible for the GP drawing, however only those marked ++ are eligible for the bonus drawing. We'd like to have an amnesty, meaning that all that welcome threads started from from Jan1, 2012 posted in the contest entry thread, but marked with -- are eligible for the grand prize drawing, and all welcome threads, from Jan1, 2012 posted in the contest entry thread, marked with ++ are eligible for the bonus drawing.
(NOTE: if adding a bonus drawing is not an option, then a bonus entry into the GP drawing would be the second choice).
(NOTE: changes in how the forum software performs the "turning" may require changes to this)
you all.
