Unofficial GPC Cage/Habitat Builder Competition?

[Slave to the Wheek]

It seems like we have an awful lot of really nice cage builders here. I was thinking that it would be a good way for us to better ourselves with a little peer competition.

I'm thinking it might be fun to have an impromptu cage/habitat competition. I'd be glad to manage the entries, and provide some ribbons or something simple for the winners. Maybe even we could have real prizes somehow? For the votes maybe would do a poll for each category, or we could have "judges" who volunteer? Some of the categories I'm thinking of -

• Best Cage/Habitat built by a person under certain ages, 12, 18 etc..
• Best Cage/Habitat built by the physically challenged
• Cage/Habitat Most Likely To Go Into Your Living Room
• Most Effective Design
• Best Basic Cage built w/o Tools
• Best Basic Cage Single Story, Using CC
• Best Basic Cage, Non CC Materials
• Best Habitat - Free Range or Two Story
• Most inventive use of Grids and/or Flooring
• Largest Habitat
• Coolest Hidey
• Best Ramp
• Best Overall Cage/Habitat for amount of cavies in space
• Best use of Color
• Most effective use of "what's on hand"
• Smartest Overall Cage/Habitat
• Most Creative

We would just do this over a long period of time, say six months or more. This would give folks a chance to design and reconfigure cages if they wanted to compete. I'd be glad to come up with Ribbon's or we could charge a small entrance fee and have prizes maybe? I don't know

I'm using the word habitat to include those who have free roaming pigs as well as cages that are far beyond basic square/rectangle single story cage


We would need to come up with criteria for each category of course. Certain things, like safety of the cavy, practicality, what is basic, what can't be included etc would have to be considered and decided on.

If you like the idea, and would like to participate in some way then choose the thumbs up icon in your reply. Feel free to offer ideas for adding/changing categories etc.

If not, then choose the thumbs down icon

If you think it's a good idea, but don't want to get involved then choose the star icon.

(it's the icons that are under the "post icons" section when you click reply)
​

This way we can see how popular the idea is an how "big" to go depending on responses. If only a couple of folks want to participate, we can just have a couple of categories.

 

[Percy's Mom]

If not, then choose the thumbs down icon


If you think it's a good idea, but don't want to get involved then choose the star icon.

There is no thumbs down icon any longer. We got rid of the Groan feature a while ago. And what star icon are you talking about?

 

[sophistic_chick]

I think it would be a cute idea. I know on other animal forums there are monthly contests and such.

 

[aqh88]

I think we should wait till Spring. I'm moving into a new house hopefully by then and we won't have the space constraints of this apartment. I'm planning two 3x8's connected into an L shape but I have to figure out cleaning and pig catching details.

 

[JarBax]

I like the idea - but have you run it past T?

I would like an 'over' (insert age) category too! lol

Oops, I am using the quick reply feature - can't see any icons - but make mine a thumbs up.

 

[CavySpirit]

Actually, I like the idea. The timing is good because of the recent upgrade I just did with the photo software. However, I need a little more time to clean up the photo display formatting.

I can create albums just for the contests. And I can create custom fields to be entered with the photos. And people can vote, of course, by rating the photos and the good thing is the system keeps track of your rating and you only get to rate a photo once.

I would like to extend the idea to a periodic contest as well. I'd like to do a featured 'Cage of the Wheek!'

Please feel free to post more ideas and thoughts, but do not get too carried away. We have to work within the constraints of the software.

Also, I won't institute it until I get the new format for the forum done. It's a work in progress at the moment and might be ready in a week. AND I have to upgrade the forum software within the next day or two.

Please don't post your cages or such on this thread.

Thanks much,
T

 

[smartorl]

<Sniffs> Do I smell a little friendly competition?

 

[aqh88]

Like a bunch of little kids with legos... Let's see who can build the biggest and the best out of spare pieces. lol

Last I counted I had over 100grids at my disposal.

 

[AJismypiggy]

Ohh I like the sound of that!!

 

[Slave to the Wheek]

Like a bunch of little kids with legos... Let's see who can build the biggest and the best out of spare pieces. lol

Last I counted I had over 100grids at my disposal.

ooo That's a GOOD category!! Maybe even make it "Best Use Of Spare/Leftover Parts" and it wouldn't have to even be a cage related thing. You know, like making a freezer shelf..which hubby did and I love it.

PERCY'S MOM
The thumbs up/thumbs down/star icons show up when you click reply. They are something that you can click in the little circle box next to them. The field it titled, "Post Icons and are directly below the field where you type your reply. They may not be there if you shut of smilies or something possibly?

I was thinking that we would have at least a 6 month time frame MINIMUM for submissions, maybe even a year. For example, we would open admissions starting from Jan 06 to June 07 for the year of 2007's awards. I'm sure it will take us several weeks just to figure out what the categories will be, and how they will be judged, and what the awards are. I'm half thinking we might could get come corporate sponsors from something fun. Like maybe a spa day for the overall winner or something.

I'm wondering if we should consider charging a small fee to enter, like $10 and use those funds to purchase gifts? I don't know about the legalities of something like that.

I'm even thinking that I might be able to get Target with a gift certificate or something involved since they are the main company who provides the grids, the coroplast corporation might also be interested.

 

[Percy's Mom]

Thank you. That was already explained. When "thumbs up/thumbs down" was originally mentioned in this thread, I thought it was referring to the Thanks and Groans features. No further explanation is needed.

 

[JarBax]

I'm wondering if we should consider charging a small fee to enter, like $10 and use those funds to purchase gifts? I don't know about the legalities of something like that.

You know, instead of the fee going towards buying prizes/gifts, why not donate it to Cavy Spirit - the true reason behind why we are all here? I for one would rather the money came here! It works for Charlie!

 

[aqh88]

I think a year for entry is too long for various reasons. You might have quite a long list of entries to go through and keep track of. I rarely have a certain cage setup for a full year. lol Some of the people who enter are likely to not be around a year later. Things happen and people can't always hanging around online as much as they did previously. I've seen online animal shows done for fun and when it takes more than about 4months to find out the winner people tend to get a bit bored and frustrated with it or just forget about it all together. Doing it once a year might work fine but I'd shorten it down to 4-6months to enter before announcing the winners.

 

[Slave to the Wheek]

Good point. So, 4-6 months of entries. What about nominations by others? My favorite cage is that black/blue one that I post everywhere, I would like to nominate that cage even though it's since been reconfigured.

I think one of the criteria must be that the cage has been in use, and proven to be functional for the builder. Reconfigured cages could be included, as long as they were in use at one time and considered functional by the judges?

Far as any funds go, I'll let T let us know what to do on that one. I like the idea to donate to Cavy Spirit, it makes perfect sense.I thought of charging for entry's to give people a bigger impetus to "go over the top" with their cage. If we had several hundred dollars for the prizes, it would make it more worthwhile to people on the edge of deciding to try to compete. If we could get a couple of corporate sponsors though, we could do both.

I'm thinking about alternative cages, and wonder if a category for them would be good. "Best Cage NOT made with CC"?

I'm thinking that we need to limit this to INSIDE the human home cages only, and for PET OWNERS only as well. I don't think we would want to get into cages housed in outbuildings of their own, or of course outside hutches.

I also think if we give plenty of time before entries are open by announcing ahead of time that would also let existing members have time to come up with improvements to their existing sytsem and/or to reconfigure.

Looks like we are going from "Unofficial" to Official from what Teresa said. That's cool.

Another category might be "most improved cage". I was thinking about "BestCage Plan Beginner" which would require the contestants to submit plans and they would be judged on how easily an average adult could build that cage. Of course, it would have to be practical, easily cleaned and be required to include options for adding things like hayracks, and hidey spots as well maybe?

I think we will need to have a couple of folks on a planning committee. Decisions need to be made on how many catergories, which ones, whether we want it to open it up to existing members only, or offer it to anyone on the web who has built their own has built their own habitat. We also need to come up with rules and regulations was well as individual criteria for each category. We need to figure out if we want to give ribbons, trophies or try to offer the best prizes we can get donated. We might be able to come up with

Opening it up and announcing it all over the web would bring plenty of new people here to the site, to learn how to do it. I think if we kept it to ourselves it would definitely be much smaller.

I worked on the first couple years of Sacramento "Webbie" awards and at first no one understood what the point was, at that time very few people even knew about the internet most websites were horrible. I worked for a company that sponsored it and they actually had employees go out on the web to find sites to nomimate. Eventually, I was a judge too.

I'm not very creative, but I'm sure there are creative types here. It would be neat if we could come up with a catchy name for the awards. The "Cagies" kind of sucks.

I'm not working at the moment, so I would be glad to head up a discussion on a yahoo group or have some scheduled chats. I also have unlimmited long distance, and conference calling, so we could do a conference call among those who volunteer to be on the committee. Sometimes talking is so much easier and being a committee member would be something I think we need to forgo the annonymity of the internet with personally. It makes working together much easier in my mind.

This is so exciting.

Oh, yeah, and Oxbow is a company that we all recommend so highly. I bet they might be willing to offer up something. Say a year's supply of hay for the winner? Since we are one of their most adamant supporter's they surely would want to get involved somehow?

However, no one is allowed to put the Oxbow logo on their cages or make their piggies wear shoes with the Oxbow logo hehe...

 

[werecatrising]

Sounds like fun to me! Of course, if I join it will be the first cage (first anything, for that matter) I have ever built, so who knows how it will turn out.

 

[MoMo's_Mom]

Oh count me in! I really like the idea of an entry fee and then the money that is raised gets donated to cavy spirit. It would be like a fundraiser that's actually fun.

 

[dextersmycutegp]

I think this is an awesome idea! I also like the idea of charging an entering fee, but I know that my parents would never write me a check to send or Paypal some money, even if it was my money, so I could enter. Which would leave me and others who might be in a similar situation, out of this whole very fun sounding contest. I just thought I share that for consideration.

 

[Chantellymarie]

Sounds like a lot of fun!! Can't wait to get started when we are given the ok to do so!!

 

[this_lil_piggy]

Jarbax took the words out of my mouth. I was thinking along the lines of Entry fee's going to either CavySpirit, or a gp rescue of choice. 10.00 might be a little steep for some, ecspecially the younger ones that depend on parents. Maybe have a "donation entry fee" where the minimum is a certain amount or something along those lines.

Perhap's some of the folks that make cuddle cups and such could donate prizes to be given to the Best Overall Cage/Habitat and Best overall free range setup. And all other categories just get ribbons or a certificate or something like that.
Another neat idea would be to give away a free one year subscription as a "cavy star" member to top winners in all categories.

 

[WEAVER]

I think this is a very neat idea and it seems like you have thought through a lot of things you would like see happen and such. I do think this needs be more short term as many member do tend to come and go over time. Really, in my opinion it should not go any longer than a month. Instead, if it is ok with Teresa maybe this could be something done like twice a year, so if someone missed out the first time around, or they are a new member they can prepare for the upcoming event. I also feel that would help the pigs continue to have new, bigger, better, upgraded cages all the time.

I also like the idea of all the "fees" go to Teresa to continue to help the pigs in need. I do think $10 is a bit steep for a entry fee, and I think that it should be a bit lower so people can enter in several catagories that fit their cages and more people will join in on the fun instead of having to watch on the sidelines due to lack of funds.

I think the "upgrade" in statis is a neat idea for the winner of each catagory and maybe (all depending on the software program) they could have a little slogan under their name or avator so everyone could see. Not sure how it would all work, but I think it would be neat to have a cage "make-over" for the grand prize winner. They could get new fleece, matching cuddle cups, the works and it could all "match". Maybe instead of gift certificates from Target, we should keep it based on the pigs--maybe KM's hay or pellets, or Oxbow??

I know a quite a few people on this forum have special talents and maybe could donate their talent and time as the prizes seeing the entry fees would all be a donation to help the homeless pigs. If we all worked together this could be a huge success and help many pigs and T out greatly. Great idea Slave to the Wheek!!!!