If I remember correctly in the 2023 96-hour event, at least one of the sponsors (EVGA) shipped prizes out directly to the winners, absorbing the shipping cost and logistics of EHW Staff in shipping prizes. Is it too much of an ask for potential sponsors to do that? Or if not, I guess I'd rather have a big box of prizes bulk shipped to EHW than to not have a sponsor, if push comes to shove. Just would be ideal if the vendor did the shipping.
Re: Psychology, I get that too. I learned about this forum via the F@H Discord community and joined, and it seems like a friendly community with non-existent douches. There's a few other hardware communities that... feel like teenage fighting and egos (plus the spelling and grammar errors turn me off). Point is: EHW does seem like a potential "home forum" for me, as I'm not currently active anywhere on the Internet. (Also not currently splurging on new desktop builds until the income/life situation gets normalized again). I do have 2024 plans for a 24U server rack, and I've been on a new pfSense build for 6 months. Soon will build out multiple XCP-ng servers. [i]Eventually[/i] (once I can afford the hardware and power bill), I'd like to go nuts on a 4U GPU folding farm beast, so EHW seems like a good community where I'd be accepted (and a place to share homelab/server porn).
I'm rambling. If push comes to shove as a newbie here, I can do $10, but any more at this time is a bit much for my life situation. But also only if there's no legal issues with paying for prizes or calling it a raffle, etc.
Instead of a $10 for entry, could it be a $10 if the winner wants to claim their prize? I'm trying to think of what's fair vs. what would get the most participation and fun factor to attract new people to the EHW community. Asking a complete outsider to donate perhaps leaves a poor first impression to EHW, but I *do* understand the significant personal expense in shipping out prizes if a sponsor bulk ships a box of prizes. What's the right balance?
I think 96 hours (4 days) or 120 hours (5 days) are a good sweet spot for annual contest.
Agree with earlier in the year (e.g. February) over spring. I'm in the Southeast USA currently, and it gets to summer temps pretty fast + summer electricity rates.