Some Changes in How Blogs are Scored in Experimenting Challenges

Interesting modification... I only wonder if it doesn't prevent people from publishing traditional unboxing/kit content information? I can imagine the series of experiment/tutorial type blogs with very limited information about kit components. That could of course be compensated by final blog judging guidelines (e.g. kit content information needs to be included to get good final score)

And another thing - does it means that final blog will not be a sum of extra credit blogs? I think that writing - for example - a tutorial could require extra effort not always advancing the main story of final blog (and in some cases not easily integrated into final blog)... [EDIT] I think that it could be a better approach from reader's perspective to get more different reading material during the contest

Ok, but I think language is important. On the one hand everyone says the judging is fair, but on the other hand, there are plenty of subtle implications (I'm being general, only commenting here since it was mentioned) that point to people being unhappy with the scoring. 

I understand that it would put additional burden on judges - but from challenger perspective it is sometimes difficult to tell what was wrong/what needs to be improved... But I understand different aspects - people could get upset and discouraged, so maybe it wouldn't be positive change after all

sorry - I was thinking that it was clear (I think my English skill is worse than I have thought). BTW - I have volunteered to judge one of Project14 projects so I can imagine what it takes to judge something much bigger ...

I mainly currently just care about readers perspective because there is a lot of support for challengers, including help pages to ask questions. We all seem to agree the final rankings are pretty accurate, and there's lots of opportunities to self-improve in any aspect. It would be nice to get back to the fun aspect of challenges, with people writing what they want to (passionately) because it feels unpleasant having to concentrate on points when it would be more fun to concentrate on the technology. I understand that the points are necessary for ranking and awards of course. But feel something is lost if it is too much focus on that.

Also, there doesn't have to be anything wrong with contest blogs. Contestants have naturally focussed on their "baby" throughout the challenge, they naturally have not got to know all the other babies and a few might simply have the edge in comparison. That's not a negative thing for contestants, and people genuinely are congratulating everyone who makes an effort at the end of the day.

The contestants I hope also afterwards look at the other contestants and be honest about how they would vote after having spent some time reading the others' blogs. Has anyone seen a genuinely unfair award? If not, then the answers simply have to be in those babies they just have to get to know them.

From the reader's perspective I think that aggregating (mayor parts of) extra blogs into final blog could be discouraging - reader can either skip all the extra blogs and read only the final or read intermediate blogs and then get bogged down by looking what was changed in the summary blog.

And in this aspect the new scoring would be an improvement - one cannot simply  aggregate 5 different tutorials (and - given the experience from previous scoring system - when maximum number of points from intermediate blogs was essential to the final score - tutorials will be created) into one coherent summary blog....

People successfully write blogs without making their final blog discouraging to read. Here's an example that Ralph did, I can't recall it in detail but I recall being impressed at the organization and the avoidance of all the "ancillary" stuff that really should be in a separate blog, neatly linked where necessary:

 Panda Enclosure - Final Summary Blog 

From the reader's perspective, that was far better than either:

(a) having to read five blogs, 

(b) having to read an unorganized amalgamation of five blogs.

And let's be honest. While a writer may think all five of their blogs are full of interesting content, a reader wants the readers digest version, comfortable in the knowledge that if they want the code, they simply click a link, and if they want to drill down into the detail about how something was prepared or installed, that's a link away. None of it is hidden, it's simply that URLs are embraced, but it's still entirely readable standalone. Its too much to expect a reader will follow all five blog posts let alone the final one.

Yes - it was really nice blog...

But - if reading only one, well written, summary blog is better for reader than "having to read five blogs" then why to force everyone to publish them all (and with specific time intervals) or lose the chance of winning because of insufficient total point score?

Maybe even some writers would prefer to write one document than write five, then refine them somehow and create one additional digest - with just enough details to not omit anything important (if judging process will be limited only to one final blog) and not to put too much less-important details (to not discourage readers that have - hopefully - managed to read through all the previous work)

I strongly recommend reading some winning entries. There is valuable content in their five blogs, some is ancillary and will help those following in their footsteps, and some helped to write the final blog. Usually there are links to the blogs for those who want that level of detail.

Anyway it is self evident that readers prefer a standalone blog with links to other blogs where supporting material is needed. Super irritating when bloggers assume people have read the previous weeks content.

OK - but why to require/encourage weekly publishing a constant number of them if they are not meant to be read standalone? It would be sufficient to publish them all before deadline (standalone summary blog and number of extensions/detailed descriptions required by the project - not fixed by the scoring system)...

Because that's terrible for the reader, and not great for the contestant either. Some people do publish on the very last day all of their blogs. They are often sparse because they have not made the effort earlier, and I seem to keep reiterating several times now that the previous blogs help writers write their final blog in a clearer manner. 

Because that's terrible for the reader, and not great for the contestant either. Some people do publish on the very last day all of their blogs. They are often sparse because they have not made the effort earlier, and I seem to keep reiterating several times now that the previous blogs help writers write their final blog in a clearer manner.