Penalty points for blogs posted past the due date?

I've had a few people wrote back to me about some serious health issues they had during the program period. When I learn about personal issues like this I usually give an extension, which is my policy for all my programs. But this should be for the final project. Credit for the training blogs has been closed for awhile. As for the closing time of day, my feeling has always been that we have people in different time zones, so the closing time should be within a day of the posted closing day. I had not considered penalty points. I suppose that's the point of the deadline, anything past that would not be eligible for any points. It seems like I need to take a closer look at deadlines. Thanks for making me think about it.

I also had a really fun, related discussion with dev ops about time zones.

When and where do you decide is the "last place on earth" and its timezone for "the final hour of the day"?

There's an answer to this, it's the IDLW timezone.

https://time.is/IDLW

Should we use this as the time and timezone for ending competition entries? Or is that a bit over the top considering no one lives on these remote atolls :D Part of me would argue that when we say "end of day on a set date" that we kinda should use the IDLW timezone.

I use the time zone as a grace period for cut-off days in my day job (I'm currently scrum mastering). If it's still "end of day" somewhere on the globe, I accept it. I plan for that.
It's easier for me to take this into account, than to ask 100 colleagues to adapt to an artificial timezone.

I like this.  Australians and New Zealanders probably would too.   

I personaly assume deadline in timezone in which I live. UPS deliver all packages at day (for now, let's ignore that sometimes difference is in days unit and not a hours) at all places around the world, so all contestants receive package at day and they should complete at nigh. At night in timezone in which they live.

But from practical point of view it is not important I think. Since Element14 competitions are not evaluated next day and there is always delay, I think it is not problem to accept blogs from late timezones up to 23 hours late (but practicaly in Chicago time additive constant is much lower).

Pro tip: don't aim for deadlines. It's a cause for lost opportunities.

Professional procrastinators know how to deal with it, and how to use it as an Occam's razor.
For the non-pros (and those that are hoping to get nice free gear in a competition)  it 'll be a voluntary trap to stumble over.

"one should only procrastinate beyond deadlines (or assume that deadlines aren't where they are) if one has no stake in the outcome"

It would be an ideal solution. Everyone that missed that cut-off date, will have had their fair chance or more.

You may get remarks that some people get a fairer fair chance than others. 

Nice to read content as and when it is ready, rather than all on the last day. 

I routinely "lie" about the time for bookings etc for events with friends and family, simply because if I say 5.30pm, they may make it at 6pm : (

Personally I think it's a nice generous system, and there will always be people who won't make it regardless of what timezone is specified. Even if the system only allowed setting a timezone (e.g. PST, EST, etc) and let contestants figure it out (since they will need to understand timezones in normal life), but regardless, as you say, it's not good to aim for the last day! Perhaps some people feel that if they deliver at the last moment, it is less opportunity for other contestants to see and improve their offerings, since it's a competition. But this is "ungentlemanly" - better to not try strategies like this, and just trust your material is good.

What are your thoughts of someone resubmitting past competition material?

personal view: allowable, if it is relevant for the new situation. If it is own material.
best to indicate it, but not mandatory

shabaz After my Dad retired from the Navy, we were not on time for ANYTHING.  We told friends "Lie to us that it's a half hour or an hour earlier.  PLEASE!  Then we might be on time."  He got better once we grew up and moved out, but as a kid... it was terrible.

I support establishing earlier deadlines for oneself.  Life has a way of consuming that time.  Every time.

Hehe well I guess he earned it, not having to be prompt anymore after such a regimented work career!

Back when a friend was getting married in some northern town, I just knew there was no way we (his closest friends) were all going to get there on time. It was just not realistic.

We decided to be clever and book a hotel near the venue the night before, to eliminate this risk, or so we thought. We were now only 10 minutes away from the venue, so all should have been fine.

In the morning, all of us bright and cheerful that we were going to be bang on time, driving from the hotel to the venue, I still got lost! By the time we got our bearings and finally made it, our lateness was very apparent not just to the groom but to  _everyone_ when we walked in : (

Hehe well I guess he earned it, not having to be prompt anymore after such a regimented work career!

Back when a friend was getting married in some northern town, I just knew there was no way we (his closest friends) were all going to get there on time. It was just not realistic.

We decided to be clever and book a hotel near the venue the night before, to eliminate this risk, or so we thought. We were now only 10 minutes away from the venue, so all should have been fine.

In the morning, all of us bright and cheerful that we were going to be bang on time, driving from the hotel to the venue, I still got lost! By the time we got our bearings and finally made it, our lateness was very apparent not just to the groom but to  _everyone_ when we walked in : (