Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

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RasmitDevkota
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Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by RasmitDevkota »

SMEC (the Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges) is in the process of being reworked for a potential return in the future, and we want to make it work even better for the community.

What's SMEC? SMEC was a monthly mini-competition consisting of a few events run by community members here on Scioly.org and open for everyone to compete in. All events are typically run individually or with 1-2 partners on Scilympiad.com and are open over the course of a week or so. SMEC was last run in the 2020-2021 season, and you can see how it was run by clicking on any SMEC thread on the SSSS & SMEC Forums: https://scioly.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=379.

Given how popular SMEC was, we want to see if people would be interested in bringing in back, but we need everyone's help in improving it this time! If you have any ideas, suggestions, or constructive criticism for how SMEC could be rerun in the future, please respond to this post on the forums!

A couple possible changes for discussion:
- Longer testing windows to give participants more time
- "Community-written exams" similar to how SSSS was recently run to make running events more manageable
- "Anything" events where community members can contribute questions about any topic to a single test to allow for more topics each time, possibly as trial runs for future SMEC events

These are just some possible changes we've had in mind—if you have others then please share, we'd love to talk about them! This post is for discussion between everyone so openly share your thoughts, but be polite and respectful!

As a disclaimer, nothing has been finalized as of yet and there is no exact timeline for when SMEC will return, but the sooner we get feedback the sooner we can begin reworking SMEC, so please share your thoughts!
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Re: Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by Royce »

I loved how SMEC was run 2 years back with the monthly competitions that spanned various events, tests being taken on scilympiad, and how everything was organized with timely emails with login/registration/instructions/results.

Here are some suggestions I have if you guys decide to run SMEC in the future :)
- Prizes? As you guys know, SOINC MY SO used to give out medals and laptop stickers to those who placed in the top 25 nationwide last year. Now, well ... they are doing Kahoots where winners are anonymous (I mean come on, tell me I'm not the only one dying from the anonymous Kahoot usernames that they post on their social media). The way I see it - this is SMEC's chance to step up and take the stage. I understand MY SO was pay-to-compete and they still got so many people competing because of their incentives. I get that SMEC is freely run, but maybe setting up a donations page so you can give out small prizes would increase the number of people who use SMEC to get better at their events, have fun, and compete :D
- Instagram/Social media Post? Shouting out the people who place on the leaderboard might make SMEC more competitive and increase the learning experience.
- Keep the testing time the same at 50 minutes as it models what tests look like at scrimmages, invitationals, regionals, state, and nationals
- Volunteering to write a whole test for SMEC can be tedious, so maybe people in the community who aren't taking the tests can submit their own set of questions which are all combined into one test
- Not sure if you guys have done this in the past - have people input/vote for what events they want to have (events like Fast Facts and Pokémon Trivia had a lot of competitors in May 2021)
- Publicize SMEC? I only got to know about SMEC from my friend and the SciOly forums, so maybe get the scienceolympiad Instagram and other means to get the message out about SMEC

Good luck and I hope this feedback was helpful. I look forward to seeing SMEC get restarted and competing in it in the future!
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Re: Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by RasmitDevkota »

I get that SMEC is freely run, but maybe setting up a donations page so you can give out small prizes would increase the number of people who use SMEC to get better at their events, have fun, and compete :D
It would be cool to give things out to competitors but (AFAIK) there's no real budget for Scioly.org that could be used towards this, and given donations would be for the sake of getting prizes for other people I'm not sure how reliable that would be. Managing money is a big hassle on its own unless you're an entire organization like SOINC, so I'm not really sure if this would be feasible or wise to deal with money.
- Instagram/Social media Post? Shouting out the people who place on the leaderboard might make SMEC more competitive and increase the learning experience.
Non-monetary rewards would definitely be doable! It is worth keeping in mind that Scioly.org is unofficial and so there's no official tie to the official SOINC-run Instagram accounts but there is the Scioly.org Instagram page which could be used.
- Keep the testing time the same at 50 minutes as it models what tests look like at scrimmages, invitationals, regionals, state, and nationals
Definitely agree that tests for the most part should be kept at 50 minutes (though some events like Fast Facts and Digital Structures are run differently), in case it was unclear what I meant by "Longer testing windows to give participants more time" was giving people 2-3 weeks or even a month to test instead of just a week - this way someone who just happens to have a busy week can still find time to participate and have fun.
- Not sure if you guys have done this in the past - have people input/vote for what events they want to have (events like Fast Facts and Pokémon Trivia had a lot of competitors in May 2021)
I don't believe there was ever a formal system for this besides discussions among community members about what events would be fun to see, but this is definitely something that should be done so that there's fun events for everyone. Running both official and fun events is definitely a good idea as official events are good practice for the entire community and creates practice tests for those who can't/don't compete in SMEC while fun events are great fun and could one day lead to the creation of a trial/official event :o
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Re: Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by jaspattack »

IIRC events were kind of just chosen based on what people wanted to run, there was never really a formal process. It's hard to promise you'll run an event if you don't know who will ES it but I really loved that you could run anything that you wanted, even old events or trials. I guess you could put together a team of writers that run things regularly, but to me that kind of defeats the point.

The thing I loved the most about SMEC was the community aspect of it--getting to compete with friends you wouldn't normally compete with, especially if you're a bio kid and they all do physics. It was always for fun and never for fame, you were able to try new things just to try them. see: the wici experiment It was never high stakes but it was never meant to be, the fun was the point.

That brings me to incentivizing people to participate: I think previous winners were mentioned in announcements on Discord when results were posted, but I'm not sure. We can definitely do that now if we didn't then though. Physical incentives are largely difficult logistically--even if we did hold donations for incentives (which I feel like we wouldn't do) you still have to order and pack and ship them and with a site/event run entirely by volunteers it's just not great. We might be able to do something like a Discord role for SMEC winners too but the last thing I want is for competing in SMEC to stop being fun and I think that happens when people take it too seriously. It's a silly online competition with silly events run by silly volunteers for fun. My best advice is just to not make it something it's not.
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Re: Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by RasmitDevkota »

jaspattack wrote: December 8th, 2022, 9:28 am IIRC events were kind of just chosen based on what people wanted to run, there was never really a formal process. It's hard to promise you'll run an event if you don't know who will ES it but I really loved that you could run anything that you wanted, even old events or trials. I guess you could put together a team of writers that run things regularly, but to me that kind of defeats the point.
It definitely would kill the fun to stop allowing any random event, existing or made up on the spot, but I think it would be nice to at least open up some more discussion going on before the next month's events are chosen so that anyone who's interested in doing in an event can share their ideas and we can see what everyone can come up with - at least a couple of the made-up events last time were birthed through discussion on the Discord, and more of that might end up creating a really really fun event.

If you're referring to the "Community-written" or "Anything" events ideas, these would be more just an opportunity on the side (maybe just once or twice as its own event) to give everyone the chance to have some fun throwing in the funniest questions they can, maybe a Rick Roll or some tank trivia, without taking on the burden of writing an entire test. I know at least a few people I talked to during the 2021 season were hesitant about helping out with SMEC because they weren't sure whether or not they would be able to write a full test, and giving people the chance to throw all their interests into a single event would definitely end with a really fun test. For reference, see "Science" and "Everything But Science" from Lexington 2022 or "Anything goes" from Rickards this season (can't seem to find either set :cry:)
jaspattack wrote: December 8th, 2022, 9:28 am The thing I loved the most about SMEC was the community aspect of it--getting to compete with friends you wouldn't normally compete with, especially if you're a bio kid and they all do physics. It was always for fun and never for fame, you were able to try new things just to try them. see: the wici experiment It was never high stakes but it was never meant to be, the fun was the point.
Agreed, making it "high stakes" might make some people more hesitant to participate, I know even back in the 2021 season some people were scared about doing certain events that they knew nothing about, but I feel like we should emphasize that whether you're experienced with the topic or not SMEC is something you can enjoy anyways - if nothing else it's a great opportunity to see what sort of funny answers people can make up, personally speaking when I wrote Quantum Quandaries for SMEC I made sure to make as many questions as memeable as possible, and I think this is something that you can only get with SMEC.
jaspattack wrote: December 8th, 2022, 9:28 am That brings me to incentivizing people to participate: I think previous winners were mentioned in announcements on Discord when results were posted, but I'm not sure. We can definitely do that now if we didn't then though. Physical incentives are largely difficult logistically--even if we did hold donations for incentives (which I feel like we wouldn't do) you still have to order and pack and ship them and with a site/event run entirely by volunteers it's just not great.
I do think the posts here and messages on the Discord as it was done before are plenty already, though it would be great to figure out a better way to advertise SMEC in general - it's a fun experience that more people should get to try out but not many people seem to be aware of what it is (especially now about 2 years later with so many new members who I'm sure would love SMEC).
jaspattack wrote: December 8th, 2022, 9:28 am We might be able to do something like a Discord role for SMEC winners too but the last thing I want is for competing in SMEC to stop being fun and I think that happens when people take it too seriously. It's a silly online competition with silly events run by silly volunteers for fun. My best advice is just to not make it something it's not.
Fully agree, keeping it as a fun casual thing is best, it makes it more welcoming to all and more of an enjoyable experience than another stressful competition.
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Re: Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by pumptato-cat »

jaspattack wrote: December 8th, 2022, 9:28 am That brings me to incentivizing people to participate: I think previous winners were mentioned in announcements on Discord when results were posted, but I'm not sure. We can definitely do that now if we didn't then though. Physical incentives are largely difficult logistically--even if we did hold donations for incentives (which I feel like we wouldn't do) you still have to order and pack and ship them and with a site/event run entirely by volunteers it's just not great.
Going back to this- it's not just SMEC that needs more promotion, it's probably the forums in general... Most of the discussion I've seen has moved to the discord and while that does make sense, there is a lot of valuable information that is being lost that way--on Scioly.org, at least you can view archives(that are well organized in my opinion). From what I've seen, this results in a lot of questions being repeatedly asked.
SMEC does not seem to be getting much discussion on Discord--I'm not sure how that would be fixed. I remember you posting something in a channel a while back, but it didn't get much attention. I think most problems(lack of participation) stem from the fact that the forums just aren't as active as they used to be, and as sad as that is, there doesn't seem to be a viable solution.
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Re: Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by BrownieInMotion »

Late to the conversation, but I do agree with the general sentiment that it should stay informal and fun. To that end, my proposal is to allow anyone who wants to run an event (within reason) to be able to do so. Instead of being run monthly, SMEC could repeat over a longer cycle (say, 2-4 times a year). At the start of each cycle, prospective writers express their interest and SMEC organizers vet their event rules (if they're proposing a new or modified events) and pair them up with other writers if there's overlap and they want to. Writers write their tests and organizers could even look over them and provide feedback and editing suggestions to make it a learning opportunity for new writers, if they want it.

This would help alleviate the pressure of having to write a full exam in a few weeks, since you would have the opportunity to work with another writer or just take your time and write for the next cycle, as there will definitely be plenty of other events being run each time and none are fixed. This also maximizes fun since it's highly likely at least one event you're interested in will be run. I would expect it to be much easier to organize for organizers and I don't think there will be an issue having too many tests written or something and if there is the frequency of the cycles can just be increased.

This idea is partly inspired by a similar tradition in quizbowl, where players write a packet of quizbowl questions on whatever they want and read it once a year.
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Re: Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by RasmitDevkota »

We'll definitely still let anyone interested write for an event, since it worked fine before.

As for the frequency idea, we can definitely see what people would prefer. In the 2021 season, there wasn't really an issue with having people to write events since many events were planned well in advance (Quantum Quandaries for me was about 3 months in advance at least, not sure about every other event), but we can see what works best because we definitely want to enable everyone to write!
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Re: Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by SilverBreeze »

I’d love to see SMEC come back. I think it’d also help to have SMEC “quizzes” that are 15-25 min long, so that SMEC writers don’t have to commit to a full test in one month. This also makes it easier to get a full test, since actively finding a co-writer can be difficult. This way, people who only have time to write half a test can see a SMEC quiz scheduled and offer to add more questions. I agree a longer cycle would also help increase people willing to run events.
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Re: Scioly.org Monthly Event Challenges: Future Modifications

Post by pumptato-cat »

Random thought, but have build events ever been run? I wonder if having a miniature version of current builds, or maybe something new such as ornithopter might be fun. I can't think of any build events with easily accessible materials though, so this is probably not the best idea.
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