New uploading rule

richard on 2008/08/22 00:24
— edited on 2008/08/22 07:29

This comp I'm going to try something different to solve the uploading problems of past comps.

Files must be uploaded within 24 hours of the end of the challenge.

You have 7 days of development time followed by 24 hours to get your game file(s) uploaded. Failed attempts to upload at the last minute of that additional 24 hours will be met with zero leniency.

This is not extra development time. If you abuse it and work longer and miss the upload deadline you will receive no sympathy.

Multiple uploads will be allowed during the 24 hours to allow for fixing stupid bugs, platform issues and adding screenshots. Be aware that people will be able to rate your game based on the very first upload you make.

There will be no MD5 mechanism.

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Comments

RB[0] on 2008/08/22 02:55:

Well the MD5 thing was a mess :(
So, what we have now is pyweek, and then 1 extra day for uploading and testing, right?
Could you define "fixing stupid bugs" better? As I could see how that could easily move to any bug really...

I understand the zero leniency thing, I cannot imagine the load you had of people who screwed up everything (myself included :S) that you needed to fix...

Overall, I like the idea a lot, just needs a little clarification I think :)

richard on 2008/08/22 04:25:

I see no reason to define what work could be made in that 24 hours, except to say that if you push your luck, work through the extra 24 hours and wait for the last minute to upload and don't get your file submitted I will have zero sympathy.

And yeah, my stress levels went down as soon as I decided to make this change :)

eugman on 2008/08/22 04:28:

You might want to have some sort of rolling deadline so different groups are expected to upload at different times. That or some sort of incentive to submit early otherwise I fear people will wait till the last minute with this too. Regardless, I think it's a great idea.

richard on 2008/08/22 07:29:

I've now implemented this rule in the server code.

@eugman: "This is not extra development time. If you abuse it and work longer and miss the upload deadline you will receive no sympathy." :)

Chard on 2008/08/22 11:37:

Excellent, I like this idea. Especially the extra time to fix specific issues people have with platform compatibility or whatnot. It's not like there isn't basically an expectation of good faith here anyway. :-)

I too caused richard problems last PyWeek, sorry.

eugman on 2008/08/22 15:39:

@richard: yeah it's funny, I took so long in posting that I had actually started typing before that was up. Please do emphasize that one can submit multiple final versions so people will submit a fallback version earlier on. In fact the ability to unmark final versions would be nice on the off chance that all the final versions get included in the torrent( like I think happens once before).

bjorn on 2008/08/24 17:02:

sounds good. One concern though. Say someone uploads a "final" version early in the 24 hour period that they're' pretty happy with, but then much later in the day discover a bug so try to upload a fix, but a bunch of other people are trying to upload at the last minute and something goes wrong - maybe the file isn't finished uploading. Is it possible that this second upload could be posted even though it wasn't finished, ie, end up with something totally broken?

Or I can think of another scenario where you upload a good version, then later a bugfix version for that good version, and then discover your bug fix actually breaks more than it fixes. In this case it'd be nice not to have to re-upload the first submission but rather mark the second as no good (assuming no time to make a real fix here).

In any case, I think this is a good stress reducing mechanism both for Richard and for those of us with a tendency to mess up our MD5 sums :)

Akake on 2008/08/24 20:25:

*Is a first-time entrant*

How were uploads handled before this, just out of curiousity?

This system sounds good, though.

richard on 2008/08/24 21:55:

@bjorn: I think my blanket "if you leave it to the last minute" statement applies in all situations you've described. The 24 hour uploading time is not for additional development. If you manage to fix a stupid bug during that time and upload a new version then good for you. Otherwise you should've given more time during the challenge to testing :)

@Akake: previously there was a mad rush a the deadline to upload files, resulting in server overload and many, many people missing the deadline. I introduced an MD5 signature based upload mechanism. This resulted in me helping people upload their files up to 48 hours after the challenge last time.

Treeform on 2008/08/27 00:26:

yey one extra day for coding!
maybe if we used a different place to upload stuff like github , sf cvs , google code svn, or launchpad bzr ...
Then there still would be a rush but it would not take pyweek down.

richard on 2008/08/28 01:14:

"one extra day for coding" /smack Treeform :)

eugman on 2008/08/28 01:19:

It's one extra day to feel smug about finishing saturday morning.

RB[0] on 2008/08/28 03:24:

ROFL, I was waiting for you to say that Tree :P
But yeah, I think most people will just use this to test and not code too seriously many new features, I hope ;)

richard on 2008/08/28 04:27:

I dunno how I can make it more clear that I will absolutely not be helping people upload if they can't do it in that extra 24 hours...

RB[0] on 2008/08/28 17:59:

You can't... if people don't get they won't, and I think most have and are just giving you a hard time ;) LOL

Treeform on 2008/08/29 21:49:

yeah i like the pyweek + 1 day, more time for every thing.