Original discussion here:

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/1475/Got_a_Great_idea_for_a_board_but#post_14

General idea is that we collectively would decide on a theme & maybe some constraints, and then we have some time period (3 months?), and everyone submits their designs.  We play test games and the maps that pass are all uploaded as scenarios to one collective map.

Questions & my answers:

Time period - It seems like 3 months was a reasonable compromise.

Logistics - Do we create a shared map maker account?  What name?  Who gets access?

How do we pick a theme? - Anyone can suggest, then we call a vote. 

How do we pick the winner? & do they get a prize?

Ozyman wrote:

Logistics - Do we create a shared map maker account?  What name?  Who gets access?

"Contest-ed" would be my pick. and i agree with whomever it was that it would probably be easier for us all to submit .xmls and graphics to one of the admins to upload to it.

"Contest-ed" is fine with me.  I also like 'cartographer' (or maybe 'cartographers', since Cartographer is(was?) an active member).  My previous suggestion was 'Alan Smithee' which "was an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project" (from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Smithee), but I don't really care what we use, I'm just excited about doing this!

I'd be up for the contest and for helping get the board put together.

Some sort of special account would probably be cool that is specific the contest.  "Contest-ed" or "Varied Designers" or something that may give a hint that this is a special board would probably be a good idea.  Not too sure if it would be a completely shared account, mainly just because it's usually easy to trip someone else up or destroy a Scenario with a misclick, but perhaps it could work.

As for a first Theme, I'd suggest some fairly basic landmass that doesn't presently have any boards already.  Something like Canada or Sierra Leone, have that as the base landmass and then open to interpretation for all other gameplay.  Not something like US, Europe, Africa, Aus, etc.

Winner by poll?...somehow :p

Ozyman wrote:

since Cartographer is(was?) an active member).  

Semi-active, some know him as tom. 

 lol.  Can't believe that is Tom.

I agree first theme should be pretty simple.  My nomination is "The Middle East", since there is a lot going on there now, and it leaves a lot to individual interpretation.  I say we give one week for nominations for theme, then vote on all submissions.  I wish we could use Instant-run-off voting, but that could be complicated. I did find a site that handles IRV polls for free:

http://www.demochoice.org/dcsetup.php

But the question is do we solicit emails to ensure fair voting, or trust people to vote anonymously only once?  If that is too complicated, I guess just vote in a thread, and tally by hand.

I will happily tally the votes, via pm or here in the forum and I will used IRV or something else; whatever is decided.

Happy to use the Cartographer account to host this - I can give the password to those who want to run this.

I'll have a think about a prize as well.

Sounds like good times -- pretty sure I already know what I'll do if it's a middle east theme!

Is this a go?

no one said what the theme was yet i think

This Sunday is one week since the first post, so I say get all suggestions for theme in before then. Then everyone has a week to vote on the theme they want. 

We still need to pick an account name to do this under, and have someone(s) in charge of that account.  I nominate Yertle, unless he is too busy to take care of it.

As far as I can tell here are possible themes:

• Canada
• Sierra Leone
• The Middle East

Seems like the candidate list & interest are small enough to make IRV not too complicated, so unless there is an objection, lets do that.  Basically to vote just rank the candidates in your preferred order.

Anything else we need to iron out?

Forgot to mention the account name possibilities.   I guess we could practice our IRV on the group account name.

Here is what I see for the nominations:

• Contest-ed
• Varied Designers
• Various Designers
• Alan Smithee
• The Collective

Get your suggestions in before Sunday.

Kjeld wrote:

pretty sure I already know what I'll do if it's a middle east theme!

Hordes of Middle East?

And I'm up for putting the account together.

How about Pangaea as a theme? Go really old-school, prehistory style!

I like Pangaea, since it's something I (and probably lots of map makers have thought about).  I think there might be a map or two with a similar theme, but I don't think that should necessarily stop us from doing it.

I like Middle East now, and Pangaea then.

Middle East works for me.

Well, it's Sunday.  I think it makes sense to keep the voting to it's own thread:

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/1502p1

One more thing to discuss, is if we are going to have an official winner, how do we vote on that?  I suggest we don't use IRV for that vote.  Since IRV implies ranking every choice, it could be a bit depressing if everyone thinks your map is the worst.  Instead, how about each players just nominate their 1st, 2nd & 3rd places - you can't vote for your own map.     Then each 1st place vote is worth +3, 2nd place is +2, 3rd place is +1.   However gets the most points wins.

Another question -  who gets to vote?  Is it just designers who have submitted a map?   Should we let any wargear account vote as long as they have played all the submitted maps at least once?