Madness Indeed
Update #1
Remy’s Happy Webbie is underway and will be complete in a couple of weeks. As an added bonus Varick Rosete, the madman with all the skillz, is creating a video of how he illustrates those cute little heads. Stay tuned!
Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve crowned our new Happy Webbie, Remy Sharp, which means that Webbie Madness is officially over. It was fun and it couldn’t have happened without you.
To those of you who were nominated to be Webbies, you guys are awesome. Your contributions are changing the way we do things in the digital world. You deserve recognition for inspiring all of us.
Voters, your support made this madness real. You showed us that the people who have the biggest impact aren’t always the familiar names. While we did have some popular people nominated, it wasn’t a popularity contest. No disrespect to Radu Chelariu (aka Captain Ahab), but he was an unlikely finalist, to say the least.
So, why did we do this?
Fame and fortune of course. Okay, not really.
The whole point of Webbie Madness was to discover the Cinderellas in the industry who have really made some cool things happen. Together, we did that.
We had a blast from start to finish. (Well mostly; there were a few bumps in there.) But it’s not every day you get to start a conversation with your industry. Especially one that leads to thousands honoring 64 spotlights of interweb awesomeness.
Buckets of sweat
Running a contest like Webbie Madness was fun, but it was also challenging. We spent more than 200 hours managing the contest. This included the obvious stuff like building the site (it was all automated) and the stuff you might not expect, like responding to hundreds of Twitter messages.
Word to the wise: If you ever decide to throw a contest, play it out in your mind from beginning to end before you start. Thinking through how you’re gonna manage it, communicate and be fair will save your sanity. Trust us. Seriously.
Lessons learned
We had a fantastic time putting this thing together and we learned a lot. Some of the more painful lessons included things such as:
- No matter how constricted your budget, QA is the most important step. You and everyone else will suffer if it’s not done right.
- Clear, easy directions are a must. Expect to clarify even the simplest of ideas. Some things are always lost in translation. (P.S. — it’s also important to be able to get in touch with contestants via something other than Twitter handles. Duly noted.)
- Even one tweet can morph into spam if it’s retweeted enough.
- Compassion, creativity, and brevity will take you a lot farther than apologies.
We also realized two things as the contest wound to a close…
- It’s always going to take twice as long to accomplish the idea you have brewing.
- Whenever you do something different you will piss a few people off. That’s a fact. You have to embrace the 99% of people who supported the idea. People are going to see things however they want. So while someone wishes for your dog to have a severe case of diarrhea that will ruin your carpet, keep a smile on your face. It’s a sign you’re doing things right.
Yeah, it was worth it
Over the last few weeks, we’ve met a lot of crazy talented folks who keep reinventing themselves. Even though they are successful they keep pushing to be better. Being able to see that drive and watch how it excites our industry was pretty damned cool.
So what is your takeaway from Webbie Madness? Go on, tell us the raw truth, we can take it.
Comments
When you have 64 names of people that need to be whittled in half, and then in half again, and again…
Instead of pitting individuals against individuals from which you can only choose one, it would be nice if voters could select a maximum number from a list (like with checkboxes or something). I wasn’t a big fan of the voting system. I was “forced” to select people I wouldn’t have instead of selecting people for whom I would have voted. In many cases, I had to pick from two equally deserving people in my mind…and then again from 2 people I wasn’t familiar with at all.
It might be more difficult to calculate a “winner” in that kind of system, but it seems like it would more accurately represent who the community at large supported for this honor, silly as it may be.
Just a suggestion… I hope it is taken in the spirit intended – constructive criticism.
Bridget, I feel your pain. The idea of following the NCAA college basketball tournament format pretty much dictated the selection process. And we randomly placed all contestants.
I had to vote out some people I really liked early on and struggled with unknowns as well. For me, if there had only been 16 contestants to start it may have been easier.
I think the original list of nominations is a great tribute to who the industry respects. I know I found some new people I’m following now.
Thanks for your feedback!
At first you’re all like “The whole point of Webbie Madness was to discover the Cinderellas in the industry“but then you go “but he was an unlikely finalist, to say the least”. Kind of contradicting. Isn’t the fact that some nobody like this Rade guy got in the final the point of the game? Which would make it quite likely.
Sorry you found it contradicting, I was actually trying to say it showed we succeeded. So please consider it poor writing with the right intent. 8^)