August app of the month contest - submissions open!

News

Submitted Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 9:38pm GMT
amitbakshi

74 posts

This month we're running an App of the Month contest! Buyers, if you've built an iPhone or Facebook app on oDesk, submit it to our contest for community voting. The submission period closes on July 31 and voting begins on August 1.

The grand prize winning Buyer will receive $1,000 in oDesk credit and an Apple iPhone.

Vote Result

Score: 9.0, Votes: 3

It is necessary to give 30% Submitted Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 1:50pm GMT
zdenis 37 posts - Belarus - Joined Jan 09 2008

It is necessary to give 30% to the provider.

Buyers can give providers bonuses Submitted Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 12:30am GMT
amitbakshi

74 posts

Denis,

Thanks for your suggestion. The winning buyer can give the provider( that worked on their site bonuses if they wish. We hope they do consider sharing their winnings. However, buyers have paid to get their sites made and therefore own the rights to submit them to the Site of the Month Contest.

Amit Bakshi
Marketing Manager

providers Submitted Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 10:01am GMT
chrissanders 27 posts - United States - Joined Apr 11 2008

I think that the providers should get an award, So they can showcase their design skills for future projects.

You have submitted the maximum number of entries. Check submissi Submitted Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 11:53am GMT
kstepanov 86 posts - Ukraine - Joined Jan 12 2006

Here is what our client got when trying to submit his site:

You have submitted the maximum number of entries. Check submission guidelines.

Please advice how should we fix it? This was the first time he saw that form and never submitted anything before.

Thank you,

Kostya

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Inadequate voting. Submitted Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 12:54pm GMT
zdenis 37 posts - Belarus - Joined Jan 09 2008

Inadequate voting. Impossible results.

I do not think SO MUCH negative voices for EVERY site can take place.You have not considered the human factor, human avidity.

Hello zdenis! Submitted Mon, May 04, 2009 at 10:15pm GMT
rdaneault

10 posts - United States - Joined Apr 15 2008

zdenis wrote:

Inadequate voting. Impossible results.

I do not think SO MUCH negative voices for EVERY site can take place.You have not considered the human factor, human avidity.

FYI - I'm not sure if you're referring to the downvoting feature, but if so, please be assured that downvotes are NOT counted when determining the winning website design. I hope this helps.

Rebecca

oDesk

As far as I understood, I Submitted Mon, May 04, 2009 at 6:47am GMT
kstepanov 86 posts - Ukraine - Joined Jan 12 2006

As far as I understood, I was too early last time trying to add our entry to the contest.

But now it's May, 4th and according to what I've read I should be already allowed to post entry for may-june contest.

Please tell me if I got something wrong. Thank you

Kostya

—

Hi Kostya Submitted Mon, May 04, 2009 at 10:18pm GMT
rdaneault

10 posts - United States - Joined Apr 15 2008

kstepanov wrote:

As far as I understood, I was too early last time trying to add our entry to the contest.

But now it's May, 4th and according to what I've read I should be already allowed to post entry for may-june contest.

Please tell me if I got something wrong. Thank you

Kostya

Hi Kostya. I would be glad to look into this for you and determine what is causing the error message.

Rebecca

oDesk

Thank you Submitted Tue, May 05, 2009 at 6:19pm GMT
kstepanov 86 posts - Ukraine - Joined Jan 12 2006

Hello Rebecca,

Thank you for your help. I hope it will be easy to reproduce for you . Every time I go to http://odesk.corank.com/tech/submit/ I got this:

ERROR: SUBMIT FUNCTION RESTRICTED

Sorry! Submitting new content to this site is restricted.

Kostya

—

Hi again. Submitted Tue, May 05, 2009 at 10:33pm GMT
rdaneault

10 posts - United States - Joined Apr 15 2008

Kostya - we have moved this month's contest to a different application server. Please try to submit your site via the following link:

http://wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/266

Let me know if you are still having issues and I'll continue to troubleshoot for you, but that link should work.

Rebecca

oDesk

Great, since I can not add Submitted Wed, May 06, 2009 at 6:03am GMT
kstepanov 86 posts - Ukraine - Joined Jan 12 2006

Great, since I can not add our project myself (I am not a buyer) I will ask our client to add it and let you know the results.

Thank you,

Kostya

—

:( Submitted Wed, May 06, 2009 at 7:51am GMT
kstepanov 86 posts - Ukraine - Joined Jan 12 2006

Here are results: I got this email from my client (I suppose it's a kind of auto-generated offer to vote from "invite friends" tab) .

I need your support!
I just submitted an entry to the oDesk Site of the Month Contest and would be really grateful if you'd check out my entry.
You can view my entry and vote for me at: http://wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/266/voteable_entries/679666

Thanks!

The link is dead for me and the entire site works as millions of people are using it at the moment, extremely slow with only 30% of images loaded (my connection is good, other sites works just great).
It will be a bit frustrating if all of invited people will get dead links.

UPDT. Not it's not so slow as 20 mins ago

Please advice.
Kostya

—

Submissions are being Submitted Wed, May 06, 2009 at 9:58pm GMT
danalyn

152 posts

Just to make sure, in case not everyone is aware...

Submissions are being accepted now, but voting will not begin until June 1st.

Due to the feedback from last month's contest, and the disadvantage late entries received, we decided to disallow voting until all submissions have been received. Starting this month, we will be accepting submissions a month in advance. When voting begins on June 1st, so will the submission process for July's contest. And so on, and so forth.

-----
Danalyn West, oDesk Marketing
Follow oDesk on Twitter and Facebook

—

Danalyn West, oDesk Marketing
Follow oDesk on Twitter and Facebook

Kostya, The link opens for Submitted Thu, May 07, 2009 at 2:11am GMT
okudamanova

1823 posts

Kostya,

The link opens for me alright. The site preview it takes me to is CGHUB.

Regards,
Olga

Hello Olga, Happy to hear Submitted Thu, May 07, 2009 at 6:40am GMT
kstepanov 86 posts - Ukraine - Joined Jan 12 2006

Hello Olga,

Happy to hear you again :)

Yes, now link definitely works, I think there may be some pre-moderation and until entry is approved by admin it will not be shown.

I like how the new system works: one month for submition, next for voting. I just think something may be slightly corrected in "Invite Friends" functionality, since it's a bit confusing to receive links to the entries that do not work (as I said above, perhaps it hasn't been approved) and I suppose it would worth to add some explanation text that they will be able to vote for this entry next month.

Thank you.

Kostya.

—

Hi Kostya Submitted Thu, May 07, 2009 at 10:08pm GMT
rdaneault

10 posts - United States - Joined Apr 15 2008

kstepanov wrote:

Hello Olga,

Happy to hear you again :)

Yes, now link definitely works, I think there may be some pre-moderation and until entry is approved by admin it will not be shown.

Thank you.

Kostya.

Kostya,

Glad to hear that the new linked worked for you. Thank you for the feedback regarding the new setup for the contest. We are aware of the issue with the "invite friends" email, and are working toward a fix for that. And, yes, all submissions require approval from admin before a site is entered into the contest.

I hope this answers your concerns.

Regards,

Rebecca

oDesk

Number of votes Submitted Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 6:52am GMT
kstepanov 86 posts - Ukraine - Joined Jan 12 2006

Hello oDesk Team,

It's good to know that the winner of this contest will be chosen by oDesk solely but oDesk will also consider a number of votes for each project.

So, I just wanted to know how strong the number of votes will influence on oDesk decision?

You know, I just do not want to ask my grandma and all her friends and so on ... to vote for our entry in order to win. We placed the badge on our blog and I suppose this should be enough.

If the number of votes really matter, I guess we need to be more aggressive, but I do not think it will be a fair game then.

Thank you!

Kostya

—

Congratulations! Submitted Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 9:53am GMT
kstepanov 86 posts - Ukraine - Joined Jan 12 2006

Congratulations to the winners!

Is it possible for oDesk team to uncover criteria they use to choose the winner?

Thank you.

—

Hi Kstepanov. The winner Submitted Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 10:40pm GMT
rdaneault

10 posts - United States - Joined Apr 15 2008

Hi Kstepanov. The winner of the June contest was determined entirely by community voting. This is why we encourage anyone who enters to fully promote it through as many avenues as they can think of (past winners have utilized Twitter, Facebook, personal blogs and other social media networks to get the word out and win votes).

I hope this answered your question. Best regards!

Rebecca

oDesk

Hello Rebecca, Thank you for Submitted Fri, Jul 03, 2009 at 6:59am GMT
kstepanov 86 posts - Ukraine - Joined Jan 12 2006

Hello Rebecca,

Thank you for the answer. Ok, I take it.

Here is my 2 cents for future contests though

Let's say there are 2 apps: A and B. A is really good, B is really bad.

Let's say A was developed by single freelancer.

Let's say B was developed by provider from a company of 1000 employees and he has large family and so on

According to your rules B will most likely be the winner just because the goal of this Contest is no longer to do a great app, but to promote it with your friends, who are not even going to see competitors, but will vote for your app just to give you a favor. So it will be much easier for B to get promoted between colleagues, their family members and so on.

Then buyers come to results page and see the "best" apps done on oDesk. What will they think about overall level of apps done on oDesk?

I see the goal is to promote oDesk as much as possible and it's a good goal, just do not forget a reputation.

Of course I may be mistaken, sorry if so.

Thank you,

Kostya.

—

Thank you Submitted Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 6:24pm GMT
rdaneault

10 posts - United States - Joined Apr 15 2008

kstepanov wrote:

Hello Rebecca,

Thank you for the answer. Ok, I take it.

Here is my 2 cents for future contests though

Let's say there are 2 apps: A and B. A is really good, B is really bad.

Let's say A was developed by single freelancer.

Let's say B was developed by provider from a company of 1000 employees and he has large family and so on

Then buyers come to results page and see the "best" apps done on oDesk. What will they think about overall level of apps done on oDesk?

I see the goal is to promote oDesk as much as possible and it's a good goal, just do not forget a reputation.

Of course I may be mistaken, sorry if so.

Thank you,

Kostya.

Thanks for the feedback. We appreciate you taking the time to let us know your thoughts, and we will certainly take your suggestions into consideration.

Best regards,

Rebecca

oDesk