Best...Schmest. WTF...just randomly pick a MINI. It's as simple as that. Obviously, there are some people who live for this sort of thing and crave the attention, over and over. So what. Why not just pick "Joe Everyman's Mini", at random, so that EVERYONE gets a FAIR shot of being "MINI of the Month", whether it's dirty, highly detailed, stock, modded...whatever. Just my 2c....
What FUN is that.. If doing that might as well not have it. For those not interested in the contest, don't put your car in it and don't vote. Pretty simple really. Those that are will play along. Just keep it heavily "modded" and the trash talkers out, with the delete button!!
There is also the Garage of the Day, again a random selection from all Garages. I've been posting the Garage of the Day on the M/A Facebook page daily too.
"FUN" is in being surprised out of the clear blue. The glory hounds will always be baying for attention, so why not just randomly pick a MINI owner...surprise HIM, instead? THAT is REALLY pretty simple. I am only stating my opinion here. That's what Nathan requested. If you do not agree, or if you feel I am trash-talking, go ahead and delete what I said...makes NOT a bit of difference at all to me.
I participated in the earlier MINI of the Month and cast my vote in each running. So, I would welcome it back. BUT, the earlier rather poor response rate makes me wonder if the participation would be any greater no matter what the new rules are. Poor participation cheapens the honorary title of "MINI of the Month" and makes the administrative effort rather expensive per participant. Probably worthwhile to try it again.
I think Nathan achieves the random "fun" factor with his Garage of the Day. I also try to call out when I see friend's MINIs pop up in the Random Garage. I look at MINI of the Month more as an opportunity for the larger M/A community to voice their opinions on what cars they like. I think it is worth giving this another trial run and see how it goes. I was thinking about the self-promotion aspect though. What if the owners had one post to promote their car however they wanted to. Oh, and I nominate Welshy's Silk Green R50 and his Royal Grey R53 for entry into their specific months!
Nah, you don't need to nominate me for anything. I'm happy with what I have and they are special to me, no matter what. I just do not "live" to be noticed, but a surprise showing is a nice thing to do for an unsuspecting MINI owner. Like I stated earlier, some people here just live to be noticed...thankfully, I am NOT one of them.
The down side to doing random is and I hope Nathan will post the numbers, on the % of members we have, vs how many visit the site, vs how many actually post.. Most people would never even know their car was MOM.. Which is why it was cool to be able to vote. Only the people that use the site get to play..
I like Mini of the Month and Nathan and I have discussed this a number of times in the past. I'm a worst case scenario type re planning (some call us pessimists, though it's not the same since you can be very much an optimist and yet a good devil's advocate) and the one theme I think I've been very consistent about is participation rate. Each time we've restarted this there were more cars to choose from plus more active site participants to push it along so we've had hope. But each time interest, primarily in the form of nominee participation, began to wane after a couple/few months. I really like the change in focus and it might help things along as well because of the more related competitive categories. Still think monthly might be a bit too often though. Feels more like a quarterly or at least every other month thing to me, maybe with different categorization or with some of those categories combined so we still rotate through them all annually. 2 cents
It breaks down like this... About 1% visit the site daily are and are responsible for ~20% of all visits About 30% visit the site weekly and are responsible for ~51% of all visits That leaves ~69% that visit about once a month comprising of ~29% of all visits.
Welp, Jeff then I guess in my twisted version of William Tecumseh Sherman "If nominated, you will not run; if elected, you will not serve." I get it, you don't want to be a part of the MINI of the Month. That's fine, it is optional, no one will force you to be a part of anything you don't want to be a part of. However, it does seem from the comments here and the notes sent to me, that there is support to bring the MINI of the Month back. There have been some good ideas in this thread, I thank you for that. Please keep them coming too.
You're ground rules in your first post look good--but I agree with others on here who have posted that once a month is too much. I'd start at every other month, then adjust accordingly, depending on how that goes, you could always go back to monthly, or increase the interval further to quarterly. I lose interest rapidly when the turnover is that frequent, it's just my 2 cents though. 6 cars a year seems plenty. 12 seems overkill.
So, we're having a great discussion about "Mini of the Month." As I interpret the proposed monthly concept, and as an example, a Classic owner will be eligible one month per year, as would all the rest of the varying models and their owners. If in fact that's the case, I think its a welcome opportunity to view models of a like kind and it'll likely make for a more interesting feature. Rock on Nathan..... Let the festivities begin!
With the many varieties of 2nd and eventually 3rd Gens, the 1st will get very little love in comparison and extend the rotation to beyond a year. Presuming, as others suggested, that the event is not held monthly, it could be quarterly to begin with, MINI/1stGen/2ndGen/3rdGen, and adjust frequency as needed. That being said I do like the idea of Roadster of the Month, etc. I suppose it could be separated by body style, not generation, which would put the '07+ Hardtops at a disadvantage having to compete with first gens all the time. Or randomly select 10 from the garages and we vote on one.
Another thought: Have the Mini competition every other month, with the criteria in Nate's first post. That way whomever wins gets the banner for a bit longer, makes it more meaningful. That's six cars a year. Also, every other month, Nate could pick the Dos Equis Mini--the world's most interesting Mini. The criteria would be broad--in fact, so broad as to be non-existent. Maybe the red bull Mini, or a twin charged mini, a moke, whatever. It could be a car from a member, or from anywhere else in the world, any year, any model, we could highlight that for the months in between the competition months. Another 6 cars a year.