The Turkey contest was never run for prizes. But just a random pairing of interested hunters all after the same thing.
If your team won based FROM the NWTF scoring system.
You got nothing more than bragging rights.
It was fun. I also met many fine hunters who helped me learn.
A few I actually met face to face and hunted with.
It was the coaching and sharing of methods that helped many

JW

Yes we did. And rather than coach those new people, new hunters. Many got bullied and they left!
And the Bullies prevailed!

I would have no interest. For me hunting is not a competition so I don't do contests.

that's it right there Kelly

-Jake

What if we did something different, but in similar spirit to the contest? Maybe have a stickied thread to showcase all the deer kills of the 2019-2020 deer season? Maybe call it a harvest thread or something like that. Everyone can add a picture and short summary of the hunt, and we’ll see how far it will go. That way no one’s actively competing against each other. It would also allow everyone to show how they approach deer hunting and the methods they use. I’d find that more appealing than a contest, honestly.

That's been done and it doesn't draw near the participation.

If you look in the archives you can see past contests. You'll see contests with over 20,000 comments in them.

Many more with over 5,000 comments.

Despite the opinion of some members above, the contests were extremely popular. Very well ran.

And in my memory had very few issues with cheaters or bad attitudes.

Members were split into teams. The team threads developed into a bond and many friendships were made, including ones that lead to hunting partnerships in "real life"

There was often good back and forth exchanges between teams. In good fun. Again, I recall very few issues where the "competitiveness" turned into something negative.

The idea that it turned hunting into something focused on competition or ruined it somehow is silly. It was a platform to connect hunters and give them a reason to share their stories and to engage with each other.

There weren't prizes. There wasn't money involved. And the bad apples were quickly weeded out.

If I post on the regular whitetail section "hey guys I can hunt Tuesday evening and Thursday morning this week." I'll get maybe two replies. And nobody really cares.

However in a contest team thread I'll get 5-10 replies and people will be watching the thread on Tuesday night and Thursday afternoon to see how my hunts went. It seems silly, but it really did draw people together and generate ALLOT of traffic to the page.

The proof is all there in the archives and can be read by anybody. Just the fact that a contest thread can run up 20,000+ comments in a few months tells you how popular and liked the contests were.

I have trouble imagining that we'll ever see that kind of participation here again. The entire website probably doesn't get 20,000 comments in a year. That would be over 50 new posts per day, and I know that I don't read 50 new posts every day. Likely closer to 10/day.

-Jake

I don't normally participate in contests but feel if people like it then it is OK. Just a personal preference thing. The only thing that rubbed me wrong was the survey wording as I mentioned before. It is hard to understand why a mod hasn't gone in and corrected the poorly chosen wording on question #2. It should have said no I am not interested which is the direct opposite from question #1. The way it was phrased is rude and designed to irritate some people and has the possibility of starting trouble. When people get angry then they often retaliate in kind and then you get flame wars which is something IMO that has a direct relationship as to why HNI has become a shell of what it once was. Not a great way to start a thread. Normally when someone is being rude they get called out for it and the mods step in and fix it. Small corrections keep things on an even keel.

I don't know why jrbsr posted the way he did, or why he said it was turned into a joke. He hasn't logged on since making it.

Perhaps we'll know more if he returns.

-Jake

maybe he got a week long time out or ban?
I was banned for using the words, SHORT< and BUS !
got me a week off the site! LOL

SO, I would think calling someone a looser in a round about way, SHOULD have the same penalty, moderator or NOT< and well, it should have been corrected by another mod by now too! IMO
as that IS an offence thing to call someone NO??
option for vote should have just asked if wanted to be in contest or not, and NOT name calling or labeling anyone that doesn't something negative!
fair is FAIR folks!
Mods are just humans too! and should have to follow site rules as well!