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As you might know if you have been on SE long enough, IPS and the SE network go pretty quiet between the 21st of December and the 4th of January.

As someone who spends a lot of time on IPS, seeing all this inactivity makes me really sad (where are all the fun things to do???).

So, I was thinking, maybe we could organize some fun stuff to do around the end of the year? Like a contest on meta or something else?

Here are some few ideas of what we could do:

  • Making a contest around answers and bounties

  • Making a meta contest where people post "stuff" to illustrate how bad at interpersonal skills they are

  • Making a "winter avatar" contest (on meta)

  • Etc...


About how this question and answers are supposed to work:

  • Give an upvote to the question if you like the idea of having more fun around Winter!

  • Post one answer for each idea you have about things we could do around Winter

  • Upvote the answer if you like the specific idea (downvote if you don't)

  • Feel free to leave a comment explaining what you don't like about the post (maybe we could edit and improve the suggestion!)

4 Answers 4

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I've seen a couple other stacks have a contest where some questions and answers are selected "best" or "favorite" and maybe even answers get awarded bounty.

I don't remember which ones I've seen, but Science Fiction & Fantasy does a quarterly contest where people nominate questions and answers on their meta site.

We could do something similar with a "year in review" where we highlight posts from the past year. We could use analytics data (if the mods would be willing to supply or we can make our own queries?) which highlight top voted questions/answers, post with most edits, or some other silly category.

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    We can offer bounties on holiday themed questions - for sure holiday season (meeting relatives, reconcile with estranged friends / relatives) is the perfect time for bountied questions Nov 15, 2019 at 16:51
  • As does Mi Yodeya.
    – Alex
    Nov 19, 2019 at 2:05
  • @JulianaKarasawaSouza If there are very good, holiday themed questions to ask, sure! And your examples definitely look like that. I've asked one about how to make a good April Fool's joke last April too, for example. But I'm mainly writing this comment because I also want to link this pre-emptively: the consensus back then was that our subject matter may well be open to people dropping their 'fun' and 'fake' questions year round, and that's a valid concern to keep in mind and perhaps decide that questions have to be 'real'.
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Nov 19, 2019 at 10:30
  • @Tinkeringbell I was thinking along the lines of offering bounties on questions that are related to holidays and are good questions. Maybe hold a Holiday Question nomination? The best question gets a +100 bounty or so Nov 20, 2019 at 10:00
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    @JulianaKarasawaSouza That's a nice thought, but bounties can only be awarded to answers, not questions. We could put bounties on the questions so they get more attention, but in the end that also means we have to pick an answer to award the bounty to. The question asker won't gain any reputation.
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Nov 20, 2019 at 10:01
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    @Tinkeringbell yeah, good point. The asker will gain reputation because of the meta effect, I think. If we're holding the nomination, a lot of people are going to go and check the question and upvote it. Maybe. Nov 20, 2019 at 10:03
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The end of the year is a great time to celebrate what was achieved. I believe it's also a great time to thank people for what they are doing for the community.

That's why I suggest opening a meta question where people can point out and thank other IPS members for what they have done during this year.


Here are a few examples of what we could thank people for:

  • For making a great edit

  • For posting an interesting meta question

  • For making a very well explained/thought out answer to a meta question

  • For leaving really nice comments that helps people improve their post

  • For posting a well researched/backed up answer

  • Etc..

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How could we have some more winter fun?

By joining the networkwide Winter Bash (if it happens) and/or organize additional events around it.


Interpersonal Skills isn't the only site with this problem; in fact, almost all of them do. Veteran users know this already, but for those of you who are new here: in the past few years, Stack Exchange has organized a winter bash where you can earn hats (comparable to badges, but with different triggers) and wear them over your avatar. Most people consider this fun; if you don't, you can simply opt out. Sites are free to organize additional events on top of Winter Bash, like this one.

However, recent events have made it less likely that we'll have a winter bash this year: Winterbash 2019 - is it happening this year? So it's by no means guaranteed.

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  • No offense, but that's not really what my question is about :/ Maybe you could turn your answer into a comment instead?
    – Ael
    Nov 19, 2019 at 9:47
  • I do think it provides an answer to the question, maybe the update helps to clarify? Maybe you still think it's not a good idea, that's fine.
    – Glorfindel
    Nov 19, 2019 at 10:11
  • It's not that I dislike the idea, it's just that I don't see how this is an answer. I was already aware of the winter bash thing (and the fact that it may not happen this year). What I'm asking is how we could have more fun outside of what SE has maybe planned for us.
    – Ael
    Nov 19, 2019 at 10:13
  • The answer states that veteran users are already aware of this :) I merely wanted to point it out to new members of the site.
    – Glorfindel
    Nov 19, 2019 at 10:17
  • @Glorfindel has there been any indication that Winterbash will be a thing this year. All I've seen on MSE were comments from Amimuson that it wasn't likely to happen.
    – JAD
    Nov 19, 2019 at 10:27
  • No, that's what I mentioned in the last paragraph.
    – Glorfindel
    Nov 19, 2019 at 10:30
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We can storm game rooms like Spyfall and Contact

https://chat.stackexchange.com/?tab=events&sort=event

Or games like Psyche

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wb.goog.ellen.psych&hl=en

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    I can't check those links because I'm at work but, are those games (even remotely) related to interpersonal skills? I think this is a good idea but it'd be best for us to have Xmas activities that are at least a bit related to our scope IMO :)
    – avazula
    Nov 13, 2019 at 6:20
  • Would those games still work if there are only one or two users connected at a given time? Because, if everyone has to be here at the same time it probably won't work. I think we should focus on things that we can do asynchronously and over an extended period of time.
    – Ael
    Nov 13, 2019 at 7:45
  • @avazula I thought we could have more people into IPS using these games. At least we have something that SE already has to use. For Psyche, it's a wit and humour game. I am neutral towards this now.
    – anki
    Nov 13, 2019 at 10:45
  • @Ælis Hmm I think they need more than 2 users. And yes, an asynchronous game would be better.
    – anki
    Nov 13, 2019 at 10:52
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    The game rooms are always available, I think there would need to be a special reason why people would suddenly play more during the least active time of year
    – Jesse
    Nov 15, 2019 at 16:14

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