After all the discussion I think I'd choose categories over no categories, and I think that the fewer categories are better, but I would bring back the multiplatform award.(1 device from the updates category awarded to the runner up with most platforms supported)

To tell the truth, I (as a beginner) just don't like it. Previous variant was more beginner-friendly (2 N950 and bounty share), and this one means that N950 are only for "big boys". I don't mean to give exactly 2 N950 to beginners, but 0 of them is a very disappointing option for me. Also, I wonder, where is "Science and education" category?

i am a visualbasic programmer but i know little QT so i will be happy to join the comp.
But i need to ask about the timeline
when this will begin and when it will end as i have exams right now and i cant give out time..
Thanks

./david

Thanks for the feedback qwazix. As you're probably aware with the discussion over the last few pages the multi-platform award has been a bit of a headache, I like your idea to include it but how would you suggest we judge this category? For example, Maemo/Harm/Symb only, or wider non-Nokia platforms? As there are only a finite number of platforms, how would we differentiate between two entries that run on the same number of platforms? Should only new applications be considered, or existing ones? There's still a lot of questions that need answers which is why I would like to ignore the category completely if I'm honest But if we're going to include it, we need to lock this one down before the competition starts, or it could be a real can of worms later on

Thanks beresk_let. I thought as a beginner you would have liked the new proposal idea, as it's quite weighted towards beginner entries. If you mean the previous variant with 10 categories, there was never 2 N950s assigned for beginners. We have 10 N950s in total, one for each category. That was one device assigned to beginners, in addition to the chance to compete in the other categories for one N950. With the new proposal it's 2 N9s assigned to beginners, in addition to compete in the other categories for 2 N950s. So the winner of the beginners category would lose the option to chose between a N950 or N9 for a SINGLE prize device, but there would be now effectively two winners (1st and 2nd) in the Beginners category who would win a N9 each for TWO prize devices. I thought that would be better because we're creating an extra device, however I'll take your feedback onboard .. beginners are really important to the competition as we want to encourage new developers to get involved

Any other beginners out there, would you prefer the prizes in the beginners category to be the option of a N950 or N9 for a single prize, or two prizes of 2 N9s?

I don't think we've ever had a "Science & Education" category in the competition... zehjotkah/anyone? If these types of applications didn't fit into the existing categories, they could go into the catch-all 'Other' category. We want to include as much types of applications as we can, ofcourse, all are welcome

Welcome aboard David Timeline hasn't been set yet, but it'll run most of the summer (for us guys in the northern hemisphere) so it'll be a couple of months atleast. You'll have time to take part, and good luck with your exams

The system I propose for the multiplatform award is this:

Assuming we allocate 2 N9's for the multiplatform award
1. All other awards are given like we didn't have the multiplatform awards
2. Each runner up in the 7 categories (7 applications) compete for the multiplatform award. The two with the most supported platforms get the prize.
2b. In case of a tie (e.g. 4 platforms for the first and second application) both get an award
2c. In case of a tie in the second-third place (3 platforms for the second and third app) then the winner is the one with the greater absolute number of votes.

Now for the platforms that compete I think it should be any platform Qt is running fully on, and clearly stated from the start.

Harmattan
Fremantle
Diablo
Mer
Symbian
Linux Desktop
Windows
Macintosh
Blackberry
Android
anything I forgot

The reason for including all platforms is to create more possibility for differentiation (so that we don't have 90% of the apps target all the platforms) and because the real challenge is to target an entirely different platform (like symbian) and not just linux flavors.

I deliberately left iOS out as a little research showed that Qt is in a very early stage on the iPhone, whereas on android, we have got a complete SDK with the equivalent of smart installer for easy deployment.

As a possibility we can award double points for maemo platforms if that does not make the system too complicated.

This system gives incentive to all the contestants to target multiple platforms as they have more chances to win, and promotes Qt best coding practices.
This means using Qt wherever possible and ifdef'ing platform specific code which will make later porting to whatever platform easier.

It also adds a little strategy to the mix as a developer has to choose between investing time to port to other platforms and polishing the app with little useful features. The first might award him the multiplatform award but the second might push him up a place in the rankings.

Q's and A's

Applications have to fit to the other categories so this becomes void. (if an app meets the criteria to enter any category it automatically competes for MP award)

See points 2b/2c

All platforms that enable the developer to deploy the application with an installer. (Meaning no terminal trickery or manual copying of files required from the end user). Also a ready made SDK is required. We can't expect the developers to have to compile their own Qt.

I think this solution is not overly complicated (2c is not so probable) despite my lengthy description.

I meant this post. (The first and the second winners in Beginners category are awarded with N950).

Well, I didn't get at first, that your variant allows two devices for a single beginner. As for me, two is better than one for sure... But I (just for myself) prefer higher chances to get an N950 than chance to get two N9 :)

Well, may be my language is too bad :(
I didn't mean anything like "I want science & education, it was always there and now it's absent, give it to me _now_!!11" Sorry if it was like that. May be it was better to say, "What about science and education category, I wonder if it's planned or not". Sorry again.

Thanks for another donation for the community prize fund!
http://wiki.maemo.org/Maemo.org_codi...ity_Prize_Fund

Are non-Qt entries elligible?

Yes non Qt entries are welcome...
http://wiki.maemo.org/Maemo.org_codi..._code_in_Qt.3F

Thanks qwazix for taking the time to write out your response I still have a couple of questions about it though.

In the new proposal there are 5 main categories plus multi-platform and beginners spin off, and in the old proposal there are 8 main categories plus multi-platform and beginners spin off. In the new proposal there are devices for the first four places in each main category, and in the older proposal there are devices for the first 2 places in each main category. We want to share out the devices as much as possible. The way your multi-platform category would work, the runners up would go through to compete. As the runners up would already have devices, it would be the 3rd placed app in the older proposal and the 5th placed app in the newer proposal that would go through to the multi-platform category (because we want to share out the devices as much as possible, and not end up in the situation where one entry would win two or more devices).

As we'd be removing one N9 from the updates category (bringing it's number of devices down from 3 to 2) to go towards a new multi-platform category, does this seem a fair trade off?

Ok that make sense

Yes I agree that we would need to include a large number of eligible platforms in order to create the possibility for differentiation. However, we're now back again to the discussions we had earlier in the thread regarding platforms that maemo.org are not concerned with. If we were to reward a developer for porting his Maemo app onto Windows, Macintosh, and Blackerry for example rather than working and developing the application for our target devices, we'd rightly be criticised for that imo. I think we're moving back in the realms of a Qt award rather than a maemo.org award with that idea to be honest.

These are all valid points but, again, is this really what we want our competition to encourage? I think we have a fundamental difference in viewpoint where I want to try to keep the development focused toward the devices we use in our community where you'd perhaps like to see people use the potential of Qt to reach out onto other platforms and devices.

My feeling from the previous discussions was that most people were happy enough to leave the multi-platform award out. As you can guess I'm not fond of it either so I'm happy to see it go too However, if there's a willingness in the community that we should have it then I think we need to find a way to include it. We want a competition that reflects, as best as possible, everyone's opinion

But it can be tough gauging everyone's opinion. The categories are what is holding the competition back from starting at the moment, I had thoughts of kicking things off later this week. Maybe it's worth taking another week to get this right so the competition structure is of consensus of everyone To stop the cycle of talking about things.. dropping it for a few days.. and starting it up again I can feel a poll coming on..

Thanks for pointing that out beresk_let, I had forgotten about helex's proposal to be honest. I think it's way too many categories when the drive is to reduce them, and includes updates in each category when the general consensus was to remove them.

Gosh I didn't read your words like that at all lol I think it's a great category idea, and I'm not sure anyone had thought of that category before. The ones we have now are categories that have proved popular in the past and I think we'd stick with them for that reason. That's why it's a good idea to have an 'Other' category so we can still accept any applications we hadn't thought about Don't be afraid to keep your suggestions coming

In regards to your previous query about beginners prize should have a dedicated N950 prize in the newer proposal, we could reach out and ask if we could swap a N9 from our allocation for a N950 from another community competition. Now.. I can feel some council members eyes widening while reading this and cursing me already The council have their own competitions to be thinking of (the community awards for example). We did offer to take our fair share of devices (10 N950s and 15 N9s). In theory we could have pulled rank and asked for more but we want to work well with the other competitions too - but we could still have the discussion and ask about the possibility of an additional N950 for the beginners prize. I don't think it would be a welcome discussion necessarily (as from posts around it appears some members close to the council would like us to reduce the number of N950s we have, even to have zero N950s). So I'd want to have our categories and structure confirmed in concrete before we'd even begin to go down that tricky road. It's not a promise we can do it, but it's a promise we can ask.

I should say that if there's a case where the winners/runner ups of a category already have a N950 and request the N9 (or just want the N9), we could then make that N950 available to other winners/runner ups in other categories.

Double thanks