Ice Out Contest

[40buick]

The Ice Out contest is open on facebook, so we may as well open it here, too. As always, the rules are simple: enter one (1) guess of the day and hour of day that "ice out" will be declared by Gail or WB staff; be the closest to the called ice out time; enjoy all the wonderful benefits of being the winner. Entries must be submitted by midnight April 30. Good luck to one and all. There is only one entrant on facebook, so lots of opportunities are open to everyone.

[Puma1]

My prediction this year is April 7 at 2 p.m.

[40buick]

I need your help. You will note that there were well over 300 views of the Ice Out contest, but there was only 1 reply to this thread. The Facebook page garnered only 2 replies, but I don't know how many views it had. I fear that with the site registration and login processes on both sites, most viewers are not registered so they cannot enter a guess. However, the ratio of entrants to viewers wasn't much better on the old Witch Bay web site, before logins were required. Even the best contests had maybe a dozen entrants out of over 1,000 views. While a business necessity today, I fear the security measures have become a barrier to participation.

One thought is to post my personal email address and let people email their guesses to me without need to register anywhere. That process, of course, has certain drawbacks. One drawback is that it does not drive readership to the Witch Bay website which, aside from the aspects of just having some clean fun, is an obvious side benefit. So, you tell me. How can we revise the contest process to make it easier and more enticing to enter? Or, has the contest run its course and now faces retirement?