Some unofficial things we should consider doing for the Ingathering Contest: write down initial and final tallies of some site-wide statistics as well as view counts for some questions that come up as "related" to the contest questions. Put out horse-race intermediate tallies weekly.

@msh210 @WAF Please let me know if I left anything out in the contest writeup. I put in a hole-plugging rule at the end so that we can fix anything that needs fixing, especially this early.

I am torn between choosing the shofar question and something closer to my personal interests

@sheegaon Thanks for breaking the ice. Maybe you'll be able to get hordes of economists to come visit the site.

@IsaacMoses hordes would be a stretch for anything I send out to my limited network.

@yydl, so, are you going to enter the contest?

@IsaacMoses Yeah. It's just sooo hard to think of one question...

@IsaacMoses I assume existing views and favs don't count, right? Curiously, how will you know the numbers (will it be done manually?)

@yydl see the rules. We're going to note the current counts when the contest starts (Monday afternoon) and subtract those from the counts when the contest ends (3 weeks later). This tallying process will be manual, but it's not too arduous. The numbers are both readily available on each question's page.

Note to anyone interested: A viable strategy is to ask, right before the contest starts, a new question that you think will naturally get lots of views from normal usage over the next few weeks, and use that as your question. You get the benefit of the question's initial view count, and the site gets the benefit of a new question that you think is good enough to bet on. Win-win.

@tomsmith, will you be entering the contest?

don't think so :(

@tomsmith Why the long face?

I like my online anonymity

@tomsmith Understood.

@tomsmith You can enter even if you think you have little chance of winning: can't hurt. Moreover, you can anonymously advertise your post in places where you're known as (the same) 'tom smith' (if there are any such places outside of SE), or in places where you're not known at all and can be 'tom smith'.

@Chalutzhanal, do you plan to enter the Ingathering contest?

no I like my online anonymity

@Chalutzhanal copycat :)

@Chalutzhanal But also, see msh210's suggestion. You can promote a question under a pseudonym, too.

“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.”

no such place

@Chalutzhanal Oh, well. Shabbat Shalom. I'm out.