Should Theme Builds be competitions or just for fun?

[philp]

Weaver brought this up in the Sci-fi/Space TB.

Do we want to run TBs like the old GBs were where you couldn't start the kit until the start date, run for the timeframe and then vote on a winner (with possible prizes depending on how generous the organizer can be)

or

Do we want to just do these for fun and as an incentive to actually finish something because we have a deadline.

or

Do we combine both and allow competition for new builds and just for fun if the model was previously started?

Let's see the votes and the discussion.

[Taiidantomcat]

I love competition I think its fun! OTOH The more finished models the better. I personally have so many models at the 80 percent stage any push to finish them is a great thing.

[Ed S]

I enjoy the competition in the GB's.  But sometimes, I suspect that we don't have as many models finished because of it. Let's face it, we have some real masters in this group and when one of their beauties shows up on the finished model pages, other people may think "why bother putting in mine to compete with that". Another point with the competition, is what do you vote for: the model that shows the best modeling skills, or the model that shows creativity and originality even if the modeler has less developed skills? 

If we (as a group) decide to not have a competition for prizes, it might still be a good thing to have the prizes. We could just draw names out of a hat based on those modelers who put a finished model in the "completed models" thread. That would help with keeping people interested and might encourage modelers to enter their creations even if they felt that their skills weren't sufficient to win in an open competition.

(just my $.02 worth)

Ed