so I am not exactly unknown for having stupid ideas. I probably lean into it too much.
But I’ve had another one and I like it so putting it here for community critiques.
Atlas shaves 2: electric bugaloo
So atlas shaves is the poor unloved step child of the r/wetshaving extended community events. It’s not got the weight of LG nor the community engagement of austere august. It’s also kind of a weird one getting people to not shave… It doesn’t quite fit, and I don’t think it was properly run on the last couple of years.
But the idea of a feat of strength, of endurance and of winning by virtue of being the strongest. The world’s strongest man. I like it so I want to make it come back. But more sub friendly, more the kind of thing that if I wasn’t getting him to be the main prize sponsor that priusaurus would be desperate to win. Also more me. Not the kind of challenge you can win by planning ahead.
Anyway. On to the idea. It’s half formed and needs some work…
- February obvs.
- Points so there can be a winner
- Ability to be knocked out old school lather games
- Last shaver standing or most points if more than one makes it through the month
- Multi channel to encourage community engagement across the different social media types
Basic principle you get a maximum of 10 points a day.
1 point for multi posting your SOTD to at least two of lemmy, reddit, discord, irc, or whatever others we have that are semi approved community sites Plus 1 point for actively engaging with someone else
Plus either 8 points for shaving with the days soap*
Or
5 points for shaving with the same artisan of the days soap
Or
3 points for shaving with the same scent maker of the days soap
Or
2 points for shaving with a soap by a different maker that has more than half of the same scent notes.
Or
1 point for airbudding it (note air bussing can only be used once per person)
If you cannot shave on theme, you are out.
- The soap of the day is the first latherbot quiz answer soap from discord that is offered after midday gmt the day before. (E.g. the 1st of Feb soap is the answer to the first latherbot question asked after midday on January the 31st)
Thoughts?
I really like this idea.
Things that pop into my head:
- Have a backup soap choosing method in case ShavingInCT’s Discord bot takes a dump at an inopportune time.
- If the first quiz answer is PAA, for example, consider waiting for the next one.
- Maybe give a tad bit of flexibility in case the game picks some super odd-ball soap that nobody has with scent notes from another planet. If it seems like everyone is going to burn their airbud allowance on one day, that would stink. Maybe 2 airbud days?
Good point on a back up. Will have to think how that works.
s for the other two bits… That’s kinda the breaks in a random challenge. It has to be hard (or have the potential to be hard) as I want DQs to be part of it. I do want to celebrate the effort though. Maybe it’s like the at least stones. If you reach each of the milestones you can say you’ve lifted that number of stones before you dropped out.
Great idea! As a daily shaver, I’m never going to do a traditional Atlas Shaves in Feb. I don’t have anything to add that others haven’t already. I like the idea of DQs. Certainly works for the (my) geezer generation. I’m not sure how generations that grew up receiving a prize even for losing will like it.
As DJ says, those with a well-stocked den will have an advantage, but it’s wetshaving and that’s part of the hobby.
First of all, I love it and I’m in (of course).
Now the big caveat: the winner will be the participant with the deepest den. Good? Bad? IDK.
Now the minor caveat:
LatherBot shenanigans:
- How about taking the last soap before the deadline instead of the first after? That solves the “Latherbot dead for a few hours” problem.
- Let’s add “not on the dnb list” as qualifier: The last soap from a soaper not on the dnb list chosen by LatherBot. It doesn’t make sense IMO, (and also doesnt add fun, which should be the main objective) to have everyone burn their Mulligan on PAA
Big caveat. Yes but that’s always true for big games. If I condense the points down it allows for some more creative people getting through with medium sized dens.
Minor quibbles - I like the first but the second one can be got around by using a soap with a sinlar scent from a good artisan.
Speaking to merikus I’m also thinking of adding community sources DQs. Bonus point if you spot and call out a DQ successfully but you lose a point if you’re wrong
I think something like this is a great idea. Caveat that I’ve never been around for previous atlas shaves events.
What I like:
- Points are good, both for tracking standings and determining the winner.
- I like that folks can be knocked out, feels on theme with a strongest man competition.
- I like that this encourages cross-channel participation. Many folks probably don’t know about anything but Reddit (I sure didn’t at first!).
- I think it would be helpful to use some sort of randomization for the SOTD challenges, like your idea for using the LatherBot database. This reduces the burden on those organizing.
- I think the surprise aspect of the daily soap of the day challenge would be a lot of fun.
The format you proposed would certainly bias toward folks who have been accumulating soaps for longer. I’m not sure whether that fits with “strongest” in my mind.
I don’t have a better idea right now, just offering my initial thoughts.
It’s not a stupid idea. Actually, I like it even though I’d most likely forget to participate. In fact, I even liked the OG Atlas Shaves… sure it was some goofy shit stuff with “pics of your scruff and pics of your dirty sink with the hair in it” rules but not everything needs to be serious business. It sure would’ve been better suited for November as that’s also a month with beard/moustache growth challenges, but it was funny. Personally I like the strongman theme, but the actual competitions are hard to translate to wetshaving challenges anyway.
Plus 1 point for actively engaging with someone else
That’s what I like the most. Fostering actual engagement with others is great.
Not the kind of challenge you can win by planning ahead.
That’s probably what perfectly translates to strongman/strongwoman championships - participants have a general idea about what events will take place, but they’re all subject to change - even last minute. Also, hell yeah for DQs - you can zero an event in strongman sport, but that generally costs you the competition.