Hey folks, its Chris here (everydaysurvivalgear) I am in charge of this year’s Old-Lumens Challenge 2025. I am wanting to start the challenge soon in a few days if possible by the end of this month.
I got a few questions for you all?
How long would you prefer the challenge to run? 2 months (60 days) or (90 days) 3 months? I think 75 days would be a good amount of time?
Same rules as last time?
Would you like to see more or less categories? Catagories modified in any way?
Would you be happy to support an Aliexpress affiliate thread to fund the contest? All money raised goes to prizes? Cost you nothing, but I would need to keep the thread up to date, or people could volunteer to help out. Also, this brings about the possibility of being able to help members out if they want to enter the contest and can’t afford it. Or if they break a part and can’t afford to replace it during the build.
Get rid of the judges and have the judging done on an open forum style like the people choice award? Or we could use an AI judge?
I would love to make this contest self-sustaining in some ways to make it easier for future organisers, streamline the processes of the contest.
I still have to fine tune a few things in the background before we go live.
Any future question will be posted here. Any question feel free to ask here or message me here or on my account.
im staunchly against AI judging. what if we do a judges choice award and let everything else be by popular vote.
it would be like the inverse of last years competition
longer is better IMO
yes kind of, what if we have a manual category, a CNC category (lathes, mills, 3d printers, laser cutters etc), and the anything goes category instead of the current category
i belive once you click an affiliate link, anything you purchase in that “session” will be under the affiliate
I would prefer longer, but they all seem reasonable.
Previous rules seemed good.
Also seemed good
Not sure I quite understand but I think it sounds good.
I think a panel of knowledgable judges is a very good thing, the people’s choice award also great. I am very strongly against using an AI judge for this, especially as it’s a matter of taste! Not interested in a techbro’s homonculus’ idea of what makes a good light.
Thanks for doing this again! I had a blast last year. And have an idea for this year.
75 days seems like a good amount of time
The rules seemed fine to me. They made sense. were easy to follow. And worked great!
Same categories is fine. I feel like adding more and more categories would just muddy the waters and make it harder to judge. Lights right now fit in 1 of 3 simple categories. Beyond that, it may be hard to determine which category you fit in.
Of course!
While I would prefer actual judges, if I recall, judges were hard to find last year. So, in that case, I would say the peoples choice.
Thanks again for setting this up. I know you invest a lot of time and effort into it.
I should add that the judges and I are volunteers and don’t get paid, I have run into issues finding judges in the past. I kind of understand both sides, but it’s not like the competition has money to pay for judges, it is a volunteer job.
Thank you everyone for the replies, I am taking all feedback into consideration. Still have a week till the contest starts to change a few things if needed.
Just to clarify, I am updating some rules I would like to simplify the rules, make the handmade category more about basic tooling maybe drop the use of Routers and planers.
Also, I think it would be okay to use some other premade flashlight parts for the handmade entries, nothing too extreme but if you have a pill that works okay I don’t see an issue with using it.
How many entries are we allowed? could i make multiple and have the highest winning one be rewarded and the others ignored. e.g in last years contest 1st place in handmade and 1st in machine made ----> only 1st in handmade category being counted and the other is nullified
Even though it may be unpopular, I would be in favor of abolishing machine-made and modified light completely and only considering handmade. Simply because skill (and creativity to achieve certain designs and goals) are the main deciding factors.
Currently, it is possible to purchase extremely high and clean quality simply with a lot of money (or space, or connections to friends or companies) without the real need for skill. This would also encourage people with limited financial resources (or only small space, like the users in rented apartments without a shop) to participate, who would then not be deterred by 3D printing, CNC, milling, or other more expensive machines.
So basically only one category handmade, where everything is possible (from scratch, mod, etc) with the already existing rules of earlier contests. Only handtools and basic (!) power tools should be allowed here.
see 2
An Aliexpress affiliate link would be acceptable, but care should be taken to ensure that the contest does not become an advertising event.
no AI. AI cannot judge the creativity and skill of builds. There is even no AI around, only algorithms and LLM which cannot think on their own. The People’s Choice Award should continue to exist, but — in order to avoid further disappointment due to certain “special prizes” (we still got no prize at all) — exclusively WITHOUT prizes.
The rules currently state one entry per person, but you can change your entry category during the contest if you want. Having two separate entries makes judging harder because then we are judging entries that are not being counted. It will be one judged entry per person, but if you want to enter and not have the entry judged, feel free, just let me know. I am okay with you entering two categories, but you will have to choose which entry you want judged before the end of the contest. I am entering the contest for fun also.
A lot of lads on here started by entering the hand made category and moved up to, learning how to use a lathe or mill and are self-taught. Even Old Lumens himself started learning how to use a lathe, it’s a part of learning and progressing once you have mastered the hand made category. Hand made category is already judged by the tooling that you use.
It would probably be good to separate the machine made categories, but it’s too late for that this year.
Yea, i am still working on this. I am all for not having prizes.
5.The AI was just an idea as it’s hard to get judges and I understand it’s a voluntary job and people are busy, but it’s a fundamental part of the contest.
If any one want to enter and doesn’t know where to start, I am here to help mentor you if you need it, I can also put you in contact with other members who can help you out.
Hmm, it seems like you already set the rules for this year’s contest before the timer from the opening post expired…
Perhaps it would have been better to close this thread or at least announce in the thread that the time for suggestions had expired… this makes my post feel like a waste of time. No offense.
As for “upgrading” the tools used… I see it differently. Apart from the fact that this would sometimes require an “upgrade” in a new home, which is by no means always possible. So if you live in a simple rented apartment and don’t have a basement or similar, it’s better to steer clear of the machine-made category, as the tools and the associated, principle-related results will definitely be limiting here. Admittedly, this is less pronounced in the handmade category. But perhaps this problem is less prevalent in America, where many of the contest participants are likely to come from.
Look, I started with absolutely basic tools. Cheap tools for a few euros, the simplest files, saws, and cheap soldering equipment, because I was living in poverty at the time. It is precisely under these circumstances that the best ideas come about, you learn how to make a lot out of a little, and you know what you can achieve with a lot of creativity, patience, and dedication. With CNC, lathes and the like, this aspect is (mostly) lost. It’s mostly all about who has the best equipped workshop, more money, better living conditions that are essential for operating such machines (apartment, etc.), etc. – it’s simply a problem that makes the machine-made category somewhat unfair in my opinion.
I am still open to considering changes to the contest 80 says seems like a good compromise.
I can’t really change the fundamentals of the contest without asking all of BLF I would need more time for that. The contest has always been 2 categories, then a 3rd was added later. The modified light category was started so anyone could enter even if they don’t have tools. This category does open up the contest to a much wider field of entries.