What should we consider for next year's Winter Bash?

Question

At this point, I am relatively confident that Winter Bash will become an annual event. The event is oodles of fun for our communities, and almost everything we do as employees in putting the event together is done with an eye toward repeatability and automation.

With that in mind, I see a lot of feature requests come through on MSO and child metas that are great ideas, but simply not possible (or not worthwhile) to implement for this year's event. The same happens with minor bugs that give Winter Bash a few rough edges without disrupting functionality - they often get left behind on the "eh, maybe next year, if there's time" list.

Reader, this is that list.

What tweaks and feature requests have come up this year that we should keep in mind for next year?

Answer 1

Let us wear more than one hat. Maybe allow only certain combos but for example this year wearing any head gear with Hi Ho Silver or R-E-S-P-E-C-T would have made perfect sense.

Answer 2

Long-term hats!

Meaning hats that I have to work for. Winterbash runs 3 weeks but you can get most hats on a busy day's work.

I had all the hats I think I can achieve after very few days and since I don't know how to get the remaining secret hats, it's kind of "over" for me.

Answer 3

A couple of suggestions for the FAQ:

Add a note that hats may take a little while to be awarded. Hopefully this will prevent the long list of "Where's my hat?" questions.

Possibly add rules for secret hats:

The first rule about Secret Hats is: You do not talk about Secret Hats.
The second rule about Secret Hats is: You do not talk about Secret Hats.
Third rule about Secret Hats is: You do not talk about Secret Hats!

Answer 4

After winning certain number of hats (for example, 10 network wide) one will be able to make a custom hat. There will be an "upload hat" button, allowing the user to upload an image that will be scaled down if needed, and the user can use it as yet another hat and enter custom text as well.

Notes:

1. The custom hat will be per user only, that is, others will see it, but they won't be able to get it themselves.
2. Moderators will be able to "reset" this in case of offensive/inappropriate images or text.

Answer 5

I would like to see a simple "scripting" engine that users (3k for example) could use to set up hats that would be secret for employees and moderators. Peer-reviewed for safety, but otherwise kept hidden. Of course, the author (and maybe reviewers) wouldn't be allowed to earn it.

That way employees would have some secrets to discover, too!

_{(I don't think it'll be implemented, but hey, I say it anyway ;)}

Answer 6

A ranking based on number of hats earned and top few people getting something as a prize, say like some reputation added to their bag. If the reputation thing is not good, at least a leader board should be released to rank people on number of their hats.

Answer 7

Suspend users asking about or revealing how to get a secret hat.

In the spirit of giving and the season of putting tissue paper around everything, box them for as many hours (rounded to days) as there are users already wearing the hat.

After all, what's the challenge of a secret hat when others are doing the walking for you?

Checkpoint saved.

Or replace all their hats with a single silver spoon. Secret spoon.