BagelRabbit

'Winner' Badge is out! (Isn't it nice?) To grab your very own 'Winner' badge, simply copy and paste the following line of text: [NOPARSE][/NOPARSE] I'll also be posting this on the original post. Thanks for bearing with me! I've had a very busy day and haven't been online much... ~~~ I'll almost certainly do the Oscar-B's again next year! Because this year was great. ~~~ Oh, and can whoever is knocking the thread's rating down (it's at only 2 stars right now) either let me know why he/she/they are doing it, or please cease? I've put a good deal of work into this and the other judges have too, so penalizing the thread for seemingly no reason isn't cool. -Upsilon

I... um... I do think we should stick to the topic at hand, and not the topic of alcoholic beverages. To be honest, though, I have no idea what this thing means, and it is quite possible to interpret it in many different ways. I like to compare this sort of art to tapping the notes to a song on the dashboard and asking a friend to identify the song: "tap tap tap tap, taptaptaptaptap." "'California Girls?'" "No, 'Happy' by Pharell Williams." It's quite easy for the 'tapper' to hear his or her own song in the taps. It's also quite difficult for anyone else to hear it, because they lack the proper context. If I knew what your life was like, I would be willing to hazard a guess as to the nature of this drawing, but right now I lack the proper context to do so. I'm quite proud of that metaphor, by the way, even though I really shouldn't be... I'm quite tired, and that makes my brain work in... interesting... ways. -Upsilon

Sadly, those are coming soon. Me and at least one other judge (not giving particulars here) weren't able to take on all of that workload at once, so the video awards will come out in a bit. Sorry about that. In the meantime, I once again offer my hearty congratulations to all of the winners and all of the participants in this amazing challenge. I must once again thank the judges for making this possible and thank Bob Fitch for his amazing video. -Upsilon

The Winners have been chosen! Thanks to Bob Fitch for the video! BEST KSP CHANNEL OVERALL: Scott Manley BEST COMEDY CHANNEL: Danny2462 BEST EDUCATIONAL CHANNEL: Bob Fitch BEST ARTISTIC CHANNEL: Nassault BEST SHOWCASE CHANNEL: Cupcake Landers BEST INACTIVE CHANNEL: Squeegy Mackoy BEST UP-AND-COMING YOUTUBER: Avera9eJoe Thank you to all who participated. 'Winner' badges and trophies coming soon! Sorry for being three minutes late, there was a lot to compile Thanks to all for participating! Once again, everyone's a winner here. I loved looking through all of your channels, and it's been a real pleasure to see the wild and wonderful ideas you have come up with. I look forward to doing this next year, hopefully -Upsilon

This is a post to let y'all know that I'm compiling the 'Big Post' right now. I'll release results on the OP and as a reply at 10pm EST sharp, hopefully. Best of luck to all! -Upsilon

Three Hours!

You're going to have to hold the hype for a while now. I'm briefly leaving to do some errands. It's just under five hours until results are released!

That's great. Unfortunately, the link you gave is broken...? I'm not sure why. Did you take into account renting out some rooms for panels? While renting out a floor would probably provide enough square footage, it would probably be nice to have some separate rooms for panels... I'm not sure whether the $3250/day cost includes this. Taking a look at the center via Google Maps, it seems to be near a regional airport, but further than I had thought from Omaha. This means that people would either have to transfer flights, travel to the smaller Lincoln airport, or take a two-hour drive to reach the convention center. I would have liked to have chosen a center that's a little closer to a major city, but if you can't find any/if they're too expensive, I suppose this one would do... -Upsilon

I agree completely. I would have thought that after the release of 1.0 and subsequent popularity spike, SQUAD would have arranged more grand official competitions. Instead, it seems as if they're creating fewer and fewer. Maybe that's why I'm doing things like the Oscar-B's and my attempts to organize a Kerbal-Kon: as a desperate attempt to keep the Hypetm up. That's actually kinda sad, if you think about it. I'm not sure whether you're referring to my Coub or Avera9eJoe's, though I presume you're talking about his. Mine doesn't loop quite as well (especially with the music... ugh.) Fear not! By the time you get to the bottom of this post, the offending Coub will be hidden from view at the top of the screen, and you can resume browsing the Forums without a care in the world -Upsilon

Glad to hear I only made two coubs, and one of them has over 10,000 views (probably the most views I've gotten out of any one KSP clip). I did it in about ten minutes and it doesn't even loop properly... Why must the Internet be so fickle?! -Upsilon

I knew someone would post a HypeTrain something at some point. I'm glad it was one of the finalists who ended up doing so first -Upsilon

Meh, I would at least try not to kill too many people. You could mount rocket engines on the limo, so long as they're just little O-10 monopropellant engines, mmkay? I'll get to work rolling out the red carpet now -Upsilon

Let me just say that... I was homeschooled before it was popular. ~~~ Okay, I'm about as far from a hipster as they come. I admit it. But I was homeschooled before it was a widely considered to be a viable option. Basically, I've never been in a great financial situation. This was made worse by my (pardon me here) giftedness and the lack of schools that could cater to my level. It was cheaper to get me textbooks and have me read them and test myself than it was to go to a more expensive school for the gifted. So, my family decided to go for the former option. And so it was: I read textbooks for several years, going from basic to advanced. I did pretty well with this - I managed a 35 (out of 36) on the ACT and a 2330 (out of 2400) on the SAT. I do wish, however, that I could have interacted with more students during this time. (Many of my fellow homeschoolers were fundamentalist Christians, and without getting into religious discussions, it was often difficult to talk with them. I'm not sure if it's still that way though.) I am far from an anti-social guy, but it would have been nice to interact with other people more often. So, here is my advice to you, based on your post: If this is a big reason why you want to be homeschooled, don't do it. If you are bored by being with the same people every day, you will be bored out of your skull being with nobody but your parents (wonderful though they may be) for maybe four or five days out of the week. Even though it may not seem like it, homeschooling, when done properly, involves a lot of doing the same thing every day. While you may think you can go to parties or meet up with new people, it's a lot more difficult than you probably think it is, and it won't happen as often as you think it will. If I were one of your parents, how do you think I would feel if I suddenly asked to be homeschooled? "I've put down 5,000 dollars for what I think is best for you and your brother, and you suddenly want me to change things up and be homeschooled instead? I understand that you want what's best for you, but now isn't the best time to ask about this. How about discussing whether you want to be homeschooled next year." Your parents probably won't be a tremendous fan of this plan unless you give them ample notice ahead of time. If they come to grips with homeschooling gradually, they might be more in favor of it... To be fair, this is the reason I was homeschooled as well. I do think that your school has a point in giving you classes that will help you get into college though. Many colleges will actually put you through a general-education set of classes, and you may find some of them quite easy, but is that a reason to drop out of college? Not really. Perhaps you'll get a job that's quite easy (and quite boring); should you quit it? Not necessarily. Just because something is quite easy doesn't mean that it's not worth doing. If anything, I would recommend seeing a guidance counselor and explaining to him or her what's going on here. If all else fails, it may be best to transfer to another school after the coming school year is over. It'll be a change of pace with new people, and it may be able to offer you better classes. There's a time and a place for homeschooling, but it seems as if you would probably do better in a more conventional establishment. At the end of the day, though, your opinion is the only one that really matters. After all, the rest of us are just people discussing Kerbal Space Program on an Internet forum. -Upsilon

It's building up a bit of steam now. Hopefully as the day wears on, it'll begin to really pick up some serious speed Best of luck! Actually, it was about eight and a half hours to go when you posted. Still, though, it's coming quite soon... Does anyone want to pilot the HypeTrain? GregroxMun doesn't appear to be online right now, and I can't stay on for too much longer either. -Upsilon

burning with fire.

Twelve hours until the winners are announced. Get your hype on!

Basically, here's the scoop. Any organization worth its salt knows that your average gaming convention is fun, informative, and safe. They also realize, however, that there is a tiny possibility that something may go wrong. A con participant might have some medical problem or a certain food and beverage stand could give a couple of people food poisoning, for example. Less likely but still within the realm of possibility: someone breaking bones falling down stairs or setting off a fire alarm. These sorts of things are unpredictable and can occur even if we do everything right, but they can make for bad press. And as Kasper said, he doesn't want SQUAD to be liable for the problems, for obvious reasons. This is also another reason why conventions need insurance, by the way. Tl;dr: SQUAD isn't really willing to support a bunch of unofficial Forum-goers in their efforts to create a con, because a lot could go wrong and they don't want to be considered responsible for any mishaps. Now, if a preexisting con agrees to take us in, they understand that these sorts of things happen. They already have the infrastructure (and the insurance) to withstand such problems. More importantly, they view the convention as a time for people to get together and have fun, not as a risk for liability that makes them hesitant. (I'm not saying that SQUAD's making a bad decision here... in fact, I think they're quite shrewd. It would be more fun if they supported our efforts to create a Kerbal-Kon though.) The more I think about it, the more I think choosing a preexisting con might be the better choice. I'm just not sure. -Upsilon

There are some requirements that may be beyond the dominion of a bunch of Forum-goers, insurance being one of them. (If we damage the property, which we almost certainly won't, they don't want to pay for repairs is basically what it boils down to.) If we are to organize our own convention, we must either piggyback off of another convention (as was my original plan) or figure out how to deal with the requirements that the convention center asks for. Getting the Reddit crowd involved wouldn't be sacrilege at all! We need as many hands on deck as possible. While I don't have a Reddit account, it would be nice if someone could briefly explain what's going on over here and include a link... ...Oh, and at the risk of violating both Rule 2.2f and 3.4 (sorry, moderators! I hope you understand that this content is neither very private information nor intending to refuse to abide by staff decisions. And yes, I have the Rules practically memorized by now...), here's an excerpt from a PM that Kasper sent me regarding this convention: In my opinion, this is a bit disappointing but not unreasonable. This means, however, that we are on our own. In other words, we must do our own marketing... which also means that it is in our best interest to come up with a convention location ASAP. I still think we can pull this off, but it ain't gon' be easy, folks... -Upsilon

How expensive is the Cox center in Tulsa? It might be nice to host the convention in a larger city with better airport access, especially if we're expecting international guests. Picking a convention in a more populated spot might result in more media coverage as well, which would be nice if we're trying to get more people hooked on KSP. Finally, Muscogee is only a few miles from Tulsa, and I've always wanted to meet some Okies from Muscogee Going to Oklahoma would actually be quite convenient for me, at least. I'm not sure about others (though that general Midwestern region did receive the second-highest number of votes on your poll). Once again, though, it's important to consider the cost of the venue and the number of people likely to attend. The Tulsa spot has more than enough room to accomodate us, so it will probably be cheaper to only rent part of the building. August 7-9 would be good. It does, however, mean that we only have a month left to create our plans... -Upsilon

If we have a two-day event with 500 people attending, the ticket cost comes out to roughly $13. Maybe a one-day pass could be $10 and a two-day pass could be $15? (I want to be able to break even here.) Do you know what the capacity of the convention center is, and whether they have any free spots without any events come early August? This is looking quite exciting. -Upsilon

Please shoot me a PM. I would be more than happy to allow you to make the video for this... Yes. A lot of the Up-and-Coming YouTubers did just that... after all, a big reason why they haven't gotten too many subscribers is that few people know who they are! There were some other people who nominated their own channels or videos, though (including me). Oh, and can you please remove the mega-quote from your post? It took quite a bit of scrolling to see your question -Upsilon

First off, thanks for the poll! I've put a link to it in the original post. From the limited data gathered so far, it seems as if a lot of people want to attend a convention on the West Coast... which is another vote in favor of the Spokane convention. Unfortunately, tickets aren't being sold for this convention, which means that either the convention is sold out or cancelled... or maybe just that ticket sales haven't started yet. I'm not sure. Regardless, we may need to find some more locations. Anyone up for some serious searching? You may be correct. (No worries about wrecking my train of thought; I want this convention to be the best it can possibly be if it happens, and your points are valid.) I will, however, counter with the following statements: a) most of the organizing would fall on the shoulders of the regional convention managers, who often have volunteered their time and energy to make the convention a success. If we simply use an existing convention as a way to get together, individual community members really don't have all that much to do to make this plan a success, do they? I'm wondering what I'm 'vastly underestimating the time needed to organize,' perhaps you can clarify this a bit pretty much all conventions strive for increased traffic, as this leads to more money for the convention, the vendors, and the local community. Perhaps convention staff would not approve of our presence if the population of the convention doubled, but they probably wouldn't mind selling several hundred extra tickets if they could do so without overwhelming the con (kon?). Oh, and do you really think that thousands of people may attend? I had tentatively decided that the KSP population of such an event would be, at most, about 500. Five hundred extra people wouldn't be too much for a medium-sized convention to accomodate, as far as I know. I just pulled the number 500 out of a metaphorical hat, though, and I'm not sure how many people would actually end up attending. I would love for this to happen too, though it seems as if SQUAD is rather reluctant to arrange a major space at a convention themselves. You're likely in a better position than me to ask whether they would be willing to arrange a major event at FlightSimCon or elsewhere; it might be worth asking about. I did PM KasperVld to ask whether creating this sort of thing would be okay, though he hasn't replied yet... perhaps he'll offer some other ideas as well. -Upsilon

As we all know, MOAR STRUTS is the way to go! A little over two days left. I would have loved to have made a video announcing the winners, but sadly my computer is dead. Nonetheless, I'm sure the Hype is beginning to build... -Upsilon

Again, the easiest and least expensive way to make this happen is to choose an existing convention (even though our own convention would be nice, kenbobo, it would likely cost a lot to rent the thing out for a full weekend. Maybe you could ask how much it would cost to rent out a fair bit of the convention center?) If you guys can find an appropriate convention in the midwest/near the East Coast that runs between mid-July and mid-August (or if the cost isn't too prohibitive and we can rent out our own convention center), I would be happy to add that option to the list on the OP. That would be awesome, though I'm not sure how many people would get the reference (a similar Reputation system exists on many forums, and members of the KSP Reddit may not get the reference). Still, though, bringing KSP t-shirts, hats, custom-made cosplays, buttons and pins, plushies, bracelets, headbands, scarves, or jewelry would be more than appropriate. (If they don't already exist, then make them! KSP players seem to be a creative enough bunch... ) -Upsilon [EDIT: I just realized that SpoKon would be right up your alley, Avera9eJoe! If we do choose a convention site on the West Coast, it would be great if you could lend a hand...]

Yes, FlightSimCon sounds like a perfect fit. It's something to look forward to, to be certain Hee hee. That would be fun, though perhaps a little difficult to pull off... I think that one of the top priorities for any major Kerbal-Kon would be the ability to livestream it. I'm well aware that many people wouldn't be able to come, so if at all possible, it would be nice to livestream the panels and major events. Perhaps (as was almost the case at Denver Comic Con 2015, which I went to*) there could also be streams featuring small groups of KSP players building and flying craft together. *A big source of inspiration for this idea was the KSP booth at DCC 2015, where I spent many happy hours with DasValdez. I built a pretty VTOL and we flew around some planes and rockets. He was going to livestream the event, but sadly there was no internet in the games room... otherwise, I would have had five minutes of Internet fame. -Upsilon