congratulations to the winners . We expect similar type of contest to that we expan our knowledge base for Mahalo community
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Whoo Hoo!!! Thank-you very much!!!!!

Also, congratulations to @Arjo, @Demanda and everyone else. Even if you only completed one page, you're M$2 richer and there ain't nuthin' wrong with that.

I'm currently saving my Mahalo dollars so that I can attend to the Techcrunch50 in September. This helps out a lot! It was fun to compete and I liked the whole barnraising spin that engaged the spirt of the community.

Here are my notes on the contest. I've gone to the effort to write them down in the hope that other Mahalo members might find a couple of the points helpful.

1)
Before this contest was announced live last week, I had already decided that I was going to work hard at it. I knew that I wouldn't be able to devote my regular working hours to the tasks, but I know that when I "slip into overdrive" that I can bust out a ton of work.

2)
I was shocked at how quickly tasks were approved. Before I submitted my first block of pages, I figured the delay between submission and approval would be the biggest problem with the contest. I was wrong. On Sunday (of all days), I submitted a few tasks and had them accepted immediately. This was really great and if this continues through the next contest, it will mean that anyone from a newbie to a blackbelt really can win the next contest.

3)
I really appreciated the feedback that I received each time a task was accepted. There isn't any feedback when a Mahalo SERP is created or updated and I think that this omission is a problem. While completing these tasks, I received some helpful feedback from the staff that quickly allowed me to improve. Even when I hit my stride, the Mahalo staff took the time to write quick comments of encouragement. I found that motivating and think that feedback and community participation is the problem with the current Mahalo SERP process / model.

4)
Technically, I only encountered two problems. This was the first Barnraising contest and I expected a few technical glitches. I was again wrong and was able to fly through the site and process. Kudos and thanks to the Dev's. My first technical problem occurred on Wednesday but was noticed by @Danielle before I could report it! Even after the problem was solved, my page claim limit was handicapped from 10 down to 8, but that didn't cause a problem for me. My second glitch occurred in the final stretch of the competition. I claimed Ovguide.com and Foxnews.com but somehow lost claim on both of those pages.

5)
Some stats:

I completed 43 pages.
I would have completed more pages if I could have freed up more time. Work however interfered with the contest. When Lon released the first leaderboard, I did some math and figured out that it would take me 46 pages to win. The submission rate that I calculated was wrong because @Arjo slowed down. But I didn't care; I kept plugging away at the pages trying to reach my 46 page goal.

None of my pages were rejected. However, I was given some great feedback on my first few to correct some early mistakes.

On average, pages took me 16.43 minuets each to complete.
Yes, I am a nerd and timed each one so that I could get faster.
My fastest page (Adbrite) was completed in 7 minuets.
I spent 11 hours of my free time completing tasks over the course of 7 days.

I made M$86 in tips plus I won M$200 for a total of M$286.

6)
If you want to see exactly how I completed pages, here is a screencast that I made with some commentary, tips and my entire workflow:

http://www.screencast.com/t/7gl0a6gpaKE

So... my advice... get into the next contest, come in first, win the big prize and beat my 43 page record if you can :)

Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter - I love hearing what Mahalo folks are up to when they're not kickin' here.
http://twitter.com/RobIsIT
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Great contest! Ahh...if only my 2 tasks that haven't been approved yet in the last couple of hours had made it through. :( I'm not complaining though. I really did not put that much effort into winning, and I am happy with 3rd place.
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What are the prizes for the second Barnraising contest? The same as the first?
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Way to go everyone! I didn't get started on this until late, because I didn't know about it and was really new to the place, so I'm pretty happy with how I did.
I'm starting on the 2nd one though lol
I'm saving up my mahalo dollars for my kids school supplies (I have 5!!)

so anyway again, way to go everyone!!! and congratulations to the top three, I bow to your awesomeness :)
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Congratulations to the winners you three did an amazing job!
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Congrats to all the winners. Remember the Movies Barnraising starts today! Everyone has another chance at all the great prizes!
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Very excited with how well this went!!!
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