We want to encourage definitive, authoritative, canonical answers and -- recognizing that those are a serious time and effort investment to produce -- reward your efforts with public recognition and a chance to win a prize.
The Contest: Parameters for Submission
Canonical answers may be submitted as answers to this meta post. Please only share one post per submission. Eligible answers must:
- Be authored by someone else. (You cannot submit answers that you wrote - part of the point of this contest is to acknowledge the work of your peers.)
- Be written no earlier than July 23, 2012 and no later than August 6, 2012 at 1300 UTC (9:00 AM EDT). (This applies only for the answers - if it is a new answer to an old question, that's fine.)
- Be posted to a question that is not closed.
- Have a score of at least 1 at the time the answer period closes (1300 UTC on August 6, 2012).
Each submission post (answer on this meta thread) must include:
- the title of the question whose answer was awesome
- a link to the answer
- the name of the person who wrote the awesome answer
- why you think the answer is awesome (we don't need novels here; a sentence or two will do nicely)
Other requirements:
Do not post the same answer that someone else has submitted. Upvote the prior submission instead. Downvotes will be ignored, so don't downvote. You may submit as many posts that fit the above criteria as you'd like.
The Contest: How the Raffle Works
For every canonical answer submitted, the author of the canonical post receives one raffle entry. For every upvote the meta answer / submission receives, the author of the canonical post receives one raffle entry.
Submission of and voting on answers will begin on Monday, July 23rd at 1600 UTC (12 pm EDT) and continue until Friday, August 10, 2012 at 1600 UTC (12 pm EDT) Monday, August 6, 2012.
The winners will be selected at random from the pool of entrants and will be announced on Monday, August 13, 2012. Winners will be posted here on meta and will be contacted directly through the email address associated with his or her Seasoned Advice account.
Winners will have two weeks from being chosen to reply with their choice of prizes. If two weeks has elapsed and I do not hear from the original winners, an alternate winner will be selected.
Moderators on the Stack Exchange network are eligible to win; employees of Stack Exchange and Fog Creek are not.
The Contest: Prizes
Grand Prize: The grand prize winner, chosen through the raffle system described above, will raffle winner will receive up to $50 in cooking-related books of his or her choice. The winner must choose a book (or books) available for purchase online, from a merchant that ships to the winner's country.
Runner-up: The runner-up will be selected through the raffle system described above and will receive up to $25 in cooking-related books of his or her choice. The winner must choose a book (or books) available for purchase online, from a merchant that ships to the winner's country.
What Do These Awesome Answers Look Like?
Some examples include:
- Answer to "What does gluten 'do' in baking?" (Aaronut)
- Answer to "Why can applesauce be used in place of oil?" (Aaronut)
- Answer to "Could coconut cream be used to create a non-dairy ganache for whipping?" (rumtscho)
- Answer to "Is it worth tearing lettuce for salad?" (BobMcGee)
General guidelines for how to create awesome answers:
- Do firsthand research. Set up a little at-home science experiment if no satisfactory answer can be found through research, or if the Internet presents two equally-weighted, conflicting answers.
- Show, don't tell. Include photos when possible.
- Make it accessible to everyone. While we are a site for experts, cooking has a broad audience, and we get a lot of traffic through searches. Including both a detailed scientific explanation as well as a simplified, more understandable summary, is definitely a sign of an awesome answer.
