On the December 30th POAPathon Community Call there was a request for feedback on where POAPathon should go in 2023. I thought about it and here are my thoughts.

First some background. POAPathon is a community driven organization that facilitates design contests for people that need an image for a POAP event. I love creating POAP events, but I lack the design skills to create great images. I’ve used POAPathon a few times to get amazing images for my events. The process, collaboration, and results are great.

Some POAPathon designed events I’ve done include:

Magic Pines Summer of 2022
by kavishsethi

Jamie Thingelstad’s 51st Birthday
by designatum.eth

TeamSPS 2022 Kubb Tournament
by InsertGenericArtName

POAPathon DAO

Creating a DAO for POAPathon would enable two important functions:

Treasury for the DAO to fund programs, strategy, and execution.

To fund the treasury some percentage of all bounties should be directed to the DAO. POAPathon is providing direct value by creating this marketplace, and directing some of those funds into the treasury to be used by the DAO is best for the overall health of the community.

Governance tokens to enable decisions making.

Governance tokens have no monetary value and should never be bought or sold. These tokens would be distributed for actions done in the DAO. Examples would include:

1. Sponsoring a contest.
2. Submitting a design to a contest.
3. Volunteers managing a contest.
4. Volunteers sending a newsletter (see below).
5. Volunteers hosting a community call.

There is likely a broad list of additional activities that could be rewarded with governance tokens, but there are two activities that should not be:

1. Winning a contest is already rewarded with the bounty. Governance tokens should be given equally to any artist that participates in a contest. Winning should not be a factor for governance tokens.
2. Community call attendance is already rewarded with POAPs, and that should continue. That rewards engagement, and governance tokens reward contribution. However, a volunteer hosting a community call should be rewarded.

Serious thought would need to be given to governance token amounts for each activity. Fortunately POAPathan has been doing nearly all of these things for a year or more, and that historical set of activities could be used to model what the amounts should be. Future changes to reward amounts could be handled via a DAO vote.

Lastly, the DAO should be run on Gnosis Chain in recognition that POAPs are distributed on Gnosis Chain. (Disclosure: I am a Gnosis Chain validator.)

Contests On-chain

Today contests are created via a survey, USDC is sent to POAPathon, and the Contest Managers (POAPathon volunteers) are trusted to setup the contests and distribute the funds. To further embrace a trustless approach, contests could be moved to a smart contract and executed on-chain.

When a contest is created the USDC would be sent to a contract. That contract would then manage the distribution. Some percentage would be sent to the DAO immediately after the contest is approved. The remainder would be sent to the addresses of the winners.

There are a lot of options here. It would be ideal if the smart contract knew what artists had submitted art for the contest, and could even handle distributing governance tokens rewarding them for participating. The contest requester could then select the winners from a list of participating artists.

This would require development efforts that may go beyond the scope of volunteer engagement. If so, the DAO treasury could be used to fund the development of this.

Other Stuff

Focus on just POAPs. The POAPathon website suggests a variety of design services via contest (PFP, Logos), but POAP is right there in the name and focusing on just that use case may create more opportunity.

Email newsletter. Discord is great, but is only useful for very engaged community members. A newsletter that highlights the contests, selected artists, and more could be very compelling. This is a way to stay connected and broaden the reach of POAPathon. POAP has This week in POAP for example.

Give out more POAPs. POAPathon distributes a POAP for each Community Call. It would be cool to give a POAP for submitting a contest, and winning contests. I’ve created five contests now but there is no record of that outside of Discord history. I’d love to have a POAP from POAPathon showing that.

Closer connection with POAP itself. POAPathon could be part of the POAP process. There seems to be no mention of POAPathon on the POAP website that I could easily find. Getting in this flow of requests would help make sure there are enough contests to have a thriving community.

We had our 4th annual TeamSPS Kubb Tournament today. We were graced with impeccable weather to throw some Kubb. We had 16 teams of five or six people. The tournament format we used was very similar to last year, and simple to play. We had four round robin groups of four teams each. They played three single-game rounds, time limited at 25 minutes. At the end of 25 minutes the team with the most baseline Kubbs standing was declared the winner. A throw off would have been used on a baseline tie, but that wasn’t even needed.

After the round robins were completed we ranked each team first to fourth in their group, and then went out into four simple brackets to get a winner from each.

We did have a bit of a surprise when the sprinkler system at SPS Tower turned on while we were still playing. It continued and interfered with one final game, but everyone was a good sport about getting a little wet. 💦

Final results of the #LeadTheWay bracket gave the overall with to Rubiks Kubb!

This is such a great event and everyone has a wonderful time. I can’t wait to direct the 2023 Tournament!

Also see the 2021, 2019, and 2018 tournaments.

TeamSPS had a great time playing Kubb today, connecting with colleagues, and having a fun time. We weren’t able to have this event in 2020 due to COVID-19, but thanks to vaccines we were able to throw some batons together! Several people commented how much they loved this event. Here are some selected photos from Tim Van Cleave who was so generous to volunteer as official photographer! He has an entire album of additional shots as well.

You can also see the official SPS Tech Blog post on the Kubb event, and looks back to our 2019 and 2018 events. This event got real momentum after we did Kubb at Tech Jam in 2016. The first introduction was a Kubb Class in 2014 that was part of our SPS Charity Auction. Kubb has some deep roots with Team SPS!

We had a great time with our 2019 #TeamSPS Kubb Tournament today! We had 20 teams having a lot of fun, getting to know their teammates better, and enjoying a gorgeous day outside!

After the round robin our #TeamSPS Kubb groups split into brackets with a winner in each bracket! We kept track old school, just like most tournaments do!

After the 2019 #TeamSPS Kubb tournament a bunch of folks hung out and played, you guessed it, more Kubb! Next year we might introduce Mölkky at the end!

The Kubbchucks played our 8th annual Minnesota Kubb Winter Tournament this weekend. After a week of record cold temperatures we were treated to a fabulous day in the mid-30’s, nice sunshine and no wind. Perfect for winter Kubb!

Round Robin

We opened the round robin versus Team Dondante. This was their first tournament and we helped them with tournament rules. They were good players, but needed to work on their drilling technique. We took the match 2-0 and it went on way too long because we were able to close it out. We went very cold on our 8m and that makes for a long game, if you don’t lose.

We played the Free Agents next, serious Kubb talent here. We had an epic fail in our first game and left a field Kubb on our very first turn, throwing 4 batons at 2 Kubbs. The Free Agents then kindly put us out of our misery. We drug out the 2nd game for a good long time. We got to 8 Kubbs in play and went back and forth for about 20 minutes. Sadly we broke first and left a line, which resulted in the expected immediate loss. 0-2 on that match.

We finished the round robin versus The Four Old Guys, however there were only three of them. They had a good game, just lacked some consistency. We were never really at risk in these games, and closed out the match 0-2.

Bracket

With a 2-1 record out of the round robin we went into the difficult end of the Round of 16.

We had to play Skol in the round of 16. Three monster Kubb players including Evan Fitzgerald. We didn’t stand a chance. On top of that, we played horribly. I don’t mind to lose, but our play was really sub-par. It took about 10 mins for them to put us away.

Free Agents, the team that we lost to in the round robin ended up winning the whole tournament.

We had a great day of Winter Kubb! 👍🏻

Great day for our #TeamSPS Technology Kubb Tournament! Good luck to all the teams!

Results after round 1 of #TeamSPS Technology Kubb Tournament! Skubby Doo v King Kubbas in the lead!

Teams that Kubb together, win together! #TeamSPS

Winners from #TeamSPS Technology Kubb Tournament…

1. Skubby Doo
2. King Kubbas
3. Kubbernetes

Best team name winner… Bring Back Kubbicles Plz!

Today is our annual #TeamSPS TechJam event bringing the global SPS technology team together to learn, share, and have fun. The agenda is packed with over two dozen presenters. Automation, GraphQL, Containers, Architecture and more on the agenda! 🙌🏆 #SPSTechJam

A huge thank you to the #TeamSPS TechJam event organizers! 👏 Your passion and drive make us a better team! #SPSTechJam

Bridget Kromhout getting #SPSTechJam started off! Computers are easy, people are hard! 👏

Great #TeamSPS speakers at #SPSTechJam! Thank you for sharing! 🙌🏆

Today we have people from United States 🇺🇸 (multiple cities), Ukraine 🇺🇦, Canada 🇨🇦, India 🇮🇳 and Bulgaria 🇧🇬 with #TeamSPS and partners here in Minneapolis. Global! 🌏

Evolutionary architecture, Kotlin, and GraphQL. Great 2nd half of the morning at #SPSTechJam! 🙌🏆

Afternoon sessions for #SPSTechJam. 🙌🏆

Women in Tech sharing with #TeamSPS the great work they are leading! 🙌🏆 #SPSTechJam

I left my iPad at my seat while stepping away and #TeamSPS security was on the job with a good reminder! 🔐

“At SPS it might be Kube or Kubb!” Kelly Hamm at SumoLogic knows #TeamSPS — and thanks for the Kubb set!

Another great #TeamSPS #SPSTechJam! Wonderful topics, great speakers and an amazing team! 🙌🏆

Not sure about the Paul DeCoursey sticker in the lower right. 😳

Time for some fun socializing for #TeamSPS at #SPSTechJam! 🍻

Kicking off #TeamSPS TechJam community event. Great day of learning and sharing technology solutions ahead.

Nate and Dan sharing how they are using serverless solutions to create scalable and efficient services. #TeamSPS #TechJam

Marcell sharing capabilities of the newest editions of Microsoft SQL Server.

Valentin from our Kyiv office presenting at #TechJam about migrating their service to microservices. #TeamSPS

. #TeamSPS Introduction to Go by Cody! #TechJam

Cool live coding and running it inside browser / presentation template. Nice!

Jez Humble @jezhumble giving remote keynote for #TeamSPS #TechJam on continuous delivery improvements!

Had a great time doing #TeamSPS VP Jeopardy at #TechJam! Good sports Kent, Amy, and Paul.

Travis @travisjgosselin sharing the DevOps journey in our Toronto #TeamSPS office. #TechJam

Dan talking at #TeamSPS #TechJam about isolation and benefits to systems. Less friction!

Corbett sharing with #TeamSPS #TechJam the fundamental value of the SPS network. Bringing it home to wrap up the day!

Wrapped up #TeamSPS #TechJam with Kubb, beer 🍺 and burgers 🍔!

Tough choices: great beer or great beer? 🍻

It was a surprise to me that this was our 6th year playing in the Minnesota Kubb Winter Tournament. When we were getting ready to play there was some discussion about it, and I thought it was our 4th. A careful accounting of the years brought it to 6 though, and as Eric Goplin started the tournament, we gave a loud shout when he called out any teams that had been there for six years, which is how old the tournament is.

Garrick, Jim and I made our way to the pitches and took our spot in Group D. We played We B Kubbing, Ice Kubb’s YouKubb Channel and Little Lebowski Urban Achievers in the round robin. The Lebowski’s were the 2016 Consolation Champions. We were the seed into the group with our T-9 place from 2016.

We were able to make it through the round robin 3-0. Our match against the Little Lebowski’s didn’t complete, we were ahead 1 game to 0 and ahead on the baseline when they called time. We were close to closing it out but didn’t get it done. The winter tournament has strict 45 minute time limits for round robin matches. The Ice Kubb’s we finished pretty quickly with a 2-0 win and were able to retire to the warming tent for some chili and a beer. We B Kubbing we started ice cold with and couldn’t hit anything. We lost our first game but the batons came back, and we finished it out 2-1 with plenty of time left.

We went into the championship bracket and the round of 16. This is dangerous territory for the Kubbchucks, it’s where we typically fall apart and lose terribly bad. We steeled ourselves for it and went in throwing well. It all worked out, and we took a 2-0 match against a team that I can’t recall the name of. All of the round of 16 games ended quickly, so we moved quickly on to the next round and played Strike Without Warning in the quarterfinals.

Strike Without Warning took us down so fast we hardly knew what was going on. They hit pretty much everything they threw at, and we were out 0-2 within about 15 minutes. We didn’t have a chance. They also went on to win the entire tournament.

We had a great day of Kubb and left with our best place ever, T-5. We’ll get a nice seed next year which hopefully we will use to our advantage for a 7th year showing! If you’re looking for something fun to do in the winter and live in the area, you should get yourself to the Minnesota Kubb Winter Tournament!

Gorgeous day for US National Kubb Championship!

Kubbchucks team shirts this year are awesome!

Kubb everywhere at US National Kubb Championship USA Kubb Championship! t.co/WfGbsFLKu…

Kubbchucks go 3-0 in USA kubb round robin!

Kubbchucks knocked out. Thanks US National Kubb Championship for USA Kubb Championship!

SumoLogic Sumo Sighting on Kubb King at #TeamSPS #TechJam event…

Sumo Sighting with Surly Brewing at #TeamSPS #TechJam event…

After years of talking about getting a cabin we have finally made the big leap! Tammy has been looking at cabins for a while now and we found one that really fits what we were looking for. It’s close to home (45 minutes from our house!) has a great, warm feel and is on a good sized lake with just over an acre of land. Great spots to play outside, setup a Kubb pitch, hang a hammock and have a fire pit along with a dock to get on the lake. It already has a name, Magic Pines.

We close in January and are excited for fun weekends away. This is completely new territory for us. It’s going to be a fun adventure!

I’ve been using Question2Answer for a number of years now to power Ask Planet Kubb. I like Question2Answer because it is simple to run, uses a standard PHP + MySQL setup and can even be used in a multi-site farm configuration easy enough. However, I’ve been frustrated by it’s ability to manage spam registrations.

Question2Answer has built in support for ReCaptcha and it has a plugin method to use other anti-spam measures. I’ve used ReCaptcha for a while, but it results in 4 to 10 spam registrations a day. I tried switching to the Q2A Logical Captcha by amiyasahu which uses Text Captcha. I even submitted a pull request to properly salt the captchas. But this resulted in 3-4 times the spam registrations as ReCaptcha! Ouch!

I decided to apply the same type of spam defense I’ve successfully used for MediaWiki and early results are great. It uses the Numbers_Words PHP package to spell out a number of nine digits and then ask the user to identify the number in a specific position. The question looks like this:

This works really well. You can grab q2a-number-captcha and git clone it for your own use.

Garrick and I joined forces and auctioned off a Kubb Class at the annual SPS Charity Auction this year. The sales engineering team won the event and we got 12 of them together this past week for a tournament level Kubb class. It was an awesome time with a ton of great questions on the game and a jump-start into Kubb strategy and technique.

Do yourself a favor and get one of these awesome new Planet Kubb t-shirts!

Most of the time when I see people playing Kubb around Minneapolis they are folks I know from Minnesota Kubb. It was fun today to stop on a bike ride around Lake Harriet and right by the bandshell were 6 women having a nice game of Kubb. They were playing with a Bex set, the pitch was a bit small and they were doing that weird thing where you stack field kubbs on top of each other. But, they were having a blast throwing wood!

I didn’t get much time to take photos at the 2013 US Nationals Kubb Championship. Saturday was a day focused my team the Kubbchucks progressing through the bracket, and hoping that our club, Minnesota Kubb, did really well. Sunday I was mostly focused on scoring games for Planet Kubb and running the final parts of the Planet Kubb Club Championship. I did get my camera out for about an hour and get some shots in, but only from Sunday.

This weekend we got together with Tammy’s side of the family for the 10th Annual Olson Family Weekend. We returned to Lanesboro this year. The late season snow put a halt on the plans to bring bikes and do a lot of riding. But everyone enjoyed watching the snow melt through Saturday with a lot of fun and then spent the day playing Kubb and having fun outside on Sunday. We also got to celebrate Tammy’s birthday with everyone on Saturday night and have our own Cinco de Mayo celebration on Sunday with lethal margaritas courtesy of the Daily’s!

Photos from the 2013 Minnesota Kubb Tournament!

The Kubbchucks played at the 2012 Dallas Oktoberfest Kubb Tournament on Saturday. In between games I took out the camera.

This last weekend the Kubbchucks, our Kubb team, traveled to Eau Claire for the US National Kubb Championship. It was an awesome time. Here are some pictures I took from the weekend.

The Kubb Fever continues. This vinyl sticker is really well done and looks perfect on the Mini. This sticker is sold by Des Moines Kubb.

I got my package from Old Time Games today with my 2nd Kubb set. The kitchen smells like wood tonight.

I’ve got special plans for this set! I’ll post pictures when I’m done customizing them.

My buddy Garrick came over yesterday and we enjoyed some practice rounds of Kubb across the street at Minnehaha Creek West Park. We played three games. The first one quickly went to him and the last quickly went to me. The one in the middle was an hour long ebb and flow of knights shifting from side to side.