It's Tuesday, so it's time for another installment of What's happening on the DIY_eJuice Discord Server.
If you haven't already - you should join the fun. You can find it here -> DIY_eJuice Discord.
If you're wondering why you should join Discord when you're already on Reddit, remember that they'e different ways to communicate - and learn.
Here on Reddit, people do not have to be online at the same time to have a conversation. You can ask a question today, and someone else can answer it tomorrow. Quite often people compose lengthy replies and use the formatting tools to organize and emphasize information. Multiple people can respond and all of the responses are organized into threads. The entire conversation is archived and is searchable.
On Discord you chat in real-time - that requires everyone taking part in the conversation to be online at the same time. Responses are typically short - and discussions resemble conversations with back and forth replies. Everything is displayed in chronological order - and you can include photos and videos in your responses. Although there are search tools are available, it's difficult to find information from a discussion that occurred earlier.
I like to think of Reddit as a letter you receive in the mail, and Discord as a phone call. They are both useful but useful in different ways. Reddit is best for archived information like Flavor Reviews and the Wiki. Discord is better at answering your questions quickly and for questions that spawn additional questions.
This past week we highlighted something you can do on Discord that would be extremely difficult on Reddit - Collaborative Mixing. That's where a group of people join their collective brain power to create a recipe. This happens all the time in the Mixing Lab channel on Discord. And this week we added a splash of FUN to the mix - the first Mixer Showdown! We assembled two teams and a panel of judges. Then had a contest to see which team could create the best recipe. The teams were given a "Rule" and an "Inspiration" as a starting point - and then they were given 30 minutes to create a recipe within those constraints. After that the recipes were judged and a winner was determined.
Let's tale a look at the details of the contest . . .
The constraints on this week's competition:
The Rule - You must use concentrates from exactly THREE different Flavor Houses - but can use as many flavors as you want to
The Inspiration - One of these things
The total upvotes each recipe received was combined with the opinion of our judges ( u/kindground , u/EdibleMalfunction , and u/Shyndo ) who graded the recipes using the following criteria:
||||
|---|---|---|
|Taste|1-10pts|if it doesn't taste good, nothing else matters|
|Originality|1-5pts|is the recipes a remix of a tried and tested idea? or something never seen before?|
|Accessibility|1-5pts|are the flavors readily available and used in many recipes? or something obscure that few people know about?|
|Inspiration|1-5pts|how well does the juice capture the INSPIRATION for the contest?|
Our Contestants:
The Red Team ( u/AlfredPudding , u/Vishousness , and u/mlNikon ) created Zoe's Crazy Cookies
They received 10 upvotes to add to the 63pts awarded by the judges for a total of 73 pts.
| Judge | Taste | Originality | Accessibility | Inspiration | Total | |:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:| | kindground |8|5|4|5|22| | Shyndo |8|3|4|5|20| | EdibleMalfunction |9|3|4|5|21| | TOTAL |25|11|12|15|63|
The Blue Team ( u/HocusKrokusl , u/ben_gaming , and u/ID10-T ) created Doom Pudding
They received 12 upvotes to add to the 53pts awarded by the judges for a total of 65 pts.
| Judge | Taste | Originality | Accessibility | Inspiration | Total | |:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:| | kindground |6|5|4|4|19| | Shyndo |6|4|4|2|16| | EdibleMalfunction |5|5|4|4|18| | TOTAL |17|14|12|10|53|
You're invited to mix up the recipes. And if you'd like to see how the teams came up with them - you can see their entire conversation on the RedTeam and BlueTeam channels on Discord. Seeing the birth of a recipe is very interesting!
We plan to make the Mixer Showdown a regular feature and now we need to get more competitors. If you'd like to compete please reply to this message and include info like . . .
- what day of the week works best for you?
- what time of day works best for you?
- is there someone you'd like to compete with or against?
- approximately how large is your flavor pantry?
- do you consider yourself an apprentice/journeyman/master?
- do you want to compete with/against mixers with similar experience?
- does a head-to-head competition sound best?
- do you prefer to compete in a Battle Royale with multiple teams competing at the same time?
- would you like to take part in a bracketed tournament? (ala March Madness)?
Also - is there anything you'd like to see changes in the rules and format? One suggestion that will be implemented going forward is giving teams an extra 5 mins at the end of the contest to add a name and description to their recipes.
If you’re an apprentice mixer and this sounds like fun but maybe a little scary, as it did for me, I urge you to sign up. I had a blast, learned a ton about high-level mixing techniques, got some guru tips on my side projects, found plenty of ways to be useful and shape the recipe, and realized I already know more than I thought. Plus I got to know a couple of my mixing heroes and realized they’re human too (and really nice humans at that!). If any of this sounds like a good time, you’ll have a blast, as well as a bonding, educational experience with great people. Don’t delay, sign up today (especially you u/staybert!)
I finally bit the bullet and downloaded Discord on my phone. It reminds me of old MSN Messenger. Those were the days.. I look forward to chattin' it up with everyone. My recipe game could use some much needed level ups.
Competing definitely sounds fun, I'd be up for that! :)
​
- The day that works best for me would be saturday or sunday. That doesn't rule the other days out though, my time window is just a little more limited during the week
- On the weekend, I'd have time pretty much all day long. During the week, only in the evening/afternoon, depending on the day. Generally, starting at about 6pm (Vienna Timezone)
- No particular people I'd be interesting in competing with/against. I'm sure it would be a blast with anyone :)
- If flavor pantry = stash, it's currently at 77 flavors
- I'd consider myself an apprentice/beginner. I've mixed a lot of different stuff, and even made two or three things I'm pretty proud of - got a long way and much more to learn though :p
- I don't really care about that point. What I'd be interested in seeing though is beginners vs. pros, but a lot more beginners, like 4-6 and only 2-3 pros maybe
- I don't really care about this either. For me it's not about winning but rather the experience I'd gain
- As I already suggested on the Discord, I'd be REALLY interested in a "Battle Royale"
- Definite yes, that sounds like a lot of fun, although I feel like that could make the people want to win too much, to continue mixing. Might just be my thought process though
I don't have any ideas for changes.. ..yet :)
This competition was so unique and fun! Of course I would rather have won (and now have to live with the fact that it's actually my fault my team lost), but it was still a great time. I hope lots of people express an interest in joining in one of these in the future. It doesn't take much experience to work as a team and can be a great time for both newer and more experienced mixers.
So you got me to agree to judge one of these in the future, but I'd also love a chance to play again, so...
- what day of the week works best for you?
Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday.
- what time of day works best for you?
After 6 p.m. USA CST on Tuesdays, anytime on weekends. I could also do Friday night very late into Saturday a.m.
- is there someone you'd like to compete with or against?
With: Just about anyone, especially newer mixers who have never done anything remotely like this before, but on the more experienced end of the spectrum Kindground and EdibleMalfunction. I'd also like to to have EyemakePizza and Foment_Life on a team with me sometime.
Against: /u/AlfredPudding, /u/mlNikon (REMATCH!)
- approximately how large is your flavor pantry?
between 1,400 - 1,500 flavors
- do you consider yourself an apprentice/journeyman/master?
There needs to be a category between journeyman & master. I'm a master debater, does that count?
- do you want to compete with/against mixers with similar experience?
Both.
- does a head-to-head competition sound best?
Yes.
- do you prefer to compete in a Battle Royale with multiple teams competing at the same time?
A battle royale sounds less than desirable to be for two groups of people. Judges, first of all. Take me off your list of potential future judges for that, I'm not judging 10 different recipes in a couple days, I have other things to mix and vape, ok? Like these 16 licorice flavors (I hate you). Second, spectators. It's hard enough for spectators to watch two teams compete via text by switching back and forth between channels. Add more at the same time and it'll just be impossible. Although, it might be more fun for competitors. The actual contest experience would be about the same, but the bragging rights would be huge and all the ones who didn't come in first would get ranked, so that's neat.
- would you like to take part in a bracketed tournament? (ala March Madness)?
Hell, yes.
Would you enjoy a Battle Royale that did NOT have judges? Just an activity instead of a competition. Perhaps judged by upvotes on Reddit.
Would it be super fun? Yes. Could it be educational or at least very interesting? Yes - especially if all the teams had to tackle the same profile vs. a more loose interpretation of some inspiration, it would be so cool to see how different teams approached it.
But "judged by upvotes on Reddit" sounds too much like a popularity contest.
I thought the Mixer Showdown was amazing. I feel like I learned a bunch just by watching the two teams complete. I would love to compete in a future competition.
- what day of the week works best for you?
- Any day depending on time.
- what time of day works best for you?
- Monday-Friday after 1800 (6 pm) MST or anytime Saturday/Sunday
- is there someone you'd like to compete with or against?
- I think it would be great no matter who I am teamed up with/against. However, if I had to choose, the following people have helped me so much since joining the discord that it would be awesome to compete with or against them: u/eyemakepizza, u/HocusKrokus, u/AlfredPudding, u/ID10-T, u/EdibleMalfunction, and u/kuri_sanTou. I would like to metophorically slap u/gunsforhandss with a leather glove and challenge him to a duel!
- approximately how large is your flavor pantry?
- Somewhere between 100 and 130 flavors I believe.
- do you consider yourself an apprentice/journeyman/master?
- apprentice
- do you want to copete with/against mixers with similar experience?
- Does not matter to me.
- does a head-to-head competition sound best?
- Compared to what? I do not really like the sound of a Battle Royale, but head-to-head or a bracketed tournament sound great.
- do you prefer to compete in a Battle Royale with multiple teams competing at the same time?
- Not really
- would you like to take part in a bracketed tournament? (ala March Madness)?
- I think that would be awesome.
Challenge accepted (assuming time works for me). I may be a super apprentice mixer, but I'll trade slaps with ya anytime! I'll fill out the form when I have a little more time later on too ;-)
I find it curious theres roughly the same number of people in the disc that can be found in the reddit chat room. I'm sure the well known names are all the same!
Good to see discord getting some use outside of gaming. I just joined, thanks for the suggestion!
Now that you're onboard - is it time to join the competition? grin
Its tempting! I saw the initial judgements of the last one and they were very harsh on some stones which I would likely end up using.
I'm also waiting to hear on a new job right now, should I get it, I'll be buying a shit load of flavours because it's been a hot minute since my last lot.
See you soon. Upvoted
Sounds like a awesome idea. Too bad about it being discord only. Could been fun, otherwise.
You could just join, it's not complicated
You still have never told me why you choose to stay away from discord
Several reasons.
Don't need another time-suck.
Don't always have access to a keyboard, and real-time communication with a phone keyboard is a serious PITA.
Remembering more login information is more effort than it seems worth.
There's a few more that I won't get into at this point.