2014 NORTHEAST DATA CONTEST

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ZantiMissKnit
Posts: 1037
Joined: September 14th, 2012, 9:43 am
Location: Boston area, MA

2014 NORTHEAST DATA CONTEST

Post by ZantiMissKnit »

UPDATE 4/4/2014: I regret to say that I have to put the database contest on hold indefinitely. With the separation of NAFHA and HERP, the data can't be retrieved the way it used to be, and at the moment I'm unsure if it can be. Don is willing to work with me on this, but can't at the moment, so I wouldn't be able to do the first quarterly update (which I was trying to do earlier this week).

NAFHA still supports HERP, and I encourage people to keep adding data to NAHERP.com. We may be able to fix this, or we may be able to come up with a different spin on the contest.

Thanks to everyone who is participating, and I apologize that I am putting it on hold.

******

This contest is designed to encourage new vouchered records into the NAHERP database. 2014 and historic data are both permitted.

FIVE WAYS TO WIN!!!

A. Overall - New York and New England
B. Overall - PA/NJ to VA
C. Total species
D. Total counties
E. Rookie Overall (historic and current records allowed) - This can be any person who joins throughout the year or has entered his or her first record after the date of 9/1/13.

CONTEST RULES:

1. This contest will be based on a point system. The person with the highest number of points in each division will win. A person can win a maximum of two divisions. If someone wins three, we defer to the second place individual on the third and so on.

1 point = If the species/subspecies has already been vouchered for that county
(1 point per species per county).
3 points = If the species/subspecies is a new county record for the database.
5 points = If the species/subspecies is the first species vouchered for that county.

2. Only vouchered species found in the Northeastern States are eligible.

3. Contest ends on 12/31/14. Entries made after this date will not be counted.

4. Prizes will be listed below. I need to get in touch with the authors to make sure they still wish to sign copies of their books.

5. Disqualified: Andrea Howlett (ZantiMissKnit), Nate Nazdrowicz (spinifer), Michael Kirby (incuhead2000)

PREVIOUS WINNERS:

2009 - Kyle Loucks
2010 - Kyle Loucks
2011 - Nate Nazdrowicz

2012 Winners:

A. Overall - New York and New England... Larry Clarfeld
B. Overall - PA/NJ to VA... Michael Kirby
C. Total species... Michael Kirby
D. Total counties... Stephen Staedtler
E. Rookie Overall... Andrea Howlett

2013 Winners:

A. Overall - New York and New England... Andrea Howlett
B. Overall - PA/NJ to VA... Stephen Staedtler
C. Total species... Michael Kirby
D. Total counties... Stephen Staedtler
E. Rookie Overall... Andy Adams
---------------------------------------------------------------

**Please do not compromise the integrity of the database. These contests are designed to increase records in the database and meant to be fun and motivating. Manufacturing or falsifying data will not be tolerated.

**Avoid data inflation. Each individual herp should not be entered into the database by multiple people.

We encourage all data entries, however only those with vouchers are eligible for the contests.
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axeman2729
Posts: 445
Joined: November 5th, 2012, 2:10 pm
Location: Cranberry township, PA

Re: 2014 NORTHEAST DATA CONTEST

Post by axeman2729 »

Is there an age limit? Cause I am going to try and step it up this year!
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ZantiMissKnit
Posts: 1037
Joined: September 14th, 2012, 9:43 am
Location: Boston area, MA

Re: 2014 NORTHEAST DATA CONTEST

Post by ZantiMissKnit »

Garrett, I PMed you.

I still need to work on the prizes, so I'll update the first post with that information.
User avatar
ZantiMissKnit
Posts: 1037
Joined: September 14th, 2012, 9:43 am
Location: Boston area, MA

Re: 2014 NORTHEAST DATA CONTEST

Post by ZantiMissKnit »

I regret to say that I have to put the database contest on hold indefinitely. With the separation of NAFHA and HERP, the data can't be retrieved the way it used to be, and at the moment I'm unsure if it can be. Don is willing to work with me on this, but can't at the moment, so I wouldn't be able to do the first quarterly update (which I was trying to do earlier this week).

NAFHA still supports HERP, and I encourage people to keep adding data to NAHERP.com. We may be able to fix this, or we may be able to come up with a different spin on the contest.

Thanks to everyone who is participating, and I apologize that I am putting it on hold.
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Jared Cain
Posts: 221
Joined: September 18th, 2012, 7:39 pm
Location: FL/WV

Re: 2014 NORTHEAST DATA CONTEST

Post by Jared Cain »

Where do you find out if a species has never been vouched for a county? Not a new county record for the database but never vouched in any other sources for a county. Like the Four Toed I found in Ritchie county wv and the spotted salamander for Wetzel County wv. The range maps I look at do not have their range going into those counties so I am guessing I have a good chance they have never been vouched in those counties.
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spinifer
Posts: 2388
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:48 am
Location: Delmarva

Re: 2014 NORTHEAST DATA CONTEST

Post by spinifer »

Jared Cain wrote:Where do you find out if a species has never been vouched for a county? Not a new county record for the database but never vouched in any other sources for a county. Like the Four Toed I found in Ritchie county wv and the spotted salamander for Wetzel County wv. The range maps I look at do not have their range going into those counties so I am guessing I have a good chance they have never been vouched in those counties.

You have to do the dirty work yourself. First you start with field guides that provide county level distribution, then you have to jump into the primary literature, like Herpetologica, and go through each issue and browse the species distribution section. You could also email an authority on the species distribution to see if they know of any published records. Its not an easy task, especially for states whose distribution maps are poorly organized or out of date, or if there is more than one primary journal in which distributions are published.
hellihooks
Posts: 8025
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 8:12 am
Location: Hesperia, California.
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Re: 2014 NORTHEAST DATA CONTEST

Post by hellihooks »

First of all... great work by you guys, giving us (Ca) a run for the money last year. Outside of our 'local' contests we pretty much do every year, we've added a new twist, this year... a 'BEOTM' (best entry of the month) towards increasing the overall 'quality' of our entries, along with the 'quantity' contests. The good thing about the BEOTM is... ANYBODY can win it, if they really try. And it gets us in the habit of collecting/submitting more/ better data... :thumb:
http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=19018

I'm hoping this entry will get nominated for March BEOTH... 1st truly 'wild' WPT documented in my County in 39 years...
http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=19104
Happy herping this year... :) jim
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