ANIMAL KINGDOM MASK ENTRIES FOR MASK DECORATION CONTEST

[birdshell]

Please post any entries in the ANIMAL KINGDOM category for the mask decorating contest here:

For your review, here are the rules that were previously posted:

RULES OF DECORATION:

1. Only photos pasted on the forum of 3-dimensional working mask entries will be considered.

2. Photos will be posted of an actual person wearing the mask AND added detail photos of features will help your entry to be appreciated.

3. Avoid digital enhancement of any kind to the mask. Some of us do not have the capability or knowledge for digital enhancement.

4. Decorated masks MUST be in perfect working condition, still providing correct xPAP treatment.

5. Have mask, will decorate: OR, enter as many times as you wish

6. Entries may be made until: March 24, 2007.

7. Winners will be judged through a poll posted here on the forum for one week, March 24-31, 2007.

Best wishes to all participants.

Sincerely,
Karen
aka birdshell

[tomjax]

These meaningless off topic contests certainly do nothing to enhance the effectiveness of this forum and only serve to push serious questions off the main page.

I wish the comedians would take such to another forum. We are evloving to a chat lounge.

Sorry, Guess I woke up on the wrong sided of the rock this A.M.
Maybe a contest for the dumbest inane postings would would be better.

[KeziasPurr]

I think that a mask decorating contest is a great idea. We need to involve ourselves in some humor every now and then. LIfe is serious enough as it is w/o us trying to make it more serious. Let's laugh a little. I'm all for it.

Lisa

[t-bone]

These meaningless off topic contests certainly do nothing to enhance the effectiveness of this forum and only serve to push serious questions off the main page.

I wish the comedians would take such to another forum. We are evloving to a chat lounge.

Sorry, Guess I woke up on the wrong sided of the rock this A.M.
Maybe a contest for the dumbest inane postings would would be better.

And who declared you the sole arbitor of good taste, here?

As noted by Lisa, some humor is good for us. I personally lack the creativity to do well in this contest, but I'm all for it happening. The fun may help someone who has serious problems facing CPAP therapy get where he or she needs to be.

Anyone else want to vote on "most arrogant post" of the week?

[mikemoran]

TomJax,

You have to realize that some of the humor and off topic items are what draws some people to continue reading this board. You can only digest so many posts of mask adjustments, software numbers and DME stories before they start to seem repetitive. A contest like this gets people involved in the board. While looking at the entries they might just look at some of the other posts and give some much appreciated help.

I have taken your previous suggestion to make it very clear on which are my humor posts. This allows people to skip them or view them at their choice. if you don't want to read them then don't. From my experience such posts make up less than one percent of the total posts but do add a real benefit to the board.

Off my soapbox now so I can continue ignoring software posts.

[roster]

1. Please keep some humor and frivolity in these pages. Life is too short to spend it without humor.

2. Please also forgive us for the occasional "cranky" posts. Let's face it, we can be driven to the edge by nights of poor breathing/sleeping.

[tomjax]

Mikemoran, I had you and Liam in mind when I made the original post and planned on waiting until later for a followup.

I think maybe I should have made a distinction between your and Liams HUMOR, which is truly humorous and highly creative. I enjoy such.
There is a big difference in humor and silliness.
I see no humor at all in the proposed photos and by tomorrow, most will be pushed from the front page and likely into obscurity.
The categories: Kinky, Funny, Sexiest, animal Kingdom, Celebrity, Life Like etc.

Best I can figure, there has been about 730 views of these and little interest has been demonstrated, only to my posting.

I am for humor, Bring it on.
This is NOT HUMOR.
This is distractive silliness, IMHO, and likely will impact votes for me when mr/ms congeniality are tablualted.
OH Well, But I am stilll having a better day than Barbaro. RIP.

[Snoredog]

These meaningless off topic contests certainly do nothing to enhance the effectiveness of this forum and only serve to push serious questions off the main page.

I wish the comedians would take such to another forum. We are evloving to a chat lounge.

Sorry, Guess I woke up on the wrong sided of the rock this A.M.
Maybe a contest for the dumbest inane postings would would be better.

I agree, one would have been okay, but to post a dozen with a different category is ridiculous. People that are seeking serious help have to wade through all this crap then search to find their answer all because of these OT posts.

And for the humor posts, it seems they always end up being a personal plug for some book being sold.

[Guest]

I agree with MikeMoran (gee, what a surprise, as the other "Court Jester" of CPAPTALK ).

As much as my silly comments occasionally annoy people (and sometimes I forget the extent to which one silly comment can hijack a good thread), I've gotten numerous comments from people thanking me for bringing a laugh into an otherwise bad day.

In fairness, I also saw the distinction between "humor" and "silliness", but sometimes I have a hard time telliing which camp I fall into. Some of my humor is just silly. Sometimes, however, I'm funniest when I'm just BEING silly (like with the signature tags that have become sort of my trademark on cpaptalk).

I guess from my standpoint, as long as the "noise" doesn't drown out the "signal" (either in terms of sheer volume of posts or because one of us gets a little bit sloppy and hijacks one too many legitimate threads accidentally), a little levity helps everyones day get just a bit brighter.

Of course, I have to say this, to justify my entire continued existence here.

Liam, this tag line is [tm], all rights reserved.

[Liam1965]

Not that anyone would likely have doubted it, but the previous post was in fact me, accidentally logged out yet again.

Liam, wondering if he should take these log-outs as an invitation to leave.

[bookwrm63]

I'd rather see one silly comment "hijack" a good thread, than a nasty comment derail one altogether!

Mary

[Liam1965]

And for the humor posts, it seems they always end up being a personal plug for some book being sold.

I'm sorry if it comes across that way. Although I have the link to my book in my signature, that's really not my intent. I am very proud of the fact that I have put together a book, and since it was largely through the encouragement of a number of folks on cpaptalk.com, I feel the urge to share my good fortune with them.

But to be clear, with the exception of the one thread I started announcing the wide availability of the book, I really am not trying to sell books, just make sure that those who have said they wanted to know when the book comes out have the opportunity. I absolutely have NO wish to strong arm anyone into buying the book, and would rather sell no copies at all than have someone think I'm just trying to profit off of my friends (among which I count many at cpaptalk).

That's two serious posts in a row for me. That's gotta be some kind of record.

Liam, who really should upgrade his records to CDs.

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): Liam

[Liam1965]

Hmmmm. I have to post an addition and perhaps an apology.

I only saw this thread, (I don't read the board every day any more, just stop in occasionally when I've got a free moment) and only really skimmed the text once I saw the complaint about humor.

I reread it all, to make sure I was being fair to all participants, and then went and looked and saw that there were multiple different threads posted at roughly the same time, and I can definitely see where that might have annoyed someone.

Perhaps it would have been more acceptable to people if there'd been ONE thread with all of the different categories announced within, or if the "contests" had been run serially, with a new one announced after the conclusion of the previous one.

Still, I'm quite sure the original poster was trying to engender some fun and frivolity to help us all get through what can be a very tedious and trying life. There does not appear to be any attempt to sell anyone anything, the original poster, if guilty of anything, is merely guilty of overzealousness.

But still, I reacted as I think Mike Moran may have as well (although I shouldn't speak for him) too quickly to an implied criticism of myself, when in fact tomjax has as much right to criticize me (if that had even been his intent) as I have to be silly.

So I apologize to Tomjax for my knee jerk reaction.

Liam, who has apparently forgotten how to be funny.

[Snoredog]

[quote="Liam1965"]Hmmmm. I have to post an addition and perhaps an apology.

I only saw this thread, (I don't read the board every day any more, just stop in occasionally when I've got a free moment) and only really skimmed the text once I saw the complaint about humor.

I reread it all, to make sure I was being fair to all participants, and then went and looked and saw that there were multiple different threads posted at roughly the same time, and I can definitely see where that might have annoyed someone.

Perhaps it would have been more acceptable to people if there'd been ONE thread with all of the different categories announced within, or if the "contests" had been run serially, with a new one announced after the conclusion of the previous one.

Still, I'm quite sure the original poster was trying to engender some fun and frivolity to help us all get through what can be a very tedious and trying life. There does not appear to be any attempt to sell anyone anything, the original poster, if guilty of anything, is merely guilty of overzealousness.

But still, I reacted as I think Mike Moran may have as well (although I shouldn't speak for him) too quickly to an implied criticism of myself, when in fact tomjax has as much right to criticize me (if that had even been his intent) as I have to be silly.

So I apologize to Tomjax for my knee jerk reaction.

Liam, who has apparently forgotten how to be funny.

[Linda3032]

Maybe a compromise can be reached. Perhaps just one thread could be posted for the contest, listing the various categories that will be judged, and the rest deleted.

That way, everyone should be happy.