Flipshake

We’re excited to present our next Featured Flip Maker – fizzgig!

fizzgig has created some awesome Flips and his characters are amazing. Make sure to check them out and do some collecting. Also be sure to congratulate him while you’re there. And ask him to make more Flips!

A big “Thanks” from all of us at Flipshake to fizzgig for being such a great part of Flipshake. Congrats!

Well, Contest #2 has ended and we are sorry to say that there were no winners. Ok, just kidding. The three Flips below were the best of the bunch and we’re glad to have these artists be a part of Flipshake. We are happy to see a diverse group of entries in our first two contests; we have had illustrations, photo manipulation, and photography to name a few of the styles used in our contests.

First place goes to Water Lantern by Ethe

Second place goes to Dusty Day by Whm

Third place goes to Autumn Came Soon by Robin

Please join us in wishing these great artists a big congrats! Ethe will be taking home a shiny new iPod nano, a set of Prismacolor Color Pencils, and best of all, a Flipshake T-shirt! Whm and Robin get some cool prizes too and all of our winners receive a Flipshake Contest Winner Badge. Be sure to let them know how cool they are by checking out their profile pages.

If you want to be just as cool and win the next contest, click here to check out our 3rd Contest – “Less is More.” Submissions close November 23rd so get on it! Let’s make this the best Flipshake contest yet.

Our first ever contest here at Flipshake went very well and we had a hard time narrowing our winners down to only three. We want to thank all of you that submitted Flips. You all do some amazing work!

Now for our winners, these three really blew us away with their originality, quality and most importantly how they incorporated both sides of the Flip.

First place goes to Star Wars I by Shockbolt

Second place goes to Snail’s Pace by iambibs

Third place goes to Speed Toss by alexds1

So there you have it! Congrats to the winners! Be sure to give them a pat on the back by commenting on their profile pages. For those that entered and didn’t win, we’ll be having lots of contests for you to participate in and try again. We actually have two contests running right now:

Contest 2: When the Dust Settles

Contest 3: Less is More

Btw, if you want to enter When the Dust Settles, be sure to HURRY and do it this weekend! Submissions close tonight at midnight! Good luck and congrats again to our winners.

Seeing how much awesome Avatar fan art we’ve seen on the site, I’ve decided I’d better get up to speed on the show you all seem so crazy about. Though it seems a show I’d love to watch, I admit I’ve never watched an episode. Well now I’ve got season one sitting in my iTunes and I hope to catch up with all of you in your love for Avatar!

If you guys have any insider advice or tips on how best to enjoy the show, I’d love to hear it. Also let me know what it is you guys liked so much about the show. I’ll let you guys know what I think after I watch the first few episodes. :)

It’s time for our next Weekly Contest! This weeks theme is “Less is More.” Once again, you can win some great prizes such as Apple Ipod Nanos and Prismacolor Premier Pencil Sets. All you have to do is create an awesome Flip in the spirit of the contest’s theme. Submit as many Flips as you like!

Entries will be judged on the creative integration of both sides of a Flip, the Flip’s collection percentage, the creative interpretation of the theme, technical skill, and originality. There will be giveaways for first, second, and third place so you’ll have plenty of chances to win throughout all of our contests.

The submission deadline for “Weekly Contest#3: Less is More” is November 23rd, so go and get Flip making! Artists, photographers, illustrators, designers, 3D modelers –  let’s see what great Flips you can come up with and how you can show how Less is More.

We’re very happy to present our first Featured Flip Maker – alexds1!

alexds1 has been a great part of our new Flipshake community and has made some awesome Flips! Be sure to check out her gallery and her profile page. Leave her a nice “congrats” while you’re there :) Here are just a few of her great Flips:

So a big “Congrats” from all of us at Flipshake to our first ever Featured Flip Maker. Thanks!

We’ve recently received a lot of feedback regarding the points system, so we have made a slight modification. Our point system will always be something we tweak and adjust as we roll out new functionality and as our community grows.

Our mindset about points, is that points are supposed to be a measure of a persons participation on the site. The issue seems to be that one particular action (first to collect a flip) is earning too many points and therefore, points are not an accurate measure of participation across the whole site, but instead of just that one aspect. Basically, we are seeing a quantity approach to collecting, instead of a quality approach to collecting. As one of our users so eloquently put it, “point-grubbing munchkins” are missing the point of the site which is to create great Flips that others can collect and enjoy.

In light of this issue, we have decided to make the following change:

When you are first to collect a Flip, you will no longer receive 50pts. No points will be awarded here. This is something that may come back into play once the site has more people and it becomes more of a challenge to be first, but as of now it seems to be skewing the point system too heavily.

On another note, we are also changing the level system. Instead of going up one level every 100 points, you will only go up a level every one thousand points. So, 1000 points = level 1, 2000 points = level 2, and so on. All users across the site will see their level change uniformly. Take a look at our previous post about other ways to earn points.

We can only determine if this method is successful with your help. So please, let us know your thoughts and also if you have any ideas on how to better run the point system, let us know. We’re all ears!

Thanks so much for making Flipshake as successful as it’s been. We hope to continue meeting your expectations.

Many of you have asked us to explain more clearly how to get points on Flipshake, what those points are used for, and what your level indicates. While we’re still working on fine-tuning the point and level system during beta, I thought I’d share with you were we are with it right now.

Basically, points serve to increase your level. For every 1000* points you earn, you go up 1 level. As your level increases, new things open up for you on the site. One of the things you get by leveling-up is a larger Flip Stack, thereby allowing you to collect more Flips. We have lots more benefits that get added as you level-up, but we’re not quite ready to reveal those yet. Another important thing to remember is that you cannot “spend” points. Points are not used to purchase anything or gain new abilities or benefits. Points will only go up and you automatically get new benefits as they do.

So how do you get points? Well again, this list is not final, nor fully revealed, and may change during beta but here are some of the ways you can currently get points:

- 5 points : Each time someone collects a Flip you created.

- 250 points : The first time each of the Flips you’ve created sells-out.

- 50 points : Filling out your entire profile (you can still leave whichever items you want hidden from public view)

- 0 points* : Be the first person to collect a Flip

- 200 points : Have someone accept your invitation to Flipshake (if you use the “Invite Your Firends” link under the “People” tab)

- 500, 250, or 100 points : For placing first, second, or third in a contest, respectively.

So there you go, a quick guide to Points and Levels. We have lots of other ways for you to get points in the works too!

As always, questions, ideas, and comments are always welcome.

*Updated October 30, 2008.

As you may remember from our invite email, we are hosting weekly Flip Creation contests on Flipshake. These contests provide you with a chance to win some great prizes such as Apple Ipod Nanos and Prismacolor Premier Pencil Sets. All you have to do is create an awesome Flip in the spirit of the contest’s theme. Better yet, create 10 awesome Flips and increase your chances of winning!

Entries will be judged on the creative integration of both sides of a Flip, the Flip’s collection percentage, the creative interpretation of the theme, technical skill, and originality. There will be giveaways for first, second, and third place so you’ll have plenty of chances to win throughout all of our contests.

The submission deadline for “Weekly Contest#1: Speed”, is coming up on November 2 so you still have time to submit entries into the first Flipshake contest ever. But in case you miss it, don’t worry. We’ve already begun our second Weekly Contest! So what are you waiting for? Artists, photographers, illustrators, designers, 3D modelers –  go create a Flip that’ll win you some prizes. Get Flippin’!