Utilizing the Discussion Board

Challenge organizers and participants alike are encouraged to use the discussion board to post updates, ask questions, seek team members, and more. Each challenge will have its own discussion board, accessible in the Discussion tab.

This article is aimed at challenge organizers, and will focus on:

• Monitoring the board

• Using the board to announce news and updates

Sample post templates are also provided at the end of the article.

Monitor the Threads

• To stay on-top of new posts and threads, follow the challenge’s discussion board:

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This will make it so whenever a new thread is posted, you will automatically receive an email update.

• Aim to respond within 24 hours if a participant posts during the work week (typically Monday - Friday)

   

• Aim to respond by the following business day if a participant posts during a holiday or weekend
  
  

• Near the end of the Challenge, there may be a sudden influx of posts and questions; consider setting up Office Hours leading up to the deadline and/or having someone on-call to monitor the board
  
  

• When responding to a post, we recommend tagging the original poster (OP) so that they receive an email notification of the response. This is done by entering @ followed by the Synapse username, e.g. Hello @awesome-user, ...

Post Announcements/Updates

Often times, challenge organizers may need to send a challenge-wide announcement to the challenge community, such as reminders about upcoming deadlines or announcing a timeline extension. Using the discussion board can achieve this:

1. Create a New Thread.

2. Tag the participants team so that each user on the participants team will receive an email preview of the post.

3. (Optional) Pin the post so that it will be listed first on the board:

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4. When editing a post: we recommend adding an “Edit” footnote for full transparency:

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Sample Post Templates

Text highlighted in orange should be filled in/updated.

Challenge Launch

Dear @AwesomeChallengePreregistrants,

We are excited to announce that the <challenge Name> is now live! Please visit the challenge page at <pretty link to challenge site> to register, read about the challenge data, and more.

For general questions and clarifications, please use the discussion board <provide link to the board> so that others can also participate and chime in.

Looking forward!

@AwesomeChallengeOrganizers

Webinar

Dear @AwesomeChallengeParticipants,

We will be hosting a webinar today/tomorrow/next week, <date>, at <time including timezone>. The Zoom details are provided below:

<Zoom details>

Join us to learn more about the motivation and goals of the Challenge, as well as other general logistics such as submission format. A recording will be available for those who cannot attend within 1-2 days here <provide link to Synapse folder where the recording will be uploaded>.

Best,

@AwesomeChallengeOrganizers

Queues Are Open

Dear @AwesomeChallengeParticipants,

Starting today, you may begin submitting your file/Docker submissions for evaluation! This challenge will have n queues:

<list Evaluation queues>

As a reminder, you and your team may submit up to <submission limit> to each queue during this <round/phase>. Invalid submissions will not count towards your quota. Queues will close on <date and time>.

Best,

@AwesomeChallengeOrganizers

Submission Reminders

Dear @AwesomeChallengeParticipants,

Thank you all for participating!

Today is the last day for submitting your file/Docker submissions for evaluation. If you would like your predictions/model evaluated, please submit them by <date and time>. Late submissions will NOT be accepted.

Best,

@AwesomeChallengeOrganizers

Timeline Extensions

Dear @AwesomeChallengeParticipants,

The submission deadline for <queues> have been extended to <date and time>. As a reminder, you and your team may submit up to <submission limit> to each queue. Feel free to reply to this thread for any questions and/or clarifications that you may have.

We look forward to your submissions!

Best,

@AwesomeChallengeOrganizers

Write-ups

Dear @AwesomeChallengeParticipants,

Thank you all for your efforts and active participation in the <Challenge Name>! You've all done amazing work.

The last step is to document your submission by completing a writeup. Your writeup must also include the prediction file(s)/Docker image(s) you've submitted to the challenge. Only one writeup is needed per team.

This is a friendly reminder that in order to be considered for any incentives for the challenge, including byline authorship and/or top-performer, your writeup must be submitted to the <Writeup Queue Name> queue by <deadline date and time>. No exceptions! For more information on how to submit your writeup, follow the tutorial here <provide link to Submission Tutorial - Writeup>. For any other questions, feel free to reply to this thread or create a new post.

Best,

@AwesomeChallengeOrganizers