Ok, ok - I know it’s been way too long since the last update. Our progress here at the Throwdown seems to have stagnated, and so there has been no real update to pass along. Yet again, I don’t think anybody realized the amount of work that was involved and as we all know the paying customers come first. My judges are very busy people and that’s probably why we value their opinion so much.

That being said, I know (probably more than anyone) that there is a dire need to bring this contest to some sort of closure. We may either open the voting up to the public, or pursue another alternative that is still in the works, and which I won’t comment on yet.

Competitors: feel free to continue to vent to me your frustrations, concerns, questions, & comments. I know you’re anxious and you’ve been very patient thus far. I’m happy to listen to anything you have to say — and if you have any ideas for me, then I’m open to those as well.

Hello All,

Hey, what do you know… it’s an update! We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - the projects are still being judged but we’re getting there! I wanted to give everyone a heads-up that the Conference Prizes (to php|tek and the International PHP Conference - Spring Edition, as listed on the Prizes Page) have changed due to the timing of our Throwdown results. We will now be offering a pass to php|works (usually held in the fall) and a pass to the International PHP Conference’s Fall Edition. Sorry for the inconvenience of this and I hope it doesn’t screw up anybody’s plans too badly.

Cheers,

Elizabeth

Hello all,

Yes, I understand you are anxious to see who the winners are, as am I. But I’d like to ask that you bear with us for a little longer. We’ve all been swamped at our “real jobs” and thus it’s taking us longer to sift through the large amount of submissions than I’d hoped and expected. Rest assured, we are making progress and I hope to have this thing wrapped up by the end of March. (Hey, cut me some slack, the Rails guys took like 4 months to announce the winners of their RailsDay and it’s only been 6 weeks for us. )

To give you a quick stats update, roughly 1/3 of the 117 competitors who signed up actually made it through and produced something functional. We’re still waiting on the READMEs of a few teams, and it was interesting to note that not many people were using Frameworks. Only a few were using well-known frameworks at that - seems we as developers still like our flexibility and our freedom to code how we want. The most popular category was “Anything Goes” which also supports that theory.

We’re getting there - but if anyone has any extra time they’d like to donate to the cause (and who didn’t compete) then please let me know at elizabeth [at] naramore [dot] net.

Many of you have asked about the results of the contest and when they’ll be announced. While I can’t set a specific date as yet, I can say that we’re diligently working on getting all the apps installed and sorted out.  They will be in the judges hands in the next few days and we’ll go from there. We’re all anxious to see the winning app!
I sincerely appreciate everyone’s patience as we get through this last stage of the competition. I understand the time-sensitive nature of the prizes and we promise to not keep you waiting any longer than necessary. Thanks for bearing with us!