Rereading this topic I realized that this is suppose to be an idea thread and I didn't do that.
I paint like half a mini per year, but the year I did the most was with a similar thread in W-E, where monthly we planned what we wanted to paint and then someone would keep a record on how much "the team" manage to complete. Basically like the 9th age thread with the addition of keeping a record and at the end of the year we had some stats.
I am really competitive and love stats, so this is how I would improve what I done before for someone like me.
How to improve:
- Accept other hobby related task, i.e. write fluff, battle reports, etc
- Compete vs another forum, as long as there are no tangible prizes I do not think there would be too much cheating.
- Opt-in possibility to keep personal stats, i.e., % completed, months enrolled
- Defined rules for posting goal and results (+/- 1 week from 1st)
- Non-tangible prizes like forum medals, i.e. 100% completion rate, 10+ month goal set. etc.
- Summary every month, a nice image with all minis made with opt-in name, website, blog for the painted.
- Nice name banner.
What to avoid
- Pressure, even if there are statistics or competitiveness, there should be zero to little pressure on the participants. At the end this is a hobby, and not a job.
- Tangible prizes, because the prize is to help keep people motivated to work on the hobby. Prizes may lead to cheating/lies/etc.
- Not comparing amount or quality of the work, doesn't matter how much you paint (1 or 20 models) or if its tabletop/pro painted, but that you put your own goal and achieved it or not.