Final thoughts on the Carnival of Smiles

[castlecraver]

Final Thoughts on the B&B Carnival

Gents,

Now that we've had our fun and are packing up the bigtop, I wanted to offer some final thoughts on the carnival on behalf of all the Mods.

Some of the old-timers might remember the 2008 Carnival, which saw lucky B&Bers win over 30 prizes. We all considered it such an overwhelming success that deciding to do another Carnival in 2009 was a no-brainer. But no one could have anticipated how much more fun-filled this Carnival would become -- our generous vendors have contributed over triple the volume of prizes from a year ago (and by my estimation, waaay more than triple the dollar value). The enthusiasm by vendors from around the world was overwhelming. And we all ought to offer them our profuse thanks and continued patronage: Thank you to our dozens upon dozens of vendors who were critical in making the 2009 Carnival of Smiles an incredible success!!

Aiden Gill for Men
Baxter of California
California North
Castle Forbes
ClassicShaving.com
Colonial Drug
Colonel Littleton
Crown Valley Winery
CuffArt
Derby/Shaving Factory
Dirty Bird Pottery
Em's Place
Gentlemen's Best
Geo. F Trumper
Georgetown Pottery
Ginger's Garden Soaps
Goodfella
Jas-e-Tea
Kinetic Blue
Lee's Razors
MensBiz
MenScience
men-u
Muehle-Pinsel
Nancy Boy
Ogallala
Progress Vulfix
QED
Rasage Poulin
Saddleback Leather Company
Saint Charles Shave
Sara Bonnyman Pottery
Shavemac
Shaving Essentials
Smallflower
The Perfumed Court
Truefitt & Hill
West Coast Shaving​

Although this carnival turned out to be profoundly different in ways we didn't anticipate, we knew from the beginning we wanted to make it "special." We know the power of B&B lies in the kindness of our members, therefore we decided to encourage the B&B membership to "pay forward" their Carnival smiles, and make a difference in the lives of children around the world while enjoying the fun and prizes here. Likewise, this effort to support a most worthy cause, Operation Smile, was an overwhelming success. Our members and vendors have donated thousands upon thousands of dollars which will result in dozens of cleft-lip surgeries providing new smiles for children all around the world. We're so very impressed with the spirit of charity our members have expressed, and think this is the biggest testament we can make to the generosity and fortitute of our membership. We have been in contact with Operation Smile and they have expressed their gratitude to all of those who donated and for the efforts made by Badger and Blade on their behalf. Thank you to all of our members who participated in any way, or donated any amount to Operation Smile!! And a special congratulations to all our lucky winners!

40_Caliber
Arghblech
benvh
Bobtrumpet
brianw - CF
Cheech x 2 -CF & Simpson Anniversary Brush (1 prize received)
cstrother
danielson06
Dave Ari
ddstb
decypher - CF
Dennis
DSB
DustinL
Erik
fidjit
FLTiger - CF
gollum83
Handyman
Hawkeye5
heirkb x 3 (3 prizes received) - CF
Icemanxxxv
infotech
jazzman x 2
jmallen5 -CF
JoeH
JoshMPX(2 prizes received)
KBennett
kicker245
kvanhorn
lamontqsanford
Legion
Malacoda
mdg39518
mdunn x 3 (all prizes received) -CF
michiganlover
Mikromicke
Miles x 2 (2 prize received) - CF
mliguori
mmack66 -CF
Mr_Amazing x 3
Mr. O x 2 (2 prize received) -CF
Mr. Scruffy
murchmb
NervousBreakdown
paulx608 -CF
pkey - CF
profsaffel
sabledog
Sailorman
SavantStrike
Saxmoore x 2
Sedo - CF[/stike]
SiBurning -CF
Sixxtwo
spivey
stobes21 x 2 (2 prizes received)
[stike]Strat1117-CF
Sullybob
SurfFisherman
tgarza x 3 (2 prizes received)-CF
The Nid Hog - CF
TheHatter x 2
theperfectstorm
thubbard76 - CF
thubbard76 & ZethLent
thunderball
Tom Pike - CF
trendkill x 2 (2 prize received) - CF
TSWebster
unclebeef
vmichael
withoutink x 3 (3 prizes received)
WittyAg
Zethlent
​

Needless to say, we're all very proud of what we've managed to accomplish with the 2009 Carnival of Smiles. Events like these strengthen our community, spread goodwill, attract new members, and keep our little forum among the most welcoming and engaging anywhere online. And we hope you had fun -- the behind-the-scenes work that when into planning the contests was herculean at times. And we're still working hard on getting the almost 100 prizes dispatched and delivered. But as is common amongst all members who've spent a good while on B&B, this place means a lot to us and we wouldn't give it any less than our best. We sincerely hope that in the coming months, as we ready more exciting B&B exclusives and anticipate more growth in the new year, all of our members will remember the smiles they had during the Carnival and pass them on through continued generosity and welcoming nature towards each other, especially our new members. We've got a huge and powerful group here, and folks have had the pleasure recently of seeing us at our best. Let's keep the spirit of the Carnival going strong!

With great pride and wishes for Happy Holidays,

The B&B Mods.

 

[johnniegold]

Well done Pat.

 

[Gruder]

That's an amazing list of both vendors and winners! Man, it's great to be a part of this growing corner of the internet! Thanks to all who participated.

 

[The Nid Hog]

Thanks to all the mods for the outstanding effort that they put into this. A big thumbs up to all of the vendors who made it possible too. I had a great time.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

Thanks to all the mods for the outstanding effort that they put into this. A big thumbs up to all of the vendors who made it possible too. I had a great time.

Me too!

 

[jsrdrnr]

It was awesome. Thanks so much to the mods who put in so much time and effort!!! Also thanks to the vendors for their wonderful contributions!!! It was a lot of fun.

 

[thunderball]

A wonderful time it was -thanks to all who worked so hard to make it happen!

 

[brianw]

Me three

 

[Sullybob]

That is a very impressive list of vendors who donated goods for the Carnival.
I'd like to say thanks to the Mods and vendors for all of the behind the scenes work and donations.

 

[ouch]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9h2viOQxeM&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

 

[bill mcdill]

Good job guys. Many thanks to these very generous vendors, they have earned a new bunch of grateful (potential) clients!

 

[Jim]

Last plug for the kids!



And Please don't forget the kids!
~~~~~Operation Smile~~~~~

Well done Gents!​

 

[johnniegold]

The winners list above has been updated with the names of the winners crossed out if they have received their prizes or their status updated if they received some of their prizes.

Even though the Carnival has ended, we are still working diligently to make sure all the prizes are delivered to the winners.

If you have received your prize and have not notified either myself or the Mod who ran that particular contest, please do so. This way we can keep our records current.

Thank you.

 

[stobes21]

Thanks so much to all the Mods who put this together, the vendors who were so incredibly generous, and the members here who made it fun!

 

[huntmol]

Definitely, hats off to all the winners, and thanks again to the Mods who worked so hard to make this a possibility!

 

[SRock]

This was both a pleasure and an honor to be a part of. The awareness brought to such a noble cause and the opportunity to have fun and award prizes to the best membership of any forum on the web!

 

[Tzar]

I agree with everybody that this was amazing. I never thought an internet community could be so dynamic !

Having said that though, I would like to just point out one possible area of improvement for next time, and that is the number of contests that were restricted to "CONUS mailing address" participants. I do understand some products are restricted by law regarding shipping such as products containing alcohol. I don't dispute those, the law is the law.

However, there were others for which I could not understand the rationale for restricting it to CONUS. The Moss Scuttle is one I found especially ironic since as a Canadian, I could not do the contest for what is incidentally a Canadian product made in Canada !

I have no idea of how many B&B members are out of the U.S. It's not the majority, but it still seems to me a significant portion of the B&B membership do not reside in the U.S. If some merchants wanted to restrict their prizes to U.S. residents, perhaps it should be pointed to them the vast number of international B&B members too. I do understand shipping costs out of the U.S. are a bit more expensive, but it should not be a showstopper for most products. First class international isn't that expensive.

I understand that the mods made efforts to lessen the impact of those CONUS-only contests by holding "not CONUS" contests, and I appreciated that, but the best solution would still be to make it a rule rather than an exception to have contests opened to anybody.

I want the mods to know that this comment is not a critic of all the hard work and hours they did to establish this wonderful Carnival. It's just something it might be worth looking at in more detail next time

 

[johnniegold]

This is certainly an area we would like to improve on when the Carnival rolls into B&B again. Thanks for voicing your concerns. This is something the Mods have already begun to discuss

 

[Tzar]

This is certainly an area we would like to improve on when the Carnival rolls into B&B again. Thanks for voicing your concerns. This is something the Mods have already begun to discuss

Thanks ! I knew that was certainly something that bothered the mods as anybody else

 

[Mr. O]

Other than a mail carrier strike in Scotland I thought the Carnival went pretty good! Unlike typical carnivals with shady, grotesque and often disturbing carnies, the carnies in this carnival were a pleasure to deal with. The best part was helping out Operation Smile. Just a shame that with a membership of nearly 20,000 only 100 or so (some double donors) donated to Operation Smile. If I may add my $0.02: maybe after a contest has ended, if the mods could re-edit the title of the thread to indicate it's status as finished, it would help out. It got somewhat unnerving trying to sift through the various contest stickies to identify which ones were completed, and which could still be won. All of the prices were great. Top notch even. Maybe the vendors could chip in some extra packs of blades to be used as contest prices in and of themselves. I don't think anyone would be upset at winning free razor blades. This price could probably be stretched more allowing more members to be winners. Either way this was a great gig and I am proud to have been a part of this carnival!