So, with no rules anyone can enter, there is no deadline no budget constraint, 2 stroke, four stroke, electric, steam, anything. Here's the problem. When the rustoration build off happened on a lark there were basically three of us and the build off followed our progress from beginning to end. And by the end there were some 45 pages in there if I remember right. Something like that. It is of epic length and there were just three of us. There's a lot of good information in that thread, but who wants to wade through it all? What if there had been 25 of us and with no particular theme... (in our case, rusty old cruisers)? it is like when you do a google search or you're looking for something on ebay. Too general and the hits are too many. It needs to be more defined or it is unmanageable. If it is super loose, with no deadline how is it essentially different from the ongoing submissions of people's builds? In a sense this whole forum is a build off. I'm not saying don't do one as it can be a lot of fun, but I am suggesting giving more thought to make it less open ended. Maybe go back to your original idea of a price ceiling, but then you have to figure what to do about something that a person doesn't have to buy... the value of an engine or bike given to them, or parts they had already. I don't know, just some things to think about. If you want a contest, just do it. See who's in and who isn't. I don't think you particularly want 250 people in a build off. Think about it. Like inviting 250 people to dinner. Might not be fun after all when five for dinner would have been great. The more is not necessarily the merrier.
SB