Step right up, win a $1,295 prize

Here at thoughtbot, we love a good contest.

It’s been too long since the last one, so here we go again. Now since we all kind of know each other, I’m sure we’ll all feel comfortable within the confines of the honor system.

Follow @thoughtbot

That’s it. All followers of the @thoughtbot Twitter account will be eligible to win a prize next week. We’ll pick a random winner for the following prizes.

• On Monday, winner gets a Widgetfinger account.
• On Tuesday, winner gets a Tadpole Hoptoad account.
  (4 projects, 4 users, Lighthouse integration)
• On Wednesday, winner gets a Toad Hoptoad account.
  (16 projects, 16 users, SSL, Lighthouse integration)
• On Thursday, winner gets a Bullfrog Hoptoad account.
  (32 projects, 32 users, SSL, Lighthouse integration)

Open source markets

Since Vegas has yet to release odds, we’ve created the Open Source prediction market to answer burning questions we have, such as:

Who will win a Ruby Heroes Award at RailsConf 2009?

I’ve got my money on James Golick, but Jason thinks he’s a long shot.

We’re also constantly faced with a decision about which open source project to use for certain tasks:

• Which RESTful controller? giraffesoft/resource_controller, ianwhite/resources_controller, or hcatlin/make_resourceful?
• Which REST client? jnunemaker/httparty or adamwiggins/rest-client?
• Which state machine? rubyist/aasm or pluginaweek/state_machine?

To make the markets measurable, we’re using github watchers as a proxy for “preferred open source project” and setting a date of RailsConf so people think relatively long-term.

When you’re atop the leaderboard at high noon EST on Friday, you win the big prize:

One FREE ticket to a thoughtbot training class,
a $1,295 value.

So trade early trade often at the Open Source prediction market, and tell your friends.