[Yizahi]

Corporate "hackatons" are often a mess. We have anything from a truly novel ideas clearly invented right at the hackaton (as was originally intended) which are rough and very unpolished and buggy or even broken, to teams brazenly bringing up developments which clearly were ongoing for months, not even hiding that and showing weeks or months of test and dev results in the eventual presentation. The latter teams won of course every time. I kinda get the business benefits, but the spirit of the contest goes out of the window.

Oh, and don't get me started on the fact that a lot of developers get two relaxed fun days while with catering, networking and basically paid for self-improvement workdays, while QA, supports and other teams are expected to work as usual AND cheer for those participating and watch presentations (thankfully that last is optional).

[win311fwg]

> but the spirit of the contest goes out of the window.

"-thons" aren't contests, at least not in the traditional sense, they are activities where participants test the limits of their endurance. A marathon, for example, allows runners to see how far they can push themselves running. Likewise, a hackathon gives a place for one to see how far they can push themselves to create something over a short amount of time, beyond what would normally be possible, and beyond what would be sustainable in an everyday setting. I suppose you could argue that it is contest with yourself, but calling that a contest is atypical.

You are right to call out that few people want to push themselves to their limits for a corporate event, so corporate entities have turned to contests instead to try and find something that does appeal, but a contest, no matter how it is conducted, is outside of the spirit of a hackathon.

[mckn1ght]

I’m not following here. Marathons are very much actual races. They even give out 1st/2nd/3rd place awards and everything.

[win311fwg]

It is viable for a race to take place at the same time as a marathon. From a logistics point of view, there is benefit in trying to draw in both those interested in marathons and those interested in racing. But there is a difference in motivation. Choose at random one of the 70,000 registrants of the NYC Marathon and ask them if they plan to win: the answer will almost certainly be no. They are there to see how far they can push themselves only. Whereas in an event that is strictly conducted as a race, generally every participant will tell you that they are seeking the win.

It is also viable for a sales pitch competition to take place at the same time as a hackathon. When we look past the early hackathon days, we can observe a trend towards events hosting both. Similar to marathon/races, appealing to a wider audience helps with logistics. Maybe that is where things get confusing?

Perhaps this is easier for you to reason about with a telethon? Rarely do we find a competitive element show up as being an objective of the event in that setting. Only the endurance component, where telephone operators push themselves to answer phones for periods of time beyond what would be considered normal.