How about Paizo publish no campaign world specific conversion notes for the Savage Tide adventure path?
Instead, Paizo has a contest among Dungeon readers for FR, Eberron and GH conversion notes, say 3000 words for each setting. Announce the contest early in the AP, so that DMs can ready their campaign specific conversions for the contest. Publish conversion notes guidelines on the website.
The most entertaining, as judged by the editors, for each setting, gets published in the hardcover. The winner gets the standard writer's publication renumeration and credit.
I think that might be fun and generate additional buzz about the product.
It's not necessarily impossible... I nominate myself to choose myself the winner thus saving thousands of man hours. What say you, Mr. Jacobs?
An interesting idea... alas, also an impossible idea. We simply wouldn't have the manpower to look through the hundreds (if not thousands) of entries we'd recieve for any sort of contest. Heck, we can barely keep up with our submissions as it is!
Yeah, I guess I forgot about the amount of work that would be for you guys.
I like this idea a lot... with a bit of a twist -
What if there is a competition, but people post their conversion-adaptation notes here on the lists. Then, for the many, many entries, the people on the listserv vote for the one they like best. Then, perhaps the staff at Paizo could choose the "best" out of the community's top 3-5 highest voted, applying editorial criteria (and extra "points") for those that best meet editorial guidelines.
Keep the contest award minimal - certainly not an official "re-print" in either the magazine or even a website PDF. Perhaps the award could simply be a special miniature related to the campaign in some way. That way, the contest remains at a fun level, and without a bunch of extra work for the editors.
This would also have the benefit of increased sharing of campaign variants online, and the multitude of ideas from numerous people would just be fun. Plus, people who are put through the paces of making their own conversions would essentially be learning not only how to do it, but also the amount of work involved. =D
I'd have to agree that making this a contest would be a seriuous drain on the manpower at Paizo. I vote for having a section on the boards for Conversion notes for each Campaign Setting, that the people here can submit their ideas
There have been many contributions (including my own) to the Age of Worms through the "Expanded Eberron Conversions" threads. I really haven't seen any ideas being posted for Forgotten Realms. Notes on Shackled City are even fewer and more far between.
For those who want notes, Paizo is doing an even better job by acquiring professional notes. They don't have to be official, but if you pay someone you're much more like to produce better quality at a more consistent frequency.
Even with amateur submissions, you're going to get better quality if you provide a reward. I'm sure a contest, even just for recognition, would result in more notes.