General > Contests & Events

Suggestion on future contest rule change

(1/14) > >>

AG6QR:
I noticed that, after the most recent contest was announced, there has been a minor flood of relatively meaningless posts.  The cynic in me believes that someone created a user id and tried to make posts in order to reach the magic "five posts" count to immediately enter the contest.  It's just too much of a coincidence when I look at one user's posting history of five quick thoughtless posts followed by a contest entry.

I am confident that, as the wise judging panel carefully reviews the posts to see if they meet the stated criteria of being useful, such an attempt to subvert the spirit of the contest rules would not pass muster.  But even though I think the strategy won't work to help win the contest, it's still annoying for the clutter it produces on the boards.

Here's a gentle suggestion:  In order to reduce future clutter, perhaps the next contest should make a minor clarification to the rules, changing it to something like, "You must have made five useful posts prior to the announcement date of the contest".

I know my suggestion isn't perfect.  It would not necessarily be bad if a contest motivates someone to post five genuinely useful contributions after the contest starts.  What is bad is when someone reads the rules and somehow believes the "five posts" criteria can be met by quickly throwing out five thoughtless context-free one-line posts that don't contribute much except clutter.  Maybe Dave, in his no-nonsense style, can make the point clear via some alternate rephrasing of the rules.

Of course, Dave gets to make the rules, and I appreciate his generosity however he wants to run any contests.

kizzap:
The problem with your idea is that the contests are driven to bring more people to the forum, plain and simple. What you suggest is not a traffic generator but more a reward for people who are already supporting Dave.

-kizzap

xrunner:
The problem with requiring 5 "quality" posts is clear: Only a human being can make that determination. If he gets hundreds of new members trying to make "quality" posts, every single new member trying to get into the contest will have to have their posts examined by a human being for "quality".

I don't know about anyone else here, but trying to look at hundreds of new member's posts for "quality" ain't exactly my idea of a good time.  :--

walshms:
+1.  Can't possibly do that, there aren't enough hours in a day.

At some point, Dave will need help.  When he does, he'll ask for it.

alm:
Dave will just pick a winner at random, and only then check the number of posts. That's how he did it the last time. If the first 'winner' fails the test, then he can just pick another one. It sucks that the forum is being flooded with posts of questionable value in the mean time, though.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page