*WINNER ANNOUNCED* DmC courtesy of Ster Kinekor - new MyGaming competition format

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Originally Posted by Solitude

Wowee but people complain. There have been tons of competitions over the last while that anyone could enter just by voting on a poll.

This one requires more work and rewards those who post a lot. It's one competition. It's not stupid, it's a way to reward people who post, and a forum need those people.

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If it was just a once-off I would just give it a skip, but my concern is the following:

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The competition will work differently to how things have been done in the past, and will also serve as a test run for our new competition system.

The newly implemented MyGaming activity system allows us to run competitions that reward the most active member(s) on the forum during a period of time.

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That suggests that this is new way that most if not all competitions will work...

May the Best SPAMMER/POSTER win this competition.

Hopefully the next competition will go back to a random draw.

Personally I don't think its a format that could work there are plenty of member's who don't participate or contribute that often but that doesn't mean they not engaged in reading through threads etc.

I get the aim of focusing conversation and content generation and encouraging the users to be more active, but some people just don't have the time to watch the message board and add comments every day.

Interesting format thought.

Hi everyone, thanks for the feedback. Let me address the concerns.

This isn't the only way that competitions will be done in future. It will be a new type of competition that we do regularly.

The prize offered for this competition instance is relatively small (a game) because we are still piloting the system and want to figure out if there are any problems before launching something on a larger scale.

I find it bemusing that when people are chosen randomly, there are complaints that the winner doesn't participate much on the forum. When we try a competition that rewards those who participate, then people complain that it isn't fair.

Now our community has competitions that cater to both sides of the argument.

Within the framework of this give away, it's entirely fair. The person who is most active on the forum within a given time frame gets a prize. Being a contributing member on the forum adds value to the forum community.

As many have come to trust our method of community management and moderation, trust that there will be (as indicated in the rules) a strict policy on spamming to boost points generated. It will be pretty obvious when this is taking place, and users can assist the moderation team as always, by making use of the "report post" button.

MyGaming gives away a mixture of prizes that are sponsored by companies, and that we pay for ourselves. It's always indicated which is which. It's a mutually beneficial understanding with sponsors. The companies that provide prizes want to get exposure for their products, and they understand that we want to nurture a community. Through prizes we can both accomplish those goals.

We review products (at our own expense for paying journalists so that objectivity remains) and then give away the review product to the community instead of keeping it among the editorial team. This is because we are committed to giving back to the community where we can, and don't want the spoils all to ourselves.

I hope that answers some of the concerns raised. Please continue to provide feedback and I will respond ASAP.

So what you are saying is that I will never really win? and that all hope is lost? Kind of like the Mayan Civilization? or much like the people that vanished into thin air leaving nothing but" Croatoan” behind.

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Originally Posted by James

Hi everyone, thanks for the feedback. Let me address the concerns.

This isn't the only way that competitions will be done in future. It will be a new type of competition that we do regularly.

The prize offered for this competition instance is relatively small (a game) because we are still piloting the system and want to figure out if there are any problems before launching something on a larger scale.

I find it bemusing that when people are chosen randomly, there are complaints that the winner doesn't participate much on the forum. When we try a competition that rewards those who participate, then people complain that it isn't fair.

Now our community has competitions that cater to both sides of the argument.

Within the framework of this give away, it's entirely fair. The person who is most active on the forum within a given time frame gets a prize. Being a contributing member on the forum adds value to the forum community.

As many have come to trust our method of community management and moderation, trust that there will be (as indicated in the rules) a strict policy on spamming to boost points generated. It will be pretty obvious when this is taking place, and users can assist the moderation team as always, by making use of the "report post" button.

MyGaming gives away a mixture of prizes that are sponsored by companies, and that we pay for ourselves. It's always indicated which is which. It's a mutually beneficial understanding with sponsors. The companies that provide prizes want to get exposure for their products, and they understand that we want to nurture a community. Through prizes we can both accomplish those goals.

We review products (at our own expense for paying journalists so that objectivity remains) and then give away the review product to the community instead of keeping it among the editorial team. This is because we are committed to giving back to the community where we can, and don't want the spoils all to ourselves.

I hope that answers some of the concerns raised. Please continue to provide feedback and I will respond ASAP.

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I think the main concern is, that considering activity as a qualifier, is going to limit it to those folks who spend most of their time in the TK thread - and let's be honest here, that is by far the most active section of the site. And will really only benefit those who spend all their time in there.

Which, while I understand that you're trying to encourage activity on the site, doesn't really mean that activity is going to be what one might consider quality activity.

Of course, I don't know what factors you will be taking into account in total, but I think that's the perception that most of us have right now. Whichever way you go, there will probably always be complaints, because it's impossible to please everyone. I do agree that it's probably necessary to think up a better system than the one previously used, because people will pop on, vote in the poll, and disappear until the next comp rolls along (provided they had their 20 posts already), which was hardly ideal, and resulted in unknowns continually winning.

The original system was a bit of a pain to manage, but setting the bar at a certain level of activity per week (or whatever the comp duration is) was probably the fairest system. Having the activity system in place makes it easier - say, set a target of 10 points (20 points, whatever works) in place, and whoever reaches that target within the competition window, qualifies. If spam happens, then filter the offenders out of the comp.

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Originally Posted by shadowfox

I think the main concern is, that considering activity as a qualifier, is going to limit it to those folks who spend most of their time in the TK thread - and let's be honest here, that is by far the most active section of the site. And will really only benefit those who spend all their time in there.

Which, while I understand that you're trying to encourage activity on the site, doesn't really mean that activity is going to be what one might consider quality activity.

Of course, I don't know what factors you will be taking into account in total, but I think that's the perception that most of us have right now. Whichever way you go, there will probably always be complaints, because it's impossible to please everyone. I do agree that it's probably necessary to think up a better system than the one previously used, because people will pop on, vote in the poll, and disappear until the next comp rolls along (provided they had their 20 posts already), which was hardly ideal, and resulted in unknowns continually winning.

The original system was a bit of a pain to manage, but setting the bar at a certain level of activity per week (or whatever the comp duration is) was probably the fairest system. Having the activity system in place makes it easier - say, set a target of 10 points (20 points, whatever works) in place, and whoever reaches that target within the competition window, qualifies. If spam happens, then filter the offenders out of the comp.

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That's not a bad idea you have there. Activity is a great way of creating a nice big pool of users to do a random draw of winners from. That can be elaborated on as well.

I see; so you are suggesting that (for example) the top 20 most active people go into a random draw?

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Originally Posted by James

I see; so you are suggesting that (for example) the top 20 most active people go into a random draw?

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That's about right. Either to create a pool of potential winners, or to create an activity benchmark for users to surpass before being eligible. Just an idea.

Shadow is a genius. :love:

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Originally Posted by James

I see; so you are suggesting that (for example) the top 20 most active people go into a random draw?

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I think the point was a point cap of 20 rather than 20 people with the most points?