City-Data Forum's Most Informative Poster Contest discussion ($5000 grand prize)

[manderly6]

I realize mods are not paid employees, but it is going to seem a bit sketchy if a mod wins.

[Rgap]

Can we nominate a poster?

[JustJulia]

Originally Posted by Rgap

Can we nominate a poster?

That person has to enter the contest to be considered, but you can send your nominee a note to encourage him or her to do so.

[Marka]

Originally Posted by manderly6

I realize mods are not paid employees, but it is going to seem a bit sketchy if a mod wins.

I don't see why. They won't be judged by what they edit or delete, just what they post and they can post just like regular members.

[manderly6]

Originally Posted by Marka

I don't see why. They won't be judged by what they edit or delete, just what they post and they can post just like regular members.

You really can't see it?

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by manderly6

I realize mods are not paid employees, but it is going to seem a bit sketchy if a mod wins.

How about former Mods? There are a lot of them....


Rich

[Caladium]

I look at it this way: I'm not winning because I'm not applying for it (there are so many others who are more deserving). Since I'm not in the running, why should I care who wins?

The contest encourages people to build up our resource library, which is already impressive but after the contest ends will be even more so. Because of that, we will all be winners.

Good enough for me--I'm a person who has really used the resources at city-data and am thrilled to see this being encouraged.

[manderly6]

Originally Posted by Poncho_NM

How about former Mods? There are a lot of them....


Rich

Its all about perception. Is the average CD member going to know they were mods?

I'm not saying anything underhanded is going to happen. But the reality is if a mod wins a big prize like this there will certainly be some members who question if it was fair.

[NW Crow]

Just my opinion, but I think most people will assume the prize will end up going to somebody with thousands of previous posts and it probably won't inspire a lot more posting, quality posting, on a broad current basis. To compete with somebody already with 5,000 posts you'd have to churn out a ton of new content quickly to have any chance. Folks with thousands of posts are already much set it in their routine. If you use post totals and total number of recommendations to screen the nominees (and I don't see any way you wouldn't) then the lead will almost certainly just be too big for 95-99% of participants to compete effectively with.

If the goal is to thank people for top quality postings and inspire more of them, I'd personally think that one hundred $50 prizes spread out over time would do more good than one $5000 prize. If everyone (folks with thousands of posts and the hundreds of thousands with less) knew that a top quality post had the possibility of getting nominated for a $50 prize and there was a winner very few days, there might be a bit of extra incentive to put a bit of extra effort into the post.

If you are hoping for / expecting media coverage of the event and increased site exposure from it, maybe that could argue in favor of one prize, one winner to showcase but I don't know how much visibility a $5,000 prize winner will garner. Even if it could, it will require a fair amount of active marketing for press coverage and active marketing for press coverage might pay off simply with a variety of examples of top quality posts as much as or more than with a specific contest winner with top quality posts.

[Marka]

Originally Posted by manderly6

You really can't see it?

No, I really can't. Other than helping to remove spam and personal attacks on the forums, moderators have no affiliation to me or the company and their posts are just as visible as yours. They are simply a group of users with some additional functions, we have no reason to treat them differently.

Originally Posted by manderly6

I'm not saying anything underhanded is going to happen. But the reality is if a mod wins a big prize like this there will certainly be some members who question if it was fair.

The reality is, whoever wins, someone will always question if it was fair. Moderator or not, how will you be able to tell if it isn't going to be a personal friend of mine?