Suggestions for contest threads for Lensman and team
 

I figure since Lensman asked for suggestions on ways to regulate the contest threads more, we should have one central place for him to review our recommendations.

Me first...

I think contest threads should be

1) for paying advertisers only.

2) for limited periods of time only. Paying advertisers get X number of pinned threads for 2 hours at a time. So make it so that they only get 1 contest thread that lasts for 1 or 2 weeks at a time per month (since they pay for 1 month of advertising, they get a certain amount of time per month of advertising). No more of this "from April 1st to July 1st" stuff.

3) only allow 1 or 2 contests to be running at any given time. This way we don't end up with 10 contest threads on the front page at any given time.

4) pin them (perhaps with a "Contest:" label instead of a "pinned:" label) so that we know exactly where to find them and won't be seeing them 5 - 10 threads down on occassion.

That's all I can think of for now.

I agree with you on the regulating..seems like the surfers and their buddies just come for the quick cash.Having them going for a month sucks.I see it as a form of spam.

I also suggest a maximum amount of times a person can post in them.Like 50 or something.It gives everybody a chance and not just the same people winning in them over and over.

Well, some of the contests are for "top poster" so limiting them all would be rough, but I think if they only have a week or so to go nuts, it would at least keep them at a certain level of posting... still too high, but better than how they go now.

require each post in contest threads to be relevant with X char and not repeated bs. 10 posts in a certain thread that dont meet this result is a strike or a temp ban. most who post here are out for blood so it would require no attention from admins, people will just start a thread bitching about it and quote the posts crying.

Or not have these top poster types..it would weed out the surfers..Most of them want the top posters to keep them practically pinned.I hope Lens takes some of the suggestions and implements them..It sucks when there are 5 contests going at the same time,It pollutes the board.

the suggestions you listed are quite interesting

im not sure about how it runs now, but another option would be requiring the company sponsoring the contest to pay a fee and/or have a set time limit on each contest where once its completed the thread is closed to posting. they get their 2 weeks of bumps, they can let the damn thing fall off page one.

3) only allow 1 or 2 contests to be running at any given time. This way we don't end up with 10 contest threads on the front page at any given time.


That's not bad putting a restriction on how many going on at the same time :thumbsup

yeah, make a list, pay the fee, and you get your week. next week #2 goes up

a good start would be to give a stern "encouragement" to the contest sponsor to police the thread for surfers and post guauging.

If you run the contest, you would have the responsibilty to disqualify people in the thread.

Combine that with a fee to run the contest. If he drops in and finds people breaking the rules, he should pull the contest and not return the fee.


Other than that, you could make the contest only for only your affiliates and make them verify that they are promoting your site on a page with matching whois info.

Well, I figure that way everyone still gets their turn and it doesn't flood the board with contests all at once.
Also, they get the exposure they deserve and aren't competing with other threads for attention at the time.

I think there all good ideas .... the first one is a bit rough .. Mobbucks buys Ad space on GFY and we did that because i wanted to run a contest and didn't want to take advantage of the board ... I figured that if I'm making money from the exposer i should pay for it ... but i don't run banners every month ... I'm not running ads in May on GFY but will in June ... i think if i want to run a contest or give away i should be able to .... I do support the board with ad dollars when it's in the budget ... i don't want to be limited. It definitely needs to be cleaned up a bit .... :2 cents:

I don't see anything wrong with giving leniencies to consistant advertisers but it can be a drag for someone paying $2k+ (what ever it is) for a banner at the top and see people skip over it just to see some other program's contest thread consistantly in the list of threads when they're not even paying for it.

It's almost like the company that's not paying is getting a 2 month sticky thread while the paying company gets a banner in heavy rotation and a handful of 2 hour stickies.

It would actually cost a company more to have a contest run a month under normal circumstances. (without surfers)

Pussycash gives away 3 -5 k every contest they have done that last a month.


With the surfers, they could give away 500 bucks and it would last 3 months.

yes, but that's not the same as paying the board for advertising rights. I mean, it's even better if the money goes directly to the general populous than to the board owners but still, for the good of the board... they should be getting their advertising income for providing the service.

But I do know what ya mean... if they're going to fork over more cash than a general advertiser, than certainly they should be entitled. Although they'd still have to wait their turn and abide by the same rules (that is, if my suggestions were actual rules).

It is frustrating when you pay for ad space and can't keep a biz post on the first page for more then 5 mins because everyone is posting the hell out of a non-paying companies contest ... I posted a traffic give away post the other day ... i was giving 5k to the 20th and 30th post and 20k to the best response. I had to put the post count part in just to try to keep it on the first page. I wanted to give the full 40k to the most informational post .... All I wanted for the traffic was an opinion on what type of site we should build next ... a basic what is selling good right now ...I'm spending the money why not find out what people want .... that thread lasted maybe 30 mins on the front page and never even hit the 20th post .... it was bumped down by bullshit threads and these mega contests ... I just wanted to give out free traffic for advice ... no one was able to take advantage of that offer ... i think it sucks .... maybe the board is getting to big... i ran the same thing on another board and got 55 responses and 2 very nice essays .... i gave them all traffic ....

Well I guess it doesn't matter what people think..it is Len's board and his rules.some good sugestions though

I agree with you 100%.

All contest threads that require posting just for the sake of posting should be elimintated. So threads like "highest poster gets X" or "every 500th post gets X" should be gone. No one reads those anyway.

Posting contests are ridiculous. You have all these outsourced posters, post bots, and/or surfers posting 3 or 4 THOUSAND times in one contest? Insane. They are unfair and a waste of bandwidth. You can't even limit it to one entry post per user because cheaters just create fake nicks. THEN some of the contest starters don't even pay when you do win!! I won $50 in some thread awhile ago, they said to email for it and they never replied. I don't care but that thread was HUGE!

GFY will be a lot better without all the new posters in contest threads and sigwh0res :disgust

These contests should stop. Especially the postwhore ones. Contests like deebucks are ok. They give away gallery spots and stuff. Keeps away the postwhores, losers, nobodies and surfers.

Also daily pic threads made by sales reps just to gly their sig every single day are getting a bit boring. Arent they?

ideas like this are good but fuckin hard to implement into the forum software

Great input, I'm going to start a thread with new rules in it! Thanks Stuart and the rest.

Thanks alot.

I love the contests, but I agree that something needs to be done.

you love to talk shit (lie)