Most popular discussion contest

[GuildJenn]

I'm curious what other people think about this new contest/venture.

I had a pretty strong reaction when I saw the $50 contest for "most popular thread." It just feels really off to me if the purpose of the forums is genuine discussion of parenting within a NFL framework.

First, the posts that get the most response are not always the posts on the most valuable or true topics. Argumentative topics tend to be more active and I would hate to see people starting arguments to win $50.

Second, the idea that the person who starts the thread can only respond once a day is kind of...difficult. If the idea is discussion, I might respond to people in a thread several times if I am adding info or thanking them or whatever. With this new contest, I might find myself weighing the "genuine me" -- who would respond -0 vs. "greedy me" who might limit her responses in the hopes of winning the $50.

Also this really starts to feel like pay-per-post as a model and I just don't feel that's a part of the spirit of community, particularly in a NFL one.

I understand the struggle for revenue, and that pageviews is linked to revenue and that this contest is designed to increase pageviews and stickiness and all that good stuff. But I guess for me, it starts to take away from the site's feel as a legitimate, community-based forum quite a bit. I have already found the redesign problematic (especially the slower loading time) and this kind of thing is likely to actually deter me from spending more time here.

I don't really want to put MY time and effort into reading and responding to threads only to find someone was just trying to win $50.

I just wonder if there is another way to achieve the same goals.

Thanks. :)

[Honey693]

I don't like either.  Between that and the thumbs up it just feels like MDC is slowly moving toward a "who can be the most popular" kind of thing.  If I wanted to feel rejected and unpopular I'd go back high school.