The Genealogy & Family History Social Network

What do you think of the revised contest rules?

Yesterday we launched a contest on GenealogyWise.com with $800 in prizes. Members expressed concern that portions of our contest could be "gamed" with members adding useless content. So, we revised the rules to try to solve this problem. See the revised rules here: http://www.genealogywise.com/notes/New_Rules_for_the_$800_Genealogy...

We'd love your feedback on this. Does this resolve your concerns? How could we modify this to make it better? Please let us know if you are in favor or against this contest in this form. We are very willing to pull the contest completely if that is the consensus of our members. What do you think?

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Permalink Reply by Sean K on July 16, 2009 at 2:48pm

I agree with Randy's comment above, it now begs the question who will judge the competition ...and how? Are the admins of GW planning to inspect every Group, check out every forum discussion and view every set of photos?!

To be honest the competition hasn't improved my opinion of GenealogyWise, the initial competition seemed ill thought out and the consequent compete change of direction seems bizarre.

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Permalink Reply by IIGSExecDirector on July 16, 2009 at 2:50pm

Based on the feedback to this point, it looks like the general consensus is that we should pull the contest. I'm going to give this a little longer for people to give their feedback, but that is what this is looking like so far.

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Permalink Reply by Roger Moffat on July 16, 2009 at 2:56pm

Yep pull the contest - the first one made absolutely no sense at all, the second one little better - the judgement would be subjective, and the judges would need to somehow view the entire scope of content on this site, presumably frozen at the point in time when the judging is to be done.

plink plink

Roger

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Permalink Reply by Thomas MacEntee on July 16, 2009 at 3:34pm

I think you can pull the contest and communicate clearly the reasons why and still come out a winner - in fact we all win.

GenealogyWise is only a week old and there are going to be some stumbles, some missteps, and some attempts at things that just make it fall flat on its face. But you get up again and plod on.

I think you've already gained major respect by being responsive over the past few hours - this is what people want in a social media platform and in fact with almost every company with which they interact.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Cahill Tarr on July 16, 2009 at 2:57pm

I'm a little late coming into this whole contest thing, but after reading the rules, I say pull it. It doesn't seem worthwhile by any means. Let people use the community how they see fit. If they really want to be here to share and learn, they don't need a carrot dangling in front of them to participate.

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Permalink Reply by Terri O'Connell on July 16, 2009 at 3:47pm

Pull the contest and if in the future you feel the need to give something away, I agree with Thomas that it needs to be a random give away!

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Permalink Reply by IIGSExecDirector on July 16, 2009 at 4:11pm

Thank you everyone for your great feedback. I see that there is almost unanimous consensus that we should withdraw the contest. So, I'm going to officially do that now.

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Permalink Reply by tami osmer glatz on July 16, 2009 at 5:34pm

I was very happy to see that you have withdrawn the contest. There is enough slap-shod genealogy work being promulgated on the internet, that there's no need to encourage Quantity over Quality, that's for sure. I look forward to GW being a forum for intelligent exchange of ideas and information, and a place for encouragement. If I want contests, I'll open that letter from Publisher's Clearinghouse and order some magazines.

I think even in lieu of drawings, perhaps you could figure out how to arrange occasionally offering members perks like a one-day pass to GenealogyBank or other subscription websites. That would be very enticing.

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Permalink Reply by Joet Hartman on October 20, 2009 at 10:49pm

That's an idea. Take that money and advertise or contact organizations and offer specials.

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Permalink Reply by Cindy Johnston Sorley on July 16, 2009 at 6:37pm

I agree that the contest should have been pulled. I for one, would have loved one hundred dollars but not to put my reputation as a genealogist at risk. I would find myself just blogging to blog or starting groups to start groups that I would not participate in down the road, etc.

There are other ways to use the $800. Watch the boards, see who gives good contributions to the site, see who is a helper to those who seek help and email them and say... you went over and beyond.. what is your paypal address.. we want to reward you... it can be done anonymously. Just a thought

I love the site and am happy to one of the early members. I was very concerned about the contests with numbers, fairness, etc.

Cindy.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Mayfield on July 16, 2009 at 11:59pm

I guess there are two sides to the coin. I know some are concerned about quality. But i also think it is kinda cool that instead of having to spend money on a site there are sites that are actually rewarding people for participating and helping to build the sites. Ancestry wants people to transcribe records for them for free then turn around and make a lot of money without even giving these volunteers a free month or anything. I thought it was really cool this contest was going to reward people that help to contribute and make this site better. And with actual money to boot, lol. I guess im the only one that saw this contest as a way of giving back to its members but i guess the members dont want any part of it.
i dunno.

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Permalink Reply by Candace E. Salima on July 17, 2009 at 7:48am

Bummer. I thought it was a fun promotional way to draw more people to the site. I saw nothing wrong with it all and it even energized me to invite more people, who have joined us here. It helped us to catch genealogy bug again. So no, I don't think there was anything wrong with at all. What a shame that people took a fun promotion and chose to look at it such a manner.

Candace