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 Unknown Ancestor on July 16, 2009 at 1:14pm

The size of the rewards, no matter how fair the contest criteria may be, may insult both sides of the spectrum of genealogists: Laborer of Love ....... Professional

So is it so important?

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Permalink Reply by Nat Ins for Genealogical Studies on July 16, 2009 at 1:31pm

Thank you for your feedback. Very good point.

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Permalink Reply by Nat Ins for Genealogical Studies on July 16, 2009 at 1:30pm

Thank you Fredrik for your feedback. We didn't think of that when we posted our contest and you might be right.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas MacEntee on July 16, 2009 at 1:19pm

I appreciate the push for quality over content. I think Genealogy Wise erred in its original contest parameters and nice to see that they are now updated. Too many people push for numbers - we see it in our places of employment, I see it as a blogger with people wanting to know how many hits I get per day - we even see it in genealogy. How many of us have ever been asked "So how far do you go back?" As Martin Hollick said in his post Width vs. Length "true genealogists know that it's width not length that counts."

I am a hobby genealogist looking to transition out of the information technology field over to being a professional genealogist. In doing so I want to make a living, not make a killing. Too many people are concerned with making a killing today.

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Permalink Reply by Nat Ins for Genealogical Studies on July 16, 2009 at 1:32pm

Do you think the contest in the current form should be pulled and that we should not have any monetary contests?

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Permalink Reply by Thomas MacEntee on July 16, 2009 at 2:04pm

Money is not a bad thing (speaking as someone who is currently underemployed) but a subscription to a genealogy research site or to a book website would be better plus you could set up a relationship with that vendor to have GenealogyWise marketed. This is what I've done over at GeneaBloggers.com with my GenealogyBank contest.

I disagree that all contests are bad and reflect badly on a site. In my survey contest, I know I would not have received nearly as many responses to a survey about genealogy blogs if I didn't have an incentive - and an incentive which is attractive to other genealogists. So far in less than two days I've received 169 completed surveys.

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Permalink Reply by Unknown Ancestor on July 17, 2009 at 12:59am

Sounds like you are serious about your transition to the passion if not the profession of genealogy. What obstacles do you face? How can we help?

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Permalink Reply by Jim Erickson on July 16, 2009 at 2:08pm

Well seeing a contest to see who could get the most whatever in a category just made me think this whole Genealogy Wise is a joke. A quit using Facebook's "Were Related" because they could never get it to function correctly with Gedcom files and it would always ask me to add relatives already entered. The Whole Family Link / Were Connected never lived up to expectations. I use "One Family Tree" on Facebook instead of the "Were Connected" Garbage offered. So seeing this contest just makes me think that this is more garbage aimed at getting most friends and tweets instead of making real Genealogical connections and resources.
Not a good start in my opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Seaver on July 16, 2009 at 2:28pm

My opinion is that the revised contest, based on quality of posts, blogs, etc. is very subjective.

Who will judge? How transparent will the judges qualifications and experience be? What will be the judging criteria? The system could still be gamed by someone who posts what seems like "quality" posts - who will check the truthfulness or claims of the content?

I think that this contest, as presently envisioned, is not worth the trouble to participate in or to judge. There will be lots of complaints about the content, the judges, and the judgments. My two sense...

Randy

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Permalink Reply by Nat Ins for Genealogical Studies on July 16, 2009 at 2:35pm

Thanks Randy. We would select the judges from the community. You're right, it would be very subjective. That's why we would want other judges (not our staff) to make the decisions. However, if the community does not feel this is worthwhile, I understand, and we can pull the contest.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas MacEntee on July 16, 2009 at 2:49pm

I agree with Randy - I hadn't even gotten to that part of the revised contest yet I've been so busy with other stuff here.

My two sense/cents: scrap the current contest all together - it would make it easier on everyone and you wouldn't need to judge entries etc.

Random contests are always better - the chances are based on the number of entries and it seems fair. Say that you'll award one ______ to a random GW member who posts a video, posts a blog post, etc. Then also specify that the post must be genealogy related and "add value" to the community.

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Permalink Reply by Selena Cliassi on July 16, 2009 at 2:30pm

I wonder why we need a contest at all. Most genealogists I have known are very giving and help in any way they can. I would think that they would contribute without a contest.