well, I thought perhaps there could be a contest for users of LQ, something like employee of the month. Jeremy could announce the contest, and the nominations would flow in (no self nomination of course!) and then, after a certain time period (a month?) A poll would be set up with the top 10 or whatever, and then voting would commence!

There would be no prizes other than a news announcement "userx is voted most helpful user!" which would eventually get bumped down the front page and disapear. There would be no need for a tag similar to contributing user.

The timing- it should be fairly often, not forced to a strict timetable (every month), but randomly, catching people by surprise.

why? it might be fun, give those real helpers some recognition and encourage people to really be helpful (not that we need to encourage this at LQ- )

oh yeah- it might turn into a popularity contest, especially if jeremy and the mods were contenders, so perhaps it might be an idea to exclude them from such contests.

what do you think? good idea or to be shot down in flames?

titanium_geek

"I thought perhaps there could be a contest for users of LQ, something like employee of the month. "

When I first joined LinuxQuestions there were a lot of people competing in an Affero contest which is something like what you are suggesting.

http://www.affero.com/

I haven't seen any appeals for Affero recommendations for a while. What happened to the Affero contest?

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Steve Stites

hmmm... I haven't seen that (affero) ... I thought it would be fun to have something LQ centric.

titanium_geek

The "affero" button had a name change: click the "thanks" button at the bottom of whichever post you wish to say thanks for.

no no, I knew that affero had a name change, but I didn't know that there was a contest of sorts here at LQ to get more thanks...

titanium_geek

yeah i like that idea , it may help in motivating people to help out more

I think it's a neat idea, good to give props to the members who help out a lot of us newbs.

(although I will *always* vote for Hangdog42 because he helped me get my wireless working when I had pretty much abandoned all hope lol )

To clarify about the Affero contest, originally when it was first setup, each week the members with the top affero ratings and or contributions recieved a prize. It ranged anywhere from a Official Box set of Mandrake to books and such.

The contest ran for several months but like all contests, they all end at one time or another and can't run forever. It was a great way to introduce this feature here at LQ.org to make our members aware of it, use it, etc.

my idea would be '15kb of fame' (instead of seconds etc), no physical prizes neccesary.

also in regards to "all contests can't run forever" this is true, but if it were at completely random times during the year etc.

thanks for the feedback

titanium_geek