[photoaki]

Just noticed [mention]Parallax [/mention] closed it a few min ago.

I regret it, not because the particular thread was shock-full of amazing images and how-to gems, but for the underlying message that action makes.

Here’s my take on this — the free raffle contest is a brilliant idea, seems to have worked well in getting members to contribute more. Myself, I’ve posted more in the previous week than in the past 12 years. Uploaded images, gave and asked for feedback. That’s the idea, right?

6 meaningful per day seems very arbitrary and excessive for a lot of folks, so one has to look for other ways to meet quota. What’s wrong with that?

A side benefit of increased posting in general , I suggest, is to make the forum enjoyable for members to frequent daily. Able to have fun and interact with others freely. The gratuitous post thread served that purpose.

And that is the problem with closure of the thread, takes away the fun and attempts to herd members to post a certain way. Like welcoming folks and “nice shot’ing” random pictures.

This is not a personal criticism, useful feedback and suggestion, I hope.

[Not a Number]

Moved to the site suggestions area as per forum rules:

To discourage threads from going off-topic, general moderator actions, site policies, and forum rules are not to be discussed in threads outside of the site suggestions forum.

[Mooncatt]

It seemed ok to me at first, and there was some meaningful discussion. On the other hand, using that thread to simply cheat the system and gain entries without making the posts meaningful (as per the contest rules) is justification for closing it.

[aslyfox]

Any cut off of number of posts will be arbitrary

With the options of the various " game/challenge " threads

The chance to review your experiences/equipment

The chance to post your photos

The chance to participate in " theme " threads

And other options

I think there are opportunities to post six or more times in a day

Just my thoughts

[carlb]

Just noticed [mention]Parallax [/mention] closed it a few min ago.

I regret it, not because the particular thread was shock-full of amazing images and how-to gems, but for the underlying message that action makes.

Here’s my take on this — the free raffle contest is a brilliant idea, seems to have worked well in getting members to contribute more. Myself, I’ve posted more in the previous week than in the past 12 years. Uploaded images, gave and asked for feedback. That’s the idea, right?

6 meaningful per day seems very arbitrary and excessive for a lot of folks, so one has to look for other ways to meet quota. What’s wrong with that?

A side benefit of increased posting in general , I suggest, is to make the forum enjoyable for members to frequent daily. Able to have fun and interact with others freely. The gratuitous post thread served that purpose.

And that is the problem with closure of the thread, takes away the fun and attempts to herd members to post a certain way. Like welcoming folks and “nice shot’ing” random pictures.

This is not a personal criticism, useful feedback and suggestion, I hope.

Agreed, I don't quite understand the reasoning behind the 6 posts a day requirement.

[Sandy Hancock]

6 meaningful per day seems very arbitrary and excessive for a lot of folks, so one has to look for other ways to meet quota. What’s wrong with that?

Quoted from high up in the list of Forum Rules:

Please do not post meaningless threads, or nonsensical (or one-word) replies.

That's what's wrong with that

Six posts a day is not super hard. They don't have to be Shakespearean sonnets or Churchillian orations. Just meaningful. The thread in question was being abused, pure and simple.

[boriscleto]

Did the thread devolve into posts about cheese?

[Sandy Hancock]

Did the thread devolve into posts about cheese?

That would have been a better outcome. Cheese is delicious

[slartibartfast01]

Quoted from high up in the list of Forum Rules:



That's what's wrong with that



Six posts a day is not super hard. They don't have to Shakespearean sonnets or Churchillian orations. Just meaningful. The thread in question was being abused, pure and simple.

I have seen recent posts welcoming someone to the forum who joined 6 months ago. The thread had been dormant for months.

[Adam]

I think the actual solution to this problem is to better support organic posting while still maintaining some sort of activity threshold for the raffle.

It's understandable that posting every single day may be tough for some users. One idea I'm exploring for the next one is to widen the posting window for each raffle entry, so you'd need to make 6 posts per day on average over a longer period, rather than 6 posts on each day.

For example, each phase of the raffle could last one week and grant up to 7 raffle entires. For every 6 posts made during that week, one entry would be unlocked, up to a maximum of 7. Those would then need to be claimed before the next week starts.

This will be a bit harder to visualize (we would ideally need to add a personalized weekly progress bar for each user) but may end up working out better.

As for the number of posts required: we are basically giving away a very expensive lens for free. Some level of activity should be expected to justify that expense and to keep the giveaways rolling.

[SimplyCreativePhotography]

The six posts per day have been a challenge as I've often enjoyed reading the posts but never really thought I had much to contribute. My goal has been to at least provide meaningful posts, especially when commenting on photos, rather than simply saying "nice shot" six times. I think you might be onto something with an average. Maybe include in that a requirement to post a picture. It is a photography site afterall.

[photoaki]

I can see that ultimate objective is to increase forum participation over the long term, not just during the raffle period.
And, as I noted, the raffle is working, folks are posting far more than before.
Just forcing folks to post a certain way felt wrong to me.

You are on the right track [mention]Adam [/mention] !

[Unregistered User 8]

I might be missing something, but why is welcoming a newbie, or saying " Nice shot " considered to be a wasted or inferior post.
I try to welcome every newbie (contest or not), except the the ones that tell us they are only posting because they have to, in order for them to posts reviews.
It must be daunting for some newbies to dip their toe into posting here. A simple " Welcome aboard " gives them a sense of acceptance, and confidence to post again. How is that an inferior post?

If you truly enjoy a photo, Nice Shot is a perfectly valid reply, and I'm pretty sure the OP would appreciate the remark.
Comments don't have to be insightful about the juxtaposition of the foreground bokeh with the intrinsic intensity of the..........................
If anybody is only saying nice shot 6 times a day just to gain entry to the competition giveaway, bad karma IMO.

[Unregistered User 8]

I can see that ultimate objective is to increase forum participation over the long term, not just during the raffle period.
And, as I noted, the raffle is working, folks are posting far more than before.
Just forcing folks to post a certain way felt wrong to me.

Having a thread designed to bypass the intent of the competition (meaningful engagement), defeats the the purpose of the competition.

Edit.

One of the definitions of gratuitous is " done without a good, or valid reason." All the nonsense posts were thumbing their noses at the members who are trying to post in a genuine way. The thread was started for the wrong reason IMO and deserved to be closed, and that is speaking from a member's perspective, and not as a moderator.

[carlb]

How about something like an automatic entry for every member who has been a member for longer than x and has made more than x number of posts in the last month or so? Maybe the forum software can't be configured for that sort of thing, I don't know. Generally I'm a bit like SimplyCreativePhotography and sometimes find it challenging to come up with 6 worthwhile posts a day.