Contest

[Adam Howard]

Do you ever run contest on your site?

If so, what are some contest you do.

For example, we have a thread called "last one to post wins (2012)". The thread last all year and the winner actually does get a prize. I think we gave away a flat screen TV last year. The year before it we gave away an Amazon Kindle. And I'm fairly sure we gave away a Mac Mini once too.

These type of contest are long term and not short term.

The short term things are not even contest, but rather group involvement. Such as Secret Santa for the community where members exchange gifts.

Another short term is raising money for charities. If X happens the site will donate Y on behalf of everyone.

We by no means depend on such things. They're mostly fun things to help members feel involved physically and not just digitally / virtually.

 

[Cal]

We tried to give away several toughbooks one year in a membership drive. You know what. No one believed us. We had a corporation backing us due to my co-admins business connections. Sure would have liked to give them out, but since we didn't meet the goals, the company didn't donate them. So I don't see contests working too well myself. People are too stuck in that "theres no such thing as a good thing mentality" which in a lot cases is true, but in a few like this one, not true and a missed opportunity.

 

[Eric Brooks]

I run one on occasion. The last one I did earlier in the year to try to get the forum activity up. We gave away a nitrous kit to the user with the most points for activity in a 45 day period. My site is still on vBulletin 4x and we used one of the addons to assign point values for different things. It wasn't as successful in getting posting up as I'd like it to have been, but it did make a difference.

 

[Edrondol]

I used to do them monthly but since then my $$ has dried up a little. I still do one every year for our anniversary. Which is coming up really quickly! I gotta start figuring out the prize!

 

[Brandon Sheley]

I use to run contest all the time on vbulletin because we had a custom script to calculate "points" but since moving to xenforo and the one script I was using, the dev just up and left, I have nothing reliable to determine a winner.
If I did have a script to manage that, I would be running contest none stop. We certainly have enough to give away as far as sponsors go so it's no money out of my pocket.