  Contests & Activities
This week: Gift Point alternatives to prizes Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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I love entering contests on Writing Dot Com. Contest hosts are great with varied ideas to stimulate creativity.
I love the prizes offered, too. It's just that - sometimes - I'm scraping Gift Points together to pay for my membership, and if I work hard on a contest entry and happen to win, I'd like the win to help support my membership! |
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Hallo!
I’ll get straight to it – I’m here to talk about contest prizes – specifically, Gift Point alternatives to other prizes offered by contest hosts. I’ve mentioned this before as a tiny point in an earlier newsletter, but I now think it needs a whole newsletter of its own.
There are several attractive prizes offered on site – merit badges, awardicons, personalised signatures, raffle tickets, review packages and the like. Sometimes, the prizes are obtained by the host through her/his own efforts or the efforts of someone else, and at other times, the host pays for these prizes in Gift Points.
What I’d like to say is – if you are going to spend Gift Points for the prize anyway, please consider allowing the winner to make a choice and receive Gift Points themselves as prizes.
The reason is that several members (including yours truly) use GPs to pay for their memberships. Often, they’re in need of GPs to maintain a certain level of membership. If they’ve spent the time to write / review / play well enough to win big in your contest, they deserve to have their efforts help them keep the level of membership.
I’m saying this from personal experience. When I was fairly new on Writing Dot Com, I put a lot of effort into a contest, and topped in it. I got an MB, an awardicon, a costumicon and a sig. The host must’ve spent a lot of GPs to give me those. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate it ... but a few days later, my upgrade gave out, and someone had to tide me over with a basic membership till I could earn the points to renew my upgrade. Had I received GPs instead of the other gifts, I might not have had to be dependent on someone for a basic membership! I had worked hard on site for the contest, but had to be dependent on a friend anyway!
I sometimes see ‘previous winners’ of prestigious contests, some of them recent, and the item has gone invalid because the person could not keep up a level of membership. This breaks my heart. The item must’ve won an awardicon – but what’s the point, when it has gone invalid anyway, and nobody can read it or appreciate that ribbon! The winner must’ve put in a lot of effort to beat the competition, and must’ve had some agonising moments deciding to delete the item to make way for newer items.
Please don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against the other types of prizes offered. I do love getting them, too. But what I’m saying is – if the person is struggling to keep up a level of membership and deserves a prize, shouldn’t the prize serve to alleviate the struggle? I’m not advocating any freebies here, just giving the same reward you would have given the person anyway, only, in another form which is more useful to them.
I’ve written this to contest hosts in reviews, and mostly received a favourable response. Once, I’ve been misunderstood and been called ‘greedy’ – I know that the host there pays for membership in ‘real’ currency, and maybe didn’t understand my need for GPs to renew my membership, or maybe thought I was asking for GPs in addition to the merit badge and awardicon offered.
I’m not trying to offend anyone here. I absolutely LOVE this site, I spend hours here, often entering contests! The reason I’m bringing up this is – I’d like to make it easier (less embarrassing!) for people to say ‘I need GPs’ when they enter contests. If you, as the host, could offer GPs as alternatives to prizes, and put in the contest forum something like:
FIRST PRIZE – An awardicon, or GPs as desired by the winner
and ask entrants to post in the forum if they’d like GPs as a prize, people who need GPs could have a way of asking for them. Otherwise, they may not realise that they have this option, and may be too uncomfortable to bring up the topic and ask outright.
Again – I’m not asking for handouts. I’m just saying – if you’re going to spend GPs anyway, and if the person is deserving of a prize, please consider offering GPs alternatives as the prize. Then, items that win your contests will be preserved longer in the portfolios of those who triumph!
Thanks for listening!
Sonali
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Contests!
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Items!
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Recent winners of "Project Write World" [13+]
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Thanks to those who responded to "Contests & Activities Newsletter (November 11, 2009)" !
SHERRI GIBSON 
I agree about how amazing it is when writers come up with varying ideas when using a prompt. Loved the newsletter, and thank you for highlighting my contest as one of your picks.
NaNoNette 
Thank you for a feel good newsletter.  I know I feel good now.
My question:
Do prizes matter to you when you consider entering a contest? What's your favourite prize?
Thanks! |
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Contests & Activities: March 06, 2013 Issue [#5543]
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