darcyrandall2004 wrote:
Are questions considered a contribution or is
only the act of answering other peoples questions?
Greetings darcyrandall2004:
There
is no trademarked formula being applied, but I take
comments, questions, and answers into account when
picking a winner for the contest. Comments and answers
get more weight than questions when it comes to
a single thread, depending on the content. For instance,
if someone posts a question and then the thread
continues with the original questioner continuing
to respond to answers with more questions, that
does not weigh as heavily as the contributor that
keeps giving answers.
That's not to say questions
do not count - they do, but I look at the overall
effort that is put into participation, since it
is the purpose for awarding prizes. I typically
give away four prizes each month - two on the forums
and two from a random selection amongst people who
order my spreadsheets and Visio stencils. Depending
on what the winners choose for a prize, it costs
between around $60-$90 per month (about $700-$1,000
per year). That's a significant chunk of change
for an operation like RF Cafe, so I cannot just
hand stuff out to everyone who posts.
I do
value everyone's participation. Since its inception
about seven years ago, the raison d'etre for RF
Cafe has been to service the RF community and foster
interaction between engineers, technicians, and
hobbyists. So far, it is working pretty well. Thanks
to everyone for helping to make RF Cafe a success.