Milliongenerations:Prize

We originally planned to organize a prize to be awarded as a result of a competition. Currently this is under consideration. Ideas are welcome.

A prize might be awarded to the most (positively) referenced contributor (or contribution). Similar to articles in scientific journals that are perceived as more valuable with increased citation. Rather than through a jury, such a system would rely on the users themselves.

That prize could be monetary, from donations, or participation or member fees (or advertisements?). However, prizes could also be e.g,

• public recognition or other publication of one's contribution
• figuring prominently on lists "most cited", "most read", "most commented upon"
• a higher probability to be shown to other users thinking about similar subjects or
• greater rights on the site e.g., blocking spam, moderating groups, selecting favorites
• increased weight when citing others and/or voting on subjects (e.g., weight of ones own citation increases with the logarithm of the citations scores received from others). To only reflect the final rather than evolving situation, such weights could be calculated retrospectively to determine a winner, but with large number of contributions/citations that may result in a prohibitive amount of calculation
• contributors might receive "points" from citations that might accumulate on a status account (adding weight to one's contribution), and/or are added onto a (negative interest) account from which they can be given away to citations that are weighted by the number of points attributed to other's work

Each concept would carry specific merits and disadvantages. References to experience with similar sites, e.g. with blogs or forums, are highly welcome.

Other mechanisms in which the users themselves determine the outcome of the competitionin a pre-established (and transparent) system may also be viable. The mechanism on how to compete and how to win remain to be determined.

N.B. There currently is no promise of any such a prize for contributions now made. The environment of this site will have to be substantially adapted to allow for a prize and we need to consider carefully whether the idea is really beneficial. The prize concept may be abandoned altogether if better solutions are found or if it proves infeasible or unnecessary.

Discuss the benefits and disadvantages here.