Should the Author of the Answer of the Day get the Big Tip? Or the Nominator?
Would it hurt or help the contest in regards to activity, if we altered it in a manner where the writers of the AOTD were provided with the big tip?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$14 Answers
In addition, this may motivate a few authors to go just a bit farther in a few answers each day, with the AOTD payoff in mind. In this way, the overall quality of answers may improve a bit, which wouldn't hurt a thing (not that I don't think the quality is generally good, but there is always room to improve).
Finally, let me add my voice to those who may enjoy this contest. AOTD is one of the things I enjoy the most.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
This contest is implemented via a Mahalo question, and as such it is designed to award the tip to the "Best Answer". In this base BA = "Most Helpful" nomination. If we say the nominated author must get the money, Mahalo would have to do something weird such as:
make special contest code to reroute the tip to the author (or split it 50/50)
- or -
let the "Best Answer" function award the tip to the finder and then reach into their account and pull it back out so that they can award it (or half of it) to the author
- or -
Start the initial contest tip at half of the usual amount, let the nominator win it via BA and then go and tip author a matching amount
These all sound like more work for the Mahalo team just to run a friendly incentive contest.
Should the above idea (swag for the author) not appeal to folks, I'm still fine with not finding a way to ensure that the winning author gets half of the pot. I acknowledge that the finder/nominator spends time looking for good answers, and without them the contest would fizzle out. I also like the tradition of the winners voluntarily sharing the pot with the author. This sort of unpoliced tradition builds camaraderie and enhances the community. When @buddawiggi gave me half of the winnings he received for nominating my answer, it gave me a lift as I hadn't really been expecting it. Now I take an extra close look whenever I see his avatar next to something as I don't want to miss a chance to help him out and show my appreciation for him splitting the tip. Had he not done this, it would have seemed a bit niggardly, but it wouldn't have been a huge disappointment.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I've got the Mahalo swag and don't need any more! :)
Tips are always welcome. :D
Right now all nominees and nominators are being entered into the draw. Your idea is good, but we can't give out Swag everyday, that will only be a weekly thing.
You understand two of my main concerns. One main being, we don't want to have to not choose "Best Answer" - We like clicking the "Best Answer" button and that user is the winner, and wins the big pot. Also if we had to click the "No Best Answer" button and manually send tips the AOTD threads would be removed from search (if you choose No best answer on a question, its removed from all indexes), these threads are ones we want indexed. Second it is key to reward the nominators, they are the ones who find the greatest answers on Mahalo, their work needs to be rewarded too. Nominators are the competition.
However, I think the real answer (solution) to this question (problem) would be to change the TITLE of the contest. My recommendation would be to rename the contest to "Sleuth of the Day" or perhaps "Detective of the Day".
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
PROBLEM:
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My biggest argument against the current system has continued to be that it seems unjust that the Nominator receives much more money (usually) than the Author does. When I put a lot of hard work, research, and considerate commentary into an answer, it's difficult to see someone else profit off my work by themselves. To put it bluntly: I want a cut.
The "honor system" of suggesting winners share the winnings is flawed. Even if they intend to tip, I know first-hand how easy it is to forget to share the wealth.
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(May I just interject real quickly here, that I really am greatly honored whenever I'm fortunate enough to be nominated for AOTD? I am always grateful to the Nominator for such a kind compliment, and I super-duper look forward to maybe being nominated again sometime as it absolutely makes my day! Just to be clear: I have never had a bad thought towards the Nominator for receiving tips/awards for their nomination. I blame the system.)
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SOLUTION #1:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Have Mahalo sponsor a "dollar matching" program for the Answer of the Day Author. In other words, however much the total AOTD prize money is, Mahalo will match that and send that same amount each day to the winning Author, rounded down to the nearest dollar if that makes things easier. This will leave the system unchanged in regards to the Nominator and how Best Answer is chosen.
The only problem is that A.) This will cost Mahalo more money, though maybe it's worth it to promote this contest?; B.) It requires the AOTD manager to send out an extra message/tip per day; C.) There is some potential for gaming the system through collusion and excessive tipping. I think the risk is minimal though.
SOLUTION #2:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Have a flat award, sponsored by Mahalo for the AOTD Author. M$5.00 seems fair. Same principles as above, the AOTD manager will send out an additional message + tip each day to the AOTD author with M$5.00, all paid for by Mahalo.
SOLUTION #3:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A complete re-vamp of the system. Hold on to your knickers!
What if, instead of having a "Top Members" box at top right of the site, we had an "Answer of the Day Derby" box running? This would require some pretty heavy duty changes: For instance, each answer should automatically have a "Vote for Answer of the Day" button. Whichever answer gets the most clicks wins M$5.00. The first person to click the nomination button wins M$2. The box in the right sidebar is a running tally all day long, serving the purpose of exciting members about the contest, but also encouraging members to read those brilliant answers, and egging on other members to beef up future answers so they might make the leaderboard some day soon.
I know, I know, this might be like pitching a flying car to GM. But it's an idea.
SOLUTION #4:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Okay, this addresses a different AOTD issue, but since I have my soapbox out already...I've never been a big fan of AOTD being a popularity contest. Even though I understand the pressure felt by the Mahalo staff back when they made the choices, I preferred that system better. You see, as it stands, if I don't get my AOTD nomination in early enough in the day, I doubt I'll get enough views and votes. I'll be buried at the bottom of the page and no one will take the time to read my nomination. I can't catch up!
So what if you made the Mahaloan of the Week be the weekly judge? For 6 days (weekends being #6), they have to select the AOTD winner each day. Then, as in Solutions #1 or 2, the Mahalo staff would pay out M$5.00 + tips to the Nominator and M$5.00 to the Author.
Thanks for listening. Phew! I feel better. :)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Could a system be put in place where the Nominator gets a small portion of the reward? ex. 20%
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$I think the "big tip" should be split 50/50 as well the other prizes.
I know I put a lot of effort into finding and presenting these answers to the voting public but the has to be some requirement of at least a percentage of the tips won to go to the actual nominate.
As to why the nominate should get half the tip is easy to see, they gave the answer but in defense of the nominators, they (we) put some real work into the submission of their answers and that is a big part of the competition.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Thanks for considering the idea Jeff. I will still play whether the format is changed or remains the same because I really like reading answers the most and instead of just thinking "that's a great answer" I like to tell everyone else that I think so too.
Actually, I think 'presentation' has too big an influence on voting. However, the same applies to Q&A in general: adding a good/funny picture is almost mandatory to get a vote, and even a bad answer can get votes that way.
I think that's something Mahalo should look into anyway, and also for the AotD contest.
I wonder if the contest could use less emphasis on "presenting" - How would it differ if we encouraged participants to Just post a quick link and that's. I want to see the nominated Answers speak more for themselves then the presentation from the nominator.
Half the time the presentations of the Best Answers are the best answers lol, its been easy to justify the big tip to the nominator.
@mithrandir it would reasonable to nominate answers to you own questions I agree but that is not a change that is how AotD currently works. We can do that, many users have.
I know at first if we were only allowed to nominate our own answers far to many folks would nominate *their own* answers for the AotD not quite knowing what was and is expected as far as the quality of answer an AotD has to be. Many lower quality answers would be nominated.
I believe this initial influx of nominations would subside after the voters have made things clear as to what sort of answers they were willing to give the crown of AotD to.
With voting I believe that if a nominator is also the nominate that there would be no issues or false motives in voting if nominators(nominees) were not allowed to vote.
I see this as a simple yet fundamental change to the AotD format that would solve all issues concerning "splitting the tip" and false motives to vote in order to win the contest.
nominating your own answers eh...
hmmm... That is possibility, I've been sketching out new contest rules for the past week and this idea never occurred to me. I will certainly consider it.
I think we're going to stay with the status quo at least for the next couple weeks maybe even all of September, but by October 1st expect an overhaul on the contest.
How about nominating answers to your own questions instead? Wouldn't it be more reasonable for the original questioner to nominate an answer he/she liked so much as 'AOTD'?
See I like presenting. It gives a chance for us to summarize the answer we nominated and give a reason why we did so.
@mithrandir I see exactly what you are saying and I agree. The way an answer is presented has a lot to do with the votes it gets.
The way the format is now and as I mentioned the explaining of the *why* it is necessary to give the "presentation" your all if you want to get votes.
We could remove the whole "splitting the tip" from the equation by having users only be able to nominate their own answers. Fundamental change I know but this would ease that issue and if a user nominates their own answer the are forbidden from voting at all therefore removing the issues with voting for or against your own competition. Right?
What do you think?
For me personally half of the fun is finding and reading the potential answer of the day the other half of the fun is figuring out the best way to present the answer. The Mahalo dollars are great but not a huge motivator to me.
I do try to put forth "best answer" effort when presenting the answer and I agree many times I have seen others put great effort into their submissions (nominations) as well. I completely agree many submissions are "best answers" in themselves.
Part of the contest rules as they stand now say we should say why we think the answer nominated is, in our opinion, of answer of the day quality so I wonder how we would present these answers without adding true effort into the "why" part by putting forth "best answer effort" into the defining of "why".
If in any other question I was asked to say why I felt a certain way about a topic I would be required to give the best effort I could in showcasing and really shedding light on the reasons why I felt that way, providing sources, pictures, videos anything to make why I felt that way clearer to the reader. I don't see the AotD contest and the submission of the nomination as any different.
I know I would not get the best answer to any question that asked "why" about anything without doing my best in presenting my viewpoint in the brightest way possible.
So I guess I do not have the answer as how to modify the AotD into a format where the answers speak more for themselves without just plain removing the requirement of having us display "why" we feel our nomination is the Answer of the Day.
#1: fair payment for the original author of the AotD. This currently relies on 'paying it forward' and the community spirit of the actual winner. this sometimes works, and whenever I won, I practiced that. However, the (few) times I was the author of the winning AotD, I didn't see any tip materialize.. So, something has to be done about that.
The best suggestion I've seen so far is a 50/50 payment system. Easiest to implement (I think)
#2: early submission is mandatory: As gno mentioned, you have to be quick with sending in your nomination to stand a chance in the contest. I sometimes get the feeling that presenting the answer is more than half of your chance of winning.
#3: balanced voting: As a participant, I have an incentive to NOT vote on my direct competition. Why would I vote for the 'best' answer, if that diminishes my chances of winning? I'm not sure how to solve this issue, but apparently many have this same issue, as the competition is often very close, with one or two non-contestant making the difference.
Somehow I have the feeling that this AotD needs a total re-vamp, which cannot be solved within the current Q&A context.
As to the question above: I really think a 50-50 split between nominee and nominator would be best. If I really would have to choose between nominator and nominee, I think the nominee should get the tip, possbily 'paying forward' to the person who nominated him/her. (so, that would be the reverse of the current situation) but I guess there would be hardly any nomination with that.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
her all time,mind,hard work to win the contest,but in other hand the nominator
not do much.I don't say that nominator not do any thing,he does ,but not
like the author.Hence,author has right to get big tip.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I agree... as it is now, the incentive is to nominate, but there's not a huge incentive to be the one with the good answer. The one who nominates didn't do anything but share the answer. The one who answered the question well is the one who should be rewarded and others encouraged to answer questions well.
I think the person who nominates should get something and the answerer should too - I kinda like the idea of a 'split' between them.
i agree - split the tip.
I agree with @keepontryin and @winespy. I guess there's been an unofficial agreement among most of the members (myself included) that the pot is split.
I think it's only fair since the pot is usually a nice amount including the tips, I wouldn't feel right keeping it.
But I do feel that both parties need to be compensated (since you can't have one without the other) and if Mahalo can split the pot, that would make it fair across the board!
It always seemed weird to me that the person that wrote the answer wasn't getting the tip.
I must admit I don't really undestand how AOTD is supposed to work.
There are two things that this site is missing.
1. An announcement section (no tips). So we can read about things and reply but there's no best answer going to be selected (tips can be given to commenters).
2. A goofy (or otherwise unimportant) answer option (no stats are affected, tips can be given, can't be selected as best answer). Sometimes a humorous response is unavoidable or a request for clarification. Letting everyone know your answer shouldn't be taken seriously (or isn't meant to be an answer yet) and doesn't show up as a votable answer would be nice.
How to share the wealth with an intended recipient (as in the case of contests)? Yeah that's a tough one. Hard to implement from a coding standpoint.
But if there was a "no tip offered, no stats affected" section (such as an Announcement section) the voters could contribute and it would be up to Mahalo to pass along the intended reward.
I mention the "no stats affected" thing because stats are kept. And for stats to be effective they need to represent real and intended data.
If I want to post a comment on the question, not intended to be used as best answer, I have to post an answer that affects my stats and the voting process anyway.
Currently I contribute by making comments (like this one), not posting an answer per se. Mahalo is a nice blog engine with the "tip" management thing being innovative and fun. It is probably a very costly option to pay a coder to add options and has to be weighed carefully the benefits vs. the cost.
A temporary or effectively small benefit may not justify major recoding efforts unless we, the community, can provide real examples of why such a change is anything more than just convenient.
Splitting the tip IS the right thing to do - members who invest time and energy into great answers are the backbone of MA - and members who take the time to search out super responses and nominate them for the AOTD contest help the community spirit too - all deserve cudos!