If you think about it really though how many users do you think you'd recognise if they simply changed their profile pic? Usernames can be so similar I think most resort to image familiarity. Could be the case with a few of the winners too

I do it by name. Got used to watching people change avatars over the years, that it's easier to learn names. I can see why some would use a pic as reference though.

It’s never worked though

People just come on for contest then hibernate until the next one while most long term active users who continue to use the site miss out

If it’s not working, what’s the point , at this stage people are going to join because they want to, not the contests.

Citation needed.

If anything. Your original post proves that does work. You say that there were a lot of comments from people that you don't usually see post comments on every story.

One can potentially question retention rates, but it doesn't change the fact that your aproach would have zero effect on that and therefore no matter how low of a percentage we are talking about, it is still more than what you suggest would be able to produce.

Contests are basically a marketing investment, you want it to be something exclusively for some elitist club.

Which would eliminate any New traffic such a contests potentially creates.

N4G, like any free to use website, needs revenue from marketing to stay alive. I don't see your suggestion as anything but a cost sink with very little to no benefit.

@Fox

In general, once someone breaks through that initial post, they can start to become more comfortable with posting. I didn't post for almost two years when I first started coming here. I had a different account that I never once made a comment on. I eventually started slow, then made more comments, and now I have the most comments on this site. I recognize quite a few people who started slow, and then worked their way up, including some that we consider trolls, or at least the console fan boy warriors that make a lot of comments.

If someone can feel comfortable posting, then you get more users posting. That is the primary incentive for contests like this. The one's they used to do(or maybe still do....I dunno), would just be a drawing where making a comment puts you in the running. So that keeps people posting. Two different things.

Overall though, this particular contest seemed more about sharing experiences than trying to gain users. More a community building exercise, and while I wish it didn't have to have the contest attached to get people to participate, that's just kind of how the community has been.

I'm not really keen on there being a system where more prolific members have weight on winning contests. That can lead to too much bias I think. And if Chris is wondering, this isn't related to a conversation we had a while back....just about the contests being done in the way that Fox suggests....even in part.

There's always room for improvement in contests, but from what I've seen, the general train of thought seems to be, make a comment, get an entry. That's about as simple as it gets, and I don't really see a problem with that mentality. Some people may be the lucky lottery winner, despite never playing, but that's just the way these kinds of contests go.

To me, the incentive to post here shouldn't be about winning stuff, but about the community and interaction with those who share similar interests. Even if we don't always agree with each other, and sometimes seem to be at each others throats, we still all like video games, and sometimes, even with our proverbial mortal enemies on here, we can sometimes still have good discussions, or have fun with topics that aren't contentious. Wish there could be more of that, but that's a whole other issue.

Very true. I can easily write up to 10 comments, with 1000-4000 characters in a single thread. I have a lot of free time at work sometimes, and I tend to fiddle around on here when the wife wants to watch TV and spend time together, so I'm not doing other things. While I don't mind winning free stuff, I don't really feel that because of my situation, and ability to type extremely fast, and what appears to be an incessant need to get my two cents in(although it's more boredom than need), that what I have to say is any more valuable than what someone else might have to say, even if they only make a single comment on a topic or two here or there. It's a collective community, and while there are more prolific members, I don't see any reason to discount the contributions of those that also have things to say, sometimes even when what they say doesn't get any extra discussion.

it's easy enough to spend a bunch of comment bubbles on a hot topic when it comes to the fan boy wars, but most of the good comments around here actually don't get many replies to the initial comment, much less the rare responses that come from them. Sometimes, a comment just doesn't need such things. More what I see is that those that comment a lot, including myself, tend to talk a lot about stupid stuff. We may feel strongly about it, but at least half the time, it's still console war banter, and really kind of a waste of time if one were to really analyze the amount of effort that gets put into such conversations.