we do some contest this way and some we limit to the forum members. there is logic to doing it either way so we try and split it up. Sometimes sponsors prefer that we do giveaways a certain way while others don't really care. The number of forum members who visit the site each day is only a fraction of the visitors the site gets on a daily basis and the number of "active" forum members is a fraction of that fraction. Although i would like to reward those who "contribute" to the site, i don't want to exclude all of the others who visit the site. This site does not need sponsors but if we want to do giveaways and games and such, then we do. sponsors like to see traffic coming to their site from a sponsored site .... w/o the traffic there is no point in sposoring (for most). So, to keep the sponsors we need forum members and non-forum members hitting their links.
i hope that makes sense. if i had enough stuff to give everyone something, then i would .... but i don't .... so as far as i can tell, this is the next best thing.
i have said this in the past and if you remember what i said, you probably think i'm full of it because it hasn't happened. there is a feature coming soon that will help me help those who make actual contributions have a better chance of getting something and it should be something fun for everyone as well. this feature is long overdue, as i recall, it was supposed to be available before last xmas but it obviously had some major bugs and the last i heard it was supposed to be available by this xmas. i haven't heard if it really is or not (not my area of the site) but until it is, it's out of our hands.
We should be able to work in some forum games soon .... maybe i can get wookiee cookiee to see if dexter's diner is open or maybe we'll have something new. I need to get to work on the next Unified Site Contest, which should be in action by the end of january. for anyone who has been playing the USC and watched it's evolution, this next one will be taking it up another level and should provide plenty of entertainment as well as a chance to win several nice prizes.
Until then, i thank everyone who plays the games or enters the contests or just drops by to see what's new.