that point system seemed like more trouble than it would be worth. I haven't looked at bejedi.com's point system but from i can gather it is patterned after the alltroops.com point system. when todd started that, he asked if tbs wanted to be involved and allow the points to transfer back and forth between the sites. i looked at his ideas on it and thought about it for a while and decided it would require more work to keep organized and under control than i was willing to commit to. It seems to work fine for alltroops but i still don't see doing anything like that here. it's not a matter of us not wanting to give the edge to those who are willing to put out a bit more effort but i don't think it would be fair to everyone who was willing to try. then you also have to define what is and is not "point" worthy which is not as easy as it sounds when you are trying to be fair to all.
anyway, that is a dead topic for me, but i mention it only as an example of how it would present the same problems for trying to determine who was a "loyal" member or vistor.
for example, you have vistor #1 who has never registered in the forums but visits the site everyday and reads the news or the posts in the forums or checks out one of the sections and spends thousands of dollars at one or more of our sponsors and you have vistor #2 who has never spent a dime at any of our sponsors but posts in the forums on a daily basis.
now, i could care less if anyone buys anything from our sponsors or not. that's up to you and how you collect and how you spend. i think we have some good sponsors who are completely reliable and safe to buy from. in my position, i hear things that may or may not be true about some of the online retailers but we've always stayed away from the ones who seem to have a cloud over them. Anyway, i'm drifting from the subject... my point was that if i asked my sponsors (where the prizes come from) who the more loyal vistors are, then they will say the ones that spend the money at their sites.
another problem with defining what a loyal vistor or member may be is that we may have one guy who post 10 replies that do little to further the conversation in a thread, let alone spark any new thoughts and we have another member who only posts once in a week and it is a very well thought, creative topic and opens the door for much conversation between the members and the thread becomes several pages long. IMO, in this instance, the member who only posted once has actually been more of a benefit to the site and the community. it is a huge gray area that is impossible to define.
so, you are probably reading all of this and saying "what does this really mean to me?" ....... i dunno ....... I compliment the sites out there that are trying to strengthen their communities by rewarding their "loyal" members, but i think it is important to know that the community extends much further than that and my goal is not to exclude those that may be just on the other side of where ever you may think the line is while doing my best to help those that think they are on this side of the line.
there are some ideas being developed for TBS by your "loyal" staff that should benefit those who contribute in the forums and possibly in other areas of the site. until those ideas become a reality, i doubt much will change in the way we currently do our contest and games. I will give the "forum members get two entries" idea some thought, but the idea is not to make this any more difficult than it has to be for me or any of the other staff and at the moment, i don't really see that being a benefit to any of the "loyal" members .... only increasing the "member count".
for anyone who gets frustarted because they haven't won a contest or hasn't won enough contests ...... all i can say is ..... eliminate your frustration and don't enter the contest or play the games. to everyone else .... good luck.