Kjgmusic's blog

The 2010 Neoseeker Raffle is a little over four months away and I wanted to let you all know some of the changes that are coming, what is happening between now and then, and ask if anyone has any cool ideas! :D

At the end of the 2009 Neoseeker Raffle, I made a post detailing what went on behind the scenes and asking for suggestions. Here are the things that were mentioned that I plan to change from last year, and maybe a few things I need feedback on:

+ No More Waiting! A huge change from last year that will really bring the Raffle up to par with some of the other events I've done... no more waiting for updates! That's right, one way or another, you will no longer have to wait for me to get online and update the system with new items/bids/tickets, everything will be done automatically. It will be much like the Neo Awards where you interface with a standalone webpage that has the ability to interact with Neoseeker to confirm your identity.

+ Automated Points Tracking Last year, tracking how many points you had spent was easy with the Raffle Lookup system, but this year it will be even easier. I plan to send out "hourly point reports" to anyone who buys anything. For example, if you buy something at 9:24pm, you will receive a report at 10pm but not at 11pm (unless you buy something in between 10 and 11). Of course, lookups will still be available on demand as well.

+ Points System Changes As you can see in the Behind the Scenes blog post, there is a bit of controversy surrounding the way points are calculated. I want to make sure those who contribute to the site are recognized appropriately and respectfully, but I also want to make sure that the majority of Neoseeker (i.e., posters) stands a fair chance against those with 4 million NeoPoints. :P So how do I balance it out and make it fair? Suggestions would be great... one idea is to cap individual NeoPoints at the person's post count. That is, if someone has 15,000 posts and 20,000 NeoPoints, they can redeem 15,000 NeoPoints for a grand total of 30,000 Raffle Points.

+ Item Posting Incentives Each time someone posts an item, they will receive additional Raffle points as a reward! Each item will be reviewed by some sort of committee and receive appropriate points for putting the item up. For example, someone who offers their sig space might receive 5 points, while someone who offers a used Xbox 360 game might receive 300 points. The rewards will be very appropriate.

+ "Reward Tracking" I know there were a few cases last year of people not receiving the things they won, but only because I've seen various complaints throughout the forums. No one has raised any concerns with me via NeoPM to address any issues... therefore, a few months after the event, I will contact all winners (somehow...) and ask if everything went smoothly. :)

If anyone has any more suggestions, please let me know! It is my goal to improve the Raffle as much as possible. You can see that even though this is going to be its third year, it is still changing a lot, so I am certainly open to all suggestions!

Also, as for September - December... expect at least two events with opportunities to win big Raffle points. More details later...