Mike Myers Posted:

Except what you’re forgetting is that there already IS a diminishing scale of payouts by level.

I forgot nothing. It’s a flat amount. That’s not “scaled”. It’s less useful at a higher level, but not by calculation. Further, if you start taking part at a lower level, and you don’t suck, your number of possible submissions will increase, increasing the odds of you getting multiple payouts. Hence, intentional scaling, on the idea that a newbie should feel like they got a useful reward for getting one of their 7 submissions accepted, while at the same time not letting someone overtake the Flezz leaderboard because they regularly get a dozen or more of their hundred submissions accepted.

I don’t quite get why people think that incenting players to compete for prizes equals worse submissions.

By my bumumption, usually people trying to win something try to perform better.

Because a greater quantity of submissions does not necessarily imply a greater quality. It only means wading through even more submissions looking for the funny ones. Further, there are any number of people who, trying their absolute best, are still not as funny as the worst idea of other posters. There’s a certain level of diminishing returns, where roping in more players will actually just reduce the percentage of people involved who are actually funny.

Frankly, if you’ve got the gift for it, odds are you already submit to forumbuildr for scoops and fun and score. While I’m sure there are some people out there with potential who don’t submit, offering increased rewards isn’t as likely to bring them in as it is to flood the submission lists with crap and encourage more gaming the system for those rewards, by people who aren’t funny but want the stuff that comes with winning.