For the last 6 weeks, you've probably noticed a serious lack in responsiveness to the Prediction Market's prize program.  Behind the scenes, we had some unexpected bug issues that have delayed the awarding of prizes to players of the Prediction Market in a serious way.  This bug was serious enough to require extensive work to simply get accurate reports for November (and October).

The good news is, the bug has been repaired, so December will bring the awards back to a normal release schedule.  The bad news is, we won't get November finalized until the end of this week.  Even though the bug has been repaired, our previous database numbers are having to be recreated for the month of November, and it's having to be done manually.  

During all of this chaos these last six weeks, I've come to ask myself (probably out of frustration, but it's worth asking), "Do people care about the prizes?"

I know for a fact everyone cares about the ranking, and their performance.  I check mine daily, and I use my networth at the top of the page to quickly guage if any of my predictions have swung wildly overnight.

But, some of our montly winners have confided to me that they didn't even know there was a prize program. 

We've enlisted some serious firepower to make the gaming aspects of the prediction market our next major push in early 2009. Some time between March and May (we're finalizing the calendar now) we'll be rolling out a series of pure-gaming updates that we believe will make the markets a total blast to play, and increase engagement several fold.  I'm not going to go into details here right now, but rest assured, I can't wait until we can get these new pieces in place.

But, I digress... I ask you, for those that care to read this: Do you really play for prizes?  Did you start playing only because of them?  Would you even notice if they disappeared?

Just curious. . .

(photo credit: CBS Interactive)

October's prize winner for having the top % gain month/month is Tom Holowka with a healthy 201% monthly gain (off of one massive bet).  Some of the leaderboard regulars have crept into the mix again, too, which is nice to see.  Below is a breakdown of the top ten performers for the month.  

Congrats Tom!  Check back soon for the November totals. We'll be updating the other relevant prize pages to record this win shortly.

Apologies to all who have been dialing in to find out who won October, and who won November.

The winner for October was incredibly difficult to contact - something we've never experienced before.  Usually, players are eager to send over the required paperwork so we can ship things off in a timely manner. 

This time around, however, we had an excrutianingly difficult time communicating with some of the players, which slowed the entire process down to a gringing halt.

The winners of the last two months will be posted here in the next 24 hours.

Thanks for your patience.