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)
Comments
Suffice to say, I was somewhat spooked sometime back when the database got "corrupted". I had a negative networth with inability to cash out nor place new bets (coz all the active bets were also messed up). Must have been a rather nasty bug.
On the "serious firepower" note, I truly hope that TIS activity will increase as a result of the new push. Feel free to use me as a sounding board on ideas or feedback on the push (before and after).
To answer your prize question, IMHO, prize matters to some and matters not to others. As for me, it is becoming practically impossible to be top gainer as it would require significant large bets with favorable % to swing a significant gain. I did appreciate the Kindle, however. That said, the little "carrot" does serve some purpose in the end (No other prediction market sites are rewarding top gainer of the month). Regardless of TIS ultimate decision on this, it is still nice to be able to evaluate how well one did against other members each month. It allows one to gauge one's performance and adapt one's strategy.
Will the November top ten gainer report be released? Looks like a decision has been made to forego the prize award.
Both November and December should be released today. Everything has been repaired on the reporting side. Going forward, all monthly reports for top % gainers should be released in a more timely manner.
Thanks for being so patient.
Eric
I am going for the prize...unsuccessfully so far.
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