I'm running a summer art contest, but I'm not sure what to offer for an award/prize for first and second place. Any suggestions? I could really use some.

At the moment? I'm only offering recognitions of awesomeness. XD

Usually graphics are good, but depending on what the contests are for, recognition in the sidebar, or a thread to point out good work is always appreciated. Special events, forums?

It's hard to reward people online... makes it hard to get them to care. *sigh*

Exactly. I was thinking for something big I could offer a subscription to DeviantArt or free hosting for a year. I dunno. It is hard to reward people online.

As a roleplayer and daughter of an elementary school teacher, I would be thrilled to get this:



Seriously though, since it's an art contest, why don't you make them a graphic of some sort? It seems to be the most fitting prize. Or you could send them virtual cookies...yum. I know that my members are thrilled when they're submitted (by other members) for Featured Member, because they're being recognized for their work. Something as simple as cheering for them in the CBox could be a great reward, just so long as you're picking them out from the crowd and saying to everyone "this is why such and such person is awesome."

Oooh I like that idea of the star. That amuses me. :) What a good suggestion.

We used to have activity challenges on a board I ran. We bought and paid for ezsupporter for the winners for a year or six months. Invision has nothing like that though. If they had ezsupporter they got a ten dollar gift card to amazon.com. Now, I'm in my twenties so tossing fifty bucks at promoting activity on my board was easy for me, but I don't imagine it's an option for a lot of people.

The DeviantArt idea sounds good. Forums are a pain to give prizes in. You could try a spotlight type of thing, that shows their favorite piece they have done, with links to their profile and/or topics they liked to have linked. Then keep it up for a while, or something.

The star idea is cute. lol

Yeah but... how are you gonna stick it on your forehead if it's online?

...maybe it's just me who does that...

You print it out and put a little glue on the back. ^_^

If it's a graphix contest, why don't you have the piece that wins set as the header for a little while? Well, as long as the winning piece isn't like an avvie or wallpaper...

On my board you can't change your own member title just like that... so our "Character of the Month" always gets a member title of their own choice that we'll add to the account :)

when we had a "new top banner" contest not long ago, there wasn't really a price - except for that we'd naturally credit the creator of the banner, and they would know their work was seen by lots of people since it's also our advertising-banner... :)