@thedarkhorse and @victorsilab - great comments and ideas:
Q1: Who to reward?
A1:
- Nominee and nominated post gained visibility, recognition, and upvotes - these can be a long lasting and enduring reward for being nominated (no extra work on the part of the nominee)
- the entry takes dedication and effort and it should be judged by the thoughts and efforts that went into the selection and writing of the entry
So, I think the action and effort should be rewarded. (I do not want to comment on:
meme or single photo
but the above said factors is how I select my nominees and posts.
Q2:
I'd love to reward more people, but earnings from the contest really don't allow for this currently. Hope that we pick up a couple larger votes over time which might allow for bigger rewards but not there yet.
As for those featured of the winners, that would be great down the road to give them more then some votes. If a benefactor comes along and wants to sponsor the 15-18 winners sponsored bloggers
A2:
The only way to grow this effort is to gain visibility from those who have high SP or SBD to contribute and or to sponsor or add to the rewards and upvotes. In time, they will come.
I am doing what I am able to do with my SP and SBD. I hope to inspire a few high SP steemians to join and help out.
In my somewhat limited way, I upvote all comments making an entry and their entry post once they have been added to the list.
I hope that those with substantial SP will do something similar.
I have regenerated my SP and plan to upvote the nominated posts, but, 29 * 3???
That is a large number ...
I have been doing 12-20% for each nominated post. (14% x 87) 12.18 full votes worth (estimated the 14%)
Plus 15% for the entry post (15% x 29) 4.35 full votes worth
Plus all the comments on the main post get 15% and I upvote many other comments on the main page. Lets just call that 5 full votes worth (but it's more).
Total votes over the 7 days going towards this contest directly is 21-22 of my total 70 votes for the week. That doesn't count the people who I upvote their "thank you" comment when I comment on their posts, or the ones I boost all their comments past the dust threshold, or the votes on comments from the Winners Post. If I had to guess over 50% of my weeks votes are going to the contest or to support those who support the contest.
Mind you most of my voting power is leased so I'm paying to have this level of SP. So this is an added cost too.
Next week I am changing my votes on the contest page to 8% for all entries, but up to 16% if the entry was really good. This will reward more of the bounty to those who I think did a better job finding quality bloggers to feature. This will reward more of the bounty based on effort.
I am no longer voting on any comments that aren't an entry unless it's a judge or sponsor as they deserve rewards for their efforts IMO.
I am not yet 1/3 done and this might not be sustainable in the future ...
In the long run, I'll focus on the effort - those who made an eligible entry.
Posts and nominees? I think it will be up to everyone to upvote according to his / her interests.