20081025 Giveaway Winner

Well I'm not quite sure if there should only be prizes to veteran members or not but I think the idea of this is a good start for future members to become more active. :)

atlast. congrats @Soth in Kyoto and Wickedclown (even if you didn't win anything).
Regarding prizes, offering prizes based on member times and or participation is bad idea. it would mean lot of unhappy faces here. competitions aimed at folks who have submitted the best series is a good idea, but i'm thinking wouldn't it spawn similar duplicate series by many who would like to get a prize? right now people post just for sake of community so its well and good.

i know you would like to thank everyone Danny, but the best way would be to hold competitions like the one you did every few months and keep not one but 5-10 winners, with one big prize of say two-three figures and the rest of one figure each or a dannychoo t-shirt or mug or merchandise. that would keep a lot of guys and girls happy here i think. dakimakura giveaways is also a good deal ^_^

I think the veteran member thing is a good idea. Not sure whether I'd count, but people who've been long-standing active members, making the site more enjoyable and helping it grow, definitely deserve something special.

However, I would vote against the series creation thing. It's notoriously subjective, and more importantly it encourages other people to create series - not necessarily a good thing when done so quickly. I'm seeing lots of junk series popping up that have little relevance, created for the sole purpose of having posts. People who have created successive series are already recognized as being active members, and most of us know them by name because of it. Besides which, we'd end up with a very very small group of eligible users. :P

Lastly: congrats, Soth! Let us know what you end up buying with those $150!

Congrats Soth.

Ok, so I knew Rin was there and Fauna.... thats two out of the four.

Grats Soth.

Open to all but exclusive to member that are active.

I say free prizes to the first 10 people to comment on a prize giveaway post lol....

I'm still hoping to see that "janken game" mentioned in the past by danny sensei ^^

Oh, and congrat to the winner ^^

gah! that's considered yellow? ;_; (not that i woulda had my entry in time anyway though ^^;;)

same prizes for all would probably be most easily perceived as fair to the community, though as far as i'm concerned... free loot is free so i wouldn't complain either way

eh? was Rin released by GSC as well? don't remember that one.

but an interesting question danny. It's probably not best to separate prizes to different groups like that. The newer members may find it a tad unfair if the older ones get preferential treatment, even if many think that it's justified.

At the same time, I feel that cops like this one aren't really fair as there are many people in different time zones so one may miss out simply because he was asleep when it started and ended up with a late entry.
I would say that future comps should be done in a way to eliminate such an occurrence.

Winners chosen by voting would be an easy way to fix that. Let the community decide who is most deserving of the prize. The only issue with that is that comps will be harder to think up and moderate. as you said, not everyone has access to the same tools.

Congrats for the winner ^_^

Cool stuff. I've been a member for a while now but don't post. Most the stuff I wanna say is already said. But I'll try in the next contest if I'm not playing too much MMO.

hehe.. got 3 correct xcept for the human mage.. didn't noe she's the dark blue.. ^ ^;

congratulations to Soth.
I agree to the idea of members having to be registered for a certain amount of time, and with a certain number of posts.

Just a few random things that came to my mind...
A competition which doesn't rely much on skills, would be a luck/chance game then :...

- Something like a lottery. (sorta defeats the purpose of posting though).

- What about a "guess the anime character(s)" game?, put some description, and away you go...

- Fill in the blank... You have a paragraph of text with missing words, I guess it's like captioning. First to fill in the correct words win.

Congrats! I'm not a figure person, so I didn't even try...

Congratulation to Soth in Kyoto ^_^

I think that the idea of general prices is the best. 'Cause after all, we form part of DC comunity, because we enjoy it, and have fun by reading, posting and comenting all the things, each post is a new source of unvaluable information =)
So, what's better than play and win prices (if one is better than other, doesn't matters)
It's DC style! And all the comunity loves it.

GREAT job danny, grats for the ideas and it's a pleassure to form part of this comunity, let´s play guys!

Congrats on the winners!

Congratulations to Soth. Now where's the 160USD consolation prize?

I think it was fair. I tried my best to answer and I didn't do so hot. But there are always next times. I think that it would be much better if veteran subscribers have higher chance of winning as they have been eagerly waiting for countless chances to score some prizes from old posts but no contest was ever given. I am not a veteran, but I do enjoy a bit of competition to spur some fun into our lives ^_^. Congrats Soth. I agree with the people suggesting longer membership time to only be able to join in on the contests. Or at least active members who are aware of your contests.

I considered Kokonoe Rin as a possible pick but declined since I thought loli in Japan would be Goth. Good job to Soth. Looks like shipping time will not be an issue.

Seconding dakimakura. Maybe other character goods, like oppai mouse pads? A variety of winnables could attract those who may not be as interested in figures as others, depending on what your sponsors allow.

I'm usually not the type to enter (or even attempt) contests but its great to see the real sense of community here when you care for your members in such a way.

congratulations to the winner(s)! Prizes for all would be nice ^^ but definitely still need to enforce some kinda rules to avoid junk posts ^^;

Congrats to Soth. So close wickedclown, but thanks for always laughing at my jokes. ^^
As for me, I did get the loli one, but that's still only 2 out of 4. Next time...

Danny, I can see you wanna reward veterans, but not exclude others. To entice others to become more active veterans, maybe you should have a gold prize available to everyone. Yet if that person is a veteran, the prize is upgraded or something is added. Also, maybe veterans can be allowed an additional entries to sway the chances, but not exclude new members. Just an idea

You should give me 5 billion dollars

Omedetou 'Soth in Kyoto'. Congratulations ^^

People who are providing DC.com constant news, and are vets. These people are always active and have something to share. I think they deserve something ^^

This prize giveaway is good, I don't think it was hard or easy, it was in the middle. Last time Photoshop challenge required certain things like, has to be own bought figure plus Photoshop or GIMP. Limited to certain people.

I agree with the 2 weeks ~ month stay at DC.com in order to participate. ( ._.)/"

Enforcing a post count is pretty hard to do IMO. One can simply post two word responses that as very little relevance to everything you post to simply pad their post counts.

Also, could the hints be less ambiguous next time? Being moe isn't set in stone I hope, so everyone's definition of that term might differ

Congrats Soth!
uhhh...
if we assume there are more nonveterans than veterans, and that everybody can vote, isn't it obvious who's going to win? ^^;;

Soth omedetto o(^^)V

Well, I think we should give all members a chance but members that had been registered for then 2 weeks or so.
Well, my ideas would be best news items and stuff. Like when we see news items you see Danny and it's featured at Danny's News.
I would love to see more of these contests in the near future.
Another great idea would be do a dancing stormtrooper impression video on the streets of where you live. That would be great!!!
I have tons of ideas. Some ideas would be, who is the most otaku out there, anime guessing game, and who even can figure out what an idea for a contest should be. One last one for now since I feel I type too much is count how many figures do Danny have or a certain member have (a picture of collection [like how many PVC does this guy have or how many Figma does this person have and so on...to make it harder, identify the company who makes the figure and so on...]).

Ideas for prizes would be like figures or a prize just like this contest or even a dakimakura.

Personally, I thought the hints were a little vague. ^^;

Yes, perhaps a participation-based limiter could help with contests--not only does it make sure that they're active, it also will probably cut down on the number of entries you have to sift through. XD Also, once you get the comment rating system up, you might want to consider barring people with too low a rating from participating, since they obviously will be the type who is detrimental rather than beneficial to the community.

first thing first, thank you danny for offering up such an enticing contest/giveaway. wow, much like everyone else i scored a 3 out of 4. came so close, but yet so far. Rin Kokonoe... i have this figure too! that's a real heartbreaker. keep them coming danny. you're kind of our gateway to figure-dom :P

Im a bit half/half on that situation since the new members may get dismayed but then again it will make them strive more to become part of the community....
Tough question is tough!

Anyways congratulations to the winner!

Voted prizes for all, though I do feel that more active contributors should be better rewarded somehow.. Maybe make the prize slightly better if a veteran wins than if not (e.g. for this giveaway, if a vet wins it's 150 USD worth while if it's a non veteran it's 130 USD worth) Though obviously you want to be careful that you don't promote posting just for the sake of getting your user stats up.. if the difference between the prizes is quite small it probably wouldnt cause that, yet it would still let a veteran winner feel a little more special for his past contributions to the site. (that may be what you meant already by platinum vs gold, but to me that seemed like it was a large distinction between the two, I think it would have to be a tiny difference only). I think

Congratulations Soth on your winnings!

Regarding the hints, I think it was mostly about right on for difficulty, though your selections for the colour hints are too inconsistent! (e.g. on Fauna she's pink, due to her hair (though the majority of the figure would be white) yet on Kuugen Tenko she's White (but by following how you called Fauna, she should be a Yellow)) For that kind of hint, I think the way you chose what was the identifying colour should have been the same for all figures (e.g. all by hair / all by most common color / color of fingernails / whatever )

I think it should be prizes for all. I think that way, you're more likely to draw in new readers and members. I've been a member for a long time, but I don't comment all that often. But at the same time, I visit the site several times a day.

hmm.. seems like I got 3 out of 4 right. lol oh well.
about giving prizes to veteran members only, although if something like that was implemented, veteran members like myself would have a better chance at the prizes. however my unbiased opinion would be to give equal chance to all valid members. after all some folks might be more talkative than others. some might be more reserved in their commenting. others might have just stumbled upon the site. but who is to say that one of them love the DC.com community more than the other.
to be honest, being a DannyChoo.com member and being able to post news items, having your pages linked from DC.com and given the chance to socialize and network with other members. is its own reward.
but if you plan to give away some stuff to older and actively participating members, I'm not stopping you. ^^;

GAH! I knew Kokonoe Rin was the twin tailed loli... T_T
About the prizes, I think it goes something like this: Doesn't need to be a user that joined a long long time ago, neither one that is on DC everyday, every hour....

But a few restrictions are good so there won't be a rush of users just to join the competition that will abandon DC.com right after the competition is over.

This will also prevent that old users that has lots of friends use them just to buy the prizes.

But I do agree with giving prizes to users who always comment, post member news, and write puchi blurbs... NOT, because I'm one of them (no, seriously). I don't even expect to gain any prizes, or expected them to be offered to users like me, who lives on the other side of the world... :P

Mainly because I'm a blogger too, and I know that a blog only starts getting big because of faithful users.

Faithful commenters adds a lot to the blogs credibility, and encourages other users to become faithful too, making lots of friends with the same interests and all.

I dunno how big are the prizes Danny is willing to give, but if possible, I'd vote for smaller cheaper prizes to newcomers (not less than 2 weeks of registration), and premium prizes to older more faithful users... not only judging from time he/she was registered, but also from puchi blurbs and member news.

Members like puppy52, who made that awesome tare-Danny shirt, for instance. ^^

grats to Soth. I only got the two most obvious answers, but I'll get it next time! lol

I only got 2 right...Was a good run as well...

I agree with the first option which is
<quote>I could offer premium prizes (platinum) to veteran members and offer gold prizes to all members</quote>

I am just new member here but I would like to be fair and balance regarding awards. XD

I think it'd be fair to give prizes to all, to an extent. Veteran members are great especially when they post good news items and are active in the community, but some of the newer members are very active as well. Perhaps prize for most popular posts each month or something along those lines, or for people who've had their posts hijacked by you a certain amount of times.

Darn! 3 correct.

I'd be so disappointed if there was a special prize for the veterans... and I couldn't get it just because I joined a little later :( However, it makes sense.

And if it's news posts, I never post because I can't think of anything original to contribute to the community. Pictures? Meh. Scenarios? ...
Actually, there isn't alot of content for yaoi fangirls... is there. I'll keep thinking until you make a decision.

The Dakimakura giveaway sounds positively divine~!

I'm quite new hear so I'm probably a little bias, but the way I see it is if you have a minimum amount of posts or topics etc, some people will just start spamming the site, so they can try and enter the competition?

Anyways, can the next giveaway be for your Haruka Mouse pad. I can't move my eyes away from it everytime you have it in a pic!

Congrats Soth on your win...

The Rin one threw me off...though it was one of my guesses, but I thought it wouldn't be that easy and thought it was a trick...

I think to be considered veteran it should be a minimum of 4 weeks and 50 comment posts (or something like that), so that it becomes a habit to contribute to the community....but then again there are those who are loyal readers of DC.com, but have yet to join...perhaps for long and contributing members of DC, perhaps those members can get special codes for prizes through email...though generating those codes is quite a pain...

my take on this issue would be that elitism shouldn't be promoted but a fair criteria should be imposed. in terms of judging activity levels, comments/post counts should suffice. not too sure what puchi blurbs would count to. but when the cast is set, there may be quite a few spammers who post for no valid reasons other than to get to the level as required by the criteria. as such, this would probably place a burden on Danny as a higher level of moderation is required to ensure nonsense topics don't pop up. also, i would suggest fixing the competition answer posting to filter those who pass the criteria at the point of time of competition quiz posting. that way, we won't see a drastic increase in unnecessary posts in order to meet the competition criteria.

one more thing i would suggest is to create competitions for different groups of members, varying the criteria from time to time and maybe increasing the difficulty from time to time. but personally, i feel that this giveaway's difficulty sets a very good base so Danny could work from there? i didn't manage to partake in this comp as i was in Tokyo w family so had limited Net access, but personally, i feel that the answer posting period should be limited to no more than 3days, preferably 2 just to cover the international time zones. prizes not won can be rolled over to the next competition for distribution to runner-ups.

that's pretty much it i think. please feel free to debate my POVs.

Giving prizes to the more community active and veteran members is a good idea, as they indeed keep the site alive, but when you get too much into the details of what should qualify them, you might as well just find out the person who comments/posts/contributes the most and give them something.

To be honest I don't really care for the member news as it's all very random; I mainly come here to read your main news (so it's good that you hijack interesting member news from time to time), and then it's off to another point of interest on the interwebs.

Right now it seems like each member can have their own little blog though your site, and for me this is like information overload. I wonder why you don't have your own DC forum with boards for each topic that this site covers - that to me would be a cleaner, more organized community I could get into.

Anyway, great site, thanks for the contests! I believe I got 3 right, and looking back at it now, I did not consider Tenko at all.....because I now see that the 2 unreleased figs hint has GSC AND Freeing as companies.....I thought it was just GSC, so I limited my search to thus. I know you edited the rules a bunch of times....was it always thus? gah I can't believe I missed that!

Congratulations to the winners! A great thanks to Danny Choo for his kindness and innovative ideas.
Regarding future competitions, It may be a good idea for those who contribute to the community more to have their efforts rewarded. As to what may be a suitable method... there are other who have mentioned lovely ideas ^^

Congrats to Soth. Take good care of your soon-to-be-acquired figures!

Just remember that there are many different ways you can change the requirements, and each method has its pros and cons. I would look at which ones have pros that outweigh the cons and will improve this community in the long-run. Not everyone is going to be happy with contest rules, so just do what you think is best for DannyChoo.com.

Thank you very much!!!
Thank you Danny and members of jlist for their generosity and thank you fellow members for the congratulations!!!

As for the questions, the hints were ok, not too easy and not too hard. So many people said Freeing Asakura Bunny as one of the unreleased items when in Danny's review he said the release day... With common sense, all the info was available on Danny's page and GSC webpage.

I understand that you tried this to reward members who have been participating for months or even years, and the guy who got the price is a newbie with his first comment. I know that is annoying, but without the incentive of the prize perhaps I would never left my lurker status (I've been lurking the site for years, and only took the time to register with the last redesign of the front page), so it is a good idea to attract new blood.

If you offer different prizes to veteran members and regular members, you'll break the harmony of both sides, with the veterans looking down upon the newbies and the newbies looking with envy to his sempais. Making readers of 1st and 2nd category will prevent a regular income of new members.

And afer that, thanks again. Right now I'm very, very happy.

may i suggest we have a best figure photography competition next? ^^;

Ohoho well, I was completely out of the track this time hehe ^^ Congratz Soth-san :)

Not really fond of the "being-a-veteran" privilege... I don't think that categorizing members could bring anything good.

I think that prizes for all would be better. But I guess my opinion is biased since I'm a new member. (Here comes a somewhat lengthy personal experience story:)

Me and my bf have lurked this site for a long time before we actually joined and since then I've almost got the 50 posts required to start posting member news while he only has 9 posts. And I would like to say that I missed this contest because I am not on DC a lot and most the time I would read Member News instead of Danny News. I'm on like once a day, sometimes less but I always try to post if I find something interesting.
My bf who joined at the same time and is on here several times a day rarely posts cause he just doesnt want to be repetitive/spam topics, but stuff from DC comes up a lot when i talk with him. I dont think he should be excluded from your contest just because he's not a well known vet who does series. And I think more contests like this might encourage him to post more.

I'm not saying that you should get rid of the 2 week rule; in fact i think the Have-to-be-able-to-post-Member-News-at-least rule is a good start but then having contests for vets only just seem unfair cause sometimes newer members can give to the community just as much as the older ones (obviously not referring to myself).
I also like the idea of the higher priced figure for the vets if they win as long as the difference isnt incredibly big. Nothing sucks like getting a tin can instead of a trophy cause youre a newcomer especially if you beat out the oldbies. :P

I believe in being able to give everyone a fair go at winning the prizes. You could have everyone post in a thread to go into a raffle, your idea of 'two weeks' participation/activity will make sure its fair. It's just to cater of the less 'able in other area' people. Don't let this stop you from doing fanart comps etc.

Premium prizes for veterans!
There aren't much veteran members, which actually makes the votes a bit unfair.. I won't call myself veteran btw. ^^;
And it's not like new members(that qualify) that win won't get prizes, just that veterans will have a special one.
As for Member news... I think it's a bit too hard =X But its nice to reward the greatest member news by counting the comments. Or setting up a poll for a few popular ones. Or a rating system? LOL

Hmzz, difficult question indeed. While I do agree that everyone should be able to win, it feels a bit annoying to on one hand see newbies get lucky, and on the other hand die-hard-veterans who would've bought figures anyways....
I think the best solution is simply: more giveaways! This last one I think was pretty fair as all answers where available if you looked hard, and did not require specific veteran-status to win.

Congrats, Soth! ^^

I think prize for all will be better, since being equal is important but the member should like be at least here for 2 weeks and has been active for the past few days...

I think wont be good to have contests like "most comments user" etc unless can repel spamming attacks ^^; Those like "cutest danny fanart" or "funniest photo" should be quite good

(Comment was deleted because I keep clicking Post Comment instead of Submit, hence, a smaller reply than originally intended XD)
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I think that's a hard question.
- If you gave prizes away for all, what's to stop someone from abusing IP and MAC address shifts to create new accounts for multi-guessing? I mean, really. Prizes for all would open up abuse, and even if you had enough time to counter it, could you really afford $150 USD every time you hold a contest?
- If you gave prizes away for veterans, how would you define veterancy? Subjective comparisons like Comment Post Count, Time as Member, etc. would not be quality-checked, just quantity-checked, and wouldn't that be disastrous? There's also the matter of people that just don't have time to visit for a long period of time, and while I may check dannychoo.com three or four times a day minimum, many others aren't that lucky.
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Oh well. As long as the contests revolve around art-based activities, I know I won't win a contest, because I can't do art at all. I'm strong at poetry, slightly worse in story-telling, and mathematics really isn't viable in this sort of thing, right?

The giveaway wasn't a bad idea, but this type of contest wasn't that great, in my opinion.

Rather than giving away prizes based on random guesses, prizes should be given away for something like "best artwork" or something that has to be submitted and judged by Danny. That way you don't exclude new members or even members who don't really feel like posting daily just to meet a quota. I browse the site daily, but I don't feel the need to always say something. Remember, you don't want your site filled with useless comments, but rather comments that can add to an article or state someone's opinion.

And as others suggested, give out multiple prizes rather than one expensive item to one person. People would be more encouraged to participate if they felt they had a better chance to win.

Otherwise, keep up the good work.

Also, as for rewarding veteran members for their loyalty and continued support, I really don't think that's necessary.

Being able to browse this site during a work break or before I settle down for the night is, in my opinion, reward enough for being a member.

Congrats to Soth! and congrats for evolving into non-lurk status ^^;
Danny, I kind of like your idea of different prizes for veteran/non veteran, as long as both prizes are as good as this prize or better LOL... XD
But now I think the hard part is to differentiate between veteran and non veteran member.

I know some have said the comp was easy, but if it was there would have been a lot more correct answers. I know I took a while to figure out my answers, and still got it wrong :( I'm not complaining though. At least if it's not too easy, it gives everyone a better chance at having a go, considering all the different time zones we're from.

What I mean is, you don't want an easy comp that is won before some of the members have a chance to even read the post.

I look forward to the next competition ^^

I would like to win a figure, but I'm kind of a newb to the whole thing.
Maybe give a chance to the people who might be interested in this hobby but have yet to enter? :P

Congrats Soth!

I believe that everyone deserves a chance to win. Although it would be nice to have special prices for veterans who continuously supports DC.com ^^

yea omedeto!
i think there should be opportunities for the veterans and opportunities open for everyone, is kind that like a balance i think.

I think us oldbie/vet members should get some little...tiny...advantage. For being loyal and regular lol. But ofc I'd say that.... I've been around for bout a year now and want teh goods!!! lol
My little inside voice says we should all get equal chances... but not the newbie-newbies. There has to be some fairness. Oldbie Lurkers who don't participate shouldn't get any advantage.

And may I say GAH!!!! I can't believe I got 3....damn cute fox-thing.....

Congrats Soth! You managed to get your post in a bit before me. xD Anyway, I liked this way of doing the contest, it required critical thinking and a certain amount of participation in the community to realize that Danny would not likely get packages with figures that he already had, even if one of those figures (Fauna) was obviously one he already had, it doesn't mean the others are too.

The issue of whether or not to allow the entire community to participate, or only some of it, is rather difficult to answer. As much as I think the veterans should have benefits for their participation and commitment... the easiest and most fair solution would be to include everyone. Though, that doesn't mean that veterans still can't get something special. Maybe create some contests for the vets only, and others for the entire community? Or maybe give vets something extra or different.

Either way, this type of contest is definitely the best, that way people who can't meet certain requirements don't end up being left out of contests, e.g. best photo contest would leave out people who don't have a good camera or who don't have experience as a photographer, a drawing contest would leave out those who can't draw, etc.

Also, I saw this because I am part of the group, but it should be taken into consideration that not all those who contribute do so via the news items. Some, like me, tend to comment more often than post news items.

Congrats! Thanks again Danny for the chance. I agree with the way to solve the mutiple account entries.d

whee~ gratz soth

I think that although veteran members should deserve some small perks, things shouldn't be limited only to them. I've only recently joined here, but I really love it already! It's fun to talk about things I like with like minded people and I love hearing the news, seeing new figures and reading people's reviews as well as all the other randomness. I think the community is great here and I hope to be active here for a long time. So while yes, I haven't been here long, I would feel sad a bit if I wasn't able to enter a competition or giveaway just because I'm not a veteran.

I think having a limit like 'Must be member for one month, have x amount of comments and be active in the community is a reasonable target and would weed out the timewasters or the people only 'in it to win it' and not caring about the community.

Congratz Soth! <(^ ___ ^)>

Wow, didn't think about those other two figures at all. Will have to try better next time. XD;;

congrats to the winner, and how about a nendoroid for all? <3

Congrats to the winner ^^, i should have went with my 2ed chance lol o well, this was fun ^^ and i hope to see a new one ^^ i will partake in as many of these as i can ^^ so i cant w8 till the next giveaway starts ^^ i need to get my figure collection on it's way ^^ i currently don't have that many lol but this was fun ^^

Congrats to the winners!
I think everybody should get the same Chances to win somehing.There should be some requirements tough.Some people gave already some good ideas.I wouldnt go with the XXXComments/Newitems to qualify because i think those would be spammed with alot of crap by people that want to qualify while other humble members may not post that much and contribute so much more to the community
I think the competitions should vary so that people with all kind of skills get a chance to win.

Ah yes, the politics of freebies, lol...

Keep in mind, while participation is the backbone of the community, not everyone can devote 4 or 8 or 12 hours per day to playing or studying on DC.com, whatever length they've been a member. So include a bit a random chance too, i.e. a *lottery* instead of a contest. Maybe not only have a top-3 lottery for ALL, but also a top-3 lottery for the veterans, AND a top-3 lottery for the newbies, etc. More chances to win, more fairness in losing, thus more loyalty. After all, quality of loyalty is just as crucial as quantity of participation. ^_^

Congratulations to the winner! Hehe, I almost guessed that!

Nooooo!!! Oppai mousepad, please come back!!!

Darn my negligence.

Congrats, Soth! You did really well ^^

Veteran members deserve it more than others I'd say, screw socialism ;)

No, veteran members should not get special treatment. After nearly 4 years I don't expect to be given something special because of what I have contributed. Being part of this community and having met many good people who are here and no longer here is reward of its own for me. Having contest is a great way of rewarding people who are contributing because they enjoy being part of DC.com.

I think the criteria for being able to post news items is good for entering contest Danny. It's not too demanding to exclude those who don't have lots of time to spend here everyday, but still keeps the prize as a reward for helping to make DC.com a great community.

I am going to borrow a quote from JFK, 'Ask not what Danny can do for you, ask what you can do for Danny'. I guess everybody love free items, who doesn't! I mean Danny has a family to support and he needs to pay bills too, especially the cost of living in Tokyo is not cheap! Maybe Danny can do a raffle next time where members can buy raffle tickets with US $2 each, with veteran members have the chance to buy more tickets like 10 at most whereas newer members can buy up to 5 tickets. Then, if a figure costs like 80 bucks, then Danny would pick a winning ticket out of a pool of 40 tickets (40 tickets * $2 = $80) for the first winner. So, if like 200 tickets were sold, that means 200 * $2 = $400. Assume each figure costs about $80 bucks, of course they can be different figures from different companies, $400 / $80 = 5 figures prize. Then, Danny can pick 5 winners from that pool of 200 tickets. So, the more tickets you buy, the more chances you can win. Of course, if somebody buy more that 1 raffle ticket, he or she can still only win once to prevent the person from getting all 5 figures in the above examples if s(he) did buy 5 raffle tickets. Again, this is just a basic description, don't want to write a wall of text to annoy the members in here. I know you folks are smart, you get the picture. What do you think, Danny?

Congratz to the winner.
Got the last two wrong, but it was fun.
@Danny, you can consider the upcoming DC.com merchandise to give away. Maybe something that can produce in large quanity like bookmarks(a set of few) or stickers or keychain for all members maybe???
T-shirts, oppai mouse pad and DC.com figure for veteran members.
Just a few ideas

Congrats to Soth ;p

I think it was a good competition (although I found a little difficult).
As for the post comment count, I don't think that really matters. I usually post 1-3 comments a week, but I read the site practically every day. I think you should keep with your registration time minimum of 2 (or more) weeks.

Maybe you could also do contests with varying difficulty level and according prizes. The somewhat easier ones get less big prizes, and the difficult ones get bigger prizes.
I also would like to see another photo competition, as I couldn't participate last time, and would love to do one too (and I consider this a more difficult contest).

i think that the users that have been longtime patrons of dannychoo.com
should get their own special contest, ya know? just because theyve contributed to those page views. however, the noobs should be able to participate in some kind of contest too, because it wouldnt be fair to just let the old people have a freebie opprotunity.

and the thing with posts and photoshop contests er whatever and stuff, i think some would be capable, and some would be uncapable, and that it would really make for a bunch of people saying, "oh i dont know how to photoshop" or people like making crap posts and stuff.
and then everything would be icky.
i think.

の　。の
　　o

Today I received the last part of the prize from J-list.
Photos and description in my blog.