I want to address one more thing that wasn't mentioned in regards to why thanks / phail hacks, and those of the sort aren't for this forum. I think the one thing Monks has going for it, is it's been in existance long enough where we can make legitimate post, and not have 1000 threads on "Lets count to 1,000,000" etc, etc. This isn't a startup forum, and the people that come here generally make post that provides legitimate discussion. The contest wasn't designed to generate 1000's of posts / threads that people would never read or discuss. It was set up to up the activity level, and give something to one of our members.
I thought it was a nice suggestion by the staff to offer a contest of the sorts. It's not hundreds of dollars we're talking about, but none the less, it gave a few lucky members a reward if you will for being active.
When the contest started, I myself (and all of this opinion is that of my own, not to reflect on any other staff member) thought this was a good idea. Perhaps, the idea of trying to give back to the members was good, but the way the contest is set up may not be (basing it on posts / thread counts).
If you would like to constructively discuss the contest, I've created this thread:
http://www.monksdiner.com/entertainm...tml#post425158
for future CONTEST discussion.
Thank you.