RE: Are There Too Many Contests on Steem?
The profusion of contests on Steemit is concerning, not because they create directed content – that's actually a positive, but that is dwarfed in my mind by all of the other rigmarole which surrounds the actual process of engaging with the contest.
Without requiring up voting, without requiring following, without requiring re-steaming – as you say to someone else, it's just giving stuff away, and that itself is somewhat problematic. You're bribing an audience. You're paying for the attention. And the people engaged are willing to whore themselves out, or at least their eyes, for just a little scratch.
People will always show up for free shit. That's the nature of people. But that's not how you build an audience – unless you want to run The Price Is Right. If all you want to do is give stuff away to people, they will take it all day long. But they won't be an audience for your work.
I would actually enjoy finding some sort of once or twice a week writing prompt account to follow. No contest, nothing really required (except maybe a link back to the original from your post), just a writing prompt – and at the end of every post cycle, a little bit of a round up by the creator of some cool things that they saw all written under that prompt for that period.
Everything seems to be so over promoted. Everything feels like it has to be a commercial on Steemit. It's increasingly unpleasant to go look for good content that I will enjoy.
I see where you come from, especially with the bribing part. But personally, I lean towards Give away or don't, the moment you have the conditions, you are taking payment (even a follow or resteem are a form of payment), at which moment your contest becomes a lottery with only one winner: the self-serving one who more often than not claims to give back to the community, which is at that moment a fallacy, a hoax.
Rather than contest may as well call it Plea for upvotes, resteems, and follows then because that is what each contest becomes/is at heart.
Start it. :)
I'm sure in your circle you have Steemians who will also promote it to give it initial traction.