Recently we have been dealing with “Topic Flooding”: nonsense topics created for the sole-purpose of receiving points to win the MakeFive contest. Topics like “Favorite Ninja Turtle” or “Best Sock Fabric” are perfect examples. There has been quite a reaction from our loyal MakeFive community members–and rightfully so.

As a result, we’re taking a hard-line on this one. We will no longer tolerate any of this kind of activity on MakeFive. Those who game the system, will be flagged, as community members monitor the site at all times. Points can easily be removed, and offending users will find their accounts deleted without notice.

It’s important to note that the purpose of the contest is to encourage and reward great content, not to just do anything to “win a contest”.

Of course, this takes the focus away from great users like you. Your participation on MakeFive is very important to us and we want to keep you coming back. Points accumulated represent your active use of the site and thoughtful contributions. (Needless to say, the points make it just a little more fun!)

If you would like to climb the charts and win the MakeFive contest, here are a few suggestions that might help;

• Community members vote most on interesting topics and the more votes a topic receives, the more points its creator obtains. So, don’t create lots of topics; focus on making great ones!
• Once you have created a topic, you can use the MakeFive “Share this topic with a friend” function (on the side of each topic page) to contact all of your friends. There is no crime in requesting a friendly vote.
• Complete your profile. Some users aren’t aware of this, but a completed profile gains you 50 more points!
• Submit meaningful comments, images and votes on other user’s topics. The key benefit is that the more good content you add, the better the community.

Enjoy!