With Vox contests, the devil is in the details. A cunning opponent like Jodi will game the system by taking every advantage of vague or poorly crafted rules, so they must be clear at the outset.
While there were many excellent suggestions for this year's challenge, Hotrod's recommendation of Comment War seems to have had the greatest resonance. Both Jodi and I also liked Michael's recommendation of thematic posts, but there is nothing in the Comment War model that would prevent us from drafting such posts.
The advantages of Comment War are numerous. First: absent an absolute tie, Comment War will most assuredly produce a winner and a loser. Second, Comment War rewards quality over quantity, without creating annoying artificial deadlines. I think we'll all be happy to see the end of random YouTube clips and 100-word meditations on belly button lint. Finally, Comment War leaves little room for interpretation and argument (though, I suspect we'll find a way).
So here they are, the official rules of Jodi and Dabysan's 2010 Comment War...
1. The winner of Comment War will be the contestant who receives the most comments on his or her blog in 2010. Comments will be tallied at the end of each month.
2. The Comment War officially begins after both Jodi and Dabysan agree to this (or another rule-set) and applies only to comments submitted to posts that are published after the final rules post.
3. Comments posted by Jodi and Dabysan will not be included in either contestant's tally (this will help to prevent cynical comment boycotting).
4. Neither Jodi, nor Dabysan will link to -- or solicit comments for -- their Vox blogs on Web sites, blogs or social networking services outside of Vox. Linking/cross-promoting within Vox is permitted. Violators will be charged a 50-comment penalty per violation.
5. Spam comments will not be counted.
6. The contest ends December 31, 2010 at midnight Eastern time. Comments posted afterward will not be tallied.
7. Once the final comment is tallied, the losing contestant will provide the winning contestant with either a pie or a pan of brownies of the winner's choice. Fast-food and prepackaged pies and brownies are not acceptable. The loser will also craft a post extolling the winner's many virtues. This post will include some form of multimedia element (sound or video) recorded by the loser.
I think that's it. Consider the gauntlet cast...
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