Right now there are only around 12 participants and I am not really sure if the new rules of this contest would actually attract more people. In my point of view the rules of last month contest is way better than the new rule. People would be discouraged in joining if rules would be frequently change.

When it comes to the prizes I think this is the most appealing part that really attracts the people to join the contest. If percentage method would be used to award prizes to the participants I recommend something like this at least create a minimum percentage of prizes.

10-30 active participants = 35% of original prize for rank 1-10
31-65 active participants = 65% of original prize for rank 1-10
66-100+ active participants = 100% of original prize for rank 1-10

rank 11-20 would have 150 USD that can be added to their winnings if they join the next month contest and won ( rank 1-10)... and 5 chosen participants (not in top 1-20) with great article chosen by dukascopy that would be given advantage of submitting 2 article per week or 6 article for next month article contest and a prize of 100$ or their article be featured in dukascopy TV..

This is just my own suggestion so that at least those that join would continue joining the contest article and would have exponential growth of participants.

If you really want many participants I would recommend that somehow if participants joined trader's contest they would automatically be included in article's contest and there should be an additional tab for each trader's contest participant linking their articles...

There are so many ways that can increase the number of participants in this contest if only we help one another. win-win situation for both participants and dukascopy..

IMHO changing the rules/prize isn't the solution to make this article's contest work. The changes could actually lead to lesser participants. I don't wanna be biased because I am a participant but somehow I just wanna give my opinion and suggestion to help.

the current issue with the article contest is that the final result has nothing to do with the quality of article but on how good people are with spamming other contestant or sharing their article on facebook.

that's currently the biggest issue, prizes distribution is a very small issue compared to this contest being a facebook contest.

In other contest the facebook contest is only about 25% of the final results, in this one it's pretty much 90%.

That's why i would suggest to remove prizes all together and to make the article part something additional to the trading/strategy contest so that people can detail a bit more what they are doing, such as going in more detail with one recent trade by linking an article to it etc.

The biggest incentive for not posting anything here is that people with any kind of wit are usually not interested in viral marketing or spamming, unless you are desperate for cash and like to spend hours in your email trash box there is no point to be part of in a spamming contest.

I might still drop an article from time to time here but just for the fun as there is no way you can finish in a better spot than the guys dropping their link on ALL other contestant (i thought that was against the rule btw).

I think you are misunderstanding the goal of this contest. And you need a little bit more ingenuity in this contest. You are very wrong thinking that it's just spam and Facebook contest. There's many ways to promote your articles. And most ads are targeted. So mostly people interested in Forex visit and read articles. For example I have 460 twitter followers and they all are involved in Forex. So Dukascopy benefits from this a lot. Also articles are promoted in Forex forums and blogs. If we would think about 100% fair rules, I would say there's only one resort - count only those visitors, which are registered and logged in as a Dukascopy community member. As we know in this case Dukascopy wouldn't get many new customers. "dropping their link on ALL other contestant" - I agree, this is not a very nice thing.

The term "active participation" is not new. It was defined in the rules from the very beginning.

This is also not correct - changing the rules did already help. At this point (just after a few days since September started) we already have almost 50% number of article posted during the whole august.

As for the ranks, do not forget that 33% of the final rank is determined by the expert committee who evaluate exactly the quality of the article. And of course, the contest leaders will appear on Dukascopy TV.

Thanks for the other suggestions, they are quite interesting.

Hmm, that is not 100% true. This is from the old rules:
"If the total number of active registrations (number of Participants) within each Contest period does not reach 100, the Contest period is automatically extended by one month and the registration proceeds in accordance with §2 above. All articles, registrations, votes, comments etc. are carried forward as well."
And new rule tells:
"active Participants (the Authors who have posted at least one article)".
This can be interpreted in different ways. But in old rules active registration is said to be "number of Participants". In old rules is also said that:
"Anyone who wants to take part in the Contest (individually a "Participant" or collectively "Participants") must register following the rules below."
So this means, that in old rules Participant is a person, who registered and not necessarily uploaded an article. In the new rules this is changed.
So in this case rules has been changed and the meaning also.
We can discuss if it's fair or unfair. But there is one rule - "Dukascopy Bank SA reserves the right to change the Contest rules, requirements and awards without prior notice and at any time at its sole discretion.". So they are doing it according to rules, which were accepted by all participants.
Just please, Dukascopy Banks SA, don't equivocate and just tell - "Yes, we changed the rules, it's our right, end of discussion, period".

Twitter, facebook, etc... What's the difference? at the end of the day people will stop posting article when they see that the guys at the top are the guy that every month spam their facebook or twitter account to get 200 +1.

Support, you keep telling us that the final rank is also determined by an expert committee, in the strategy contest you also mentioned that you were going to assess contestant based on the quality of their own strategy, so why are you almost never using it as shown by keeping clones in the top 10 and never removing any point from them? Why dont you never give us any feedback on the expert committe debriefing?

I see that you are proposing to stop Article contest at all, because it's not possible to rate fairly. I think this is not a good idea, because as we can see people post articles now. And post more then in August. And if you don't like the way it is held, why do you participate at all? Just leave it. I do not like trading contest for example, so I just don't take part in it. At the beginning I've wrote support an email, asking about this kind of promoting. And I've got an answer that this is the right way to do. So it means Dukascopy wants this. And some people adapt, some not. Such is life.

I am leaving the article contest, i might drop an article just for fun at one point, but there is no point with competing as i dislike spamming.

My point is that i think an article blog would be nice to keep especially if it was linked with the 2 other contests but i would remove any kind of competition as it's not possible to rate if fairly as you just mentioned.

I do not understand why do you want to remove it? If other people like it, let it be. It doesn't hurt. I wouldn't post any articles if there wouldn't be any prize and competition. And I do not think that anyone else would post.

Because there is no point in having an unfair competition. That's against the principle of competing.

It's a competition based on exploiting the weakness of the rules, your idea of letting only registered people give +1 would certainly help but i doubt it is going to be put in place. ( btw i hope self commenting doesnt give any points lol)

I would still appreciate an answer from dukascopy on why we never get any meeting notes from their expert meeting which are supposed to evaluate the quality of strategies.

Even though prize money is reduced, there are a lot of scope for everyone to turn up and write articles . We have seen in Video contest that as the no. of months increased to reach the minimum no. of contestants to participate, those who had already presented their video got frustrated.

It's better to get truncated prize than waiting for the contest to over. As we know, every one tries to win the contest and those who prepare articles after 70th post would only postpone presenting their article as the chances of they winning the contest is weak.

Dukascopy is giving us a great opportunity to showcase our capacity in a various ways. I am really shocked to see some contestants ordering the Dukascopy to do what they want rather than thanking them towards their effort to maximize the participation by contestants.

Please follow the news tomorrow - we will publish the scores with the comments from the expert committee. You will see that the top 10 standings have changed