I am totally disgusted with the way Article contest is going. From what I am observing the ranking obtained by contestants are by manipulation of their popularity points alone. When they edge out other contestants through this ridiculous method even good written contestant's articles will be at a disadvantage. Dukascopy should either look at removing the popularity points feature or rename this contest as "Popularity Contest" because in reality that is what it is. I dont think this Article contest is fair in any sense for the contestants who don't resort to manipulating their popularity points. What a shame!

Actually, we are getting rid of half of the popularity very soon.

Article views and popularity can't be removed all together as the main idea of article contest was to popularize Dukascopy among individuals

But the current system of points looks bad for various reasons. Few writers like doctortyby are commenting in the guise of article update which increases his popularity points. last month he had 50% self comments. Ritesh has very good views but the view to comment/vote ratio is almost zero as he mostly shares his articles links through misleading statements and the moment people look at the page they hit the back button. In this case, that view is counted, but actually doesn't worth his efforts.

I prefer that they should not consider the POPULAR article of the contestant. The article which was written in the first week will always be the popular because of the time factor. More over, about 40% of the participants in trader contest stop trading in the second week as they blow up the account which will also contribute to lesser popularity of the articles published in the second week onwards.

Instead of taking the popular article for expert evaluation, they should consider at least top 20 or 25 articles and which ever article is presented better should get points. For e.g. If author ‘A’ writes 3 articles and 2 articles stand with in 20th rank, they should evaluate both articles and which ever article gains more evaluation points should be used for prize. This system will also help them in future as people will search the winning articles more.

The other suggestion is to keep a special editor’s choice prize. I have been seeing only a few authors like ritesh (5 times), adask, daddypapi, linnuxfx, nagarajaadiga (4 times) positive (3 times) etc. closing in top 10 most of the months in the past. This will certainly discourage people from writing articles since most of the people can’t work on popularity of their article due to their commitments in other works. With the introduction of special prize, I think those who have knowledge of the market will also contribute especially when winning this prize is prestigious.

Dear Guest,

Good day!

I was made to write here just because you have mentioned my name in the below trail message.

I started Writing from the month of November 2011 .My objective was to focus on

1. Quality articles
2. Easy to understand
3. Value addition
4. Education to beginners and
5. To contribute my best to Make this article contest one of the best events in whatever way I can with my trading experience and knowledge as I liked this contest very much because it is the only place where real traders share real trading knowledge on a mass scale.

It is important to note that I never ever ran behind any short cuts or any unethical methods to boost my popularity. Neither do I force some one to rate and like my article. I just let my viewers, both personal and official, read my article and decide whether it is useful to them or not.

It is just because of highly transparent and professional evaluation policy of Dukascopy, I was able to finish somewhere within first 10.

Hence I focus only on quality articles and leave everything else to viewers and Expert evaluation committee as they are the best judges to decide the matter. Also I should mention the fact that I had a wonderful wonderful time with both trading colleagues as well as Dukascopy team. As long as Dukascopy keeps rewarding quality, I will continue to write wholeheartedly.

At the same time I have my utmost respect for your opinion/ideas as only by exchanging ideas we can grow as a community as well as individuals.

I fully agree with you when you say that " one of the objective of this contest is to popularize the event among individuals". To achieve this objective without harming the ethics and spirit of the contest , each participant should think over as to how he can contribute for this cause in his capacity as a participant and as well as an individual.

My best wishes to you for all 3 contests.

Regards
Positive

The editor's choice is a nice idea but knowing our Community's tendency to make "soap operas" out of nothing we do not want to show our preference to any of the Community members.

Instead, please check the latest news of the Contest, maybe you will like our idea. Maybe you will even give some tips and feedback about it until we actually implement it.

Greetings,

I am very pleased to see the changes in the Popularity importance for the Article Contest.

The fact that the Quality of the Articles will be rewarded with points is a very good thing.
I am curious if the Quality factor will be calculated automatically or by the Dukascopy team?!
And will it be calculated for each article, as an item, or as an Average for the trader that
has written the articles?

And what about the Dukascopy Expert Points? Will them weight the same importance in the
balance of the Article Evaluation? It seems fair that the Dukascopy Team of experts should
have the most important part in the Article Standings, because You are the Investors that Pay
for the Prizes, and started the contest for Community and Marketing purposes, from the first place.

I am personally looking forward for the Changes. I feel motivated to write more elaborated articles
and analysis. We could make this Community even more useful for the traders in it, and for
the ones to come.

To Your Success,
Doctortyby - Tiberiu

Calculated by our team, for each individual article. The expert points will still matter. Only popularity will be given less weight.


Thank you for these kind words. This is exactly the purpose of all the changes. We're glad you get it.

Thank You very much for your quick answers.
What about my proposition regarding the individual Article awards
instead of the Traders Average?
I think it could integrate well with the Quality Factor regarding each article,
even if it implies a larger investment from Dukascopy in the Prizes.
And I think it will attract and motivate more traders to participate in the
Article Contest.
After All it is an unique contest that should be promoted
more amongst the Traders of the Dukascopy Community and Beyond,
World Wide on the Internet.

To Your success,
Doctortyby - Tiberiu

Seeing as this is the most common thread I figure I will type here..

The top 2 this month are very suspicious and are breaking the rules.

Fskliris has so many fake comment accounts that I am sure that he will be removed before the finalisation of the contest.

But I would like to highlight the fact that wyme has been spamming private messages. I flagged him and it says that basically that it has been noted. But I am just checking to see if dukascopy are keeping up with some of the cheating.

Also I love the new proposed ideas and think it will I,prove an already unique and very interesting contest.

Well done to all at dukascopy and those who are participating in the contest.

I would agree with most of your points....but the punitive actions by Duka is so disproportionate to the culprits actions it appears like nothing has been done. Or at best only received a small rap on the wrist i.e. not able to access their account for a few days etc. What this would do is encourage them to do the same actions again and again because the benefits gained is worth more than the so-called punishment. I am also sick and fedup of complaining of these very same things.

Greetings,

I have a suggestion regarding the Quality Factor.
It should also include a Lenght factor for the Words Count
as a 500 Words Article should receive fewer points than a
1500 Words Article. I am speeking only of Quality Information
Articles not of "Soap Operas"(lots of words with no meaning
what so ever, or to expand just one statement over and over again).

Just my view, Quality Factor should reward also the Hard Work
to write a Quality Article.
I think that most traders participating in this contest would agree
with me on that suggestion.

To Your Success,
Doctortyby - Tiberiu

Hello again dear Dukascopy team and traders,

I was thinking of how You could promote the Article Contest in the Trader Contest (or even Strategy Contest),
and motivate the traders to provide the Dukascopy Community with valuable content.

Maybe in the Trader Contest Main Page, on the left side, or on the right side, You could show
the last 5 articles posted, or the Most Popular Articles of the Day. Or even both,
one on the left and one on the right.

Expecting feed-back for my proposals,
To Your success,
Doctortyby - Tiberiu

Ok Dukascopy, I understand your intention but I feel the editor’s choice prize is good for the community in the long run.

The current “quality” factor reminds me of my school days when my teachers taught us how to write essays. I think most of the authors’ first use word processors like Microsoft word and then copy it to the interface provided by Dukascopy and most of the word processors are capable of doing most of the requirement of yours in “quantity”. Presentation of the article is not to be ignored but not the only importance.

We know that English is not the only communication language in the world and not every one is able to use good English but when the language of the contest is English, at least the authors should consult some one who knows English and get it edited which will be helpful to all.

Now that article contest is matured with about 400 articles in the library and all the articles can be grouped under 4-6 categories like emotions in trading/trading psychology, technical analysis, trading strategies, fundamental news break up, etc and I see a lot of articles under psychology and trading analysis. So, you may give more points to articles which are not covered in the past. Higher the articles under a group lower the points to that article. It will make people think of different topics to write.

You may quantify the articles on the basis of the subject of the article, presentation style, depth of the matter covered to name a few.

I also observed that easy way to fill the contest every week is the technical analysis since more articles will increase the popularity and views points and at least 5 authors wrote their analysis last month. It’s a pity that what ever they said in the article they never implemented it in the trading and most of them have blown up their account. You may check the article with the author’s trading in the contest before evaluating. He need not be on top 10 but at least be in the positive side. I do understand that both the article and trading contest are different but when they write about analysis, they should follow their own words to get better marks. As an idiom goes, “it is easier said than done” people write what ever they want and don’t follow it in the trading contest. I think most of the authors participate in the trader contest also.

Evaluation rule says: Expert's opinions of the most popular article submitted by the Participant for the Contest period. Top 20 Author's articles chosen by criteria 1 and 2 will be evaluated by the Dukascopy committee.

I still feel that instead of taking top 20 author’s article based on popularity, you should choose the top 25 articles for the evaluation

Of course, I do know the difficulty of the judge or evaluation panel when there are good articles and every one trying to win the contest with best writing. So, the final decision is always yours.

positive, why are you mean minded? i never complained about you. please read the whole paragraph carefully. just mentioning your name doesn't mean i am complaining and you don't need to react.

i think most of the people in the article contest also has the same idea of yours.

just chill!

the moment a person is signed up for the community, he accepts to receive the comments and messages from others traders. As long as a person doesn't involve in advertising materials and links other than dukascopy related, it is always accepted. when people write articles it's also their duty to work on the promotion of their articles. if you do not like to receive messages may be you can quit the contest as commenting and private messaging is public.

you write articles with a lot of pain and if the article is not viewed by many and commented, just try to understand how bad you feel! (may be you've not written articles till now ) so, stop behaving like a school kid and mature.

We never let cheaters finish the month in top10. In fact, 3 people our of current top10 were banned.

As for the amount of hard work - this is decided by the expert committee - they will examine articles deeper, mostly their content.

What to do in case if other contestants keep spamming my mailbox with messages asking for help and votes? Is it abusive behavior?

why don't dukascopy change the plan from the current 10:1 view to 1:10 community view? the more outsiders view the articles, the more points one will get. this will reduce the spamming as well as increase the outside view of the dukascopy site with others.