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Did you know Programmer SE's birthday is coming up on December 16th? Congratulations!

How about a contest or some other fun activity to stir things up a little? After a year of great Q&A, we'd like the opportunity to "give back" for everyone's hard work.

Anniversary events area a great way to spark some interest in the extracurricular activity in your site (more meta participation). An “anniversary event" can be just about anything. Take a look at Super User’s 2nd Birthday Super Contest for inspiration. It doesn’t have to be a contest. Dream up whatever you feel the community will find interesting, and go for it.

Start a meta post or chat event to work out the details. Rally support for your event and bring it to our attention ([email protected]). We're really interested in community-lead initiatives, so let’s just say, if you can work out the details, we’re very motivated to say “go for it!”

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  • We've set up a brainstorming chat room...
    – yannis
    Commented Dec 21, 2011 at 5:49
  • @YannisRizos: Would you mind joining the comment chat in the answer below?
    – Dynamic
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 10:57
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    @Jae: No I will NOT join your splinter group! Herecy! :P (I'll join in if I have something useful to say, don't worry I'm not shy)
    – yannis
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 20:41

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Thanks to the Programmer Contest Conspiracy Room, I think we have found a celebration activity. It is a "Concept a Week" event, based on that of Philosophy.SE (I am not sure if it is going on still, though).

Basically, each week there will be a new "concept". If you ask a question about, or having to do with this concept, there is an incentive (I'm not sure what that will be, leave a comment if you have an idea).

This will help the Programmers.SE information grow in categories that are needed, and it's a fun event!

So far we have this figured out:

  • The questions must abide by the rules stated in the FAQ to get an incentive.
  • The incentive will not be big. It will be either your name in a drawing or a virtual prize having to do with SE.
  • You may NOT get an incentive if the question was already asked.
  • If your question is part of the contest, you will include something like [contest] in your title. If not, and your question has to do with the current topic, no incentive will be earned.
  • Bounties on previous questions on the topic do NOT count. Neither do edits to a previously written question.

There is a chat room for working out details that can be found here.

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  • Details can be worked out here as far as I know. Unlike Main, Meta supports discussions.
    – user28988
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 3:58
  • @WorldEngineer: Then feel free to work it out here. Either way really...
    – Dynamic
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 11:08
  • @WorldEngineer : So do you have any ideas on what we can do incentive wise? Maybe an xp boost or a special badge (or both:-)
    – Dynamic
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 19:55
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    SE Swag (T-shirts etc.) are the usual incentives.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 22:52
  • @ChrisF: But do we want to be usual?
    – Dynamic
    Commented Jan 4, 2012 at 0:41
  • @ChrisF: The users of Programmers.SE aren't exactly usual.
    – Dynamic
    Commented Jan 4, 2012 at 0:42
  • Winner gets three free passes to ask "What is your favorite <noun> (as a programmer)?" or "Why are programmers <adjective>?" questions! ducks
    – user8
    Commented Jan 4, 2012 at 6:21
  • @MarkTrapp: Honestly, that's a great idea. The question is how do you win this contest?
    – Dynamic
    Commented Jan 4, 2012 at 12:07
  • @MarkTrapp: Could be it be question of the week question with most votes? Or... something else?
    – Dynamic
    Commented Jan 4, 2012 at 12:10
  • @Jae I was being facetious: it'll be a cold day in hell before we'd allow anything of the sort.
    – user8
    Commented Jan 4, 2012 at 12:21
  • @MarkTrapp: LOL. Sorry... I thought you lost it there! But the questions still stand- "How do you win?" and "What will you win?".
    – Dynamic
    Commented Jan 4, 2012 at 20:49
  • @WorldEngineer: Do you have an idea?
    – Dynamic
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 10:56
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    Jae take a look at the latest blog post for inspiration - the SE people seem to like the idea.
    – yannis
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 20:39
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    Literature SE does a cheap (ish) book as a reward for posting well during their "author of the week" thing. I think a cheap dev tool or book (are there any cheap books? :)) could work here.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Jan 9, 2012 at 14:17
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    Agreed, @AnnaLear. The reasoning behind a small prize and a random raffle/drawing (provided the question is tagged appropriately and has a positive score) is so people aren't motivated enough to break the integrity of the system but rather gently reminded to ask those questions here and maybe get a gift.
    – Seth Rogers Staff
    Commented Jan 9, 2012 at 16:19

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