going to re-post what I posted in the #sim-football channel on discord:
Quote: I'd like to briefly share on the trivia vs predictions debate as a brand new user
Trivia: A great way to get people to learn about the league's history. Unintentionally forced me to learn my way around the forums or engage in random discussion to look for answers. The issues were that several questions were very difficult, even for veteran users, that created a need to thoroughly(more than 15 minutes) cross-reference answers through the wiki and index -- often requiring checks on multiple pages for just one answer.
Now, we add in the factor that people are busy, or people actually want to put in that much effort like they do with writing for PT's, and it leads to the massive copy+paste of the answers in EACH locker room. Wait 7 days, copy+paste and collect TPE, wash, rinse, repeat.
Predictions: The frequency was a huge bonus as it serves as a makeshift gambling pick em pool that draws in eyes to even the most banal matchups. Even if a majority copies answers, the ease of completion and odds of winning big provided enough incentive for people to try on their own. The only people that would willingly copy are more often to be newer people who don't know how to gauge the teams(I actually learned each team name and logo by repeatedly doing predictions).
But the repeated repetition keeps the user engaged the entire week, keeps them informed at least on how the teams are doing, has them finding ways to make better predictions. I know I'm not the only one that would quietly lurk in chat and try to discover why certain teams were dominant and other teams weren't. I learned about the home-field cheese, the 79 QB speed cheese, and other minor yet prominent characteristics of the sim and the league. As I learned more, I got more confident talking to people as I came into this by myself with no connection to anything. I started learning about who was good at testing, good at building player models for "X" position, who was good at running a WR, and so forth.
[2:16 PM] The_Kidd: Hopefully this provides perspective for the higher ups that may not be in the trenches everyday anymore. If anything, perhaps having predictions on Monday and Friday could be a compromise but eliminate the participation TPE. If I had to choose which would keep newer users(users in general) engaged, I would definitely choose predictions over trivia each time.
