By coincidence I stumbled upon JavaBlackBelt last night – and was sucked in right away. Although I’m interested in competitions by nature, it isn’t that factor that fascinates me.
It’s the “forced self-fueling” of that platform that I find so convincing. In order to compete i.e. take exams you have to earn credits. And you only get credits if you participate activly by commenting on existing exam questions (0.5 points), proposing changes/corrections to existing questions (1 point), and writting new questions (2 points). No such thing as free lunch… However, the participation barriers are fairly low. It is fairly easy to collect credits. So, if you’ve only got the slightest interest in all those exams you stay and contribute your share. Since you’re encouraged to rate the questions you’re answering, the pool of available questions does not only grow (see credits above), but the quality of those questions are assessed by the “community” and not by some anonymous admin. Close to perpetum mobile. Well done!