@curie What Are You Doing?

There is an Elephant in the room and I have to ask the question.

Yesterday I was a little stunned in what is saw regarding the Curie comment contest. As you know they run a weekly contest for people to comment on the posts they upvote. At the end of the week they tally up the scores and award prizes in Steem starting with the winner who receives 10 Steem then the others are awarded in a sliding scale Steem depending where they finished.

The table yesterday from last weeks round looked like this as it takes a week after you have done the comments to tally it up. Obvioulsy there are some scores added and have to wait for the final posts to pay out or something like that.

What we need to remember is what the rules are first so this is what @curie mentions on their post and stipulates very clearly.

THE EXACT ALGORITHM AND METRICS USED TO GENERATE THIS SCORE WILL NOT BE REVEALED TO HINDER ATTEMPTS TO GAME THE CONTEST

That is fine as there has to be some rules so decent comments get counted and spammy ones are tossed aside if there are any. We all know the rules and follow them as closely as possible. Most of us on the table have been doing this long enough to adhere to the guidelines. It is not for everybody and even I end up listening to classical music from time to time in order to comment.

Looking at this table you would think that someone in the top 10 was going to get first place and maybe even the top person this week @vibesforlife would have a serious shout at winning the prize. 47 comments and 76 replies is quite a bit of work and represents hours of reading and commenting. @erikah in second place even has done quite a bit of work as well and that also represents some hours over the keyboard. In the rules it says a minimum of 5 comments is needed to enter the contest which is fine. Then how come 6 comments and 6 replies won the contest?

I am not worried about Steem for myself as I enter and am no means expecting to win so this post is written with only good intentions. Engagement on here is that important and I am glad Curie does this to encourage it. This is the reason for this post as I am praying it is an error as I find this absurd and crazy. I have nothing against @veryspider and from what I know is a great Steemian busy in curation for @curie and other sites so this is not against him/her.

I would like to know from @curie how the hell someone with 6 comments and 6 replies won this contest as if this is the case then what is the point. I am sure it is a massive error or hoping it is as I for one wont be continuing with this anymore if this is the right result. What is that saying if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is a duck. I am just calling this for what it is and not trying to ruffle feathers as that is not me. A few of us asked in replies on the post yesterday for some answers and clarity, but there has been no response as yet. I have given them 24 hours and I think that is fair before doing this post.

We are a community on this platform supporting each other and we will have disagreements from time to time and we look out for each other. I don't want to see a group of Steemians disheartened by something that is clearly wrong and needs to be made right. I am looking forward to the response from @curie on this as it is in the best interest of every Steemian to know what is happening as @curie supports the entire community.