I suppose my initial idea was to do something that gave people the feeling of belonging to a team, which I implemented through competitions, and then I felt the need to reward winners of the competition somehow.
Do you (or anyone) have any ideas for socially meaningful rewards for participation? I feel like I see badges all over the place nowadays, so that seems kind of overused...
Getting to the point: How about if people gave physical stuff (old xbox games? whatever it is that would excite your community) and winners could choose from this? That way people can share, recycle, compete in a virtuous cycle.
I feel that it would be tough for you o/w to find ways to make enough money to give people $ for points/activity. At the point that the conversion from virtual to real becomes meaningful to them it is bound to bankrupt you because they are taking more value out than putting in. Second Law of Thermodynamics and all that*
* unless there are network effects...