Well, duh. But then so is reality television. At some level, people are doing it for the fame, and/or their showbiz career. Your question being?

Since the rules say you own your content and are merely licensing it, seems reasonable to me.

Or are you just looking for reasons to be annoyed by this?

eh - well I guess so then ?
I'm just suprised seeing the Huffington post and "viral" in the same breath. Just seemed like such a mismatch they were only bandwagon hopping. (again, one might argue)

but perhaps that's just me.

To repeat: Well, duh. It's good publicity for them, and maybe it will create some political buzz if something's effective, and so forth.

I guess I can see how it's a mismatch -- DailyKos, for example, being much more of a grassroots community (on that side of the aisle) than HuffPo. Even putting that aside, though, they've managed in a much shorter time to come out pretty equal in terms of traffic, last I saw.

You ask me, it's a good move. It's good to have a contest like this, it can get people who aren't "bloggers" or "commenters" to get involved, it raises HuffPo's profile, it loosens them up a bit. Plus, I can't wait to see what comes out of it.

(And for those who say you can't force creativity, I give you Crying While Eating.)

I can't comment much on this, because I don't actually read the Huffy blog at all, but I did find the award possibilities amusing:

The People's Choice Award for the contestant that creates the entry that gets the most total traffic during the month. The winner dines with Arianna Huffington and receives $2,500.

The Jury Prize for the favorite entry of our jury is a meeting with the judge most interested in their work and receives $2,500. Judges will vote based on creativity, originality and social commentary.

I do have the impression that everyone is all hepped about "viral" blah, blah, and are pretty sure they should have some a' that... And throwing a contest to acquire not one, but any number (!) for only $5,000 (and the chance to observe Ms. Huffington nibbling a canapé, up close and personal) is a pretty cheap way to go about it.

you're right I shouldn't be suprised.

the cheapness gets to me. But whatever.