I must say, I'm not a terribly big fan of this awards system.  Making content with new or exciting themes can be fun and distracting, as we do in contests, but simply having to read other people's posts so that they have a chance at getting extra stuff.  I don't think it will encourage anyone to read anything that they wouldn't already.  Plus, there are people who do and don't want to compete.  If I enter a contest, then I'm setting myself up for evaluation, but in my regular posting I don't necessarily want to be graded.  

ADDITION: Having the option for people to earn extras is fine; making it so that they have to participate or might be seen as not cooperative, all for the sake of 'bragging rights', could be problematic.  Besides, who except the same sort of people who win the writing contests will win these awards as well, giving them even more stuff, and the people who felt bad about their writing before will have nowhere to escape from it.

I think the system of competition we had for the contests will be fine on its own.