Thank you for your reply. Your approach is one which I hope proves to be successful and in reviewing the posts which led to this decision, it was great to discover users like you that I perhaps wouldn't have otherwise come across.

I hope that this initiative leads to a healthy competition between users which results in greater interaction. As you say the most important thing is that the interaction is genuine and...

knowing that our post has been read, that is, knowing that we do not write into the space, is a greater motivation to continue

I couldn't have said it any better myself.