Yes that was a one-time thing as well.
Edit: sorry for the quick answer... I was just getting off a plane in Atlanta. Now that I've got a bit of a layover, I'll give more details
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Actively mining means just that. You can't submit a couple shares today, then a few more a few days later and so on. Do you have to be here 24/7? Well that would certainly increase your chances at finding a block. While I would obviously like you to point your big guns here full time, I realize that it may not be feasible for a variety of reasons. Be that reason you spilt your time with other pools or you shut down your miners part of the day due to fluctuating electricity costs during peak hours.
The idea is to grow the base hash rate of the pool so that we reduce the variance. The more constant hash we have, the more regularly the blocks are found and the more often miners are paid. Ultimately I want people to make this pool their home. I'm spending a ton of coin and time to provide an experience that makes miners happy to pull their gear off of the big, bad-for-Bitcoin pools.
So, at the end of the round, I will be evaluating the shares to determine whether or not the prospective winner was in fact actively mining. I won't accept a "winner" who made a guess, then didn't submit a single hash for a while, but happened to be lucky enough to then be mining when the block was found.
I realize my answer is a bit vague, but that is because the parameters of the question aren't easily quantified.
. I worked in Atlanta for a few years, now it's just mostly passing through (yes, I fly Delta). You assume correctly. I'm an Enterprise Architect, mostly focused on omni-channel retail implementations with a variety of software packages (WebSphere Commerce, IBM Sterling OMS, Manhattan WMOS, Manhattan DOM, Hybris Commerce, etc).
