We used to do something similar with the Komad Fortuna hunt - the idea was to get people reading the fics they might have missed or that were outside their usual fare. It got buggered when we couldn't search by author anymore to dig up the fics to put on the hunt.

Reccing still has its problems, because of the popularity contest aspect of it. I'm not sure there's anything much anyone can do about that--unless people are made to say *why* they recced a fic. Which wouldn't be a half bad idea. I noticed in the DCC, there were more people (self included) giving thoughtful reviews.