As the guy who was away for a while, I feel like I'm the LAST guy who should be making demands for how I'd want a workshop to go, but (narcissism mode: activate):
1. As a writer, what kind of workshops are you looking for?
Tough question. It really depends on what kind of writing you're looking to improve. While pretty much any kind of writing practice will raise your capabilities across a multitude of mediums, MR deals with just about every kind of writing at the same time. What I'd like to see are a few more writing workshops specific to storytelling in sequential art. No huge or convoluted projects, but more focused mini-projects. No pressure to draw anything complex here, but comic/manga writers really need the kind of experience that comes from working in a visual medium. I'll throw out a few suggestions:
a) A challenge to scare or surprise a reader in 1-to-3 pages
b) Write a short, 2 page story with a consistent cast of characters, but every panel is set in a different location
c) Write a short dialogue between any two non-human "characters" (humanoid creatures don't count)
d) A short scene of a character talking to himself. No thought balloons allowed
e) Adapt a scene from a Shakespearean play into modern language. Regional slang is accepted and actively encouraged.
f) "Write" a silent short story in under 10 panels
g) Write a 3-4 panel joke comic, similar to Western newspaper funnies or Japanese Omake
h) Write a brief action scene that includes (meaningful) dialogue in every panel. Then resolve it without having a clear "winner"
2. What motivates you to do them.?
Having the free time. Feeling sufficiently inspired by a topic. Seeing a challenge that I think might benefit me to do. Seeing somebody writing/drawing close to my level and wondering if I could do as good/better. A mixture of shared enthusiasm and guilt that I call "collaboration."
3. If there was an arbitrary point system for the writers section alone (Let's say I post a topic with badges given to those who've completed workshops) Would you feel more motivated to write?
I dunno. You included "arbitrary" right there in the initial suggestion. I do think there's some merit to a workshop participation score system, though. Maybe not numerical points, though. It's hard to judge the value of a number without a reference, and it'd be strange to even track after a large number after so many workshops.
Badges, though... It puts me in a Pokemon mindset. Lord knows that people love collecting parts of a set, too. Wait- how many excercises did I suggest earlier? 8? Okay, here's my suggestion: We make an MR workshop league. 8 workshops, with a new one going up every (couple days/week). No time limit for anything, and no particular order to complete in. Every workshop gets you a new badge in a set, and all 8 badges gets you membership to the league of the "region." Different regions could even focus on different ways of writing/drawing. That's my suggestion. No need to stick with it, or the lessons I suggested. We're still just workshopping workshops.