Automated Competition Entries - Compers Unite!

glacier

Think the new weekly sky gadget geeks one is open to abuse. They do mention agent & third parties will be disqualified but with such a large prize I think agents will still try auto entries. Think they should at least have a captcha. I've msg them my concern.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3728511

direct: http://sky1.sky.com/gadget-geeks/gadget-geeks-competition

SuperluckyDi

ehlittleone wrote: »

Thanks Di

Only trouble with this is that only the most creative people have a chance of winning and I'm guessing that they get such a low entry because the majority of us are not

Creative competitions actually cover a wide spectrum of comps, not just the judged ones - for example, the current comps on the Yorkshire Tea and McDonalds Facebook pages require you to upload a photo of you with your kettle, and with a McD's coffee cup. The winners are chosen at random from all entries - so it doesn't matter how good your photo is - you could even take it with your built in webcam. And of course, dare I mention the voting comps - if you have enough friends you can win these without having the best entry!

These type of 'creative' comps are a lot more fun than simple entry forms - and if people do still try and cheat in them, at least we can usually see their name on Facebook so we know exactly who's not playing fair! This 'transparency' is the advantage that many creative photo/video/slogan comps have on Facebook, because we can see at a glance how many have entered.

jdsaint

Beauty & The Dirt - I have emailed them to see if they are aware. Hopefully they will reply

If you want to send them a list of email addresses to look out for then let me know. Their reply though makes me think they might be thinking along the lines of comping communities ???

The emails to look out for are on the Loquax blog, but it might be easier if I post here so you can copy/paste to promoters?

They do mention agent & third parties will be disqualified but with such a large prize I think agents will still try auto entries.

The larger sites tend to respect the "no automated entry" rules - the smaller ones less so - but no harm making promoters aware what to look out for.

Jason

jdsaint

Sacla have replied on their wall....

Don't worry! We are VERY aware of automated entry services and we have the systems in place to deal with them! This competition seemed to capture your imagination and we really did have thousands and thousands of genuine entries, we must run another one soon. Thank you so much for your support, we really do appreciate you!

If this is the case why not just have information in their rules mentioning them?

It'd be interesting to see what happens on their next competition.

Jason

lovetowinacar

This is really awful and puts me off of entering competitions.

No wonder I don't win anything - what chance do I have with my 1 entry when some people are getting multiple entries and don't actually do any work to try to win but pay a fee?

I was unaware of this and feel I have been wasting my time. Thing is I only enter competitions where I would like the prize so that other people have a better chance at the ones where I don't want the prize or couldn't use it - I thought that was fair yet basically people pay and sit back whilst a website "cheats" on their behalf.

I really hope the people who run the competitions sit up and take note since this could mean only those who pay win... very unfair:(

FitOnFam

I used to get annoyed with Captchas but after reading this im actually grateful of them! Never knew these site existed, thanks for the people who are sending e-mails and stuff. Lets hope it makes a difference.

lovetowinacar

spanglish wrote: »

I guess that means there's little point entering that monthly comp anymore. Have e-mailed Bosch to see if they are aware/care about this.

I have also emailed Bosch about this cheating. If lots of us email about this multiple entries they will either change/amend rules or tighten up the checking when they select a winner to see whether the entry came via a multiple entry comping company - it has to be bad publicity for them since people entering via multiple entry companies do not even visit their website so surely they want people who visit and follow rules to win?

I urge everyone on here who enters competitions to email as many companies as possible or facebook or twitter the companies concerned - hopefully this will help us all and ensure we all have a fair chance of winning n the future.:)

Marg2k8

lovetowinacar wrote: »

I urge everyone on here who enters competitions to email as many companies as possible or facebook or twitter the companies concerned - hopefully this will help us all and ensure we all have a fair chance of winning n the future.:)

Perhaps if anyone posts a message on facebook to a company about this practice, they could post a link to the facebook page on hear, so that we can all reply that we agree.

timmmers

Puzzler and TAB comps entered by auto entries would be hard, but the irony of someone whining that those people didn't solve the puzzles didn't pass me considering the kindness on a very few on MSE leads to hundreds of entries per issue from people who haven't even seen the magazines never mind solved the puzzles. Pot calling kettle there.

Auto entry and BULK entry ..two different things. Accessibility is a legal requirement now, and there are many auto form fillers and the like to help people with genuine problems typing or even seeing...so companies need to be careful to try and not interfere with those while making entry in bulk hard.

The guy who runs comps for Dorset cereals told me they also had big problems with mass entries, that's why the captcha was initiated there...and a different way to win the bigger prizes, like that daily token collection way instead of a click entry every day to amass points...very good way to go about it really.

As for facebook comps, most of them couldn't care a damn...how many times have people explained or even ended up fighting about voting comps....and yet they still run them. Those are so easy to cheat on it's not funny. Completely ruins them.

The idiots who pay a company to enter comps...the numbers should tell them how they are being ripped off. But the fact of the matter is that they are entering once each...just getting someone to do it for them, like you entering your OH which I'm certain happens all the time. The company may be entering a lot of times but each one is legal and for a different person who paid them to enter. The only logical way to stop this happening is to make sure that entries must be made by the person filling in the form and/or making these mugs aware how little their money is actually buying them.

Bottom line. A lot of what you complain about here...you do yourself, helping each other. The rest is pretty much legit ev en if it's annoying.
The reason that we tend to do better on FB /Twitter than other places in our circles on here and linked to it...simply that comps finish fast and we get in early because we're told early. IF there were a sensible section for social media on this forum to recognise that ...we'd do a lot better and/or keep the advantage. Comping is getting popular, add the auto element to that and we need every little edge we can get to stay in with a chance. I hope ne day soon MSE gets with the plot on this.

Thank you for the stry about the captcha on ITV and other sites...that's always been a mystery why they were so crazy sometimes but makes sense now and isn't quite as annoying if it's also doing some good

Marg2k8

Hope nobody minds me bumping this thread, but I think it is important enough to warrant it.