has anyone ever won anything from these competition sites?

JessicAhh

I quite like the fact that this rather amazing hobby has been made more accessible to others through the internet. Yes, lots more now compete against me, but I enter because I love comping rather than because I love to win.

Perhaps I'm just too nice :rotfl:

The_3rd_Zebu

Well I have always enjoyed anything competitive and in the pre-internet days you had to actually DO something under your own initiative in order to win. That might be



* actually finding the entry forms
* getting out and about
* researching answers
* thinking up slogans and tiebreaker
* calculating volumes/times/amounts
* writing with pen on paper!!
* walking to the post box!!
etc etc


Now if there is an effort to be made then this is negated because there will always be somebody who will make all this available to Anybody online. - even crossword answers!
This has even now become the Ethos to the extent that competitions are no longer competitions in the 'competitive sense of the word. ie One shares or copies everything.


I agree that there are thousands more people nowadays who are able to 'enjoy' the hobby but I sometimes wonder if some of them ( maybe even myself) are doing it because it is an addiction rather than a hobby. One can easily spend hours a day at it sitting in the same position clicking boxes and filling out roboform over and over again. Sometimes that is not too healthy.

weeowens

The_3rd_Zebu wrote: »

Well I have always enjoyed anything competitive and in the pre-internet days you had to actually DO something under your own initiative in order to win. That might be



* actually finding the entry forms
* getting out and about
* researching answers
* thinking up slogans and tiebreaker
* calculating volumes/times/amounts
* writing with pen on paper!!
* walking to the post box!!
etc etc


Now if there is an effort to be made then this is negated because there will always be somebody who will make all this available to Anybody online. - even crossword answers!
This has even now become the Ethos to the extent that competitions are no longer competitions in the 'competitive sense of the word. ie One shares or copies everything.


I agree that there are thousands more people nowadays who are able to 'enjoy' the hobby but I sometimes wonder if some of them ( maybe even myself) are doing it because it is an addiction rather than a hobby. One can easily spend hours a day at it sitting in the same position clicking boxes and filling out roboform over and over again. Sometimes that is not too healthy.

I agree with you but it all has moved on & this is where we are at now.
Not ideal,I know,but what is in life.
Via MSE Comps I won a Dvd yesterday:rotfl:
So it must be working:D

fire**fly

The_3rd_Zebu wrote: »

Well I have always enjoyed anything competitive and in the pre-internet days you had to actually DO something under your own initiative in order to win. That might be



* actually finding the entry forms
* getting out and about
* researching answers
* thinking up slogans and tiebreaker
* calculating volumes/times/amounts
* writing with pen on paper!!
* walking to the post box!!
etc etc


Now if there is an effort to be made then this is negated because there will always be somebody who will make all this available to Anybody online. - even crossword answers!
This has even now become the Ethos to the extent that competitions are no longer competitions in the 'competitive sense of the word. ie One shares or copies everything.


I agree that there are thousands more people nowadays who are able to 'enjoy' the hobby but I sometimes wonder if some of them ( maybe even myself) are doing it because it is an addiction rather than a hobby. One can easily spend hours a day at it sitting in the same position clicking boxes and filling out roboform over and over again. Sometimes that is not too healthy.

there are still a few left of us that still do that,
me for one

JessicAhh

The_3rd_Zebu wrote: »

Now if there is an effort to be made then this is negated because there will always be somebody who will make all this available to Anybody online. - even crossword answers!
This has even now become the Ethos to the extent that competitions are no longer competitions in the 'competitive sense of the word. ie One shares or copies everything.
.

I agree with you to some extent, but there are definitely online comps that do require effort, and can't be done via 'forum teamwork'. Pinterest boards; slogans; captions; limericks; taking photographs of certain things - in the last twenty-four hours, I've done all five of those.

I needed to say that, otherwise I feel like those of us who've comped for longer are writing off a whole new generation of compers as layabouts who just button-click RCs and so on.

Ironically, bringing this back to subject, if us longer-term compers are too precious about our hobby, and try to keep it for ourselves and not share it, then the spam sites would have a field day with sign-ups because there'd be nowhere else for new compers to discover which sites are 'safe' to enter via, if they don't want a tonne of spam.

boatinbird69

I am pleased to see the list of sites that everyone avoids, I avoid them too! However, even some companies own websites are plagued with advertising, click-thru links and basically try and get you to sign up for loads of stuff before your entry is submitted. Over the years I have learnt the art of box ticking and un-ticking!!


I will, however say that I really like Prizefinder and I used to use Loquax back in the day. I have won lots of comps over the years through both sites which I would probably never have found otherwise. I like hotukdeals too, but I think since discovering MSE and using it for years for banking and financial advice, the competitions forum is second to none!


Does anyone else miss Dotcomper? That was my first ever dip into comping almost 10 years ago and I made lots of 'virtual' friends.


Right, back to Pinterest for me today...not working today so am being 'creative' instead!

gholmes724

I run competitions on my blog but I don't do anything with the data I collect other than delete it after rafflecopter has randomly chosen my winner. I wouldn't dream of selling it on - I wouldn't know how!

But then I also self-finance the prizes and have no interest in doing anything with the data.

I take the point about sponsored giveaways, I think bloggers sometimes go a little berserk with the number of giveaways they 'host' and personal gain ie they get to keep the product free is a big part of their motivation. They don't seem to take into consideration their liability if something goes wrong.

But please don't tar all blog comps with the same brush. Some are small and quite legit with no agenda.