Is it selfish to not share comps?

weeowens

SuperluckyDi wrote: »

I think you’ve taken my tip rather too seriously! It’s about those prizes you REALLY want, not just the nice prizes all of us like, share on forums/groups and retweet without thinking!

As an example, there’s a competition on your local Facebook page to win a shed, with 20 entries, and you’re desperate to win a shed - it’s top of your wishlist! Do you immediately like, comment, share and post it onto MSE? If you do, that’s a bit crazy! Certainly, do it with the other comps you see, but not for those prizes that you’d LOVE. It's not being selfish - you found the competition, there’s no comping law saying you have to share it. There’s nothing wrong with an occasional secret (and what if that shed went to a comper who doesn't want it and hasn’t got anywhere to put it, you’d be pretty sad you shared it then!)

Sharing is lovely, and I certainly believe in comping karma - but for every 50 comps I share happily, there will be 1 that I don’t - because it’s a prize on my wishlist. This week I wanted to take my son to the Community Shield, I found a competition with 2 entries. I won, and THEN I shared it and blogged about it so everyone else could have a go for the remaining prizes. But there was no way I was sharing it before I’d won - not when I had a 50/50 chance of winning and my son was eager to go!

But that’s the way I comp. A balance of sharing & secrets. It works for me, but if we all did the same thing, comping would be a boring old hobby!

Cheers for the reply.

mansey

I dare bet there are many comps on here that the comp poster would REALLY like to win, but they still share them to give us all a chance.

Your post makes you sound secretive and sly and greedy and it's all about me me me. It reads really bad for someone who is supposedly out to help other compers.

weeowens

mansey wrote: »

I dare bet there are many comps on here that the comp poster would REALLY like to win, but they still share them to give us all a chance.

Your post makes you sound secretive and sly and greedy and it's all about me me me. It reads really bad for someone who is supposedly out to help other compers.

Got to agree:

E: 09/08 Win 500 Euros in cash (OPENS 03/08)#4

E: 01/09 Win a Tissot T-Race MotoGP Quartz Limited Edition Watch

E: 31/08 Win a trip to the Yakima Valley.(USA)

E: 31/08 Win a Christopher Ward watch worth £1,375

Plus a few more :-)

weeowens

weeowens wrote: »

Got to agree:

E: 09/08 Win 500 Euros in cash (OPENS 03/08)#4

E: 01/09 Win a Tissot T-Race MotoGP Quartz Limited Edition Watch

E: 31/08 Win a trip to the Yakima Valley.(USA)

E: 31/08 Win a Christopher Ward watch worth £1,375

Plus a few more :-)

I want to win all of the above :-)

mansey

weeowens wrote: »

I want to win all of the above :-)

Can we share the euros? And you can have the rest they don't interest me :beer:

weeowens

mansey wrote: »

Can we share the euros? And you can have the rest they don't interest me :beer:

50:50 split is good for me.

As they say in Yorkshire: Owt is better than nowt :-)

sydroo

The last time I found a comp that wasn't posted on here was on twitter for Download festival tickets.

By the time I'd got off the phone to my friend, who desperately wanted to go, the comp had ended. There weren't any kind of T&Cs, it didn't say 'flash comp' and I didn't expect it last for less an hour! So not only did she not get to enter but I did even get a chance to post it here.

I get quite a thrill finding a comp that hasn't been listed on MSE as it's a rare event (especially as I'm an end dater!) and posting it.

If everyone was selfish (and I do think it's selfish, it changes comping from being a fun hobby into something far more clandestine) and kept the comps that they wanted to win to themselves, then this and other forums like hduk and loquax would simply be redundant.

It's like the puzzler, take a break, etc magazine comps that are religiously posted every week which really require a huge amount of time, effort and money. I would never be able to enter those without the complete unselfishness of the forum members that post them.

The point is people enter comps because they want to win and those who do post comps on MSE (and other sites) are eminently better people than those keep them to themselves.
I just wonder how many compers who have kept competitions secret have also won from comps listed on forums which the OPs would've loved to have won but gave others the opportunity to win as well.

fire**fly

sydroo wrote: »

The last time I found a comp that wasn't posted on here was on twitter for Download festival tickets.

By the time I'd got off the phone to my friend, who desperately wanted to go, the comp had ended. There weren't any kind of T&Cs, it didn't say 'flash comp' and I didn't expect it last for less an hour! So not only did she not get to enter but I did even get a chance to post it here.

I get quite a thrill finding a comp that hasn't been listed on MSE as it's a rare event (especially as I'm an end dater!) and posting it.

If everyone was selfish (and I do think it's selfish, it changes comping from being a fun hobby into something far more clandestine) and kept the comps that they wanted to win to themselves, then this and other forums like hduk and loquax would simply be redundant.

It's like the puzzler, take a break, etc magazine comps that are religiously posted every week which really require a huge amount of time, effort and money. I would never be able to enter those without the complete unselfishness of the forum members that post them.

The point is people enter comps because they want to win and those who do post comps on MSE (and other sites) are eminently better people than those keep them to themselves.
I just wonder how many compers who have kept competitions secret have also won from comps listed on forums which the OPs would've loved to have won but gave others the opportunity to win as well.

this ^^^ :T:T:T

LadyMorticia

I like to post comps but it's rare that I find one that's not already here.

chrissie57

SuperluckyDi wrote: »

I think you’ve taken my tip rather too seriously! It’s about those prizes you REALLY want, not just the nice prizes all of us like, share on forums/groups and retweet without thinking!

As an example, there’s a competition on your local Facebook page to win a shed, with 20 entries, and you’re desperate to win a shed - it’s top of your wishlist! Do you immediately like, comment, share and post it onto MSE? If you do, that’s a bit crazy! Certainly, do it with the other comps you see, but not for those prizes that you’d LOVE. It's not being selfish - you found the competition, there’s no comping law saying you have to share it. There’s nothing wrong with an occasional secret (and what if that shed went to a comper who doesn't want it and hasn’t got anywhere to put it, you’d be pretty sad you shared it then!)

Sharing is lovely, and I certainly believe in comping karma - but for every 50 comps I share happily, there will be 1 that I don’t - because it’s a prize on my wishlist. This week I wanted to take my son to the Community Shield, I found a competition with 2 entries. I won, and THEN I shared it and blogged about it so everyone else could have a go for the remaining prizes. But there was no way I was sharing it before I’d won - not when I had a 50/50 chance of winning and my son was eager to go!

But that’s the way I comp. A balance of sharing & secrets. It works for me, but if we all did the same thing, comping would be a boring old hobby!

Thanks for replying, Di, and it is a nice measured response.

I do follow you and yesterday I enjoyed (and I did enjoy it) watch you opening your prizes for July. Not only did I like watching your little one's delight at his share, it reactivated my comping 'mojo' which has been sadly missing recently; I get the same boost from the IWIWIW thread on here. The reason I get a boost from this is that the good news is being SHARED and I get pleasure from people winning even if I'm not at the moment. But I did notice when you mentioned that you had not shared the info about the comp for the tickets because you wanted them, and just for that moment you seemed terribly...greedy

People on here are not greedy (well, maybe a certain Captain ) and, as others have said, they enjoy knowing others have won from their efforts - only this week I was PM'd to say a member had won from one of my few postings - and although it was not a huge prize, I was overjoyed that they had won, even though I have NEVER won anything on this regular comp that I have been doing for years.

The other point is, of course, that on here we are all doing it for fun and the hope of a bit of a reward. You are that rare beast, a professional comper, and you do it very well. But amateur or not, we are competition, and I feel that was behind your ever-so-subtle hint that coming on here was a waste of time - even though we are free to use and somebody else has done all the work for them :rotfl: That does indeed smack of trying to scupper the opposition.:cool:

JMHO, obvs