Another comment about the contests...
Awhile back, some of the give-aways had cute little 'writing contests' attached. I never won, but I enjoyed doing the cute little poems and such, like haikus and acrostics and short essays and reading the other entries.
I guess they are a pain to judge, but I was wondering re: Perky's question about 'who wins those things'--would anyone like to see a 'return' of those contests. In a weird way, it almost seems more 'fair' to have people demonstrate that they want to win the prize to 'work for it' a bit rather than just write a comment that is picked randomly.
Again, I've never won anything, so this isn't a devious plan to try to win free stuff on my part ;)
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11 Comments:
@HeartofGlass: You've nailed it. We prefer the haiku, acrostics, etc. as a method for winning. Because, as you said, it's fun to read what people come up with—and they come up with some awesome poems, etc. But for any contest that generates 75
But for the ones like the holiday giveaways—30-some giveaways daily with hundreds of comments, it's just too much for our small staff to sift through and judge.
Honestly, I prefer the ones where people write a little bit, because, as you say, it sort of self-selects to people who really want to win instead of folks who drop by because some contest-alert site sent them here. We'd rather give away things to loyal, longtime readers than schnorers.
Adam Kuban at 8:00PM on 01/05/09
I think it would be awesome. I'm actually getting kind of tired of so many blogs doing these major giveaways so often (though I feel like SE was one of the first, at least among the blogs I read, to do this), especially since most of the giveaways aren't related to the blogs and seem to be solely for the purpose of increasing traffic. My vote is a big YES for bringing back creative contests where winners have to work to win a prize (and yes, this is coming from a girl who has won three contests online/in real life in the past few months!).
pearl at 8:35PM on 01/05/09
I think the creative contests are fun, but I can see how they might be a pain to judge if you did them all the time.
But what about some giveaways now and then based on what's going on in the Talk section? It could random like the 100th post, the tenth topic, or the seventh answer to the seventh post...anything like that.
Or it could be staff choice on what was the funniest, most helpful, most interesting, most anything post during a particular week or month. Or the most viewed during a particular time period.
Since no one would know ahead of time what the winning criteria would be, there's no way anyone could be stuffing the ballot box, so to speak, and the winners would be more likely to be people who hang out here a lot.
dbcurrie at 9:11PM on 01/05/09
@Adam: I totally see your point of view. I only enter one word responses to the giveaways because no one really reads them anyway, especially once they get up to the 500+ mark. Such is the nature of the dilemma. The only way to do it, other than to hire more helper monkeys would be a combination of having less contests, a shorter amount of time for entries, and more stringent requirements re: what needs to be added to the thread (haiku, limerick, essay etc.) You could probably also write a script that filters out spammers who only post to the giveaways... Wouldn't bother me in the slightest, but I bet you'd get an earful for that :)
simon at 9:42PM on 01/05/09
@Adam--I like a combo of dbcurrie's suggestion and more 'writing' contests in general (or photo contests for the more visually inclined). Writing contests from poems, to essays, to recipes, some photo stuff--and then giving a prize (announced beforehand) based on criteria like the most viewed topic, SE's favorite quote, and so forth. There could still be randomly selected contests, but honestly if there are too many without some criteria it gets a bit boring.
I'd hate to see less contests in general, though, because of the way they flag great books and great companies of which I might not otherwise have heard.
HeartofGlass at 6:20AM on 01/06/09
@Adam NO!
finsbigfan at 8:07AM on 01/06/09
I love the idea Adam...it's fun to be creative, and rewards your loyal readers...like myself! :o)
And just so I'm clear on something....for many of the giveaways you put them up several times over the course of a week or more, but you still want us only to enter ONCE per giveaway, correct?
juliebugsmama at 12:06PM on 01/06/09
As someone who has followed (lurked) this site for about 2 years, I finally joined the discussion during the month of giveaways in December. I think that a filter would discourage new members from taking part, but I can see making the comments meet certain criteria, such as the "little writing contests" would encourage a fuller participation by the entrants.
bobcat at 4:21PM on 01/06/09
What motivates me to read the comments is not just how skillfully they are constructed, but how deeply "from the heart" some of them come from. There are usually some great, inspiring answers in there. I suspect that I'm not just speaking for myself in thinking that participating is more than just a chance to win for some entrants, though the prizes certainly are great.
MMinNYC at 5:33PM on 01/06/09
I totally see it both ways - but I wouldn't mind the little writing assignments coming back! (Who ever won the Zingerman's student package contest...?)
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 5:49PM on 01/06/09
It never occurred to me that there were clearing houses flagging such contests. What a nuisance. Rather than have to be terribly creative, I'd suggest putting tighter time limits on entries; even as low as 24 hours. That would increase the chances of those who actually stop by as SE faithfuls. I might even go further to suggest that you must have so many posts/posted comments per week, month, etc... in order to be able to enter and win. Are limits like that legal?
czken at 5:53AM on 01/07/09