MyGaming prize claiming rules

Jan

Jan

Grand Poobah
Havoc popped this into the MyGaming suggestion box and I thought it would be good to discuss the topic:

HavocXphere said:
@Admins/Mods: Can we do something about these prize claim rules. e.g. Two people failed to claim here (see here).

And I know from experience that its very very easy to miss (No PM etc). Last time I won I would have missed it except someone PM'd me a "High five" and respond "High five what?"..."oh didn't you see...you won".

Maybe they changed the no PM part but the whole thing is a bit meh. Plus it looks unnecessarily publicly sad - both for mygaming & sponsor. If someone really doesn't claim...so be it but this seems like an avoidable problem. Plus I know most people have "receive email notifications from admins ticked".
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On the one hand, we have active forum members that get unhappy when fresh-faced posters, who basically only enter the competitions, win.

On the other hand, we sometimes have sponsors that want maximum possible exposure for their competition(s) and don't want them limited to only our forum (i.e. 20 minimum posts, activity competitions, etc.).

(BTW: Don't read anything into the above. Both Rebel Tech and rAge gave me complete freedom to run the most recent competitions however I wanted, so I used them as an opportunity to try some new stuff mixed in with the Old Waysâ„¢.)

Not alerting someone by PM, e-mail, or social media strikes a middle ground where someone who couldn't be bothered to check back to the forum won't get the prize, giving more active members a shot.

This does have some collateral damage and near-misses (Sabaen and Havoc's stories come to mind; as well as Owkkuri), but it's the best compromise we have at this stage.

What do ya'll think? (No poll on this one for now, just want to hear everyone's thoughts.)
 
I like the rule, because it rewards people who actively visit the forum. It also rewards people who make friends on the forum, because they tend to congratulate and notify each other if they do win.

My only issue is that the rules don't specify the fact that the announcement will only be made on the forum and that winners will not be notified.
 
Hmm, I've always gotten a PM when I've won something.

Also I agree with Eugene's second paragraph. The announcement method should be clearly specified. Although the amount of reading that most people do, that detail will probably be missed.

Now maybe you could try PM'ing someone that they've won a competition. There are three types of competition entrant in my eyes. The active members who post and read threads. Second you have the members that read threads but for some reason have nothing to post. Thirdly you have new members who would just have signed up for the competition and that might be their only interaction with the forum.

A PM would be effective for the second type of member since they do read the forum, I'm not certain if it would help the third type of member. They might just have entered the competition and forgotten about mygaming afterwards. That thought has to be tested though.
 
I have no problem with competitions being exposed to the public to promote business, it's a smart move.

I do have a problem with those who don't make quality posts or threads and literally just come to win, before leaving again.

I feel that if you partake and participate in threads; being active, meeting members and making friends, that it should be criteria for winning a prize or being eligible.

This may be a narrow-minded argument, but:

"I've been a loyal, participating member of the forum for years, yet, newcomers who've you'll see only once or twice throughout a competition will also have a chance to win, then disappear, and don't about the forum anymore." ... Whilst I remain loyal.

This is not a rant. I simple factual statement.
 
ah - I forgot people can set up emails to alert them on PMs...and thus theoretically never check the forum (at all).

Is it possible for the admin to send a PM that doesn't trigger a mail? That would be ideal imo. That way people are required to loggin but won't miss it.

I also think 48 hrs is a hint short. Maybe 72 instead?
 
Hagan said:
I have no problem with competitions being exposed to the public to promote business, it's a smart move.

I do have a problem with those who don't make quality posts or threads and literally just come to win, before leaving again.
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This

Also the comps are starting to get a bit boring, maybe think of new ways for comps like, they need to read articles and find words in ** or something, that way one people are actually reading, generating more traffic etc.

With regards to the loyalty thing i do agree that it absolutely sucks that a person with like 10 posts comes in and wins, but i guess it cant be helped. But one thing that bugs me, do you guys check if a person is a clone ie same ip address or something?
 
Personally i think the system works fine as is. If a regular wins and doesn't notice then normally fellow members remind him/her. If a one hit wonder wins then I think it's up to them. I mean if they aren't interested enough to even check the front of the competition tab then odds are that they don't really care.
I'm looking here at the Corsair case, Gloridit won the prize but hadn't checked yet. However he regularly contributes to the forums and so as a kinda return for his help someone alerted him. To me this is a community where we help each other etc and we all want to welcome new people also, however I'm sure no community enjoys being taken advantage of.

So I say leave the rules as is, if we have 2 no claims in a row then to me it just shows the quality of the entrants.
 
Just a quick question. I remember back a few years when I was a forum admin we had the function of sticking a thread so it would show up no matter what sub forum you are in. Can this still be done or even can it be done with Vbulletin?

As for the how long before it has to be claimed again its tricky since you don't want to sit on the prize for so long that it becomes irrelevant. Lets say you make it 5 day's claim time, then like what happened now that 2 people did not claim it.
Now you have to wait 2 weeks longer for the prize and the comp to be taken care of rather than just a week.
I don't mind the time it takes since well I have been here since 2009 so its up to the admins, do they want to wait a whole week and hope the person comes and claims or a few day's.

Hagan have you not joined or liked a thing just to be able to enter a compitition or vote for something to get a free game?
 
Eugene said:
I like the rule, because it rewards people who actively visit the forum. It also rewards people who make friends on the forum, because they tend to congratulate and notify each other if they do win.

My only issue is that the rules don't specify the fact that the announcement will only be made on the forum and that winners will not be notified.
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Basically what he said. I do believe that the last time I won I got a pm though but I may be wrong.
 
Crzwaco said:
Hagan have you not joined or liked a thing just to be able to enter a compitition or vote for something to get a free game?
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Yes, I am guilty of this; 'Liking' something on Facebook to win something -- but, that is very different from a community forum. Facebook will have a greater audience liking a competition is the hopes of winning something - and your chance to win will be 1 in a few thousand (maybe).
 
I say leave it as it is. I like the fact that regulars are rewarded for checking up to claim a prize. It's not all that difficult to log on to check who won the prize - most (if not all) people accessing this forum can do so on their phones, so if you know the winner is being announced on a specific day, CHECK IN. It barely takes you 5 minutes.
 
PM the winners, they met the entry requirements, they entered and they won. Possibly a general 'you need to claim the prize within a set number of days rule' may help those folk who for legitimate reasons are unable to access the Internet and therefore can't claim.

This differentiation between regulars and newbies/seldom posters sounds a bit 'xenophobic' and unnecessary IMHO.
 
Eugene said:
I like the rule, because it rewards people who actively visit the forum. It also rewards people who make friends on the forum, because they tend to congratulate and notify each other if they do win.

My only issue is that the rules don't specify the fact that the announcement will only be made on the forum and that winners will not be notified.
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I agree with this. I think it's fair as, but some kind of notice that their won't be any notification except on the forum and that the claim period is only two days would be helpful. It might encourage the new people to read more of the forum and stick around if they are aware that they need to do so in order to win.
 
Awesome suggestion. I think the 48h claim window should be changed to a week or rather follow My broadband competition rules. Not everyone has a chance to be active everyday.
 
HavocXphere said:
Is it possible for the admin to send a PM that doesn't trigger a mail? That would be ideal imo. That way people are required to loggin but won't miss it.
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I don't think it's possible to send that kind of PM, but I'll look into it.

HavocXphere said:
I also think 48 hrs is a hint short. Maybe 72 instead?
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Will think about it. Also thinking of giving folks whose names are drawn on a Friday until that Monday to claim.

_Caboose_ said:
But one thing that bugs me, do you guys check if a person is a clone ie same ip address or something?
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Clone checking goes a bit deeper than that, but I do check, yes.

Eugene said:
My only issue is that the rules don't specify the fact that the announcement will only be made on the forum and that winners will not be notified.
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Currently the standard competition rules has the following point under "winners announce":

- The winners will be announced in the original competition thread, as well as in a new thread in the MyGaming competition forum.

To my mind, it tells people what they should expect when it comes to the winners being announced. Any extra notification is icing.

There was also a point previously about reminders being sent out on Facebook and Twitter, but I've removed that. There will probably be updates about competition winners on Twitter and Facebook, but I don't want folks to expect it.
 
Here is my point of view from someone who joined the Forum relatively "recently"

I only joined the forum because I saw a shared Facebook post about winning a PS4... That got me here, about 10 months ago, and iv been hooked on the Forum ever since. So what started out as me just entering another comp, turned into 10 months, nearly 2000 posts, and me getting stuck into a community of really awesome like minded people.

Which was the point. To the best of my knowledge. And I have ended up winning a prize even. But not because of a one hit wonder, because I became actively involved in the day to day discussions on the Forum.

But I do remember when I joined here, it was during an Activity comp, top 25 I think, and I did get a LOT of flack from the "regulars" about spamming posts etc. And to a large extent that's why im still here. It was very strange for me to see a forum where people actually gave a shit about what was posted, and the mods weren't the ones sorting out the forums, as much as the regulars kept things in line.

So I guess what im trying to say, is that I much prefer the structure that rewards people for making valid contributions to the forum, rather than the one post wonder that then wins a prize and we never see them again... And If i feel that way, im sure most of the regular posters do to... Checking the forum on a regular basis is not a lot to ask, especially when someone could win a prize...
 
i dont see a problem with how the competitions are currently run. if the criteria is met they should win, whether they are a noob or a regular.

i also dont think the time period for claiming the prize should be altered. If you enter a comeptition, the onus is on you to check back regularly to see if youve won especially since the comp thread tells you when the competition is ending. its your own fault if your entering to many competitions to keep track off when what comp is ending.
 
Wenzdayz said:
i dont see a problem with how the competitions are currently run. if the criteria is met they should win, whether they are a noob or a regular.

i also dont think the time period for claiming the prize should be altered. If you enter a comeptition, the onus is on you to check back regularly to see if youve won especially since the comp thread tells you when the competition is ending. its your own fault if your entering to many competitions to keep track off when what comp is ending.
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^ This.

I wouldn't change anything at all.
 
I find this fair, Ive been here for like a month, and i think out of all competitions Ive seen these are probably the most fair rules. They add more interest to the comps. because people always check up after the comp has ended, that's just my opinion though:)
 
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