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Can we talk about giveaway transparency for a minute?

I honestly don't understand why some giveaways are handled with so little transparency..

Take (ServerHost's UGREEN NASync DH2300) giveaway on LowEndBox..
The giveaway closed on September 30 after running for well over a 2 months, and on the final post the only thing we got was basically:

"Congrats to the winners, they will be contacted by email.."

That's it.!!

Who are the winners?!!

Why not simply announce them publicly?!!

I'm not saying the giveaway is fake, and I'm not accusing anyone of anything..
I'm just saying that when people spend weeks entering a giveaway and then, at the end, they are told "the winners were selected and contacted by email", there is absolutely no way for the community to verify that the prizes actually went to real participants..

What if nobody won?!!

At least publicly announcing the winners gives the community some basic transparency..

I actually won (Ray-Ban Meta glasses) in a previous @ColoCrossing giveaway, and the winners were publicly acknowledged..
That's exactly how I think these things should be handled..
You don't need to publish someone's private information, of course..
Even just the username, first name, or some other reasonable identifier would be enough..

And now there is another (ServerHost giveaway) running for October, this time for $500 cash, It runs until October 31..
same? I really hope I'm wrong..

This isn't about ServerHost specifically.. This is about the general approach..

If a company wants to use LowEndBox/LowEndTalk to promote a giveaway and get thousands of people to participate, I think the community deserves to know who actually won..

So I think it would be reasonable to add a simple transparency requirement:
approved giveaways should publicly announce their winners after the giveaway ends..

It would actually make the giveaways more trustworthy, not less..

And finally, about Gleam...

I really dislike Gleam for giveaways..

There are websites that aggregate Gleam giveaways from all over the internet, so people who are serious giveaway hunters can find hundreds of campaigns in one place..
Gleam also makes it very easy to turn a giveaway into a numbers game where someone can throw dozens or even 100+ accounts at different campaigns..

A normal user enters once or twice and moves on..

A giveaway hunter enters everything, everywhere, every day.

So I'd honestly prefer to see more giveaways managed directly through LowEndTalk, with simple rules and public winner announcements..

That would be much more transparent and much more useful for the actual community..

What do you guys think?

Comments

  • xvpsxvps Member

    @MagdAlmuntaser said:
    I honestly don't understand why some giveaways are handled with so little transparency..

    They are rigged.

  • ObelousObelous Member
    edited 3:44PM

    People are definitely botting the giveaways but I don't want winners announced publicly when it's real names being used, instead of a username.

    I think requirements should be LET account and a minimum amount of posts, e.g. 5

    Thanked by 2tzuli MagdAlmuntaser
  • rpqurpqu Member

    @Obelous said:
    People are definitely botting the giveaways but I don't want winners announced publicly when it's real names being used, instead of a username.

    I think requirements should be LET account and a minimum amount of posts, e.g. 5

    Make it 5000

  • yoursunnyyoursunny Member, IPv6 Advocate

    RIGGED

    Thanked by 1MagdAlmuntaser
  • zedzed Veteran

    yea there was a skrime giveaway that just ended as well where "all winners were contacted".

    i think winners announced needs to be a standard part of the rules for giveaways (i actually thought it was, just because they always were, guess not~).

  • NeoonNeoon Community Contributor, Veteran

  • deafcondeafcon Member

    @zed said:
    yea there was a skrime giveaway that just ended as well where "all winners were contacted".

    i think winners announced needs to be a standard part of the rules for giveaways (i actually thought it was, just because they always were, guess not~).

    For the Skrime one, I believe all winners were listed in the giveaway thread. I know because I was one of the winners and I got a notification there before I got a PM from Skrime.

    Thanked by 1Obelous
  • zedzed Veteran

    @deafcon said:

    @zed said:
    yea there was a skrime giveaway that just ended as well where "all winners were contacted".

    i think winners announced needs to be a standard part of the rules for giveaways (i actually thought it was, just because they always were, guess not~).

    For the Skrime one, I believe all winners were listed in the giveaway thread. I know because I was one of the winners and I got a notification there before I got a PM from Skrime.

    oh that's funny, apologies to @SKRIME i checked the last page and the 1st.

  • VoidVoid Member

    @Obelous said:
    People are definitely botting the giveaways but I don't want winners announced publicly when it's real names being used, instead of a username.

    I think requirements should be LET account and a minimum amount of posts, e.g. 5

    Should be account age too, and picked randomly from the thanked list or single comment etc

    lots of ways to make it fair and legit but the whole point of Gleam is to let people rig or bot while the provider gets the benefit nevertheless

    Thanked by 2Obelous buggedout
  • deafcondeafcon Member

    @zed said:

    @deafcon said:

    @zed said:
    yea there was a skrime giveaway that just ended as well where "all winners were contacted".

    i think winners announced needs to be a standard part of the rules for giveaways (i actually thought it was, just because they always were, guess not~).

    For the Skrime one, I believe all winners were listed in the giveaway thread. I know because I was one of the winners and I got a notification there before I got a PM from Skrime.

    oh that's funny, apologies to @SKRIME i checked the last page and the 1st.

    Honest mistake. I think he made the final post because morons kept trying to enter a giveaway that was already over. Page 11 does list the winners, I just checked.

    Thanked by 2MagdAlmuntaser zed
  • barbarosbarbaros Member

    @Void said:

    @Obelous said:
    People are definitely botting the giveaways but I don't want winners announced publicly when it's real names being used, instead of a username.

    I think requirements should be LET account and a minimum amount of posts, e.g. 5

    Should be account age too, and picked randomly from the thanked list or single comment etc

    lots of ways to make it fair and legit but the whole point of Gleam is to let people rig or bot while the provider gets the benefit nevertheless

    If I was a provider I would just create my own giveaway and let one of my alts win it.

    Oh wait @Fourplex did that already right?

    Thanked by 2gbzret4d buggedout
  • zedzed Veteran

    @barbaros said:

    @Void said:

    @Obelous said:
    People are definitely botting the giveaways but I don't want winners announced publicly when it's real names being used, instead of a username.

    I think requirements should be LET account and a minimum amount of posts, e.g. 5

    Should be account age too, and picked randomly from the thanked list or single comment etc

    lots of ways to make it fair and legit but the whole point of Gleam is to let people rig or bot while the provider gets the benefit nevertheless

    If I was a provider I would just create my own giveaway and let one of my alts win it.

    Oh wait @Fourplex did that already right?

    well you know i THINK that happened but everytime he tries to apologize about it i get lost in the convoluted shitbabble so not sure!

    • Giveaway ends.
    • Winners announced by LET username and will be informed by DM in last post.
    • Flags OP, asks mods to copy winner list to OP, adding the giveaway is over and then closes thread.
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