Website & Forums Make Contests Safer!

This is a very pointless forum post. Im sorry you didn't win, but it doesn't warrant the time of moderators, especially when the giveaway's requirement is to type a number.

 

If clarity is what you're searching for, a lack of explicit guidelines and rules is the opposite of what we want. Making it clear that rigging contests/giveaways (Something everybody here should be against/want to fix) violates the rules is what we need here, not exploitable loopholes!

Why are you assuming that I'm making this thread out of the bitterness of defeat? As I've stated earlier, my motivations are to prevent scams from taking place- and no, this thread is not me questioning the morals of contest hosts who held events I participated in.
Plus, my proposed solution of creating a simple Discord channel that Players could essentially self-moderate would require practically no time from Staff.

Feels like I've refuted every counter argument to this suggestion by now...

 

Your "refutes" didn't improve your idea, it's still pointless to even moderate--whether player operated or through staff intervention--something like this. Who cares if it's rigged, it's a giveaway that has no impact on anything or anyone. Looking between the lines and doubling down on every possible regulation just so your number, if picked, is confirmed to get that 10 LE or Mythic does nothing but add unnecessary trouble to something that is nigh guaranteed to just be some guy playing with google's RNG. Hell, why even bother making a post like this unless someone has been confirmed "cheating" in a giveaway? This post does nothing more but add unneeded paranoia to something that will inevitably be some guy trying to add life to Wynncraft's community.

 

nah man, its just you. no one else really cares

 

The only way I see this as being a scam in any way is if you paid to enter the giveaway

Otherwise, you lose nothing

If people wanted to give their friends/guild members stuff, they would just give it to them instead of going through the trouble of setting up a fake contest

 

How hard is it to setup a channel for "guess how many" hosts to enter the correct answer? Sure, there may never be a cheater who rigs a contest, but to put it one way, we all still wear seatbelts even though it's unlikely that an accident will happen.
..Why is everyone here so gung-ho about rigged contests?? Rigging a contest is, by definition*, a scam- why in the cinnamon toast fruck do I feel like I'm the only person here who realizes that: scams = bad

If the giveaway was rigged and you wouldn't win either way, obviously you aren't losing anything. But as I have previously pointed out, if you would have been the natural winner and somebody rigs the contest to pick another person, you do lose something.
And I covered why somebody might host a contest just to give the prize to a friend in the "Motivations" section of the original post. Good press, like farming, and trust are among the main reasons why somebody might try to fix a contest.

*Not Wynncraft's current definition of a scam mind you, but rather the dictionaries definition​

 

i would just like to point out that this whole rigged giveaway problem isn't just a problem here, it's a problem for just about any giveaway ever hosted. i really don't understand why you're pushing so hard about this. everything that needed to be said has pretty much already been said, trying to enforce moderation of giveaways just ends up being more work than needed, loopholes are still very possible for many of these solutions, and again, it's all luck-based so there is really not much you can say about that.

my verdict on all this is that if you aren't losing anything on your end, then there is no reason to try and enforce anything. it would become a problem if people were giving something up, which is why things like "lotteries" are banned.

 

There are so many things wrong with your rebuttals: the number of comparisons and questions, the poor analogies comparing something as minute as this to the reason we wear seatbelts, and the fact that your poll as a whole is just the same idea repeated to someone without any recognition as to why it's pointless to begin with. Again, it's not because we all just love scams and that this whole server should be a dumpster fire all the time, it's because the very thing you're claiming to be a scam is so completely improbable in practice, as well there being no loss for any party involved in the ridiculous circumstance you've conjured. If it was an actual scam, one where a singular person or group of people were improperly informed and negatively impacted by the deal, then it would matter; the people involved with the scam should be punished accordingly, because scamming is wrong. (In this case, they have a number of rules set for this sort of issue.) But in the imaginary scenario that "everyone is conspiring with each other to ensure NO ONE will EVER get that stack of LE and 38% warp I promised them one time in a randomly generated giveaway forums post!", a set of rules just for that would be equal to enforcing a rule against someone promising they'll do a Forgery run with you, but deciding to kick you out last minute because they found someone better, a friend got on, they dont like you, whatever. It's unneeded, putting everyone who is a part of the giveaway on a discord is pointless and redundant, forcing more work onto the moderators to make sure everyone who rolled a 239 got their warp is a waste of time, and the forums post itself accounts for something so unlikely--and moronic--that it shouldn't have even been conceived in the first place.

 

If it's that improbable that the Discord channel idea is too contrived, then just add a rule saying "Don't rig contests/giveaways" in a certain person's favor." Even if it isn't enforced, it'd be a deterrent and could prove useful in prosecuting someone who does rig a contest someday.

 

you just completely ignored the bulk of that message

in that this is useless. genuinely. that you are suggesting something that is so minute and useless. that your rebuttals arent refuting anything.

actually listen dude.


EDIT: to follow up. are you literally proposing a rule to not be enforced? do you not hear how stupid that is?

 

Sometimes a simple and to the point response is better than an essay.

Like I said, it'd be a deterrent that could be invoked if somebody ever is revealed as rigging a contest. Sure, it's stupid, but it's not as dumb as letting these loopholes persist with no legitimate means of rebuttal. Unless the "No Scamming" rule applies here, then why not make an addendum to the rules that literally won't hurt anyone?

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
-Ben Franklin

 

The "rebutal", Socrates, is people not trusting you anymore, and being clowned on by others for being stupid enough to go through with this ridiculous scenario. You don't need a rule for this; it'll inevitably fall under scamming if it happens.

Also, I don't know who told you contests were the same thing as giveaways, but keep preaching, Mandela.

 

I'd rest a lot easier if a staff member said that rigging a contest would fall under the scamming rule. @Viridian can you confirm this?

And I've just been using giveaway and contest interchangeably, if you haven't noticed. Yeah, there's a difference between the two types of events but it's small enough to justify switching the words out, especially in the context of this discussion- both can be rigged, so it really doesn't matter which word I use.

 

And what about people like me who don't have Discord or can't get one? Then they can't hold giveaways?

 

I suppose you could just message a Staff member who won't be participating and ask them to submit the information for you, but that sounds a bit too tedious. Might just be best to leave it as a rule that says "No Rigging Contests" and having the verification step be completely voluntary via a simple PM to a Staff member if you want.

 

So a voluntary rule?

 

except the "to the point" response wasn't addressing the point at all. you KNOW you are dancing around everyone saying this is pointless.

so you admit it is stupid? slick

also don't spit ben franklin at me to make yourself seem more credible and correct in this

actually listen to the multiple posts in this thread that are telling you how pointless and unneeded this is instead of selectively responding to the same arguments

 

Everybody seems against a rule packaged with the Discord channel which I can understand to an extent, but a rule explicitly stating "Don't rig contests" wouldn't be voluntary- if somebody was found out to having rigged a giveaway, then Staff would take appropriate action. Unless the "No Scams" rule already covers this, sealing up these loopholes (No matter how often they may be used) is something that would take barely any time and just makes sense to do.

A watered down version of my original suggestion is obviously going to be less effective, but it's better than nothing. I highly doubt that we will EVER see a scammer try to rig a contest, but when the fix is stupidly simple and would prevent such a disasters scam from taking place, it's only common sense to consider it. Tell me, what's more burdensome for Staff- editing the rules post to say "Don't Rig Contests" or to pick up the pieces of such a scam and track down the culprit to give the prize to the actual winner?

This is why I quoted Ben Franklin, the cost of the "cure" here is far greater than that of prevention.

 

I see a major problem with this suggestion I don't think anybody has said yet.

If someone wanted to give the items they're giving away to a specific person they could just... do that.
There's no reason to ever do a giveaway if you're planning to give them to a specific person.

Clarity of rules
and an easier process for giveaways, making the barrier of entry for doing a giveaway lower, resulting in more giveaways.

You're misrepresenting the problem.
The problem is that as you add more rules, it becomes more difficult to remember them all. As such, fewer rules makes it clearer.

So a rule stating:


Would be better than a list of rules specifying all types of useless content we can think of like:

2.1: No more than two bumps a day.
2.2: No posts repeating what another has said with no information in them.
2.3: No posts repeating what you have already said.
2.4: No posts that don't add anything to the thread.
etc. etc.

Even though with the current system I can post this same comment twice and with a more explicit way of saying things I could not.


If this were a country, I'd agree with you. But on blockgame forums it's too much to expect people to get the legal know-how. People already barely know the game and forum rules as they are bacause there are so many.

Actually, no. You would not gain anything where you would've otherwise gained it. That's different from losing it.



The reasons I think there's no rule against it are as follows:
1. It'll very rarely happen.
If someone wants give their items to a specific person they could just do that.

likes are useless, and I don't remember a single name from a person who did a giveaway. Whilst these are reasons, they're not worth the hassle of rigging a giveaway.

2. It can't easily be enforced.
The two ways proposed in this thread are using staff to check the number (or similair) and a discord server.
Using staff for it is just a big no, those people have enough on their hand.
The discord server has many problems.

Bots would have to be created for many kinds of giveaways, people don't just do random numbers. This also means that no new kinds of giveaways can be made.
Everyone would have to use discord and have an idea of how it works. (I'd argue this probably keeps more people away from entering giveaways who'd win them than there are people who don't win because the giveaway is rigged. So this takes away the point you made in the quote above.)
Discord also requires moderation


And lastly:

Already not allowed.
Thanks for proving my point that less rules is better because people have a hard time knowing all the rules if there are too many.

 

Please calm down, everyone.