Hey guys, this time my discussion topic is more related to the everyday stuff of blogging than to actual books.
But it's something that I think all of us bloggers are confronted with again and again:
Giveaway-cheaters: how do you handle them?
I just picked the winner for my Armchair BEA giveaway and was once more forced to delete faulty entries and disqualify people. Saying they follow when they don't, commented when they didn't, people simply writing 'done' into a field instead of copying the tweet-link or even simply putting a dot or a slash in. Seriously?! Do they think I'm stupid? That I don't check, even fleetingly? That if that entry was picked as the winner, I'd turn a blind eye? This is why I always check all the entries before I let random.org pick a winner. If entries like that stay in, they falsify the odds for everyone even if a valid entry is the winner.
But it's not just annoying, it also hurts me and makes me mad, to be honest. I'm not obligated to host giveaways. I pay for them with my own money. I do it because I like to. It's fun, it's a great way to bring awesome books to people (that's why I usually don't do 'book of your choice' giveaways but pre-select a dozen or so), it makes people happy which in turn makes me happy. And since I myself love to enter giveaways, it's a way for me to give back to the community. And yes, I admit it's not bad for the stats. But at the level where I'm at right now, it no longer makes my follower-count shoot up either. I'm familiar with most of the names showing up in the entries by now.
The cheaters won't make me stop hosting giveaways, but they do make me think. In case of the 'done' word in entries, do they maybe not understand the instructions? Is it mean of me to disqualify them? Should I just delete those of their entries that are faulty and leave the rest in? Then again, I don't think the rules are that hard to understand.
Plus, all the entry-checking takes HOURS, especially the GFC-verification. Do you guys have a trick how to do it more quickly? How do you handle this issue? Do you check at all? Do you disqualify? Do you have a 'black list' of notorious cheaters? Do you ever confront them with it if they do it more than once? Do you have a way to prevent cheating in rafflecopter? Do you use a different giveaway/entry form?
What's your experience? I'd really like to discuss this with other bloggers, so it'd be great if you could share the link to this post.
And if you're simply a blog-reader and don't have your own blog... have you ever considered this issue? Is what I just said surprising to you or more like 'duh, obvious'? Do the 'hoops' in giveaways annoy you, or do you thik the blogger has a right to ask something of you if they're offering up a free book? I'd like to hear opinions from all sides, so please feel free to comment! State your opinions people, but please do it respectfully.
Heck no I don't think its mean to disqualify someone for cheating. I do the same thing. We spend our own money for the giveaways (unless for a blog tour or something) and I feel the winner should be a person who actually followed the rule or the steps (how ever you want to put it).The GFC checking can be annoying though!
ReplyDeleteGreat post :)
Janina @ Synchronized Reading
+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteLast year, I had an awful cheater on my giveaway. =( He claimed every last entry on the Rafflecopter without actually doing any of the tasks. Did he really think I wouldn't check???
What surprised me the most was my reaction. I felt really used and insulted. I also pay for the prize out of my own pocket, and I host giveaways so that I can say thank you to my readers, whom I treasure. Then some guy came in out of nowhere to take advantage of that. It's like going to the trouble of throwing a party and finding a crasher stuffing his face at the buffet table and not even bothering to blend in by dressing right.
There was actually one entry he had done correctly, and I thought about deleting the other entries but leaving that one, for the principle of it. But then I realised I would feel horrible if he rather than a regular reader won. So I just totally disqualified him and didn't look back.
Finally, I don't think that "hoops" are unreasonable. As you point out, a giveaway host has the right to set the terms and conditions. Besides, no one is entitled to a totally free book! The tasks in my giveaways are designed so that people who already participate a lot on my blog have the easiest time getting extra entries.
That's exactly the type of cheater I'm talking about! Just put in a dot everywhere and maybe a fake follower name. I mean seriously?! I also felt really insulted the first time, now I just hit the 'delete' button with gusto.
DeleteYup, sometimes I put in one freebie and have them do the rest at will. If you think it's too much 'work', just don't do all the entries. And as you said, I'm paying the book myself.
I don't have a blog but what about only checking winning entries. It wouldn't totally solve the problem. But at least the winning entry would be validated. And you wouldn't waste so much time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as someone who enters these giveaways, are you sure that all of these people cheated? Could they not simply think that they included their tweet but forgot to include the link. But typing "done" could they actually have tweeted but misunderstood that they needed to copy the link. I always try to think the best of people. And hope that nobody would just check done for every entry without actually completely anything.
I can imagine how frustrating it would be.
The time waste is true, but I really do want to check all entries before I pick a winner. Leaving the cheaters in changes the odds for those who adhered to the rules, and I don't want that.
DeleteWith the 'done' entry I wasn't sure at first, but she put it everywhere, even with the follower entries. Whether or not they did it, I say clearly that I want the tweet URL, follower name, review they commented on etc. If they bothered to read the instructions, there wouldn't be a problem. And if they were uncertain, I always say to email or tweet me. And well... I've seen enough to simply not rely on the 'honor system' anymore.
I actually had an entry of mine for a giveaway disqualified - I thought I was a twitter follower and I apparently didn't hit the right button - so that entry was deleted when it was selected as the winner. I was lucky enough for my name to pop up again when she went to pick a new winner and she was nice enough to let me know what had happened. I felt awful for the incorrect entry and immediately followed on Twitter. So it would appear that some people only check the winning entries and then pick a new one.
ReplyDeleteThat has really been my only experience with bad entries on a giveaway. I'm really glad they only checked the winning entry, but I would have completely understood if all my entries had been disqualified. I try hard to follow the directions, but mistakes do happen. I would have noticed my lack of Twitter following on the next giveaway she hosted and followed then.
I think the most important thing is to state your rules clearly. If you decided to delete all entries - say so in your giveaway guidelines and the terms in Rafflecopter. It's always helpful to have something to refer back to if someone gets upset about it.
I feel a bit like I'm rambling now - so I'll stop.
I'm not super-strict with the checking, sometimes I let it slide and only delete certain entries if they actually follow and did the rest correctly.
DeleteI also think it's important to be transparent, that's why I state that I disqualify and delete cheaters. I also say that I check before picking the winner. So my only explanation for the blatant cheaters is that they either a) don't believe me or b) don't bother to read the rules in the first place.
Thanks so much for your long comment :)
I'm from the entering side of the fence...
ReplyDeleteChecking every single entry sounds tedious! I would think just verifying the winning entry would suffice. I think you'd burn out quickly checking every single entry.
I try to only do the things that I've actually done. I don't do twitter, so I don't click those. But sometimes my aim is off or I'm otherwise not paying close attention, and I click the wrong rafflecopter button. :( Also sometimes I am unclear what is wanted on the rafflecopter forms. Just give as much detail as you possibly can on the forms so people know what you want filled out. And please don't immediately ascribe evil intent to all invalid entries. We may just be spacing off :(
Only checking the winner just somehow doesn't sit right with me because of the odds :/ But I think I have to find a quicker checking system because now that I get 1400 instead of 300 entries, it's just no longer feasible this way.
DeleteI've also had moments where I didn't get what they wanted from me in a rafflecopter, so I try ot avoid that and make the instructions idiot-proof. And don't worry, I know that mistakes happen - I've also had people tweeting me about having made a mistake in the form, so I could go and correct it manually. And sometimes I just delete a few entries and leave the rest in if I think it wasn't on purpose. But you also need to see the blogger's side... it just hurts if you think peopole try to cheat you and only follow/read your blog when there's a free book to have.
I don't have a blog but I've entered and won a few giveaways so I'll give you my two cents. :)
ReplyDeleteI assumed that the blog owner just picked the winner, then checked to make sure that their entries were legitimate. I can't imagine going through ALL of the entries! :o
Of COURSE the blog owner has the right to ask for a few hoops in return for the chance to win a free book! I don't always do all of them (people ask for Instagram, which I don't have, for instance) but that's why the people who do get more entries!
As for people who just write "done" in the box, I admit that sometimes I have no idea what people want in that box. I've encountered "the box" in a free entry, with no instructions. When this happens I just put my email address. That tends to be my default if I don't know what they want. I put in user names and links as appropriate, but sometimes I'm at a loss, like if a "Like the Author's Amazon page" comes with "the box", all I can think to do is write "done". Those are the examples I can think of at the moment.
I also tend to worry a bit with usernames. Apparently I voided most of my Goodreads entries for a while because I thought "username" meant display name. :( So I think if the entrant was making a legitimate effort but just got confused or made a mistake, and you can still tell the entry is valid (like for instance if you still find their Goodreads page and see that they did what they said they did) then the entry should be valid. Obvious cheaters? No.
I'm glad to hear that the readers don't mind the hoops! I enter loads of giveaways myself and don't usually mind. Sometimes they go a bit overboard though, like following a gazillion people on twitter. But well... it's not mandatory to complete all entry tasks.
DeleteI try to make sure the box doesn't show up in my forms if I don't want people to put anything in. It can be confusing! But the 'done' in my rafflecopter was put at stuff like 'comment on a review' or 'tweet about the giveaway' or 'follow x on twitter' where I clearly stated what I wanted in that box. So I'm not going to overlook that.
Honestly, it also depends on my mood how tolerant I am with faulty entries. If I think the person meant no ill, I tend to leave them in.
I don't check EVERY entry, just those related to the person who was selected as the winner. But they'd better have done everything they said they did. If they just missed one, and I can tell they actually follow my blog, I'll probably let it slide and just mention it to them when I email them about winning. (I've done this in the past, only to find out that they subscribed with a different name, so I felt better having not disregarded their entry.) I haven't run across all that many cheaters, now that I think about it. And I don't feel like they're "hoops" to jump through. I mean, they're optional entries. No one's forcing them to complete each task. Heck, no one's forcing them to enter the giveaway in the first place, ya know?
ReplyDeleteYou say it. Nobody forces anybody to do anything. I like your method of picking the winner and then valifying all their entries instead of just the winning one. But I still think it's important to check more thoroughly because the cheaters change the odds even if they don't win. I'm just torn because it takes sooo much time.
DeleteAnd yup, the differing usernames can be a problem, I've encountered that myself. Another thing is winner not responding because they use an email in rafflecopter that they never actually check.
I definitely DON'T think it's mean to delete ALL the entries made by a cheater. I really think the internet causes a lot of people to think they won't or can't get caught because of the illusion of anonymity of the thing. To be honest, I've only hosted a few giveaways because money has been pretty tight since the blog launched but I have a giveaway launching tonight and you've given me a lot to think about. You're right that checking all entries makes the odds as fair as they can be for anyone who has NOT cheated but I can see it being very time-consuming o_O I'll do it though because like you said, we don't *need* to have giveaways and it's only fair!
ReplyDeleteActually, checking the entries is more or less difficult depending on the tasks you set for people. Most of the entries are usually from all the tweets, and those are relatively easy to verify. Everyone's got to find their own system though :) I don't hold self-hosted giveaways all that often, and while money is the main reason for that, the verifying plays into it too. But the fun definitely outways the annoying bits :) I love getting the winner's reaction and that totally makes it worth having to realize how many people cheat if they think they can get away with it!
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