Should lurkers have the same chance to win contests as deal posters?

Scrubking

Scrubking

CAGiversary!
I understand that choosing a winner at random is a hell of a lot easier, but at some point I feel that the people who actually post the deals on a deal site need to be rewarded. Frankly I am tired of joe shmoe with 0 posts winning all of the contests. I feel some consideration and advantage needs to be given to active members of the community - especially those who actually contribute by posting deals.
 
The biggest problem with sectioning off the entries is that if there are certain criteria for entering the contest, there may be exclusions to the people who meet them because of legal issues. Contests the way they are right now, open to virtually everyone, while might not be seen as "fair", they are the most effective way of keeping Cheapy out of any potential problems.
 
[quote name='Scrubking']Frankly I am tired of joe shmoe with 0 posts winning all of the contests.[/quote]

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure most, if not all of the winners have been active posters.
 
Why should some get special consideration over others? Some might say that is favoritism. Generally speaking, "Ism's" are a bad thing.
 
I think part of the contest missions are to attract new users.

While I think we all hope for a long term CAGer wins the contect. I assume that any winner would become a loyal CAGer...
 
There's only so many deals out there, and even fewer people who can find them and post them quickly. Thats only a handful of people out of the thousands of CAGers on here. That's not fair and would probably lead to more flaming than what we've been accustomed to of late.
 
[quote name='magilacudy']There's only so many deals out there, and even fewer people who can find them and post them quickly. Thats only a handful of people out of the thousands of CAGers on here. That's not fair and would probably lead to more flaming than what we've been accustomed to of late.[/quote]

I have to agree here. I'll admit that I've never posted any deals. I've searched around before, but I've never really been in "the right place at the right time" so to speak, not to mention the fact that I don't have all that much time to do so, with school and work and all. Besides, as I understand it, the contest was "open to all" not "open to some".
 
I may not post here a lot but I do come and look at the forums and look at the deals and if I actually found a deal I would try to submit it. I can see what you mean though.
 
I wouldn't be averse to a special 'deal posters only' feature/thank-you of the board, but I think to keep the board open and inviting, most/all contests need to be open to the public. Registered users only, and I could *maybe* see a minimum message board post requirement [very minimal, like 10], but otherwise it becomes somewhat elitist. I also generally don't find any deals. You could argue that the people who find/post deals actually already are winners, because if they found the deal, if they wanted the game, they probably bought it, so their orders definitely wouldn't be cancelled or OOS.
Your basic point, however, of "some consideration and advantage needs to be given to active members of the community - especially those who actually contribute by posting deals", I can agree with, but I don't think that should be by allowing only them to enter contests.
 
I agree with everyone else. I also have never posted a deal, but it's not because I don't try to, or because I want to just leech off of everyone else's work.

Whenever I find a deal, I always do a search to make sure it hasn't been posted yet, and you know what? I ALWAYS find that deal already posted. I did post one time because I didn't find it in search, but it was promptly locked. Why? Because it was already posted! I guess I'm just too slow. :(

So what exactly would you consider "those who actually contribute by posting deals"? Someone who tries but is too slow? Someone who has posted 1 deal? Or you have to have posted a minimum of 10 deals? Gaming deals only, or anything? See, now you run the risk of people posting fake deals just so they can say "I posted a deal, I want in this contest. I can't help it if it wasn't true, my friend told it was true."
 
You sure do hate Amish JimmieMac!

If by any off-chance they won the contest they'd end up using the game discs as reflectors on their buggies anyway. Ban the Amish!

The above in any way shape or form does not express the opinion of magilacudy or its affiliates. The Amish are a proud hard-working incestuous people. Support the Amish! Paid for by the Amish Anti-Defamation League.
 
Most of the ground has already been covered here, but I'll say this:

Deals aren't officially tallied, and who's to judge what's a valid deal post to qualify for the contest? I could go to the non-gaming deals forum and post the sale price of Natural Ice at my convienence store and say "GREAT DEAL, YMMV!"

Minimum post counts won't work either. You remember Spriggan and Antonio? We don't want that mess again...

Your heart's in the right place, but there's just not a feasable way of making it fair and airtight.
 
I agree that those who post deals give more back to the site, but the statistics are just that not even close to a large percentage of people can possible put deal on here. Even if you are generous and say there are 100 (or maybe 200) worthwhile deals a week, then it's impossible for everyone to post one obviously.
 
And from what I've seen, only Scrubking, Mr. Rhee, Defender and CheapyD (sorry if I missed anyone) are the primary active deal posters. That may be great for you 3 or 4 (obviously excluding CheapyD, it is his contest), but what about the other hundred thousand something CAG's?

Honestly, if I was in your position I'd probably say the same thing. After all that effort, I'd want some benefit or something. Don't tiptoe around it or deny it, just admit it. =P
 
Problem with rewarding the "deal posters" over everyone else, is it would start a flood of useless or "who cares" deals by people trying to qualify for the contests. Hell, anyone can troll Froogle for five minutes and post things they think are good buys just to get in on the spoils.
 
Lurker's should be able to lurk the messageboard.

God COMMANDS it.
 
[quote name='WhipSmartBanky']Problem with rewarding the "deal posters" over everyone else, is it would start a flood of useless or "who cares" deals by people trying to qualify for the contests. Hell, anyone can troll Froogle for five minutes and post things they think are good buys just to get in on the spoils.[/quote]

This is the truth...

We have to keep these forums from becoming some elitist camp. I personally think that long term members should be more welcoming to new users who post the first time. Usually if I see someone is on post #1 I say welcome to CAG.
 
[quote name='daphatty']Why should some get special consideration over others? Some might say that is favoritism. Generally speaking, "Ism's" are a bad thing.[/quote]

What about organisms daphatty?! HUH?! YOUR AN ORGRANISM! THINK OF THE POOR LITTLE ORGANISMS! SERIOUSLY!
 
Who says deal posters are the only ones who contribute to the site? Aren't you contributing by posting a game review? What if you post game-related news? Scrubking, you can't really define what exactly an "active member" is. You've tried before and it didn't work (i.e. SCII contest), and it's not going to work now either.
 
[quote name='video_gamer324']Who says deal posters are the only ones who contribute to the site? Aren't you contributing by posting a game review? What if you post game-related news? Scrubking, you can't really define what exactly an "active member" is. You've tried before and it didn't work (i.e. SCII contest), and it's not going to work now either.[/quote]

This is a deal site - not a review site.

And my argument is lurkers vs. non-lurkers although deal posters should get more consideration.
 
Sorry, man...no offense, but your argument sounds like a case of sour grapes. Your posts read like you're a bit sore that you post deals and you haven't won a contest or been rewarded in some way.
 
[quote name='WhipSmartBanky']Sorry, man...no offense, but your argument sounds like a case of sour grapes. Your posts read like you're a bit sore that you post deals and you haven't won a contest or been rewarded in some way.[/quote]

I don't like to sound that way, but it bugs me when a million people who never post suddenly appear on a contest thread. Oh well.
 
Scrubking, I agree with WSB. However, you hook all of us up with random freebies and deals all the time. I don't agree that you or the others should be given special treatment in the contest, BUT you should be given some sort of appreciation by Cheapy for all you've done for the community.
 
So should I hold a contest only for users with a minimum 100 posts? Do you realize how quick a bunch of people would post crap!!!

The contests are there for three reasons.
1. To reward users.
2. To get new users to register.
3. To promote for whoever is involved with the giveaway.

Reason 3 creates the contest...and if you take away reason 2 then reason 1 wont happen because the sponsor wont participate. You have to take the good with the bad.

I wish there was a creative answer for this. A good solid way to reward old members without hurting the ability to get new members to sign up. I can't at this time think of anything. If you guys can come up with a solid idea that makes sense I am all for it and would consider sponsoring it.

Maybe we can think of other ways to reward long time users. CheapyD has given me permission to install the phpbb points system. That could be the base for a means. Imagine that instead of posts to join a thread you have to have points. Points can be earned from posts, rewarded for starting good threads, or donated from other users. Just an idea.
 
[quote name='defender']CheapyD has given me permission to install the phpbb points system. That could be the base for a means. Imagine that instead of posts to join a thread you have to have points. Points can be earned from posts, rewarded for starting good threads, or donated from other users. Just an idea.[/quote]

I hate to strike down your idea at the start, defender, but using points to determine eligibility in contests would fall under elitism and wouldn't work. The people with higher post counts would still end up on top by a long shot, even if a noob posted a couple of worthwhile deals. While "active members," as Scrubking defines them, should be commended for their contributions, contests should still be contests - equal opportunity to all - and not rewards or giveaways to the more active deal posters. Keep the contests as they are now, but if you wanted to offer an incentive to those with higher post counts, offer a little something extra to the winner if they can cite a deal that they've contributed. Noobs are happy because they still have a chance to win, and veterans are happy because there's an incentive to them for contributing to the site.

As for the point system, I think you could still use it, but in a different way. I have seen a few other message boards that give points as rewards for various things (i.e. hot posts, contests, referrals, etc.) that users can exchange for icons that appear by their usernames. One board (now out of existence) gave users virtual items that they could buy or exchange with others in a sort of RPG style. I don't know how well that idea might appeal to users here, but it was certainly an interesting concept.
 
On a sidenote, I was lurking through the VGPub forums after I signed up for some contest and I liked what I saw.

They have this RPG level-type system where you gain experience points by posting which get converted to HP and SP somehow. I don't know how that could be implemented here, but I just thought it was pretty cool.
 
Yeah well I do want to install the points system for something fun. I just thought I would throw out the idea for contests that work with the point system. Personally I totally agree that contests should be equal for everyone. Except the Amish.

If you think about it...we could talk really really bad about the Amish because they wont ever read this.
 
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