A forum member sent me a PM asking about how we determine the winner, the spam issue, etc. I figured I would post the answer here for all to see it:
I never stated specifics on who would be disqualified. It would take me all day to just sit here and watch the forums/comments and get rid of people in real time. I dont have time for all that.
When the contest is over, I will go down the list. Whoever has the most points is the winner…then I will look at their activity. If I find that they have spammed, they get crossed off and I move to #2. I check again, if they spammed, they are crossed off. I will repeat that until I find the winner who didnt spam.
Then bonus points come into the equation. If I find that person X wins, but I know that there is a maximum of, say, 400 bonus points that could be earned, then I go down the list and look at anyone who could beat them with bonus points. At that point, I will again take spam into account.
The winner is the person with the most points (with bonus points taken into account), who did not spam. It is as simple as that.
Thanks for this post, Andru. I think it answered a lot of the questions we’ve been having about this contest. Best of luck to everyone and well, keep posting! I know we lost ~10 hours of posts, but the forum has been quiet for the past hour or so.
Thank you very much Andru for your clarification on this matter—I think that is a fair system and it clears up a lot of the questions that we were having about the contest. Also, thank you for clarifying when the end date and time is. Good luck to everyone who is competing for the HP Dragon and remember, quality over quantity!
yes, i was worried because someone else said (in another thread) that this was the last day and i havent been on today
so im happy to hear im not late. thank you Andru for the contest opportunity and in the future i hope to see everyone here still participating.good luck to all who are still in this!
Sweet, this really clears it up, i was wondering what happened to the bonus points… Question about the Spam part, so if the person spams once, you move onto the next person? or is there a Spam limit?
I think that if they have spammed period is what he means but I could be wrong so dont quote me on that. I wish everyone good luck in the contest. How many people actually are in this contest? I was just wondering because I keep seeing the same few people all the time.
It’s hard to guess how many people are in this contest, but a few people have stopped posting after a couple of days or so. Best of luck to everyone. 😊
It really depends on how they are going to define spam—I think it will be a case by case basis, certain things you can just tell are spam where there are repeated postings in a row, or when you have been posting for a very large time (like 24 hours) in one row and you are dominating the forum. There are also the more obvious ones like stealing postings from other sites. All of these will get you disqualified from the contest, and sadly I think that is bad news for us as we more than likely slipped up somewhere along the way without even noticing it… oh well, it is what it is and there is nothing we can do about the past.
It’s good to see that everything has been explained more clearly now. The official date and the time of the deadline have also finally been posted! Good luck to all.
Thank you for the information Andru, it really helped me in relieving my tension a little bit that i had , and also i was so curious about this and i know that everyone has worked so hard or atleast a little bit to win this contest.
Thanks for the clarification Andru. You may well be needing a vacation once this is all over. Please take what is learned from this event and don’t let it stop you from future contests. I hope you will be able to look back in say 6 months and see that your user base expanded and remained that way.
Can I make a suggestion on the gallery area. Could the dates of the initial submission show up before someone makes a comment to it? I don’t like to dig up old content unless it really really needs to be.
that sounds like a good idea, but where would the date fit?
i cant find anywhere that the initial thread post date could go without making it too crowded
Well i can easily say that i’ve put the maximum efforts & time in this community trying to contribute in the community.I even didn’t go to bed for 5 days & was writing guides,articles,how-tos & interesting new tech related infos that are not common on other sites.I was working 21 hours per day for 5 days.After working this hard & having the maximum points & posts (over 725) someone leaked that there’s a forum bug in which we can all see each other’s points.After seeing this, when some other people came to know that i was gonna win because i’ve maximum points,they started saying that i’m spamming.
I’m not just a random member who joins every sites for contests.I’m a member of several communities with dignity.We all have some not-so-useful posts in the community but i deserve the prize most because i’ve worked maximum than anyone else here.When everybody were sleeping in those 5 days ,i was still here trying to contribute in the community.I’m not mentioning about my illness because when i did,someone said i’m giving excuses although i do have all the mediacl documents & prescriptions ready in my hand & all my friends of Bjorn3d.com knows me very well.In that website i have over 2600 posts but nobody ever accuse me of spamming because we are friends there,not like here where people can kill for a Dragon & no friendship & humanity comes into question.
But i think, my only fault was that i wanted to win very seriously.If i didn’t have so many posts & points,nobody would complain but as i was winning it’s not tough to guess that people will try to push me down.Some of the members still shown very friendliness & sportsman spirit towards me.And i do have enough proofs that what my posts are like.In this community & in several others,people have supported me by saying that my posts are useful & they liked it.i can show you anytime.It looks like only you can’t understand that i didn’t spam.
Some proofs to support my saying that i have contributed.Even members from different forum (one of the 31 sites) knows this.
I have 100 more proofs to show that i’m not a spammer.
And no maybe i’ve posted one liners 1 or two times but they wasn’t spam for sure.I’m not a noob.I know what spam is & what not.I’m not also the meber of your site only.Ask any admin of any site i’ve an account in & you’ll know that i do have some respect there.If i’ve spammed, then everybody did so.I atleast didn’t dig-up the old threads,didn’t double post or didn’t post nonsence threads in the lounge section.I’ve posted interesting tech related infos with giving credit to the original writer or author.How’s they can be considered as spam ? I post them in many other websites too but i think only this website has a different definition for spam.If i were to post news without giving the original author his credit, then it would be considered as spam.I’m 30+ now & i’m on the net since 1991.So,i do have enough experiences to know what spam is & what not.The most definite reason of not considering me is actually that because some members have thought that i shouldn’t win & you go with them.Did you actually go through my threads to see if they should really be considered as spam or not ?
Well i know why i can’t win.You have that info because i’ve said that to Buzzcorps & don’t wanna repit that here.My only fault was that i wanted to win & invested so much time & effort in here ignoring my severe illness just because i’m not lucky like you guyz who have atleast a computer of their own.I’m not denying that i have some not-so-useful posts but in no way they can be considered as spam because i’ve never heard that posting interesting tech related info is considered spamming.You guyz have a different definition of spamming alltogether which is different from every other websites.
If after working so hard & contributing so much in the community,i still don’t win, it would be very much painful for me.I think, i should’ve done what others are doing.Posting same threads twice intentionally, double posting,digging-up old threads (i always protested when i saw someone digging up old threads) & many other ways.If those posts can still present in the community, my threads should’ve been too.
As i worked most hardest than anyone else & contributed the max in the community & had maximum amount of points i should’ve won.Plain & simple.I didn’t spam even though i may not have all useful posts but they aren’t spam certainly.I’m 30+,not a child who doesn’t know what spam is.I’m a member of several respected websites with dignity & none of those websites can say that i’m a spammer.Anyways, i can’t make you understand that i’m not a spammer because you do have a certain mindset & after knowing that i’ve contacted to Buzzcorps, you certainly will be angry on me but i had to express myself somewhere.
Well i can easily say that i’ve put the maximum efforts & time in this community trying to contribute in the community.I even didn’t go to bed for 5 days & was writing guides,articles,how-tos & interesting new tech related infos that are not common on other sites.I was working 21 hours per day for 5 days.After working this hard & having the maximum points & posts (over 725) someone leaked that there’s a forum bug in which we can all see each other’s points.After seeing this, when some other people came to know that i was gonna win because i’ve maximum points,they started saying that i’m spamming.
I’m not just a random member who joins every sites for contests.I’m a member of several communities with dignity.We all have some not-so-useful posts in the community but i deserve the prize most because i’ve worked maximum than anyone else here.When everybody were sleeping in those 5 days ,i was still here trying to contribute in the community.I’m not mentioning about my illness because when i did,someone said i’m giving excuses although i do have all the mediacl documents & prescriptions ready in my hand & all my friends of Bjorn3d.com knows me very well.In that website i have over 2600 posts but nobody ever accuse me of spamming because we are friends there,not like here where people can kill for a Dragon & no friendship & humanity comes into question.
But i think, my only fault was that i wanted to win very seriously.If i didn’t have so many posts & points,nobody would complain but as i was winning it’s not tough to guess that people will try to push me down.Some of the members still shown very friendliness & sportsman spirit towards me.And i do have enough proofs that what my posts are like.In this community & in several others,people have supported me by saying that my posts are useful & they liked it.i can show you anytime.It looks like only you can’t understand that i didn’t spam.
Some proofs to support my saying that i have contributed.Even members from different forum (one of the 31 sites) knows this.
I have 100 more proofs to show that i’m not a spammer.
And no maybe i’ve posted one liners 1 or two times but they wasn’t spam for sure.I’m not a noob.I know what spam is & what not.I’m not also the meber of your site only.Ask any admin of any site i’ve an account in & you’ll know that i do have some respect there.If i’ve spammed, then everybody did so.I atleast didn’t dig-up the old threads,didn’t double post or didn’t post nonsence threads in the lounge section.I’ve posted interesting tech related infos with giving credit to the original writer or author.How’s they can be considered as spam ? I post them in many other websites too but i think only this website has a different definition for spam.If i were to post news without giving the original author his credit, then it would be considered as spam.I’m 30+ now & i’m on the net since 1991.So,i do have enough experiences to know what spam is & what not.The most definite reason of not considering me is actually that because some members have thought that i shouldn’t win & you go with them.Did you actually go through my threads to see if they should really be considered as spam or not ?
Well i know why i can’t win.You have that info because i’ve said that to Buzzcorps & don’t wanna repit that here.My only fault was that i wanted to win & invested so much time & effort in here ignoring my severe illness just because i’m not lucky like you guyz who have atleast a computer of their own.I’m not denying that i have some not-so-useful posts but in no way they can be considered as spam because i’ve never heard that posting interesting tech related info is considered spamming.You guyz have a different definition of spamming alltogether which is different from every other websites.
If after working so hard & contributing so much in the community,i still don’t win, it would be very much painful for me.I think, i should’ve done what others are doing.Posting same threads twice intentionally, double posting,digging-up old threads (i always protested when i saw someone digging up old threads) & many other ways.If those posts can still present in the community, my threads should’ve been too.
As i worked most hardest than anyone else & contributed the max in the community & had maximum amount of points i should’ve won.Plain & simple.I didn’t spam even though i may not have all useful posts but they aren’t spam certainly.I’m 30+,not a child who doesn’t know what spam is.I’m a member of several respected websites with dignity & none of those websites can say that i’m a spammer.Anyways, i can’t make you understand that i’m not a spammer because you do have a certain mindset & after knowing that i’ve contacted to Buzzcorps, you certainly will be angry on me but i had to express myself somewhere.
That’s another Double Post! What else more they need to kick you out??????
As i worked most hardest than anyone else & contributed the max in the community & had maximum amount of points i should’ve won.Plain & simple.I didn’t spam even though i may not have all useful posts but they aren’t spam certainly.I’m 30+,not a child who doesn’t know what spam is.I’m a member of several respected websites with dignity & none of those websites can say that i’m a spammer.Anyways, i can’t make you understand that i’m not a spammer because you do have a certain mindset & after knowing that i’ve contacted to Buzzcorps, you certainly will be angry on me but i had to express myself somewhere.
Uh excuse me, you have made over 100 topics and hogged almost all of the entertainment forum along with other not so commonly visited areas. While they’re not useless they’re not exactly making much contribution anyway. I mean, really, it counts as spam if you made a topic every five minutes and linked half the wikigiz site, AND you didn’t even bother to check your links.
I would’ve forgiven you for the above, except no. I asked nicely if we can compromise and you stop making so much threads and I stop pestering you. Then you stubbornly say you refuse to compromise and reported me for harrassing you. Well since when did asking people to stop spamming become harrassment.
You can post for 500 hours on end, but how much time you spent on it doesn’t change it miraculously from spam to non-spam. It’s the content that matters. Spam you spend 500 hours on is still the same as spam you spent 2 minutes on.
Of course you have freedom of speech, but in this case you have been overly aggressive toward the winning chances of others and adamant that you should have won.
And i don’t need to learn from you SkyFuser that what i am.As i said i’m 30+ & have enough knowledge to understand what spam is & what not.What you were trying to do from the beginning is what i call spamming.cursing others to bosst your post count.Posting information from other sites aren’t spam.Will you mind if i show you 1000+ proofs that they aren’t spam.I really don’t care if you think they are spam because in all the 50+ other websites (with over 200000+ members) people know that i do post this type of information (not that i’ve posted these here only) & no body ever said that these are spams.Ask anyone of these 50 websites about me & you’ll get the answer.You certainly don’t know the meaning of spam & i don’t need to learn that from you.You have started to push me down from the beginning when other members were still saying that my threads were useful to them but you continued saying that they are useless.I don’t give a damn about what you may think.It only matters to me that other people were saying just the opposite of what you have to say & i also hate people like you who try to push people down for their own sake.So,do your own job please & let me live alone.I don’t have a chance now.So, you don’t need to continue creating problems with me again & again.What you were wishing about me (trying to keep me out of the contest) has been succedded.What more do you want from me ? Don’t try to think yourself as a mod or admin.You don’t have any right to say what i should & what i shouldn’t.
Look, you. You seem to think that all spam is the same. Your sites might be highly prestigious and your collections of news tips might be treasures there but difference places have different STANDARDS. You seem to be unable to understand that.
Gear Live’s forums aren’t optimized for posting too many topics at once because there are no subforums. So if I suddenly saw your name plastered everywhere over the not so popular topic areas of course I’d disapprove of it.
If you did that on BleepingComputer you’d get banned. No one has ever made as much posts on there in the same section in such a short amount of time. Maybe your sites are dedicated to presenting news, but I’m sorry if you can’t accept the fact that the sites where you post that many news tips is not the standard, that’s your own problem. And I believed I apologized about calling your topics useless. I apologize for going over the top a bit and saying they were useless, but I do not apologize for saying it’s spam.
And I never wanted you to fail. If I did I would have done it to Buckeye and jess1ca. All I ever wanted you to do was stop spamming the forums with so many topics in such a short amount of time.
Nobody told me that i can’t post new topics over a shorter amount of time & there wasn’t any mention about it in the rules too. I respect your opinion but certainly don’t agree with you.I do have enough knowledge to understand what spam is.Thanks.And Bleeping computers didn’t ask us to even post.So, there was no need to post to win their contest.
My posts weren’t useless but they are spam.Now that makes me laugh.Thanks & you won’t have to see my threads anymore.I’ve stopped posting threads a long time ago.
But you just said you know the difference between spam and whatnot. Well different websites have different expectations. You should actually take time to think if I ask you to stop posting so many threads is because I want to kick you out or it really is annoying spam. If I really wanted everyone out I could’ve kicked jess1ca and Buckeye and littlebull out too. Sometimes it really might have pure intentions-.-
To me, spam is 0 meaning. Useless is -1 meaning.
As for my comment on BleepingComputer I wasn’t even referring to their contest, I meant the forum in general.
