  Contests & Activities
This week: Are Raffles and Auctions Trustworthy? Edited by: Leger~  
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The purpose of this newsletter is to highlight some of the current contests and activities on the site, help educate members on how to host contests and activities, and provide clues to submit quality entries to contests. Write to me if you'd like something in particular covered.
This week's Contests and Activities Editor
Leger~
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Are Raffles and Auctions Trustworthy?
The topic was raised in some feedback sent to my last newsletter. How do you know if a raffle is trustworthy? Writing.Com does not guarantee the fairness and outcome of any contests or activities held on the site except the ones hosted by Writing.com. In other words, you could buy tickets in a raffle and the host member could keep your gift points and close the item without choosing a winner. I've seen it happen a few times. And yet the same host will open a raffle a few months later and the same people will buy tickets. Is that smart? No. Am I saying all raffles and auctions are shady? No. I've won some excellent reviews and a lovely bracelet in some auctions. But I am careful about which raffles and auctions I participate in.
Here's a few tips to help you decide whether to buy tickets to a raffle or bid on something in an auction:
Has the member been on the site and active for some time? Sometimes new members get excited about their membership and create raffles to raise funds for upgrades. Would it be better to pool your gift points with a couple members you know and just gift them an upgrade from the "The Writing.Com Shop" ? Or even better, mentor them on how to review and earn gift points for memberships.
Has the member had raffles or auctions before? Their portfolio might have an old item that would show if the prizes were awarded or the winner chosen in the raffle. Or it might show complaints about the activity not being completed.
Are the only auction prizes the ones offered by the host? This makes a single person responsible for all the prizes. The more people who are involved, the better chance you have on receiving your bid prize.
Is the member holding the activity to raise funds for a group? If a group is involved, there are probably more than one member making sure the gift points go to the group intended. If you're not sure about the activity, you could donate to the group directly. Groups like "RAOK Upgrade Brigade Group" love donations!
If the activity has a gift point bank, are the gift points being sent to the bank? When the host sends out the prizes, the bank will show it on the GP Log. I feel the GP log should always be visible, so members can see exactly what is being done with the gift points.
All in all, bidding with your gift points is like gambling in a casino, sometimes luck just doesn't fall your way. So remember, don't bid gift points you don't have, or need for your own membership. But do participate! Your activity and all other members are what keep this site the great community it is. And if you're a member hosting an activity, be sure to finish what was started and make sure all prizes are awarded. If you need help, ask!
This month's question: Tell me your good and bad experiences in activities - and what have you learned?
Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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Excerpt: The task is simple: use the genre above as inspiration for a non-fictional item!
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#1512874 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Raffle starts NOW and ends on May 31st - 80% to "Anniversary Reviews" 10% to "RAOK Upgrade Brigade Group" 10% to help with cost of running the raffle
Excerpt: This game is about figuring out which letter belongs in place of each blank and bullet.
Excerpt: The Newbie Welcome Wagon is a forum designed to encourage and support those who review newbies. There is no group to join and you can affiliate your reviews to any group of your choosing.
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#1790591 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The contest will be run with a twist. Entries will be placed in groups. Group size will be determined and assignations done by random dice rolls after the submission deadline.
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#1653747 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: I'd love to give something to the lovely WDC community. This is my first auction.
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#1782631 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Here's the idea ~ Choose a fairy tale favorite or other classic story (Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast, for example). Alter the gender of one or more of the main characters, then write your own version. The main story should still be intact, but I do encourage letting your creativity fly. You can add comedy, darkness, romance, whatever you wish... just be sure it resembles the original tale enough so that the judges can recognize it.
Excerpt: These are known as the Seven Deadly Sins, otherwise recognised by the Christian Church as the seven cardinal vices unto which all others originate! Poets are invited to write freely in a monthly contest based on one of these aspects, with the promise of a prize... or three, to whomsoever captures best the lurid condition of the human soul!
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#1771385 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Write what you want. These prompts are entirely optional, not required, and you may interpret them however you like. (If you do follow a prompt, please include in your item which prompt you chose.) The item may be old and not specially written for this contest and may even have an awardicon (although un-awarded items will have priority).
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#1793047 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: You recently bought a IPad and when you went to the app store you found an app called Life changer. The description just says it will change your life. Since it was free, you download it. Turns out it literally changes anything about your life and the people you know.
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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This month's question: Tell me your good and bad experiences in activities - and what have you learned?
Last month's question: Which do you think is more attractive - a big main prize or a few smaller prizes?
Dawn Embers  sent: I like both, it depends on the contest. With a contest that happens on a regular basis that has shorter deadlines (daily, weekly, etc) it makes sense to have smaller prizes. For my monthly contest I try to go a little bigger since there is more word count allowed and more time to enter than the weekly one I currently co-own.
blunderbuss answered: The first hurdle (or attraction) for any Contest, is the Prompt - if there is one. If nothing appeals, then I look no further - not even at the rules!
As to the prizes. I often look back at the last entries - I am interested to see how many people submitted an entry last time. If there were not many, I have a better chance of winning, but why were there so few? That's a catch twenty-one situation, I think. If the contest tends to get a lot of entries, then I think more and smaller prizes can be attractive - recognition is important, even if it is only an honourable mention. If there's a big prize but few entries, I begin to wonder what is wrong with that contest. So, I hope that is not confusing the issue further! Attractive for me is - prompt that appeals, lots of entries, a good spattering of small prizes or mentions. That summarises it, I think.
Itchy Water~fictionandverse  said: The size of the prize doesn't matter to me when I submit to a contest. The main thing that matters is if the host is able to afford the promised prizes. If I were to choose from only a 1st place winner and a contest with 3 winners, I would choose the contest with 3 winners because you are more likely to win something even if you don't win first place.
ANN Counselor, Lesbian & Happy  mentions: Prizes for Contests and Auctions: My main interest is 'winning' reviews of novel Chapters or long stories with 'indepth' process. A quality, helpful review is worth 10k gps so I see my bid as an investment.
NaNoNette  submits: I prefer a few small prizes over one large prize. Even in the good old first, second, third scheme I prefer to know that there is the possibility for an honorable mention. On the other hand, I find it crazy to award first, second, third, plus honorable mention when there were only five entries. Unless each of those stories were so amazing that they deserve recognition on their own merits.
Write_Mikey_Write!  responds: I think it depends somewhat on the average number of participants in the contest. If there are usually no more than, say, five entries per contest period, it can be more attractive to the participants to have one large prize. If there are routinely lots of submissions, having a greater number of smaller prizes increases an entrant's chances of winning something.
rjsimonson  adds: I have an item in my port that is a "show case" of the contests that I have placed in. I love contests that give me a choice of a couple of prizes and I love the ribbon/GP combination the most!
A separate folder is a great idea! |
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Contests & Activities: April 25, 2012 Issue [#5012]
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