HEXUS competitions

[Vorlon99]

19 posts and he wins!?!

At least it shows it's truely random, because I won without having been a member of the forum first.... I posted my first post to say thanks! - That answers one of the questions people had been posting

It just shows, its not quantity that counts lol

[kalniel]

19 posts and he wins!?!

It was a regular competition I guess, not one limited to forum members. And it's brought him here, so yay

[Saracen]

It was a regular competition I guess, not one limited to forum members. And it's brought him here, so yay

Exactly.

What people, especially forum members, sometimes forget is that the forums are part of HEXUS, but only a part. And not the part that pays the wages .... and server costs.

We get free forums because HEXUS is commercially successful .... and long may that continue. A few competitions are only open to forum members, in which case, membership period, number of posts etc, may all be part of eligibility criteria, but the majority are not forum-only. In which case, he didn't need any posts.

It's nice when someone does join in, though. Hi, Vorlon.

[kalniel]

That or he's just after free delivery *dons tin foil hat*

[Saracen]

That or he's just after free delivery *dons tin foil hat*

Well, possibly. As long as he contributes, reasonably, I don't have a problem with that. And Vorlon has, as per this thread.

I do, however, periodically delete posts or zero the postcount of people that post exactly 20 times in a very brief period (like 30 minutes), all of which consist of one or two word posts, which are semantically null. Saying "I agree", 20 times, does not constitute contributing reasonably if it's the ONLY thing said.

That said, ultimately, giving free delivery, or not, is Scan's right and choice. We (mods) just monitor forum usage.

[ik9000]

That said, ultimately, giving free delivery, or not, is Scan's right and choice. We (mods) just monitor forum usage.

I agree.

<runs>

[Vorlon99]

Exactly.

What people, especially forum members, sometimes forget is that the forums are part of HEXUS, but only a part. And not the part that pays the wages .... and server costs.

We get free forums because HEXUS is commercially successful .... and long may that continue. A few competitions are only open to forum members, in which case, membership period, number of posts etc, may all be part of eligibility criteria, but the majority are not forum-only. In which case, he didn't need any posts.

It's nice when someone does join in, though. Hi, Vorlon.

Hi guys, and thanks for the warm welcome

I certainly didn't join for the free delivery, that was something I noticed only AFTER I joined, and a few days later at that.
I will not always be a super-regular contributor, but I do hope I can provide a combination of useful and daft things for people to read

[KeyboardDemon]

Exactly.

What people, especially forum members, sometimes forget is that the forums are part of HEXUS, but only a part. And not the part that pays the wages .... and server costs.

We get free forums because HEXUS is commercially successful .... and long may that continue. A few competitions are only open to forum members, in which case, membership period, number of posts etc, may all be part of eligibility criteria, but the majority are not forum-only. In which case, he didn't need any posts.

It's nice when someone does join in, though. Hi, Vorlon.

Congrats to Vorlon99, hopefully your prize will be with you soon and also that you'll stay active as a member of our community, without its members these boards wouldn't be the same.

So in terms of this thread, we have covered how winners are selected, how prize notifications are issued and then what happens in terms of sending the prize out. I do have a question in terms of the requirement for compliance in with any rules and regulations on running competitions, are there any in place that apply to Hexus? I think the people that have concerns over fair play etc... might feel more at ease if they knew that there were independent regulatory bodies keeping an eye on things.

[Saracen]

.... I do have a question in terms of the requirement for compliance in with any rules and regulations on running competitions, are there any in place that apply to Hexus? I think the people that have concerns over fair play etc... might feel more at ease if they knew that there were independent regulatory bodies keeping an eye on things.

I'm not aware of any regulatory bodies for competitions, at all, never mind on HEXUS. But then, competitions are handled by HEXUS staff, not forum mods, so I don't know much more than you. It's cropped up in a brief conversation or two over the years, but very briefly, not in any detail and not recently.

The only oversight I'm aware of, or rather, would expect, is that as sponsors are providing prizes, often worth hundreds if not thousands, THEY would want to be satisfied of objectivity and impartiality.

Beyond that, dunno I'm afraid. About 99% of what I know about the process I learned at the same time as everyone else.

[Vorlon99]

One of the biggest problems I guess (my opinion) is that almost no-one ever posts to a competition thread that they won, that they received the prize, or Thanks etc

So some of those new to Hexus (and being human) are naturally skeptical of the competitions when they fail to see any 'evidence' of winners receiving their prizes.
So far I've only found 1 competition thread (other than mine) where someone initially was complaining of not receiving their motherboard, and then later thanking Hexus for their intervention and acknowledging the arrival of the mobo some time later.

[KeyboardDemon]

I'm not aware of any regulatory bodies for competitions, at all, never mind on HEXUS. But then, competitions are handled by HEXUS staff, not forum mods, so I don't know much more than you. It's cropped up in a brief conversation or two over the years, but very briefly, not in any detail and not recently.

The only oversight I'm aware of, or rather, would expect, is that as sponsors are providing prizes, often worth hundreds if not thousands, THEY would want to be satisfied of objectivity and impartiality.

Beyond that, dunno I'm afraid. About 99% of what I know about the process I learned at the same time as everyone else.

Yes of course, you're right, if sponsors thought that the contests were not being conducted fairly then they wouldn't want to have their names associated with that, it's not good for their image after all, and giving away prizes is all about raising brand and product awareness, possibly even enticing people to buy or identifying potential new customers/markets through capturing details such as email address etc...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It would be nice if G+ was used a bit more - most geeks I know actually prefer to use that than Facebook.

[jim]

The only oversight I'm aware of, or rather, would expect, is that as sponsors are providing prizes, often worth hundreds if not thousands, THEY would want to be satisfied of objectivity and impartiality.

Beyond that, dunno I'm afraid. About 99% of what I know about the process I learned at the same time as everyone else.

Having seen this process from the sponsors' side, as it where, I'd say this is spot on.

If users feel aggrieved by a competition they'll come straight to the sponsor screaming. VERY loudly! I remember one case required a lot of back and forth with the site running the competition to get things fixed.

And if the site running the competition didn't respond adequately, it would definitely harm relations. if we had suspicions about sites not running comps objectively, they wouldn't be receiving prizes for long.

[DR]

Just a heads up - http://hexus.net/static/competitions/ a page formally explaining things.

[ik9000]

It always irks me that US sites like Anandtech limit all competitions to the US only, while our sites like Hexus run (most) comps worldwide. Must be a clause in the TATP about that I guess.

[peterb]

Excellent post HEXUS!

Good to see the process explained and some of the FAQs answered.