I think it's pretty self explanatory. If we say "Pin this giveaway to Pinterest" then you need to pin it to Pinterest, and then leave a link to that pin, as the instructions state. If we say "follow Thrifty Nifty Mommy on Google Friend Connect" then you need to follow Thrifty Nifty Mommy on Google Friend Connect. If we say "Tweet this on Twitter" then you need to tweet it and paste a link. We aren't going to make you do any of these entries, that's why they are optional. BUT, if you are going to claim the entries, then you better actually be doing these things.
Maybe those who are cheating don't realize just how easy it is for us to check the entries you are claiming on Rafflecopter. Here is a screen shot. Rafflecopter tells us your name, when you entered, what entries you claimed, and what you wrote in the box where we ask for you to paste links or verify entries. I've blacked out the name of the individual who was taking entries falsely (if you click on the picture you can see it a little more clearly):
(Thanks to Ruth at Viva Veltoro for the screen shot)
It's extremely sad that grown adults still feel the need to cheat. Most of the giveaways we have are for items for kids. What is it teaching your children when you give them an item you won by CHEATING? It shows a complete lack of respect for not only the blogger who takes the time to organize a giveaway (which, to be honest, most posts I put up take me an hour plus) but also a lack of respect for the other people who take the time to enter the giveaways legitimately.
It is easy for us to see who is cheating and it's also easy to see if someone might have done something accidentally vs. those who are blatantly cheating over and over again. Claiming you are tweeting about a giveaway when your Twitter account is suspended is an obvious attempt to cheat. If you cheat and you are found out, you will never win again on this blog, or any other blog in the Thrifty Nifty Mommy Blogger Network. We now keep a list of all known cheaters. (Bloggers not in the Network, I'm happy to share with you too if you'd like to send me an email).
To those of you who enters these giveaways all the time, I apologize if a cheater has ever won a giveaway that you entered. We are working hard to make sure this does not happen because we value your time! Thank you for taking the time to enter these giveaways and for doing it with integrity!
Giveaways are fun, let's keep them that way!
Thank you so much for all of the giveaways! I truly love and appreciate all that you do. I have had this same problem myself with giveaways. I've had to delete a few entries here and there because of the same thing. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteIt really is sad that people cheat. I've found that if I keep my rafflecopter widgets simple & don't allow for like 200 entries per person there are less cheaters. Like only give them a couple ways to enter & be done. The more options you give them to enter the more people cheat...it really sucks! :(
ReplyDeleteI like this idea Lulu and Sweet Pea. =)
DeleteI'm so glad you we able to see this. Theresis another system that from what I can tell won't left you enter if you didn't do it. Cupongator has it. I'm out of my house at the time so I can't go check.
ReplyDeleteIt's really sad that you had to spend time and energy writing a post like this. For those of us who spend the time, following, tweeting, pinning, etc it's not fair when a cheater is entering. Thank you so much for the awesome giveaways and all the time you guys take putting them together. As a blogger myself, I know it's not "easy".
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. It is so sad. Luckily, the large majority of people DO enter fairly and for that I'm grateful!!
DeleteI've only been entering giveaways using social media for a few years. I can't believe all the cheating that (I think) occurs! I just want to say that I mistakenly presumed that if I clicked the "Like" icon in the RC to like a FB page that it would automatically like the page for me. Unfortunately, I discovered that isn't the case. What I don't know (maybe you can help me here) is: would it work that simply if I wasn't at a limit on FB? Of course, now I know better and I always go to the FB page (or Twitter account) to verify that I am actually doing the required step.
ReplyDeleteI'm relieved to know that you take the time to verify entries and won't allow the cheaters to win!
When I click the 'like' button within the RC form the new page shows up in my feed. I wonder if sometimes that hasn't been the case.
DeleteLeiquin, I know that sometimes FB can be weird with "liking" pages. There have been times when I go to a page and try to click the "like" button but have nothing happen. :( Normally though, if I click "like" on a RC form it does like the page for me, so I'm not sure why it wasn't working for you.
Deletecould be the 2000 limit or maybe a confirm was overlooked.
DeleteI appreciate your replies. When something odd happens to me, I never know if it's just a fluke or if I did something ignorantly. As I said, now I always open the page and click to like or follow. I learn something new every day!
DeleteI'm so glad when the cheaters are discovered. I hate that they ruin it for so many others (like by wasting your time)
Thanks again!
I appreciate the giveaways (and the reviews!) I hope I didn't show up as one of the Twitter ones, apparently my account's been a wee snarky of late with following new people, I've been trying to go back and fix things since I found out :(
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you're fine! We look at the entries as a whole when we are checking to see if someone is cheating on purpose. As you can see in the picture above, some people take entries for a NUMBER of things when in reality they have done none of them.
DeleteCheating is frustrating. I'm a bit OCD so if I think RC has given me an entry that the blogger hasn't intended, I check with the blogger. That only works well with bloggers that I actually read on a regular basis. In the case of giveaways there are so many linkies and what not that I'm sure there have been times where I've made a mistake, the computer burps, etc. where I've entered with an error. I've always trusted that the verification process will weed me out in such rare cases.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you're fine! We look at the entries as a whole when we are checking to see if someone is cheating on purpose. As you can see in the picture above, some people take entries for a NUMBER of things when in reality they have done none of them.
DeleteI don't understand why someone would think to even do this. I mean, how hard is it to actually do the entry, they usually only take a few seconds! The only thing I don't like about rafflecopter is that occasionally I have pressed enter too soon or by accident and haven't got the right thing in the field and there is no way to correct it. I am glad you look at the entries as a whole and not disqualify people right away.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe people would cheat! That's so crazy! We are adults and its all for fun. Besides, your directions in the raffle operate always simple and fair. While I am sure that I have messed up an entry or two by clicking too fast, something not going through, etc, I would NEVER cheat to win. So sad :( I am so grateful for the awesome giveaways you offer and the neat prizes I have won!
ReplyDeleteTo save time I choose a winner, and then verify the winning entry, it saves time checking them all. My last giveaway I did the fist winner didn't actually do what they said they did, so I had to choose a new one! It's funny that they think we won't check and that they will just win anyways.
ReplyDeleteThank you for verifying entries, TNMBN! As a new-to-giveaways momma I am so thankful for your reviews, giveaways, and for your dedication to making sure honest mommas have a fair chance! Still yet to win a diaper or anything, but I am sure it will happen eventually. (I enter about a gazillion of your givaways, so it is bound to happen soon!)
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you need to say it either! It is not hard to do what you ask on your RC, if you can't do it move along :) I like entering contests, try to always verify if I am eligible (Canadian) so I don't waste the hosts time and just have fun while doing it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the giveaways. Can I just put this out there - FEEDBURNER IS NOT WORKING!! I get sooo frustrated when every time I enter an email subscription on feedburner that has to be verified and I NEVER get a link to verify. Put it in once, nope, twice, nope. They've acknowledged the problem, which has been going on for months now, and they're "working on it" Until then, I think most bloggers don't know this, but you're better off to subscribe in a reader.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. I don't understand why people feel the need to cheat - all of the entries just take mere seconds to complete. And thanks for all the great giveaways and baby advise!
ReplyDeleteVery well said Janessa! It sucks that we have to so closely monitor our entries! It takes away from the time that we could be writing reviews, recipes, DIYs, and more!
ReplyDeleteThank you for keeping things honest.
ReplyDeleteA thought I had, in the past I wouldn't hit the tweet button. Instead I would cut & paste the tweet (so I could cut & paste daily and tweet from my word program.) So even though I would tweet and paste the link back, it probably didn't click-off a tweet # in rafflecopter. I had someone email me once about it and it hit me that maybe I should always tweet using the button. That's what I do now since I don't do daily tweets any more. It makes me ill when people cheat; really sucks the fun out of it for everyone. Kind of off-topic, but I would like to see someone blog about how many times you can win the same item in a year. For me, if I win something I won't try to win it again for 6-12 months. Also if I happen to win something and I win again on a different blog (because I entered so many/lol) I'll turn it down. I've always wondered what the general policy was on winning. Anyhoo, I'm really liking all the different forms the bloggers are using now. Sure makes it easier to figure out what you've entered already. You guys work hard and it is too bad you have to deal with people cheating.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear that there are still honest BLOGS out there too! :)
ReplyDeleteI used to follow a bunch of blogs but saw some "shady" stuff (one had a handful of giveaways going on with very low entries on them all. On one, there was only me and one other person and I had 95% of the entries. I didn't win a SINGLE one of the giveaways. Not that I think I HAVE to win but the odds of that happening with about 6-8 giveaways with such low numbers and me doing the repeats and none of the other 2, 3 or 4 people doing them and NOT winning ANY of them doesn't sound quite right......) so I quit following them. TNM is still one I LOVE!!!
I'm just so glad to hear that you are keeping your followers honest too! I've seen it happen many times where you have to leave a comment as the original entry and the "winner" didn't! Such an easy check but the blog didn't bother..... It's REALLY frustrating when people have pointed it out that the required entry wasn't followed and nothing is done either! :( Uggg.
THANK YOUR for all your hard work!
Thanks Miranda! I know you've been a follower for a long time now and I'm happy you're still here!! :)
Deleteso sad to read this, what's wrong with people these days-Dorothy Deakyne, thanks for your blog
ReplyDeleteCheating would have never crossed my mind - I appreciate the giveaways so much.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see that you are not letting the cheaters win giveaways that us who work hard at entering them right, I think, deserve a chance at winning.
ReplyDeleteMy twitter account was just suspended last night for something to do with the @??? tweets I've been sending and I am wondering if anyone else has had this happen? I guess I need to read twitters policies. I enter a lot of giveaways so now I am stuck with not being able to get the tweet entries unless I can find a way to change the tweets for the giveaways and still qualify. This might not be the right place to ask but maybe someone can lead me right.
Thanks for keeping things good for the honest players. :)
I've never had a Twitter account suspending so I'm not sure why they do that. Sorry I'm not much help there!
DeleteIt is sad that there are those that feel the need to cheat. However, I may also say on the side of the contester....it is also very sad when you don't receive your giveaway, specially when it was fairly earned! I have not seen any postings on that issue.
ReplyDeleteInez, if you've ever won a giveaway on my site and not received your prize if you let me know I'll keep working at it until we get an answer. Sometimes it takes a few follow up emails but as long as I'm told a winner hasn't received something, I try to make sure they get sent out!
Delete:) actually...check your emails and facebook. Although I was not referring to this when I posted.
DeleteI spend two hours at night sometimes going back through and doing my daily entries, then getting paranoid that I might have pasted the wrong link in, or something and going back and trying to make sure I did the entry right. Which is frustrating on its own, the other night I was trying to do the thirsties pin it one, kept pinning and pinning and the thing kept telling me I hadn't pinned, eventually I just gave up and skipped that one. Its frustrating to hear that happens when I know I try so hard to be careful and do my entries correctly, to paste in the right links and to be sure I'm logged into the right FB account before I start any RC giveaways.
ReplyDeleteWhy the heck does my name get that ' instead of an .'. ?
DeleteThanks for this post- I love entering giveaways (and finding great mommy blogs like yours), so it's frustrating to hear about people cheating. I'm sure we've all made a mistake here and there, but I genuinely feel bad when that happens and I'm sure the other honest folks out there do too! I guess we just have to remember that what comes around goes around....
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I just recently discovered your blog and I love it. :)
So glad you love the blog Keara! I hope you stick around for a while. We've got a lot of great things planned! :)
DeleteI hope I'm not on that list. I do one of the entries and close the page and come to find out I need the link. I usually write why I don't have a link. Does it still count? Another thing is there is a blank space but it doesn't tell you what to put in it. I usually write that I don't know what to put there but that I have done the entry.
ReplyDeleteAmen! I am glad you can recognize mess ups vs. cheaters. I am wondering...how do I pin something on pinterest w/o the "pin" button? I think all of your giveaways have had them right on the rafflecopter form, but most others I have tried don't and the post itself doesn't have a pin button. I would even go to the site's pinterest page to find the pin on their wall so that I could repin and it isn't there either. I have asked about this on the giveaway sites but have not gotten a response. (If I can't pin it, I don't say that I did though.;) )
ReplyDeleteOh, and also, when it says to tag someone in the post for the giveaway on FB, I have never gotten mine to work. It comes up with every other name but the ones I'm supposed to tag. That one I do mark as done b/c I can put the URL into the entry.
DeleteI'm reluctant to mention this because I'm really not very tech-savvy...that being said, my husband put a "Pin It" button up on the toolbar (I think that's what it's called). If I want to pin something but don't see the "Pin It" icon, I can click on my "Pin It" and pin from there. It usually opens to more than one photo, but I can usually figure out which photo is appropriate for the giveaway. Then, you just click to see the pin to get the URL (at least this is how I do it--sure hope I've been doing it correctly). Good luck!
DeleteSorry Jen, I'm just now seeing that I got a lot of other comments on this post that I missed. If you'd like to pin the giveaway, all you need to do is copy the link to the post, then go into Pinterest and there is an "add" button at the top right. You'll put the web address in the box that pops up, then scroll through the pictures that come up until you find a picture of the giveaway prize. Then you just describe it, put the date it ends, and pin it! Hope that helps!
DeleteThat is so sad!
ReplyDelete