Don't worry, regardless of whether its Facebook or not we can be assured the winner will: not be from the US and will not be a normal TPU user (or even a registered member).
How does a contest like this promote the growth of the site or community when you don't have to be a member to win? Just like the GPUz contests, the winners will never be heard from again or will only revisit the site when the next contest rolls around.
I love giveaways (if you haven't noticed), and thought it was great to see official ones setup but how do these help the site as they are run right now? It would be great if someone can explain it to me, I just don't see it.
True that. What's stopping one of the millions and millions of Facebook users who's only interest is free stuff from entering? Some people I know on Facebook literally just enter competitions all day. I'd wake up some mornings to find one person sharing 20+ posts or pictures for competitions from anything like beauty/make-up to fucking sky diving.
I haven't been active here much over the past 2 years or so due to lack of activity with my upgrades and lack of PC gaming, but the competitions were the same back then. I've never seen anyone who is an active member win, and maybe 1/10 of the winners would post a few times then leave after a week.
I couldn't actually care less about winning, I'm going to get a new case, PSU and everything else in between myself eventually. I just want the right person to win it.
Say for example, a 3 month minimum membership is required with reassurance that if someone does sign up there will be plenty of future give-aways. The number of entries will drop significantly. Nobody wants to stick around for 3 months to get something for free, well almost nobody.
This time, it's not about strength in numbers. What's the point about having an influx of entries for it to ripple back to the normal forum activity? It's a lose lose situation. That's not to say someone out there won't join the forums, make use of a product and get into computing, but the vast majority of them are just leeches and it's not helping anybody to have a free for all competition.
I know this because a mobile gaming forum I was active on previously rewarded mostly active members including myself, with games, mobile accessories and many high end phones. I myself got two phones worth €500+ in those competitions. While there was incentive for new users to join, when it was obvious they had to stick around to win anything the majority of them fled and the people who were the core of the community came on top, it was fair for all.
/rant.