Don’t cheat on blogs
Cheating is bad, mmmkay?
I try to run a tight ship around here at Eighty MPH Mom, but it’s really cramping my style to have to monitor the cheating. To those of you who are honest and actually take the time to enter correctly, I bow down to you. For the others, I am posting this as a refresher course. Remember, the more time I have to spend on cheaters and people who don’t follow directions, the less time I have to post awesome giveaways. Here goes:
One entry per household/IP address:
This goes for every, single giveaway. Every time. I do check IP addresses and if you are entering as yourself, your spouse, your second cousin once removed, your fish, or whatever, it is just a matter of time until you are busted.
Leave links to your tweets and Facebook shares:
Saying you tweeted, without leaving your twitter ID and/or link to your tweet does me no good at all. If you are unsure how to get the link from your tweet, here is how: Right click on the “seconds” ago that you tweeted (3 seconds ago, etc.). Right click and choose “copy link address”. Come back here, right click and choose “paste”. Viola! It will become second nature after you do it a few times. You can do the same on Facebook. When I offer an extra entry for sharing on Facebook, please leave a link to my blog. I know there have been some issues lately in doing this (on Facebook), but if you can’t post a link there, at least choose @EightyMPHMom in your Facebook post, so others can actually find my giveaway. Then come back and leave the link in a comment, saying you shared on Facebook.
Verify your email subscription:
In going through my email subscribers today, I was floored to see how many haven’t verified their subscriptions to Eighty MPH Mom. You must do this step to actually be subscribed.
Following on Google Friend Connect:
Leave your Google Friend Connect name!
Retweeting:
I do allow retweets, but only once per day {unless otherwise noted – this is rare though}.
Extra entries for commenting on non-giveaway posts:
Comment on the actual non-giveaway post. THEN come back to the giveaway, saying that you commented on such and such post.
Us bloggers are pretty good detectives. Don’t test us. We check IP addresses, email addresses, user names, we cross-reference and we do a whole bunch of other things behind the scenes to make sure we eliminate cheaters. Did you know that when we click on an IP address in our comments it pulls up all entries from that IP address? Yep, and then we compare further. I am especially on the lookout after discovering two cheaters in the past two days. Other bloggers are aware also, and there have been several posts about people cheating on their blogs too. It is just a matter of time before you get caught. So please, pretty please, with sugar on top – just don’t do it.
I know many of us love to host giveaways, and it’s exciting to tell someone they have won. It is simply not fair for one person to enter as a bunch of different people (which increases their odds). It isn’t fair at all to those who have spent their time making sure they have entered correctly and honestly.
I want to THANK the entrants who make my life so much easier by being honest and reading directions. Good luck!
About Jennifer-admin
Mmm hmmm! I love that you can sort by IPs with WordPress. Makes things mighty easy. No guppy entries allowed? Dang, you are tough!
LOL yep – I might be short, but I am brutal
Glad to hear all the bloggers share the info with each other. !
Stay Tough :0)
Jennifer,
I wrote you via my personal e-mail earlier today. I have not heard back from you. This issue with ‘cheating’ got brought up by Leslie from ‘Leslie Loves Veggie’ earlier today. I spoke with her earlier this afternoon as she @mentioned myself and my sister claiming we were ‘cheaters’ and then deleted it. She was visiting for a few days and entered I think 2 or 3 giveaways using my computer while she was over.
My sister, Cortney, taught me about giveaways and it is a fun hobby for us both. Neither of us had any intention of causing the confusion apparently that has caused both you and Leslie to post about this. I am very new to giveaways and I was unaware you felt it was cheating if two inviduals from seperate households entered the same giveaway on the same computer. While this has only happened once and is rare. I feel it’s necessary to contact you directly to apologize but also to say I think it’s important to educate your readers and I do appreciate that. I would have however appreciated if you or Leslie had contacted me directly before turning this into something it didn’t need to be.
My sister and I both are now aware of the IP issue and certainly if visiting eachother from out of state will not share computers.
We both enjoy your blog a great deal and have enjoyed your posts and giveaways alike.
Lindsay
PS my IP address for your information: http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/98.113.133.185
I’m sure Cortney would be happy to provide her IP address info when she is free, she lives in Michigan and obviously uses another internet carrier available there. I live in NYC and use Verizon. She did so on Leslie’s post earlier as did I. While I want my privacy as does she I feel compelled to provide my location because I don’t want to be accused of cheating when we were having fun and made an honest mistake.
@MissPearl13 on Twitter
Thank you for approving the post Jennifer. Take care.
Thank you for clarifying
Again, this was not directed at you or your sister – but I just needed to post this as a reminder to everyone.
We are all good – enjoy and good luck!
Hi Jennifer,
Let me start off by saying I love your blog. I was astonished this morning when I received a tweet from leslies loves veggies accusing me of cheating.
I have never cheated and never would, I find it to be deplorable. I am only writing because while I think cheaters should be stopped and it is very wrong, bloggers do need to be careful that they’re not ‘blacklisting’ honest posters like my sister and I.
I entered a giveaway on Lesle Loves Veggies at my sister Lindsay’s (misspearl13) house when I was out of town visiting her the other day. I never thought that was wrong as I was using my accounts and live in a different state.
We are two people and live in two different states and have two different IP addresses (maybe you can check the ip from this post or my latest entries on your site to see that).
I just want to clear the air and certainly don’t want me or my sister put on any ‘black list’ as we are both honest and don’t believe in cheating. I really wish Leslie would have come to us first and asked or seen that 99% of my posts were from my IP in Michigan (my sister is in NYC).
I know there are other people who are couples entering from one household and that is a different story. But, please take in to account that some people travel and tweet/enter giveways on vacation.
Thank you for a great blog and thank you for understanding and reading this!
Cortney/ms_fleur
Here is a great site, here is my IP iddress and location.
http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/68.60.72.16
Thank you for commenting. I do understand that people travel and enter giveaways from different places…I have done that as well. I am not singling you out, I did not mention names. There have been so many cheaters lately and that is the reason I wrote this post.
It’s funny, sometimes to see just how obvious cheaters can be. I’m glad to know that we’re all on the same page, and thanks for putting out the reminder.
So sad you even have to write a post like this!
It really is…
Being honest is just the right thing to do. Sorry you had to write this post, but I’m glad you did
Sorry all these fun blogs have cheaters
I don’t have a blog but i know it’s frustrating for you and for the readers that take the time to enter the honest way.
I think checking ip addresses is great,except it takes up your time
i understand that once in a while someone can be entering from the same computer but then they should add that in their comment,
also their comment shouldn’t be ‘seconds’ after the ‘first’
persons comments…
that is REALLY obvious that it’s the same person
Last(sorry,if u don’t know what i’m talking about, i gotta say it) it’s just not cool to bring your religious beliefs in it
seriously, judgement and forgiveness about blog giveaways?!?..scary!
I hope they find a better way to use their time
Someone literally quoted their religious beliefs? I made an honest mistake…and I felt bad. Jennifer was very kind to explain everything to me. I’m as they say in the internet world, a ‘noob’ but bringing religion into it? I don’t get. Okay then. It’s just giveaways…we’re here to have fun, not quote scripture.
Oh yes…the comments seconds after the other user name. That is always a dead giveaway (no pun intended).
I actually have no idea what you are talking about as far as the religious beliefs…I’m clueless.
First off, I am glad that the blogger’s are checking over all the entries.
I do it as fun, and if I win, that is great too.
As far as people doing this as a living ……….well perhaps they need to get
a real job.
You are getting nothing by cheating, and the karma will turn around and
get you one day. Trust me, I have witnessed alot of people saying ” Gee
why do I have bad luck”. I can tell you why………try being honest in life and
only good comes to you.
Evil only turns around to those and kicks them in the behind !
What cracks me up is that people aren’t aware of IP addresses in this day and age? I saw on a major giveaway from another blog last month that someone said they Liked the sponsor on Facebook but didn’t leave their FB name, plus it was one of the blogger type entry forms where you pick your profile. I mean, come on now, everyone who enters giveaways should have the common sense to provide their user names to verify these follows, likes, etc. I provide everything but my mother’s birthday to ensure everyone know IT’S ME, LOL!!
I do have a question though, if I enter from my iPad (which I haven’t yet) but still in my home on wi-fi, will it show a different IP or still the same one since I’m on wi-fi?
Sorry you had to write another post on this subject again.
Thanks!!
This is an excellent question, but I don’t know the answer. I guess if you are entering from your iPad, maybe mention that you are RTing from your ipad in your comment too? Just make sure you use the same user name that you entered with initially.