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How to raffle
2 years ago
General
I always shudder when I see folks hold raffles and elect to assign the numbers by hand! Talk about doing it the hard way!
Raffle rules are a bit like programming - I love process documents, and I wrote the following in response to someone recently to collect my thoughts on the matter. Comments welcome.
I'll neaten it into a proper process later.
I'd hold a raffle myself, but the last time I did nobody came, so I declared myself the winner and drew something for myself. :)
Raffle format:
Prize list: 1 piece of indeterminate quality, 1 piece somewhat better. Good to post links.
1. Entrants: number your entries sequentially - you have time to edit afterwards in the case of a clash. If there's a duplicate when the winner is chosen, too bad - the first person with that number wins. If you notice someone took your number earlier, post at the end with the latest sequential number and a mention of the duplicate above.
Oh, and check that the winner hasn't entered twice. Which I've accidentally managed once or twice. If they have, and you landed on the duplicate, re-roll. (Don't skip to the next entrant, or they got two numbers instead!)
When I select the numbers, I don't have to post a picture, I'll just say the number and the winner. I'll update the original raffle journal/gallery to be nice, and post another. Unless nobody entered, in which case I'm always the winner. ;)
Posting the winner at the end also stops new entries! :D
I'll leave checking for compliance with any rules, like having...
* favoured the raffle gallery piece,
* favoured at least three other gallery pieces,
* left a reference,
* left a character matching your stated limits,
* being a watcher,
* leaving a code word,
* not being a blank or very new account
* whatever
... to just the first winner - if they failed to comply, just quietly choose another number: no need to tell them - they won't know anyway: it's a raffle. Or you can police things and poke them, if you want to.
No management if you put the onus on the entrants!
Give a closing date, post a final 'closed now' entry at the end and/or lock it for comments.
If you want to reward journals promoting the raffle, consider treating those as a separate raffle alongside the main raffle, rather than extra tickets.
If you're raffling to say thanks to your current supporters, then it's better to hold a raffle for your existing watchers, or most active watchers.
Raffle rules are a bit like programming - I love process documents, and I wrote the following in response to someone recently to collect my thoughts on the matter. Comments welcome.
I'll neaten it into a proper process later.
I'd hold a raffle myself, but the last time I did nobody came, so I declared myself the winner and drew something for myself. :)
Raffle format:
Prize list: 1 piece of indeterminate quality, 1 piece somewhat better. Good to post links.
1. Entrants: number your entries sequentially - you have time to edit afterwards in the case of a clash. If there's a duplicate when the winner is chosen, too bad - the first person with that number wins. If you notice someone took your number earlier, post at the end with the latest sequential number and a mention of the duplicate above.
Oh, and check that the winner hasn't entered twice. Which I've accidentally managed once or twice. If they have, and you landed on the duplicate, re-roll. (Don't skip to the next entrant, or they got two numbers instead!)
When I select the numbers, I don't have to post a picture, I'll just say the number and the winner. I'll update the original raffle journal/gallery to be nice, and post another. Unless nobody entered, in which case I'm always the winner. ;)
Posting the winner at the end also stops new entries! :D
I'll leave checking for compliance with any rules, like having...
* favoured the raffle gallery piece,
* favoured at least three other gallery pieces,
* left a reference,
* left a character matching your stated limits,
* being a watcher,
* leaving a code word,
* not being a blank or very new account
* whatever
... to just the first winner - if they failed to comply, just quietly choose another number: no need to tell them - they won't know anyway: it's a raffle. Or you can police things and poke them, if you want to.
No management if you put the onus on the entrants!
Give a closing date, post a final 'closed now' entry at the end and/or lock it for comments.
If you want to reward journals promoting the raffle, consider treating those as a separate raffle alongside the main raffle, rather than extra tickets.
If you're raffling to say thanks to your current supporters, then it's better to hold a raffle for your existing watchers, or most active watchers.
Gashren
~gashren
Or set up online entry form + google doc sheet. Every answer would already be in a separate row, there would be less possibility of invalid entries (for example without linked ref, if needed), and each entry would be numbered automatically with its own row number; sheets do have their own rand function for the draw later. And every next raffle all that's needed is to just copy from that template and have a ready solution.
Warwick
~warwick
OP
True, but I personally dislike Google forms for this study of thing.
