dotTech - Topic: freebies vs. competitions?

phoenix_rising on freebies vs. competitions?

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:58:08 -0700

From what I've seen of these sorts of "giveaways", the majority are not sanctioned by the software developers. Rather, they're licences that someone has hoarded in past legitimate promos that they then use to direct traffic to their sites (and then make you jump through hoops to get). I avoid them like the plague.

ebony on freebies vs. competitions?

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:08:56 -0700

@spell

I wholehearedly agree with you. It is like getting 500 people to promote (free advertising) your product and you MIGHT give away 5 license.

@ Guru "a chance for a license" which will probably expire in a year is a far cry from FREE.

IMHO, competitions are rip offs.

Ebony

spell on freebies vs. competitions?

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:43:18 -0700

Yes, I understand that and more power to them for offering the chance to win software. My point was simply that they are often being described as a 'giveaway' when in fact they are competitions with specific rules and a roll of the dice. It seeems to me, to be a device increasingly adopted by websites to boost traffic. Just my opinion, but if people are happy with it, fair enuff.

Locutus on freebies vs. competitions?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:05:09 -0700

We do--it's the limited license section. After all, those competitions are ultimately for a chance for a license.

spell on freebies vs. competitions?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:49:28 -0700

I have a small suggestion I hope you may consider. As a self-confessed search & download junkie, I have noticed recently a surge of websites, blog sites, tech sites etc. which are posting competitions as 'giveaways'. I am not churlish about this, more competitions are great, and I understand the reasoning behind it all. But these are, after all, competitions and not genuine freebies or giveaways. Invariably these competitions include the request that one signs up to a website, post one (or more) comments etc. as a precondition of 'entry' As an avid dottechie reader (if not a prolific poster) my humble suggestion is that the freebie section has a sub-forum for these competitions and have them separate to genuine freebies/giveaways.