Commenters have brought up the following regarding my decision to declare a no-win situation with contest number 3:
1. Me keeping the Samsung laptop
2. Earning from clicks on the blog
3. Using the laptop as a means to get more “clicks”
There’s a reason why I declared a no-win situation.
I said at the beginning of this contest that I’m giving away everything in this raffle. Everything. In fact I never even entertained thoughts of “keeping” anything until two commenters brought it up. Tempting though. But anyone who knows me personally knows that I don’t do stuff like that. It’s wrong.
The no-win situation is the most unbiased way to resolve this situation because it takes into account the following: (a) errors of the sponsor (b) my error in not double checking before announcing (c) and the “shame” brought about to the “winner” (i.e. Marlon) because he didn’t win. What about awarding to a runner up? It’s not in the rules. There is no “runner up.” A short list, yes. Runner up, no.
As to what Samsung will do with the laptop, it’s up to them (prolly donate to a charity or a school as I suggested … I dunno). We both made a boo-boo and I was quick to address this error and not let it pass. As the organizer, I need to take both sides into consideration.
if you have lost faith in this contest series, then so be it. I only wanted to do this to celebrate a good thing. We did well in the previous weeks with Intel and SMART Communications (both winners already got their prizes). It seems that I screwed up with the 3rd week and we (me and Samsung) are trying to make this work. It’s not a good feeling … volunteering to do something nice and then getting ‘effed up in the process. But that’s life. I’ll learn from it.
I have decided to go on with the second half of this contest after the holidays with revised rules (will most likely incorporate a voting mechanism for the public to decide who gets the prize. I dunno.). It’s up to you if you want to join. It’s your opinion and I’ll respect that.
The following are up for grabs next year: handsets from Globe Telecommunications, an ACER Ferrari notebook, “something something” from Wi-Tribe, Blackberry handset(s) from RIM, phones from Nokia, and a Windows Phone 7 handset from Microsoft. I’d like to thank the sponsors — they’re all actually friends — for supporting this.
As to the accusations to point 2 and 3, c’mon get real. I barely make any money from Adsense neither am I part of some “click program.” If any of you have anything more to say, I suggest we do it in person. It’s what I do. I meet face to face. Just let me know when and we can settle it.