Who's tired of unfair contests?

I just have to vent here and i'd like to get your input on this issue.

I'm tired of going to clubs to enter 'best in...' contests only to find the same ppl winning all the time because they happen to have a lot of friends who'll vote for them... doesn't even seem to matter in a lot of clubs whether the winner is actually dressed in theme! So too bad for those of us who put in the effort, no one wants to reward you if you don't have many friends to tp in to a venue to vote for ya. The clubs say they don't tolerate this, but that's bullshit... they have no way of knowing who tp'd who and who's vote stacking.

But what reallly pissed me off, was when I entered a contest at a women's club and the owner entered it and won!! I was fuming! And when i expressed my discontent, i was branded a sore loser! Hey... i don't mind losing if the winner won fairly... but i should have known not to bother when i saw the club owner's name on the board... this is SL after all and the Lindens don't seem to care about how such contests are run.

But i think the Lindens should step in and introduce laws about how contests are run because some ARE undeniably scams... especially when the CLUB OWNER wins! When a club/venue advertises a contest, they do so to get ppl to go to their venue, knowing that people want to win money. But when the contest is so obviously rigged (I mean in rl it is illegal for a contest/competition organiser and the staff they employ to enter the contest), I think the Lindens should become involved.

I think more of us should speak up about this issue cause it will never change if we don't.
I DO AND WILL CONTINUE to express my opinion in open chat at venues if i think their contests are unfairly run... i don't care if i get scorned and called names or banned from their venue... i know others feel the same way but they're too scared of saying so in open chat and they're the ones who will im me later to pat me on the back for speaking up... COWARDS i call YOU... if you want things to change YOU have to speak up too! We as a community need to put pressure on clubs whose staff we tip and on the Lindens whose wages we pay to change the way contests are run.

I like to set the contest board to pay out the top 3 with the most votes - so folks don't feel they have invested 2 hours for nothing. I get my hosts to actually check the people on the board and make sure they are wearing red. If they are not - we do not discuss it - we just remove their name from the contest board. Scammers add their name back - and we keep removing them until we open the voting process.

It is up to the host in charge of the event to make sure its a fair, fun time. And it is up to the club owner to make sure the Host knows what her/his responsibilities are.

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I've been to a club where the owner enters and wins contests too and it is extremely unfair to other contestants. I think owners and on-duty staff should not be allowed to enter contests and i think only a CONTESTANTS should be allowed to vote to avoid the problem of contestants tping their friends to vote for them.

Also i think contest boards should be closed to entries half way through the event, and voting held off til the end, because it's frustrating when you've been present for the whole event and someone arrives with seconds to spare, enters the contest and wins! Who votes for these people anyway? I think if i've made the effort the dress in theme, gave my traffic to a venue for 2 hours, tipped all their staff... then I deserve more votes than the late commers who usually don't tip anyway and don't talk to anyone, then leave without a thank you or goodbye as soon as they win.

While this may seem like a fairer way, it just allows more of the POPULAR patrons to win... the three with the most friends, not necessarily the three best dressed.

Kuddos to you Eliza. I'm one of those who speaks up also and like you I get named a sore loser.

Well its based on votes - so it is what it is. If we want it based on THE BEST then we have 3 Judges and choose. But the voting method ensures audience participation.

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I entered a few contest,one it was a requirement to buy one of their "original" dresses to keep withing the theme of the contest.
The winner was determined by best dressed, the number of votes and who had the most amount of lindens donated to their pic.
You were encouraged to bring your friends to vote,well i'm beat right there,i have a few friends but no enough to win a contest,
I watched as one had lots and lots of votes and thousands ol lindens donated to their pic,around 30,000L if i remember right
Another contest i entered was at a club.and of course the one with the most friends won
I gave up on entering contest,they are in many cases unfair in the way a winner is determined.
There needs to be an unbiased way of judging contestants,one where friends of the contestant have no influence and not dependent on the amount of lindens one can accumulate in their contest pic
Some kind of impartial judging would be best.
But i think most contests on sl are just crowd drawing gimmics.and in some ways cruel because many enter these contest with a genuine desire to win,only to feel very disappointed to realize how biased they can be and they lost because they did nt have many friends
We females on sl can be just as vein on sl about how beautiful our avys look as in rl,and we can sometimes take it personally if we fell rejected,these contests involve real human emotions,and should be run properly with impartial judging and not just a fun gimmic to get people to buy your clothes or come to your club
Just my 2 cents on the subject,cos i too have been very disappointed regarding sl contests

Are you guy serious?

Why would you expect that a "Best in beige", "Best in cross dressing", "Best in whatever" competition would be anything other than a great big popularity contest?

The whole idea of some sort of LL law forcing fairness in a totally subjective and frankly silly contest is absurd.

who are you replying to?
I don't think it is something LL should be involved with,they would'nt get involved with such things anyway
personally i have come to the conclusion these contests are as you say totally silly gimmics and nothing more than a popularity contest and who is willing to dump as many lindens in their pic in some cases to ensure they win

Umm, I think pretty much everyone else in this thread so far.

Well yours is a male point of view and seeing as though most contests are for females,i don't think you have the same insight as the other posters who are female

Well I'm female and I think Elanthius is spot-on in this case. Getting one's dander up about people voting for their friends in contest boards is at best a misguided waste of energy.

This may not be immediately obvious to folks who are newer to SL, but most clubs are run and patronized by small groups of friends. So it's neither shocking - nor, really, all that outrageous on the scale of things - that people voting in voting-board contests are going to vote for their friends. They're at the club to hang with their friends, their friends run the club, etc. Why shouldn't they vote for their friends? And how on earth would anyone stop them from doing so, even if you proposed some set of objective criteria for club contests?

I won't deny that it strikes me as tacky for a club owner to enter her own contest. I wouldn't do this, and I haven't personally seen it done. But again, it's her club, and she's hanging out with her friends. If you don't like the way the club is run, the easiest thing to do is just to not go back there.

The contests we run, are group only, and only those in in our group can vote, i agree drives me mad when they come dance all night enter board, do not even say hello when they arrive and then expect to tp all friends when voting starts!

Well we close group joining when voting about to open so any friends that they tp in well they cant vote, that usually works!



so come and join us at 12pm lol and who knows you might be a winner lol

I've won a few contests where I didn't know ANYONE else there. I think it was the shock of having a ferret competing. They couldn't resist the cute.

You are quite shameless in your promotion of the cute.

Extremism in the promotion of the cute is no vice.

I quite agree since I am almost ashamed to admit I find the little beggars to be extremely cute.