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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    919

    Default Have you ever participated in an online voting contest?

    Hi everyone,

    This is my first new post for a while, with the exception of one I made about my son's potty training. Anyway, I wanted to ask what the general opinion was on online voting contests. I entered one for a short story competition, and am currently in 1st place.

    I have been writing since some stress I experienced last year and it's really helped me to heal.

    I included the link to my short story at the contest site with my signature at several of my writer's forums, but I thought maybe it was questionable etiquette after a while, and I took it down. Is it rude of me to advertise this way?

    Many authors I see on my writer's forums advertise the books they wrote. Is this the same thing?

    What do you think of online voting contests? Are they immoral - I mean, people don't really have to read through my story to actually vote for me. They can just want to vote FOR me, especially if they're related to me.

    I got tired of asking for votes on Facebook. You know, there's only so much people want to put up with, before they hit the ignore button. But on twitter (i have multiple accounts), I was sending out tweets about once an hour yesterday, with hashtags. I figured, it was free publicity, and everyone uses it that way, so why not me? And I still don't have any conscience about it. But my husband came home and told me I was acting like a beggar.

    I can kind of see what he means, and I do agree, but I don't feel bad. Whoever is getting my tweets, since my f-list is mostly people that only have the same interests as me, but they don't KNOW me, they're just writers, too - well, they can un-friend me if my tweets are spam, and it's no skin off my back. Is my attitude wrong? My husband can unfollow me, too, if he wants, since I have other accounts and he doesn't have to watch this particular one.

    Agh, I ramble. My question is, does entering a contest by which you get online votes, does it lead to bad behavior? In some ways, I just feel like I am marketing my product. Is that wrong?

    Thanks for any comments, I didn't realize this was going to be so long.
    Our Wedding - 7.06.02
    Our Daughter - 5.07.05
    Our Son - 3.28.08

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Mid-Atlantic state
    Posts
    2,929

    Default

    I've never seen one for short story writing.

    Most of the ones I've seen on FB were for 'cutest kid' or something. I was going to do one for a friend last week because her child was in the running for a $25,000 college scholarship, but then I had to register with all my information in order to vote. That was a no-go.

    Honestly, I wonder if any of these are legit or are they hooking you in to send you spam? They hook you because they know you want to show everyone your kid is cute. But does it lead to bad behavior? No, I don't think so. Everyone wants to promote something (cute kid, story, etc.) and I think this appears an easy way to do it.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Whoville
    Posts
    7,924

    Default

    I hate the ones that require you to either a) register with personal info, or b) end up on their mailing list. To be honest, I think most of these contests are annoying. I don't think it's rude to have it in a signature. I do find it annoying if people repeatedly send out email requests or fill facebook with voting requests. I don't go on facebook to see that type of thing, so I'm more likely to hide or unfriend people who do that on a regular basis.

    If it's something really meaningful or important I'll do it, but "cute kid" forget it. A friend of mine submitted a proposal to the United Nations and there was public voting - I voted in that because it seemed worthwhile.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Posts
    6,732

    Default

    There is no way I would vote for anything like "cute kid" but I would vote for a short story provided I like the story. I have voted for a friend who is a graphic artist and entered an ad she created in a contest. That friend posted the link on Facebook one time. I saw the link, I checked out the ad, I liked it and I voted. I can tell you though if she had e-mailed me, tweeted me, and posted links on Facebook several time I would not have voted because I would find that annoying and wouldn't want to reward that kind of behavior.

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