Membership referral contest
 

Recently I implemented an option that enables during registration a prompt that the registrant can use to enter the registered member name of someone who may have referred them to this website. This prompt is located at the bottom of the registration page.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/pics..._prompt_01.JPG

I have noticed that some people are using that function without my advertising the fact that it now exists, so I figured maybe I could expand on this concept and put it to good use.

Bear in mind that the function here to log referrals is rather primitive, and all it does is to log a count of the number of new registrants that have indicated that a current member has referred them here. Nothing fancy, and nothing beyond that in any way automated. The only info I can pull from the data is to select a date range and have a report generated showing a list of referrers that registrants have entered, along with a total count of the number of registrants filling in the prompt with that referrer. So I have to be creative, in a manual sense, in how I use it. Hence a simple and uncomplicated contest based on simple and uncomplicated data.

Obviously some people are referring others to this site, so I want to set up something as a THANK YOU to them, and sort of have some fun in the process. Hence this idea of a "Membership Referral Contest". So, beginning on July 1, 2018 and running through December 31, 2018, the registered member here who gets the highest count of referrals will be awarded a *FREE* ENDOWMENT level membership for one year. A $250 value! Winner will be determined on January 1, 2019 based on the statistics page showing the referral counts for the above mentioned time period.

This contest is open to ALL registered members on FaunaClassifieds.

The decision of the judge (me) will be final.

What kind of prevention do you have for someone that just makes multiple fake accounts and refer their main account to win the contest?

I think something of that nature would very quickly become obvious, and there is an excellent chance that I likely will not want someone who would cheat taking part on this site any longer. So if someone wants to cheat, go ahead. Likely they will find that the prize being awarded will be getting themselves banned. :reddevil:

And in such cases, as I mentioned, the decision of the judge will be final.

Just a reminder that this contest is now underway. :D

Rich, it would be very easy to cheat. With all of the free email addresses you can get, and all of the proxy servers you can use, it would be easy to cheat. Have you given any thought to that? Just curious.

Haha :exactly::iagree:

Yes, I have. Anyone caught pulling something like that will be dealt with appropriately. That is why I put in the caveat that the judge's decision will be final.

Honestly, I have doubts that many (if any) members will even make the effort to actively participate in this contest, much less make the extra effort to cheat at it. But I thought I would give it a try anyway.

And fyi, for anyone interested. Anyone found using an anonymous proxy server for registration has their registration deleted upon discovery as standard procedure. This site does not allow (where practical) anonymous registrations. Yes, I realize some people might have good reason to use an anonymous proxy server, but in such cases, this is not the site for you.

Well, if people are trying to cheat at this contest, they really aren't very good at it. :D

Actually, I don't see any evidence whatsoever that anyone is even interested in participating in this contest. There is not a single member who has more than just one (1) referral to their name. And no, I am NOT going to consider all of those single referrals as ties and award prizes to all of them. :ack2:

Ahem... there are quite a few referrals since 07-01-2018, but no one has more than one in their name. For the record, people HAVE to be making a visible effort to get referrals, which means I need to see more than 2 for it to count. Otherwise, there will be NO winner for this contest, and this will be yet another idea I came up with that has flopped, not to be repeated.

BTW, if you are going to refer someone to this site, you need to impress upon them that they need to provide YOUR member name in order for you to get credit. They have to provide this information during registration.

Or am I just wasting my time with this sort of stuff, and no one gives a crap about it anyway?

Not a waste of time. Pushing to get more active members is good, unfortunately too many people seem to be stuck in facebook/instagram/twitter land.

I have sent quite a few folks here, but I keep forgetting to tell them to put me down as the referrer. Oh well.

I can't help but to snicker to myself whenever I read that so-and-so "tweeted".... :laugh: I can't help but think about a "tweety bird" cartoon character from back when I was a kid.

Anyway, if people now prefer those sorts of platforms, then that is just the way it is. If this site eventually goes away as a result of the lost traffic and support, then that will just be the breaks. :shrug01:

From what I can see, while the activity on the discussion forums seems to have reduced, the classified sections are still pretty busy.

So maybe only the social interactions are moving to the other networks and this site is heading back to the core business of Fauna Classifieds?

Well, right now we have two members tied for first place in this contest. Both have two (2) referrals.

:face_palm_02:

End of this month and this is over with. Been no changes with two people still tied with merely 2 referrals each.

The purpose for this was to try to give existing members some incentive for encouraging new people to sign up. So what went wrong? Prize to skimpy for anyone to make the effort for it? Or something else? :shrug01:

Obviously this just did not work as well as hoped for. I had planned on doing this on a continual basis, but heck, why bother?

:no-points-smiley:

Two quick observations.
1. Fauna is referred a t-o-n. The main problem is people are bad at specifiying 'who' referred them.
2. I think there is an error in the calculation for who is referring. I went back to the beginning of this year visually, and I see members who stand out.


PhidipusBryan 11-29-2018 0 11-29-2018 Bryan McCarty465 High Ridge road, Front Royal, Va. 22630Tom Moran
DKat98 11-23-2018 0 12-02-2018 Danielle PappasTrumbull ConnecticutToms Big Spiders
Rushchaser 10-24-2018 1 11-02-2018 Christian CraftLeesburg, GATom Moran video
McTelle 08-14-2018 0 11-17-2018 Shantelle McDonaldMoscow, IDTom Moran's YouTube channel
Wolfram1 07-16-2018 0 07-16-2018 Daniel NewaldVienna AustriaTom's Big Spiders Blog
ChaseAnderson 07-16-2018 0 07-17-2018 Chase AndersonMilwaukee WisconsinTom’s Big Spiders on YouTube
Garhunter3 04-10-2018 0 12-01-2018 Garrett McDanielPalatka floridaToms big spiders



Ziggyadventures 10-10-2018 0 10-10-2018 Brittany MillerBig Lake AKBeyond Genetix
ceg07 09-10-2018 0 09-10-2018 Carrie GardnerFloral City, FLBeyond Genetix Facebook Page
Rebelreptiles 05-22-2018 0 11-27-2018 Eric rogersLacrosse IndianaBeyond gentixs

That may be so, but unless the entry is made by the new member when registering (please note the first post in this thread), I am sorry but it doesn't count for the purposes of this contest.

So is it too complicated for many folks? Just a bad idea from the start? Wouldn't be the first time I had a bad idea, you know....

Okay.

Well, if there is no clear winner to this contest, what I will do is extend the starting date backwards to when I first set up that referral system and pick the member with the highest number from that extended time period. If there is a tie and there are no more referrals than 5 from ANY member, then I will declare NO WINNER, and game over.

And some of you were worried about people cheating in order to try to win this contest........ :rolleyes_

Well, I tried..... :shrug01:

Hello!

When I created an account the other day, I didn't know my referrer's "handle" was just his name (sorry if my terminology isn't right).

Is there a way to get him credit for this contest?

It's Vic Herrick, if that helps.

Thanks!

Well, that is actually a real good question. I took a look in the admin panel, and then in the User CP menus to see if there was anyway either a member, or myself could add or edit a referral entry. So far, I haven't found any way to do that. So I sent off a message to my programmer to see what he may know about it. Not that any custom programming would be in the works to put this in if it doesn't exist, however. As I mentioned earlier, this referral system is VERY rudimentary in it's implementation here by the vBulletin programmers. So it won't surprise me in the least if this capability was not included.

But thanks for asking. I'll let you know what I find out.

My programmer got back to me and told me that there is no way for a member to add the referral info after registration. But I can do that in the admin section where I can edit the member's info. With that in mind, I added the referral you requested.

And in case anyone is interested, right now there are three members with 2 referrals each at the top of the list.

Seems to me it would be very easy for someone to snatch this win from the jaws of apathy. :o

Thank you!!

OK. We have a winner. Barely....

Serpent Mo squeaked over the finish line and won by a hair.

Congrats!