I am getting SOOOOOOOO irritated by..

T

tattgiff06

New member
capchas! Why on earth are they so stinking long or in a ANOTHER language? It takes an extra 15 minutes a day just to keep clicking through until I get to one I can read or type in. Honestly, how would I type in Chinese figures?
I am exposing my ignorance here , please don't laugh, but do other countries , China for example, have English keyboards or Chinese? I don't know and I'm wondering because of all the capcha codes that aren't in English. I also hate the upside down and sidewise codes. It is truly driving me mad. I have skipped many contests b/c I got tired of sitting there trying for a code I could actually duplicate on my keyboard. Am I the only one? Anyone else out in sweepland notice this? :cussing: :scratch:
 
:cussing: I agree %100000 about that :cussing:. A few cuss words occasionally might make those capchas a little more fun. So often I cannot even recognize the lettering, and have put in a few choice words :crazytongue:
 
Well, I look at them like if they annoy me, then they probably annoy others too, so I enter them :crazytongue:

fyi - they exist because some people would abuse the opportunity to win by using bots, so be annoyed with them :)
 
They irritate me also. Fortunately most of them now have a reset, so you can get a new one that you can read. Look for 2 small arrows in a circle (Ghirardelli.com - Million Moments Giveaway has one), or some other method of resetting. Sometimes you only need to enter one of the recapcha words

We wouldn't have this things if sweepstakes entry services didn't exist. It's one of the methods that sweeps use to weed out people who don't actually visit their site. Google " sweepstakes entry services", and you'll find a bunch of them.

Personally, I don't use 'em. You have no idea where your info is going & what sweeps they're entering you in. You could also get DQ'd by entering the same sweep twice. Once on you own & once by the "service"

I wish some sweeps like Scripps Networks (HGTV) would use recapchas - it'd weed out a lot of entries & increase the odds of winning.
 
I have been on some sites that use a question, like 'Is snow hot or cold?' I like those. Also, the math q's. After I wrote the
post earlier I spent about 30 mins entering, and a new weird one came up that I hadn't seen before...just a string of upside down numbers with punctuation marks. Geez! I do get it that alot of people are less than honorable,and companies need a way to check, but I think all that sort of thing catches up. On another sweep site a person was really bragging about wins... she enters for hubby, mom, two kids that are under 10(!) ( does she lie? when it says 18 or older?) and her sister, I thought she was pretty greedy and obviously that makes it harder for those of us who play by the rules. She will get DQ one of these days I'm sure.
 
tattgiff06,

We had one person here who posted about winning 4 times on a recent sweep. There were probably several thousand of us here that couldn't even win once. What are the odds of that happening? I think multiple email addresses were used by this person for who knows how many daily entries.

As you pointed out, there are people who'll enter their whole family tree including their pets if they could get them SS numbers.

It's abusive practices like these that sweeps sites are trying to deal with. Eventually we might see 1 entry per household, computer, phone number, residence and IP address. They'll track entries by any means possible, including IP address. A few sweeps are already tracking by a combination of factors including IP address.

If it evens out the playing field and eliminates cheating then it's a positive step.
 
I don't understand how people enter more than one person in their family, I'm tired after just entering me into a contest. It's time consuming , and i have roboform!. Where do they find the time to enter 4 or 5 people in their family?
 
FYI - "winning 4 times" IS possible as long as the sweeps allows more than 1ppp - timing IS everything! :laughing:
 
I understand how people who are the only sweeper in the house would prefer

"Eventually we might see 1 entry per household, computer, phone number, residence and IP address. They'll track entries by any means possible, including IP address. A few sweeps are already tracking by a combination of factors including IP address.

If it evens out the playing field and eliminates cheating then it's a positive step."

But for those who have more than 1 sweeper, how is that at all fair? :scratch:
 
"We wouldn't have this things if sweepstakes entry services didn't exist"

:headbang: Good point curmudgeon - I forgot about them! :crazytongue:

My son games, so I learned of people creating "bots" to do the repetitive stuff for them years ago, then I heard of some sweepers using them to enter sweeps & shortly after the DELL fiasco {people using multiple addys chasing after a good freebie & outraged sweepers complaining about them to DELL} we started seeing capchas.

I think the DELL Christmas sweeps lasted maybe 2 more years, then they just gave up. :nono:

I don't condone cheating, but I REALLY dislike it when sweepers complaining causes companies to decide it's not worth it to offer us the chance to win even more!!! :cussing:
 
There's no easy solution to the problem of cheats. This discussion is purely academic in that the sweeping community has no control over how the sweeps will be run. That'll be done for us by the sponsors and administrators. I've been sweeping for 10 years and have noticed increasingly restrictive rules as time has passed. I think this is an attempt by the sponsors to combat cheating because they care, and not because of complaints. As for "fair", there's no easy solution to that either. Which is more fair? To allow 1 person to enter their whole family tree plus friends and neighbors or to restrict entry to one per household. Without restrictions, my wife and I get two entries while the cheat gets 10, 15, 20 or more per day, thereby increasing their odds of winning. That's a lot of additional entries on a 30, 60, or 90 day sweep. That's hardly "fair" to those of us who don't cheat.
 
Actually, we sorta agree curmudgeon - "the sweeping community has no control over how the sweeps will be run" for active sweeps, that is true.

As you pointed out: "That'll be done for us by the sponsors and administrators." so I have faith that they will notice & DQ the cheaters.

But we sweepers do influence how future sweeps may be run & my point on sweepers complaining to a sponsor over what they perceive to be cheating {as in the DELL fiasco} can change sponsors minds about using their ad $$$ on sweeps or not.

"This discussion is purely academic" Yes & no - sponsors also like to look in on sweeps sites & so we disallow sponsor bashing here at SA, and I've been posting in an attempt to provide balance so this thread doesn't go down that road. :)
 
I agree with everyone that cheaters have made capchas a fact of life, but as the OP stated, some of them have gotten ridiculous. It used to be that I would occasionally have trouble determining a letter but the long, foreign words and punctuation marks that I've been getting lately are ridiculous. I have to keep refreshing until I finally get an English word that I can read.
 
Lets all try to remember it is very generous of the companies to have these sweeps and unfortunately people will cheat and the sponsors have to try and find ways to stop it. I also don't like it when the capchas are strange, but figure it is a small price to pay to be able to have sweeps. I also agree with amy that people can and do win 4 or more times on sweeps that allow multiple wins without cheating or entering other people. I am the main sweeper at my home, my husband does sweep, but nothing like I do, but I do not enter him and he does not enter me, I don't enter my aunt or the dog, but I have won sweeps more than once many times, and feel it is wrong to say anyone who post that many wins is cheating, as stated it is all about timing. Yes the person who enters others and half the country as there family is wrong, I don't think anyone here disagrees with that, but it is not good to group everyone together in that group just because they win multiple times. Just my opinion and not meant to upset anyone in any way. My moto is live and let live and lets all accept each other as we are,
 
i have noticed the irritating captchas too. i completely understand why they have them. but some are so crazy and difficult to make out. but anything to keep out the cheaters is fine with me, some people just don't know how to play fair. as for some people winning over and over, i think it should be one instant win per person so other people can have a chance at winning. i have been on other web sites and it seems to be the same people winning over and over. over time it get's a little frustrating.
 
What bothers me more is that I have noticed that some of these are very suggestive; i.e. politically-correct, anti-Christian, etc.

I just got this very one as a captcha:

"and Taoism"

Taoism is anti-Christian and the Chinese-based religion.

There seems to be some thought put into some of these captchas! :nono:
 
curmudgeon said:
tattgiff06,

We had one person here who posted about winning 4 times on a recent sweep. There were probably several thousand of us here that couldn't even win once. What are the odds of that happening? I think multiple email addresses were used by this person for who knows how many daily entries.

As you pointed out, there are people who'll enter their whole family tree including their pets if they could get them SS numbers.

It's abusive practices like these that sweeps sites are trying to deal with. Eventually we might see 1 entry per household, computer, phone number, residence and IP address. They'll track entries by any means possible, including IP address. A few sweeps are already tracking by a combination of factors including IP address.

If it evens out the playing field and eliminates cheating then it's a positive step.
Click to expand...

I agree, it is annoying when people enter their whole family, pets and neighbors. I also agree that entries with 1 entry per IP address is an excellent idea. It would put all the companies that enter sweeps for people out of business unless they used multiple IPs. I understand it would be difficult for households with more than 1 person that physically sits at the computer and enters sweeps themselves but the benefit far outweighs the problem. One prize from the same sweep per household should be sufficient. Good sportsmanship dictates that you should want your fellow sweepers to win prizes also. The only exception to the one prize per household is the SOBE sweep. lol We have all been blessed with many B1G1 and free SOBE. I love it! I admit, I have been going through a long dry spell and started entering for my husband (only my hubbay and me) in the hopes of winning something, anything. :nono: After reading this thread I don't want to be one of THOSE people and will not do that anymore. God will bless me for being honest, not for cheating. Entering for someone else is cheating and I am very sorry to all my fellow sweepers for doing that. :cry:

It is suspicious when 1 person posts multiple wins from the same sweep in a short period of time when no one else can win it. You really proved you point about companies only allowing 1 entry per IP address. Perhaps it is all in the timing (everyone says playing in the middle of the night is the best), perhaps it is people using multiple email addresses. We don't know but we can only hope that will not be greedy and will feel guilty (like me) about entering more than once. Captcha will slow down entering sweeps but will not prevent multiple entries from the same person or automated entries. 1 entry per IP address will accomplish that goal.

Companies do spend a lot of money on their sweeps and we all do appreciate their efforts. Every prize is a blessing, no matter how small.

Best of luck to all! Stay true to yourself, stay honest and win win win! God Bless!
 
cathyh said:
I've noticed the captchas have been getting more complicated to read or have more symbols lately.
Click to expand...

Yep!

I'm gettin' jus' a lil' tired of turning the keyboard 'round so's I can type upside down and backward to match some of 'em. I've found that's easier than tryin' to read 'em in a mirror while standing on my head. :crazytongue:
 
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