Just a few hours away now.... Who will the luck winner be? I never had this kinda luck so congrats in advance to the winner.

Who won ????

rapid1:

Who won ????

YOU did! Congratulations! Just kidding. Sorry, couldn't resist! No one has been announced yet. But SOON!

lol, that's mean. haha. Good one though! :) Good luck guys!

 

ice_73:

is it just me, or is any one thinking about future specs of give-aways? im just imaging a thanksgiving one with a custom turkey case :-p or perhaps a christmas one with a santa hat on it :-p

 

 I wouldnt care what it looks like with the specs: like this months give away it could look like this and I would be more than happy to take it.

That would be a very different mod though all that crammed into a turkey that would make you want to eat and and do some serious gaming too! LOL Good luck to everybody!!!

I'd love it if it was me that would be awesome

Either way whoever wins, I hope you guys keep up the push for the DAV. When I made my two donations and got there mail back I was quite astounded. They said there were over 90,000 disabled vet's in the North part of Georgia needless to say if every state is even or above 100,000 which I could imagine easily. That's like 4-5 million disabled vets in the USA that's a Lotta men and women that gave up a whole lot for each and every one of our little bit's of freedom.

 The winner has been announced!

http://hothardware.com/cs/forums/t/39235.aspx

Quick question BigWop: Regarding how winners are chosen; if it is based on post count and/or participation (which seems to be the case given the recent string of winners), why the insinuation that donating to the DAV will 'help' your chances?

I mean, some new guy could register, post 2 or 3 times, and donate $500.00 to the DAV but it's not going to help his chances at all since the admins are selecting who the winner will be based on their participation in the forum.

I think donating is a good thing and it's for the right cause, however once people look at who has won the last few contests and realize that their donation doesn't improve their chances of winning at all and instead, selected winners are based on how helpful they are and how much they participate, who's going to bother donating? I mean, if you want to tie a charity to a sweepstakes and say, "This contest is in honor of a this charity, and we would like to urge you to support them.", that's one thing...but to say that donating improves your chances, and then use participation and helpfulness as the biggest criteria in selecting a winner, well, it kind of leaves a bad taste in ones' mouth and makes you realize that no matter how much you donate, it still will not help you win a contest over someone who visits the site more and participates more and who has been posting at HH for 18 months and has a high post count.

By the way, I totally agree with selecting new winners of systems based on their regularity, helpfulness, and participation and giving consolation prizes (if there are any) to newbies. I just wish such a thing were stated. It's sad when something happens like Kamrooz winning and then leaves the site entirely. And even though he was a veteran, the chance of a veteran leaving the site after winning is far less than a new member who posts or can't even be bothered to upload an avatar.

I'm assuming this is why long-time and helpful veterans with the most post counts and activity have won the most recent contests: Crisis Causer, Ice, and Super Dave, even Kamrooz. All were well deserved!!

I'm just asking because I'm a bit confused at how this works. Like most people, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to win a system however if there is some sort of criteria to truly qualify for winning a major contest, I for one would like to know what it is so that I can work to meet that criteria.

Why limit the participants in the draw to «resident of the United States» ? Doesn't HotHardware value its foreign readers ?...

Henri

 Hey FSeven, Who's to say those people listed that have won something have not donated. They said it could help your chances which I take it as if it's a close call between 2 members and 1 donated and the other didn't I would think the 1 who donated would win. Thats the way I read into it but I could be wrong.

Hey mhenriday, That question has been answered several times already but since your new I'll fill you in what was stated before. I do wish that everyone regardless of location could participate but it's just not practical. I understand that it isn't fair to those living outside the U.S. but look at it from this perspective. The cost to just ship 1 of these systems outside the U.S. would be ridiculous. Between taxes and shipping costs to go over the border HH just could not possibly do it. If you were to buy 1 of these sytems from the U.S. the costs would probally be almost double that of someone living in the U.S. for that reason. If HH was located in say Germany then it would leave U.S. citizens ineligable.

I am stating this as to what the big dogs here at HH have already stated. I didn't make the rules I just understand why they are what they are and am passing it on to you. 

Make sure you all check out the Summer Sweepstakes!  We went BIG this month!

http://hothardware.com/cs/forums/t/39349.aspx

We love all of our readers.  Unfortunately, logistics and cost prohibit us from shipping out of the US.  For other upcoming giveaways that won't consist of full systems, we'll probably open up to almost everyon.  Thanks!

FSeven:

Quick question BigWop: Regarding how winners are chosen; if it is based on post count and/or participation (which seems to be the case given the recent string of winners), why the insinuation that donating to the DAV will 'help' your chances?

I mean, some new guy could register, post 2 or 3 times, and donate $500.00 to the DAV but it's not going to help his chances at all since the admins are selecting who the winner will be based on their participation in the forum.

Hey Bro,

I'm not going to explain exactly how we pick the winners, because I / we don't want anyone "gaming" the system. But using the last giveaway as the model I'll sort of explain -- being a forum member qualifies you, so there's one entry. Signing up for news alerts is another entry, donating got users another entry, news comments another. And then we're weighting participation (quality and quantity) over the duration of the contest. Unfortunately, simply putting names in a hat of active members doesn't always work out, and we end up in a situation like Kamrooz, where we literally changed someone's life (his words not mine) and then they vanish on us. This way, we end up with a long list of "real" members and then we randomly select the winner. Administering has gotten far more complex for us, but the results have been good, so we'll keep doing it.

As for the guy that donates $500 bucks thinking he'll have a better chance, well technically he did because it got him another entry, but the dollar amount didn't matter. And ultimately, he / we end up helping a great charity. We wanted to find a way to give back to Veterans, but we also wanted everyone to be able to participate, so a $1 donation was as important at a $100 donation in our eyes. It was just a way to try to keep everyone involved, and help others at the same time.

Cool?

 

BigWop:

We love all of our readers.  Unfortunately, logistics and cost prohibit us from shipping out of the US.  For other upcoming giveaways that won't consist of full systems, we'll probably open up to almost everyon.  Thanks!

indeed, dev can vouch for that! (if my memory serves me correct he won a x1900xtx or something)

also, i think the current system is working out great. crysis, me, and dave are certaintly regulars and wont be leaving any time soon. however, it is still random (i think....), so any one can win :-)

Sorry for the late reply, just got back from a 10 day trip to Sweden. What a blast!

Thanks for the explanation Marco. I have an unquenchable desire to understand things that I don't and you definitely did not have to explain. I understand it wasn't necessary and I appreciate you being open and communicative with your members. It's something sorely lacking on other sites and one of the main reasons I like HH; instead of being the mysterious admins 'behind the curtain', you're 'one of us', a fellow enthusiast who participates. I have a better understanding of the process now and will shut up.