bronxelf

As many of you know, I'm one of the organizers of the Gothmas by Gaslight hunt.

It ended on January 15.

Tonight, I got an IM from one of the vendors, who is also a friend. She was very, very angry (not at me.) I was completely lost.

She had made a number of cute prizes for the hunt, and apparently had included a 25L gift voucher as an extra added bonus in one of the boxes.

Generous- I didn't even know about it. I admit, I didn't get to do much of the hunt myself.

Apparently, someone (the same person) came in and "bought" that box (ready?) 600 times. That's not a typo. 600. And, for all those times, apparently couldn't even follow the instructions on the gift voucher anyway, and flooded my friend's inventory with 600 notecards, adding them up in order to request her entire store's inventory, for free.

Of course, this isn't going to happen, and in fact has managed to get this greedy person banned from a number of locations which I expect to grow QUITE A BIT by the end of the day tomorrow.

Oh, and they're not getting anything, and as well they shouldn't.

There's always some jerk who thinks that they can exploit a loophole in order to be a bigger jerk.

Sadly for them, GxG doesn't play that shit. They can have nothing and like and and be banned, too.

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Ayesha Lytton

Gift cards are a bad hunt item for exactly this reason. Since I sell land, they're the only thing I can really give away, but as a security measure, I give out a notecard instead. For the hunt I'm currently in, participants have to complete all 50 locations to qualify for the hunt grand prize, access to a concert. I made this the criteria for the gift card also. When a person wants to redeem their notecard for a real gift card, we check their name against the list. I will also save every name, and if someone from that list rents and attempts to use multiple gift cards from the hunt, they'll be voided.

Be very very careful about what you give away. The sad truth is that if it can be scammed, it will be scammed. Protect yourself.

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Misty Harley

that's just totally insane on a whole new level.



I think said greedy person should have their name listed and I'm not normally one who thinks that. But they don't deserve to go any hunts let alone enter stores.

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Victor1st

Its the freeloading mooching culture of SL. I'm seeing more and more folks like the one ya mentioned Bronx.

You get the folks who love taking part in hunts for the fun of taking part, and they get free stuff along the way. Ya get the folks who take part in hunts cause they like to see what the hunt has to offer...

...and ya get the folks taking part in hunts who EXPECT everything in SL to be freebies. The same type of folks who would ask a shop owner for a free copy of something from their store. The same type of folks who would want a 3500L TARDIS console for free and then say that this "game" is a rip off when ya tell them simply "no".

Usually...these types of folks are about 10 to 12 years old and they cant get mommys credit card anymore to pay for stuff in SL, so find any way they possibly can to cheat the system.

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Tiffy Vella

That is appallingly bad manners. I'm glad that your friend is not going to reward that behaviour.

Perhaps giftcards need a caveat that says one card per item (depending on cost of item)?

bronxelf

Dare used to give out 500L gift cards as hunt prizes. He stopped because of scamming. Because of the nature of gift cards they are often transferable. People would take 20, and give 15 to their friends. Sadly, we could see that they took 20. He eventually stopped doing it because policing it was a giant pain in the ass.

Had I known she was giving out a GC I'd have told her not to do it- I had no idea. But this really is the most egregious case I've heard yet.

bronxelf

I expect tomorrow is going to be an interesting day for this person. I don't think they're going to like the results of this stunt.

Misty Harley

Agree Bronx, through the years...I've seen some major entitlement issues in SL but this one just takes it to a whole new level

600 takes and the equal amount of note cards is just beyond my level of comprehension.

Kokoro Fasching

Can I get their name, so I can send them 600 notecards requesting payment for being a greedy shit? I licensed that to the movie industry, and this person is breaking that license agreement.

KrashBangBoom

this is exactly what you should expect when you host events that promise to give away free stuff just for increasing your traffic. People will come and get your free stuff and will get used to getting everything for free. Its a bad business model.

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Aribeth Zelin

There is nothing wrong with promotional things, such as hunts. There will always be people who think they deserve a free ride, but its not because of freebies or hunts.

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Innula Zenovka

I'm now watching the Official Forums for someone to post there saying he or she has been ripped off in GxG hunt by a merchant who won't redeem the gift vouchers, and who's banned them from their store, and how do they go about ARing this horrid merchant...

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Kara Spengler

True, I use them to find new stores. Since I obviously took the time to participate in a given hunt I liked the theme, which means a better than average chance that I will like the stores in it. I am in it for the challenge and discovery ... I have countless hunt prizes in my inventory that were never unboxed.

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Ceka Cianci

this is why we can't have nice stuff in sl..because of the people that exploit them..
even the slightest nice things like that and some greedy person has to try and break the bank..

that's $L15,000..
i am so glad money does not motivae me in that direction..it says so much about a person .. i hope that is a huge ring of places they get banned from..

Ceka Cianci

oh ya i hope they show up over there..all thats gonna do is lead to them getting banned at more places LOL

Misty Harley

I hope they show up HERE...so I can do the following:

A. Bitch them out for finishing the hunt when I forgot *kicks self a few times*

B. Tell them what a greedy piece of crap they are for taking advantage of generosity by a creator who was trying to do something nice and also gain customers.

This sorta stuff really gets under my skin.

Ceka Cianci

i know what you mean..it really is irritating that people stoop to such tactics...

i kind of used this pic for a mega download thread in the other forums ..but it fits here for greedy people too..
they should be bitch slapped really hard..

Robble Rubble

When I used to have a shop I had someone throw a hissyfit because I wouldn't give them an avatar for free. Their argument was so compelling too. "Comeonnnnnnnnn I want it"

Aribeth Zelin

I could add another store to their banned from list.....I kind of hope they do come here...

Argent Stonecutter

Pretty much all gift cards I've ever run into are limited to one per item, and it's a hard limit in the gift-card software. If you _buy_ a gift card, you should probably get a refund of the value remaining once it's tapped out, but there's no such expectation for prize cards.

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Thystle Blackheart

I know it would suck to have to go to this much trouble, but can a box be scripted so that each avatar can only take one item? That might be the way to foil greedy assholes like this if you want to give such nice gifts for hunts.

Sonya Marmurek

Just think how long it took for the person to handle 600 notecards. The amount of time and energy wasted. They could have done something actually useful with all that instead of trying to scam a vendor, yegads.

I do want to respectfully disagree with the point of view about hunts being a bad marketing model, though. I have found so many shops I wouldn't have had any idea that they even existed through hunts that it's not even funny, it's awesome. Sorting through hunt loots also works like having a free demo to all the shops and their quality. Pictures really do not tell the whole truth, ever.

If the hunt and/or shops in it grab a blogger or two on their side, or even better, have a blog of their own with previews to the items, that's extra marketing. That is extremely working marketing. These days there -are- so many hunts that very few have the time to go through them all, instead they work like blog-published thematic catalogues of promotional items.

Yes, there are always people who just grab the free items and go. Some of them will be impressed, remember the place and return when they need something in that style. Some of them were there just for the free items. Some of them will try to scam the vendors. If there were no hunts, they would simply be sending whiny IMs to vendors, begging for free stuff. Or for shop's own promotional items in different colour. Or full-perm. The greed is not dependant on the marketing model.

Hunts are a wonderful opportunity for the vendors to work together in a shared theme, maybe step out of their comfort zone, do something new that they wouldn't normally do, and to get extra marketing and visibility.

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Soen Eber

Yes, any decent scripter can knock that out in about 20 minutes.

Drew Faintree

Such a script exists, yes. I've seen hunts use them. They can be a pain if you the to get your copy, have your copy fail to deliver, and then have the hunt item tell you that you can't get another as you already got yours. Especially annoying when it is a hunt wherein you find the next shop by landmark in hunt item, and there is no separate list of lms.

bronxelf

We already know that script exists- we won't allow one to be used. In fact, this hunt saw us lose people last minute over this exact script. We will not allow additional scripting in our hunt boxes. The vast majority of hunt prizes are no transfer, and as such using such a script comes across as unnecessarily petty. It also doesnt take into account crashing and serious lag. We won't ever allow such a script to be used at GxG.

Besides, no one should need a script to force them to take one only to prevent some jackass from taking SIX HUNDRED. That's ridiculous. This isn't someone who took an extra few. Again. SIX. HUNDRED.

To have to add a script to every hunt box over such a thing, when the answer is WHO THE FUCK TAKES SIX HUNDRED AND THINKS THEYRE GOING TO GET AWAY WITH IT seems to me to be missing the point and paints all hunters with a broad brush, is the wrong way to go.