Wow! I can’t believe the number of responses my post about the problems I had verifying winners recently.  I’m really glad to see how much you all care.  I apologize that I can’t reply to each of the 35 or so comments.  I’d love to, but many of you expressed the same concerns so I wanted to post it so that most of you should see it.  If you missed the original post, you can read it here.

Concerns Expressed:

• Forgot to fill in info (Twitter Id, tweet link, etc)
• Confusion
• Form Errors
• New to giveaways
• Forgot if entered

These concerns came up repeatedly on my fan page as well as in the comments on my post.  I shared that post as a warning to those who were attempting to cheat (though they probably were the least likely to read it…) and to let you all know I do everything in my power to ensure the winners here are honest and valid.  We’ve had a lot of BIG giveaways lately and it’s taken longer to go through everything because of the number of entries.  Then I had the issues of drawing SO many people I could not validate.

This is not normal for our giveaways!

I rarely have to redraw due to invalid entries, but there was an influx of new people to the blog for our big holiday prizes.  The above concerns were not the kind of entries I was having issues with (possibly the new to giveaways one.. possibly)

Duplicates were not my issue – sure a few people entered anywhere from two to five times, but I simply remove the duplicate entries.  Only the first set counts.

Forgotten IDs were not my issue – if you leave it in at least ONE, I can find it and use it to verify.

Form errors and confusion were not my issue – these things may result in some things missing or done incorrectly, but not all.

When I couldn’t verify the winning entry, I checked the other entries!

I tried to give the benefit of the doubt by checking the other entries.  If most of the others were done and verified, I assumed there was an error or confusion that resulted in the unverifiable one – and awarded the win.

But if I couldn’t verify any or at least two, then I had to wonder why they would click “I Did This” when it was very unlikely that they did.

If you are unsure about an entry – click for more instructions! Or email me!

I take the time to put the info in the instructions of what I am looking for and any needed links etc.  It was very clear to me that many people did not read instructions.

For example – on the Xbox Kinect giveaway the main entry asked for name, email and which blog you entered at.  Some people left it blank.  Some said “no one” or “none.”  Others stated which giveaway listing they found it at.

If you read the instructions but are still unsure, use our contact form to ask.  I will do my best to assist you.

I hope this cleared up some questions and put many of you at ease.

About Darcy

Darcy Zalewski is a married, stay-at-home mom who is discovering her greener side, starting with advocating for cloth diapering. When she's not changing diapers or singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, she can be found at Tales From the Nursery, where she shares tales of motherhood as well as product reviews, or at ShePromotes, a resource for blogger support.

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