Win A Pandora

[PokeParadox]

PS there is now Pandora carry case in the mix too!

 

[MonkeyChops]

This is exciting!

I think the donation drive should indeed be open to the public. Being public serves multiple purposes. Namely more potential for generating money which in turn means better results from the coding comp and it will be good publicity for the pandora in general especially if gruso puts it in the blog, which sounds like whats going to happen.

The whole thing needs some catchy name that captures the spirit of the story imo.

 

[PokeParadox]

"It's a steal" Coding Compo

 

[foxblock]

The Terrible Heist Coding Competition (TTHCC)
or replace Heist with Snatch, which probably is more accurate

 

[Chaser]

The donation drive idea seems the best route here so far and Poke's "It's a steal" isn't bad but really its a gift. As is Pandora herself and this gifted one that you are offering up, due to the bad and good that can be demonstrated by men. So more fitting but less catchy, is perhaps "Anesidora" but only if your British.

P.s I'm glad you got your Pandora back Poke, as my wife and I were gutted for you. It was also interesting how things panned out and the security ideas people had that need developing, some of which I was ninja'd on but some that weren't mentioned. I am glad the community did its part and I would happily have donated to the SD card replacement fund that Gruso politely declined.

As for the thief that led to this "He for whom Zeus the lord of thunder mixes the gifts he sends, will meet now with good and now with evil fortune; but he to whom Zeus sends none but evil gifts will be pointed at by the finger of scorn, the hand of famine will pursue him to the ends of the world, and he will go up and down the face of the earth, respected neither by gods nor men"

 

[Eniko]

I like this idea, but make sure it's all legal. Also, I'd totally be willing to join a coding compo team as a (pixel) artist.

 

[gruso]

Sooo... let's assume it's unanimous so far. Onward to the finer details.

- We'll need to set up a Paypal account, or someone could use their existing account. EvilDragon handled the PACC2010 donations for us, but we can't rope him in every time we have a great idea. A new account would be cleaner, but linking bank accounts etc is a hassle. Are there any Paypal experts in the house? Can you "annexe" donation funds to an account so they don't get caught up in other account activity?

- Basic rules of entry. Say, minimum $5 donation, enter as many times as you want?

- How to draw the winner. Old fashioned style IMO; the entire list of contributing email addresses is printed (with multiples as necessary), chopped up into individual entries, drawn from a hat. Nobody argues with hats. Maybe someone could film & Youtube the draw.

Thoughts?

 

[MonkeyChops]

PayPal prohibits the following activities, even where the specific activity is lawful and/or is not legally defined as gambling, unless the transactions are associated with an approved merchant. ...

...Lottery tickets – Include the purchase or sale of any opportunity to participate in a raffle, drawing, sweepstake, pool, or any other form of game or contest involving the distribution of prizes or monetary compensation.

https://www.paypal.c...3844&isSrch=Yes

We all know how paypal can be a pain in the ass (especially those of us that ordered in 08 ), if they get wind of the outcome of the donations being a entry to a giveaway, they very well could suspend the account and make all the money get refunded. It only takes one Jack-hole whistle blower and we're screwed. Is there a better option than paypal? oh I know, Wire Transfer!

A youtube or, even better yet, a live feed of the drawing sounds like a great idea. But we can do better than a hat can't we? Pull from a can of Vegemite maybe? :lol:


[edit] I've been searching for google checkout rules on raffles/fund-raising without any luck, however, there appears to be plenty of people doing online raffles through google checkout and getting away with it. Better option?

 

[xpansive]

Hmm... that's good...

Free Pandora if you port your games!


Coding compo would be great too, I should consider learning C++ as C# isn't exactly the best for games...

 

[Javacat]

A raffle would be cool, and I might consider entering it, although I would also like to suggest sending it someone who will be willing to look into the problems with the wifi.



On a completely unrelated note ( :lol: ), I would totally look into the wifi speed problem if I had a Pandora! I wouldn't be able to touch the network drivers, but I'm good at packet analysis so would investigate that area to see whether there are any issues with the protocols, packets being dropped, etc.

 

[PokeParadox]

PayPal prohibits the following activities, even where the specific activity is lawful and/or is not legally defined as gambling, unless the transactions are associated with an approved merchant. ...

...Lottery tickets – Include the purchase or sale of any opportunity to participate in a raffle, drawing, sweepstake, pool, or any other form of game or contest involving the distribution of prizes or monetary compensation.

https://www.paypal.c...3844&isSrch=Yes

We all know how paypal can be a pain in the ass (especially those of us that ordered in 08 ), if they get wind of the outcome of the donations being a entry to a giveaway, they very well could suspend the account and make all the money get refunded. It only takes one Jack-hole whistle blower and we're screwed. Is there a better option than paypal? oh I know, Wire Transfer!

A youtube or, even better yet, a live feed of the drawing sounds like a great idea. But we can do better than a hat can't we? Pull from a can of Vegemite maybe? :lol:


[edit] I've been searching for google checkout rules on raffles/fund-raising without any luck, however, there appears to be plenty of people doing online raffles through google checkout and getting away with it. Better option?

This is exactly why we didn't want to keep using the term raffle... we're just collecting donations. if you want to donate, that's great! and there's something about a free Pandora... as a sidenote...

If google checkout is a safer route, it may be worth going that way. I've never used googlecheckout personally.

 

[PokeParadox]

Sooo... let's assume it's unanimous so far. Onward to the finer details.

- We'll need to set up a Paypal account, or someone could use their existing account. EvilDragon handled the PACC2010 donations for us, but we can't rope him in every time we have a great idea. A new account would be cleaner, but linking bank accounts etc is a hassle. Are there any Paypal experts in the house? Can you "annexe" donation funds to an account so they don't get caught up in other account activity?

- Basic rules of entry. Say, minimum $5 donation, enter as many times as you want?

- How to draw the winner. Old fashioned style IMO; the entire list of contributing email addresses is printed (with multiples as necessary), chopped up into individual entries, drawn from a hat. Nobody argues with hats. Maybe someone could film & Youtube the draw.

Thoughts?

-I think you have better organisational skills for this sort of thing than myself!

- Regarding donations, I think the best you can do is just put the donation purpose...

- I'm ok with names in a hat... but I don't see what the problem is with a random number generator... yah it's not technically random, but that's why you seed it with the current system time... and it produces a chaotic enough pattern... I guess if people generally have a problem with this what really need is a bingo machine with lots of ping pong balls with names on
Don't disagree with filming the draw either

 

[foxblock]

I think drawing from a hat is just as random as a number generator, but you at the same time you can get a funny video out of it.

Additionally I think there should be a limit of maximum donations (like 5) as people who buy a Pandora for 1000$ on eBay also might be willing to donate 100 times and greatly increase their odds (which might be unfair to other people).

foxblock out

 

[MonkeyChops]

PayPal prohibits the following activities, even where the specific activity is lawful and/or is not legally defined as gambling, unless the transactions are associated with an approved merchant. ...

...Lottery tickets – Include the purchase or sale of any opportunity to participate in a raffle, drawing, sweepstake, pool, or any other form of game or contest involving the distribution of prizes or monetary compensation.

https://www.paypal.c...3844&isSrch=Yes

We all know how paypal can be a pain in the ass (especially those of us that ordered in 08 ), if they get wind of the outcome of the donations being a entry to a giveaway, they very well could suspend the account and make all the money get refunded. It only takes one Jack-hole whistle blower and we're screwed. Is there a better option than paypal? oh I know, Wire Transfer!

A youtube or, even better yet, a live feed of the drawing sounds like a great idea. But we can do better than a hat can't we? Pull from a can of Vegemite maybe? :lol:


[edit] I've been searching for google checkout rules on raffles/fund-raising without any luck, however, there appears to be plenty of people doing online raffles through google checkout and getting away with it. Better option?

This is exactly why we didn't want to keep using the term raffle... we're just collecting donations. if you want to donate, that's great! and there's something about a free Pandora... as a sidenote...

If google checkout is a safer route, it may be worth going that way. I've never used googlecheckout personally.

Yea I know, I won't use the naughty word any more but the fact remains that by donating you have the chance of receiving a prize which is apparently against paypal rules. I'd hate for paypal to ruin this but its your call.

 

[gruso]

Hmm yes, a bit of research confirms that Paypal will shut it down quickly if a prize is offered. But we need to make the prize the focus, in order to attract donations... what a gherkin.

Putting my thinking cap on again!

 

[davidgro]

I think drawing from a hat is just as random as a number generator

I don't. In Kindergarten, we could earn tickets, and put them in a jar for a drawing at the end of the week. I figured out how to rig it after being introduced to the concept for a couple weeks. Seriously, hats are not 5-year-old safe, let alone adult geeks. (And they are very not random even if handled "fair"ly)

 

[may88]

Err... Now you have your Pandora again can you not give back the donated one? I must be missing something.

 

[jasay]

Err... Now you have your Pandora again can you not give back the donated one? I must be missing something.

If I understand correctly, PokeParadox offered it back to Anonymous Donor, but was refused.

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/55354-solvedmy-pandora-dream-has-come-to-an-end/page__view__findpost__p__895024

 

[MarkoeZ]

Err... Now you have your Pandora again can you not give back the donated one? I must be missing something.

Well the idea of the contest and prize in case it was returned, was thought up before the stolen pandora was actually returned. My guess is that the donator of the Pandora thought it was a gift anyway, he/she probably had another order (already delivered?) and liked the idea of a contest pushing software creation for the pandora (and has money to spare apparently).

Edit: Ah, the link in the post above explains it all.

 

[gruso]

I think drawing from a hat is just as random as a number generator

I don't. In Kindergarten, we could earn tickets, and put them in a jar for a drawing at the end of the week. I figured out how to rig it after being introduced to the concept for a couple weeks. Seriously, hats are not 5-year-old safe, let alone adult geeks. (And they are very not random even if handled "fair"ly)

Maybe that says more about you than the process Seriously though, it could make for a good little video. You could film the whole thing from printing the entries to cutting them up and putting them in the hat (time lapsed), then the draw, all in one take.

Back to the donation research - apparently Google doesn't like you to take donations unless you register your non-profit details with them for tax purposes.

Back to the drawing board.