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MacRumors Giveaways... Why are they only open to U.S. residents?
- Thread starter Fabian90
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not really the same thing though is it. more like you paid your bbc license fee of 140 quid a year (after all us europeans get all the same annoying adds on this site here) but you didnt get to take part in the competitions. and you wouldn't be arguing to get rid of the bbc, just their competitions....
see im in portugal, i know we are restrictive on these sorts of things, unlike the uk. it wouldn't take more than an hour of one member of forum staff's time to check the rules in say the top 20 countries in their usage stats.
if you can't include us, that vocal minority called "the rest of the world" or at least a fair amount like macnn.com then personally id bin the competitions.
if you dont want to bin them can't you create a european login page where we dont even see the giveaways. maybe you could also have that page have less adverts so we give less and we get less?
i have another idea, and i know this is going to go down badly with that vocal majority but how about you occasionally say to a few european companies to give giveaways specifically for a few uk countries with the rules of the giveaway tied to that. I'm sure those european companies will themselves have run giveaways before and will have a handle on what the rules are.
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I would almost thing that giving away to just a few more than one country would bring up even more questions in the sense of since you can obviously give away to more than just your local country then why can't you give away to this other one that isn't part of the few or just to everyone? It's almost as if it's either everyone or no one, with just a single one being the least questionable alternative to those extremes.
you've lost me, surely you mean MOST questionable alternative.
see other sights only ban the countries that are a problem, and they dont upset anyone. so surely thats the best solution. the complaints would be far less and there would be a legitimate answer. and people from different parts of the world would win prizes. i suggested 20 countries, guessing that prob 15 at least of them would have no problem with a computer site giving away a free piece of software in a raffle. the site also wouldn't be seen to be only interested in american posters. so relatively all good.
the second option, if you stopped giving away things then people would forget there ever was prizes, and no one would be happy about winning and no one would be pissed off at the slight. since more people get pissed off than win anything, its still a winner.
so logically, the status quo is the one that causes the most negativity.
Well, what I was saying there is that if based on rules they allowed a few more in addition to US to make it a total of 6, for example, then those outside of those 6 would easily question why is it that 6 were able to get in and not some others in addition to it, since clearly by letting in more than 1 it already shows that the ability to let in another country and thus can be seen as opening the window of letting in any other country. That's why I was saying that outside of extremes of allowing all or none the next one that would be the simplest to explain would be just allowing one and basically saying that's where we operate and can do it but can't do it outside of that. It doesn't mean that the site isn't interested in others or anything like that, just that this is what's reasonable for them and what they are going with. Reading more into it is basically reading into something that isn't there.
As for stopping the giveaways, sure that seems like it would appease those who can't participate at the cost of all of those who can--thus the earlier comment along the lines of "if I can't have it then no one should".
i did say 20 mind you...
well no, not only do i think that its obvious that less people would be pissed off if not only is there less people to be pissed off as if youve covered a good few of the non american big hitters but i think other nationalities would understand more if they saw more effort, and might accept (i do living in portugal) that it might be our laws..
but the proof is on this thread. other sites have laxer rules and everyone seems happy. this site only likes americans and it pisses off people on a regular basis. its not a major issue but its annoying to many and gets mentioned often.
its not that im disagreeing with you, and im not being offensive, i just dont think it makes any sense your explanation. the minute you let in "one" it shows the ability to let in another country. im not sure how 2 or 6 or 20 would make people feel worse.
i cant bet any more on bet365. its probably a good thing mind you. i asked them why and they said portuguese laws had been tightened and they couldnt. fair does. when something is reasonable people accept it. this genuinally isnt seen as reasonable. and i say this as someone who never wins anything, and livng in portugal im not expecting it to be easy to comply with our weird rules.
in fact i just googled sweepstake portugal, and it took me 10 seconds to find that in principle you cant allow it in portugal, as under section 11 of the advertising act, any form of draw by luck or a mixture of luck and skill, are banned, unless you apply for a permit from the council. technically (this is true) its illegal to play games of chance outside of a casino, even if its not for money, and this does mean that playing blackjack for fun is illegal....
maybe thats the answer, maybe the site could ask for volunteers to research and provide evidence whether its legal or illegal in their country?
i can start. dont incude portugal its banned here. even though the laws are broken on a daily basis and im guessing most locals dont know its illegal. we have raffles at company dinners. kids sell tickets to pay for end of year trips. new shops do giveaways. all illegal, no one cares, so i think macrumors is safe, but if you do every country apart from portugal i wont be upset.
Fine with me, just make sure add revenue generated from my viewing are credited to my account...
Just curious, are you not getting the use and befits of the site itself? Seems like ads and all that are related to the site and its functionality and services, and something like giveaways are just small bonuses for fun that are basically beyond that.
It's the principle, How are US readers more valuable than the rest of the world? If they can't make the effort to offer their site's features to all readers then they sure don't deserve the add revenue from their second class readers...
By the way, other US based sites are able to offer their giveaways to most countries.
MacRumors doesn't owe you anything.
Either way most people who are on MR are US based.
I'd be interested to know the actual statistics on that one, whilst I'd imagine that the greater percentage would be US based I'm curious to know what the actual ratio of US vs International users is.
Anyone from the admin/mod team care to provide this information?
-Edit-
Alexa shows the traffic to be 48.4% from the United States, which would mean that the greater number of users reside outside. Whether or not this number is accurate remains to be seen though.
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They owe readers equal treatment, without readers there is no MR...
And you know for a fact most people on MR are from the US?
Most people in the USA do not think there is a world outside the USA except for Iran, Iraq, North Korea and other "evil" countries....
So USA only basically means the whole world including the moon to MR....
So USA only basically means the whole world including the moon to MR....
I just want to chime to say that your concerns are not falling on deaf ears. We're well aware of the issue, and it's a major concern for us too. There isn't an easy solution, but we're still working on some possible ways to include more of our readers.
Most people in the USA do not think there is a world outside the USA except for Iran, Iraq, North Korea and other "evil" countries....
So USA only basically means the whole world including the moon to MR....
thats not entirely true. Trump knows the names of a few british cities that he thinks are run by ISIS and he knows Paris is in Germany
reminds me of a conversation i had only a month ago in Puerto Vallarta on holiday (sorry vacation), with an american couple in the lift. one of the nice things about americans is that theres always a conversation in the lift. with brits its always an uncomfortable "nice weather today" but when you are a brit in a lift with americans its alway "oh i love your accent" "oh i love your dress" (wifes not mine unfortunately)..
we live in madeira, a portuguese island in the atlantic just off morocco. now that wasnt confusing for the waiters who on mentioning it all seemed to know sorta where it was and that cristiano ronaldo comes from here (
so on the last day i got in the lift and this american couple started chatting about whether we were coming or going (the jeans and rucksack gave it away), and i said we were leaving. "to canada?" well i guess the accents are confusing...no to the UK first "omg that must be 6 hours" no....12 coming about 10 going back..and then we have to go tomorrow to madeira " madena??" no...Portugal... that was the hand grenade in the conversation....i could see his brain ticking over...
"but why are you going to the uk...portugals in south america"....
no...its in europe. west side of europe...
"ah madrid, thats where madrid is...portugal ".....
[doublepost=1456741551][/doublepost]
good. see thats all people need.
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There's a way around everything!
If you want to be a "right fighter" and make a stink that's impactful to MacRumors, then turn on your ad blockers and deprive them of revenue until they open up the contests internationally.
But is it really that big a deal? All sorts of businesses won't ship to where I live in Canada and I long ago came up with alternate strategies. I live near a border (conveniently), so I can have stuff shipped to a mail drop on the US side and bring it back. I also have friends in the US I can have stuff sent to, and I can either pick it up the next time I'm down visiting, or they can ship it to me.
Restrictions on shipping to Canada are almost always business decisions and not border ones (unless you're trying to ship firearms parts or something like that). Perhaps the people that provide the free stuff in contests are putting strings on it because they themselves don't serve international and want their free product to go into the US market they do serve. If that's the case, that's cool. Back to shipping stuff to US buddies!
If you want to be a "right fighter" and make a stink that's impactful to MacRumors, then turn on your ad blockers and deprive them of revenue until they open up the contests internationally.
But is it really that big a deal? All sorts of businesses won't ship to where I live in Canada and I long ago came up with alternate strategies. I live near a border (conveniently), so I can have stuff shipped to a mail drop on the US side and bring it back. I also have friends in the US I can have stuff sent to, and I can either pick it up the next time I'm down visiting, or they can ship it to me.
Restrictions on shipping to Canada are almost always business decisions and not border ones (unless you're trying to ship firearms parts or something like that). Perhaps the people that provide the free stuff in contests are putting strings on it because they themselves don't serve international and want their free product to go into the US market they do serve. If that's the case, that's cool. Back to shipping stuff to US buddies!
Who cares? No one ever wins these contests anyways.
But yeah, if we could look up regulations for the other countries to make the legal process easier, that would be cool.
But yeah, if we could look up regulations for the other countries to make the legal process easier, that would be cool.
Alternatively Linus tech tips have a giveaway that us international folks can enter
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I posted this in the latest giveaway.
"Yet again another giveaway for US resident only... Even though many sites have no problem offering their giveaway to just about everyone this is still something MR can't figure out... Waiting for the next staff post saying they are looking into this.
This post will be moved out of sight in 5.4.3.2.1..."
I guess they don't even bother moving posts anymore, they just delete them instead... Probably didn't help the post had multiple likes.
"Yet again another giveaway for US resident only... Even though many sites have no problem offering their giveaway to just about everyone this is still something MR can't figure out... Waiting for the next staff post saying they are looking into this.
This post will be moved out of sight in 5.4.3.2.1..."
I guess they don't even bother moving posts anymore, they just delete them instead... Probably didn't help the post had multiple likes.
It was deleted because it was off topic to the thread it was being posted in. This is the place to discuss it and the content of your post made it clear you already knew that.
Was it really off topic? It was about something written in the giveaway article so that would be on topic. I'm not after you Olly, it's just MR management seems to just not care one way or the other unless it has an impact on their advertisers. Nobody likes to see negative comments on their front page so lets delete/ move out of sight instead of dealing with the issue at hand...
And yes we've all seen the token comment(s) from MR that they are looking at this but it's such a complicated endeavour for them.
Posts in the giveaway threads complaining about the restrictions just derail the threads and won't achieve much because they are likely to go unnoticed by the people who can actually do anything about it. This forum is closely monitored by the staff and a thread with 100+ posts which is getting regular new posts will definitely grab their attention.
As to your disparaging remarks aimed at the staff, believe me if they say they are looking into it then they are looking into it. This place means a lot to them and I'm sure they are trying their best to provide a solution which will make as many of our members happy as possible. Positive suggestions as to how we can get around the current restrictions are more than welcome but slagging them off without knowing all the facts is not very helpful.
Well...
Post in the giveaway threads about restrictions are inconvenient to advertisers, MR can stay otherwise but that is the reality. Yes we can use the site rules to move inconvenient posts out of sight to most readers so advertisers are happy...
I was not disparaging MR staff, unless they are management/owners because they are happy to reap in advertising benefits from the 50% foreign readership on this site all the while not offering everyone the same services. We keep hearing how international laws are so complicated, yet the US with 50 different state laws on gambling is probably the most complicated system in the world to navigate. In many countries there's only a law to deal with this, you can or you can't... Simple.