Hello builds.gg Members!
There's only a few hours left in the builds.gg 10K Challenge. Those who have been following the contest know that we have strived to make the contest as fair as possible for all participants. Aside from the massive amount of random draw prizes that will be given away, we have also been closely monitoring the voting activity to ensure a fair contest that genuinely reflects the opinions of the community. As mentioned in our last update, it has definitely been a learning experience for us as well.
Some updates to share with everyone before the contest closes:
- Influencers - Votes that have been a direct result of large YouTube or IG accounts have been removed. We felt that this is a definite unfair advantage in a contest like this, especially since builds can be voted on directly. Note that this is different than getting votes from a platform like Reddit, where anyone can post their builds. After all, not everyone will have access to a massive YouTube or huge Instagram following. We will be stating this more clearly in future contests, but for now, removing these votes level the playing field for all contestants.
- Voting Services - There are several online services out there (which we will obviously not link to) that specialize in creating fake accounts and performing voting actions for a fee. We have noticed that certain builds out there actually receiving votes from these services, and we removed these votes as well.
- Build Ownership - Just a reminder that if you've won a prize through the contest, you'll need to provide proof of ownership in the form of photo evidence to confirm that the build is in your possession in order to claim your prize. This will include pictures of you with your build, as well as a photo or scan of a government-issued ID. This is the only way we can make sure that the build posted does indeed belong to the builder, and that the builder is in fact who they say they are.
We will continue to monitor how voting goes leading up to the end of the contest, and we will do so again once voting has concluded to make sure that none of these exploits have affected the results. This is part of the reason why the winner announcement will take place about one week after voting has ended.
We know that some people may be dismayed to find out that some of their previous votes have been removed. In fact, we have already received messages from disgruntled users threatening legal action against us. However, we will not be bullied into allowing such actions to go against the spirit of the contest, and will remain vigilant in weeding out builders trying to gain an unfair advantage. Making such adjustments is well within our rights as per the contest rules.
Having said that, we have many ideas for future contest formats that will please a wide variety of builders. Our next one, scheduled for April 4, will implement a lot of the improvements that we've discovered during the 10K Challenge. Stay tuned for a full listing of the changes we're making.
Once again, thank you for being a part of builds.gg, and may the best builds win!
Sincerely,The builds.gg Team