A few months ago, I used to go to this forum for young programmers. One day, this person on the forum wanted to get some entries for his deserted website. His website was a small database or collection of different codes, in many languages.
So, in vital need of traffic and entries, he put up a competition on the forum, encouraging all people to enter a $50 raffle if they entered a code onto the website. Of course, the more codes you entered, the higher the chance of winning.
I went mad. Fifty dollars was more than I had ever heard, although I thought that chances of actually winning anything were quite slim, as I had thought. I started sending in tons of codes, all in my favorite language, PHP.
The codes weren't anything special, just some bits and bobs that really did nothing extraordinary. Like censoring specific words in text, or rounding a number. Other programmers did alot more complicated work, like making an API for poker.
All in all, it was a raffle, so it didn't depend on complexity. I can still remember the happiness when I read that I had won the 50 dollars, first prize. I quickly made a Paypal account and I received the money.
A few months later, after spending here and there, its all gone with only 99 cents left. It was mostly spent on things like Runescape, but in the end it was well earned money, and I am happy that this is the first time I won something good.
So what have your experiences of winning in competitions been like?
So, in vital need of traffic and entries, he put up a competition on the forum, encouraging all people to enter a $50 raffle if they entered a code onto the website. Of course, the more codes you entered, the higher the chance of winning.
I went mad. Fifty dollars was more than I had ever heard, although I thought that chances of actually winning anything were quite slim, as I had thought. I started sending in tons of codes, all in my favorite language, PHP.
The codes weren't anything special, just some bits and bobs that really did nothing extraordinary. Like censoring specific words in text, or rounding a number. Other programmers did alot more complicated work, like making an API for poker.
All in all, it was a raffle, so it didn't depend on complexity. I can still remember the happiness when I read that I had won the 50 dollars, first prize. I quickly made a Paypal account and I received the money.
A few months later, after spending here and there, its all gone with only 99 cents left. It was mostly spent on things like Runescape, but in the end it was well earned money, and I am happy that this is the first time I won something good.
So what have your experiences of winning in competitions been like?
