Is this a bug?

[lucydo]

I have downloaded and made a test run of Contest Burner and found out, that if you get your first points for a tweet you can get even more with pressing "get my links" for several times. I have tried this on a contest I have found using CB and got my self in the first 3 only by continue to press "get my links" but only tweeting once! I guess it shouldn't bee like that... is there a way to stop this behaviour?

Another way to make points in an unfair way is to create a tweet, get the points and delete the tweet again and do this over and over. Like this I could win every ContestBurner contest without providing even one valuable link to the contest site. Are these known bugs and are there ways to avoid them?

I was thinking to buy the premium version, but if it is so easy to cheat using ContestBurner it doesn't make much sense.

Hope there is a solution for this as I would really like to start a contest soon.
Thanks
lucydo

[greg]

There should not be any way to duplicate points by submitting the get my links form, there is nothing in Contest Burner that awards points for getting your links. The only way to get points this way would be for you to setup Contest Burner to award point for visiting that page, which can be done. But even with awarding points for visiting the page, you would still not get additional point for every visit as your IP Address is tracked and you'll only get points for one visit per IP address. If somehow your IP address was different every time you visited the page, then points would be awarded but they wouldn't go to the person visiting the page, the points would go to the person that referred them.
Also there is no link between the get my links page and the Twitter tweets, Contest Burner only checks for tweets and awards point for them once per hour, it does not check for new tweets when you access the get links page.

As for cheating, if people want to cheat, they will find a way to do it. There is really no way for Contest Burner to know this is happening other than to recheck every tweet to verify that it still exists and I think this type of cheating would be to rare for it to be worth while to do this checking. The best way to combat cheating is to state that cheating will not be tolerated and they will be disqualified.

If you could send the URLs to your get my links page and standings page, I would like to take a look at what you are describing.
Thanks, Greg

[strongcord]

I think this type of cheating would be to rare for it to be worth while to do this checking.

For a $5,000 prize or for Bill's example of a $55,000.00 car, you should BELIEVE that cheating will be worth it to A LOT of people and this activity would make the contest worthless and not worth the effort for the real contestants who might have contributed valuable traffic to your site.

Can someone post an update on this topic to share what the research findings were?

Thanks.

[strongcord]

This is an interesting statement...

I have read the CB PDF and the CB website and looked over the WP CB plugin itself.

Where is a PDF or documentation of all the fine details of how points are awarded as you describe in your quote, below?

I would like to have a TIPS page to educate my contestants on how to compete effectively.

If somehow your IP address was different every time you visited the page, then points would be awarded but they wouldn't go to the person visiting the page, the points would go to the person that referred them.

[greg]

I'm not quite sure what you are looking for. My statement was not worded very well. There is no trick, I go to your page and get MY contest links, I post MY links on Facebook, my friend clicks on MY link and I get the points. My friend will only get points if he gets his links and someone clicks on one of his links.