gotchaforce
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2006
- Posts
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- 11
Now I dont feel i entered this contest, so im going to express my opinion about these "random" forum giveaways.
I dont think random truly exists with humans unless you threw a dart at a wall of index cards with peoples usernames on it.
I remember on another forum there was a raffle with a $10 entry fee, and the raffle winner was chosen by one of the two guys running it. He simply picked a number off the top of his head and said "thats the winner" (numbers coordinated to the people in the order that the entered the raffle). The problem with this is if you ask a person for a random number between 1 and 1000 they will like not give you numbers like 777, or 500, or 999. Its proven that people think numbers like 777 are not "random" enough, and will rarely give that back as a reply. They will choose 163 or 518 because it appears more random, but it simply isnt. The only way to avoid this is possibly roll a 10 sided dice three times, or use a random number generator website or program or whatnot (of course programs random numbers arent truly random numbers either... but i digress).
Now in the case of giveaways, its free, so the person who is running it really gets to do it however they want, but when theres a raffle entry, and you introduce the human element of "not-random numbers", i think its crap.
I dont think random truly exists with humans unless you threw a dart at a wall of index cards with peoples usernames on it.
I remember on another forum there was a raffle with a $10 entry fee, and the raffle winner was chosen by one of the two guys running it. He simply picked a number off the top of his head and said "thats the winner" (numbers coordinated to the people in the order that the entered the raffle). The problem with this is if you ask a person for a random number between 1 and 1000 they will like not give you numbers like 777, or 500, or 999. Its proven that people think numbers like 777 are not "random" enough, and will rarely give that back as a reply. They will choose 163 or 518 because it appears more random, but it simply isnt. The only way to avoid this is possibly roll a 10 sided dice three times, or use a random number generator website or program or whatnot (of course programs random numbers arent truly random numbers either... but i digress).
Now in the case of giveaways, its free, so the person who is running it really gets to do it however they want, but when theres a raffle entry, and you introduce the human element of "not-random numbers", i think its crap.