do the raffles need changes?

[kawaii kitty]

I don't know about everyone else but I'm personally not happy about raffles being open to everyone. this is a bit of a hot take but I will explain it. 

To me raffles are supposed to be a reward for being active on bzp. many entrants into the raffles have minimal posts and haven't posted in a while. if you are fine with that, that's fine but shouldn't raffles be a reward for being active on the site. hopefully this would encourage more activity.

I mean you don't have to change anything, but I would give it some thought.

[Nato G]

The community here is small enough as-is. Excluding people from taking part in giveaways if they don't meet some arbitrary post quota will just encourage spam, or drive people away altogether. 

[Aderia]

Certainly a hot take you have here - I've always thought of the raffles as a way to give back a bit to the LEGO fans throughout the years.

I think the reward for being active on BZP is a sense of community - you get out of it what you put in. Sure, it's declined over the years, but that's to be expected with the cancellations and time. 

I agree with Nato that a "post quota" would not incentivize any meaningful activity. 
 

[Taria Pakari]

Some of us lurk more than post. Doesn't mean we aren't active.

[Makuta Luroka]

Regardless of whether the raffles should be gatekept (they shouldn't, there's far from enough entrants to merit that idea), Even if they should, I don't think that's a decision for someone who's been using this site for one whole year to make.

[Master Inika]

Sounds like that would just encourage spam.

[Mushy the Mushroom]

I hugely appreciate that the raffles are kindly run each month after decades of this site existing. Thanks for still doing them, BZP!  I adore that they're welcoming to all. I often lack energy to be active, and have always had little useful post-content...along with the feel of being somewhat of a "misfit member" due to my lack of BIONICLE/LEGO knowledge/lore/collecting, and most of my interest being artistic/visually focused.

[tourmalinex]

Seems kind of mean spirited, I could understand a contest being locked to the continental USA. However I think raffle should be free to everyone. I don't think a lot of members signup for them

Edited October 30, 2023 by tourmalinex

[Bambi]

On 10/28/2023 at 1:32 PM, Taria Pakari said:

Some of us lurk more than post. Doesn't mean we aren't active.

Can confirm. I don't post very often, but I'm here multiple times a day.

[Valendale]

I think one of the goals of the monthly raffles was to encourage more new users. This was from the time period before we just accepted the site wasn't as active as it used to be, and staff were throwing things at the wall. Raffles were one of the only ideas that stuck.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Valendale