Well this is an interesting thread. Enjoyed reading it actually.
And yes I'm one of those who puts contest/giveaways on for vendors.
1) I'm not a vendor. Vapers United just plays the middleman (woman).
2) On forums, I do try not to spend a whole lot of time any contest thread. I don't want anyone thinking that I'm playing favorites. And frankly I'd most likely fall for too many sob stories and then feel horrible if they didn't win.
3) Random is a must for me. I get the number of the last post and fetch the lucky number. I don't want to know the winners name until that is accomplished. So far I've only had one back to back winner in the year or more that I have done this or a higher being above is watching out for me. At least I think it just happened once. Hey my memory isn't what it use to be.
LOL
Seeing how many like the no back-to-back winner, I might just throw that into the contests rules. See how it goes.
4) I do not like those who tend to spam the contest. At least for those who do it just to win win win. And it's pretty easy to tell those who do that to those who play to entertain themselves: Game junkies and I'm not saying that in a bad way since I'm sort of that way myself. Heck I use to do it and then, if I won, I'd give it to the PIF effort. There are people here like that and they are a great addition to the forum.
I do visit the thread off and on while the contest is running to catch those who are obviously out to grab. Hasn't been a major problem of late. Not that I noticed anyway. I also have to exclude those who are just contest players and those are easy to spot since they play on and on even if they hit a really long spell of not winning.
When I first started doing this stuff for vendors, I would mention that anyone over doing it would be eliminated. Seemed to stop the worst of it.
On the other side of this there are just those who like to play. I guess it gives them something to do while here or just a reason to be here.
5) One post entries are good up to a point. One of the main goals of the whole thing is to keep the thread moving so it remains up in the "Recent Post"
If I thought everyone would hang around and chat just for the heck of it, I would limit it to one entry.
As for Facebook. Well we do put some on there. Sort of Redd's department. So I'm not going to comment too much on that.
In the end all I can say is, forums or Facebook, it's a little complicated. For me anyway. Especially since I go to great means not to play favorites.
Have a great night