Competition Q&A

The original competition 1 was run from a closed membership forum populated by musicians and photographers. Since posting details of competition number 2 on that forum, one of the members ("Wonks") asked me some questions. With his permission, here are his questions and my replies:

Sorry, I read your post the other day but didn’t have time to reply and then forgot!

I’ll try and answer all your points now…

I'm pretty sure you won't be able to advertise on eBay for a competition.

Although I can’t find any mention of not being able to advertise on eBay, I would guess you are right, but now that the page is online, I will email them and ask.

Some idea of the 'nominal' entry sum might help people decide if they would be interested in the competition.

The entry fee is now stated as five quid for 3 X’s

Thinking about what would happen if you did advertise somewhere and a fair number of people entered: Are there any Greek/EU rules for running competitions? Don't want to fall foul of some obscure regulation and end up in court. Unless you limit the number of number of entries, the jackpot could in theory be limitless and is probably taxable.

I have no idea about any Greek/EU rules for competitions like this but I feel the act of trying to find out is more likely to cause problems (some jobs worth saying ‘you can’t do that’) than the risk of just going ahead. I would have thought that there would have to be a complaint before any likely action and even then, I suspect (hope?) I would get a cease and deist type notice before any more drastic action were taken; I have stated in the T&Cs that if such a thing occurs I will do my best to refund all entry fees – if I’m imprisoned, it might take a while though!

I know it's stated as 'not for profit' but from an outsiders view, what is there to stop you awarding the 'prize' to a mate and splitting the winnings with him?

Obviously there is nothing to stop me awarding the prize(s) to mates... except of course the fact that I have moral standards and, besides, why would I run the risk of publicly being labelled a fraud and cheat? I run a couple of businesses and my reputation means a lot more to me than cheating anyone out of money and prints.

How could it be verified how much money was in the pot?

I will be posting all competition entries to the website so it will be very easy for anyone to workout how much is in the pot. They won’t of course know the exact figure for the expenses but I could post a breakdown of those to prove nothing underhand went on.

Thanks for the questions though Wonks… maybe I should copy all this and sick it on the website somewhere (but only with your permission of course)

Wonks replied the next day:

Feel free to use it Tim. I was only trying to think of things that anyone that doesn't know you might think of. As you know the web is not always the most trustworthy of places and you need to work hard to convince people their money isn't going to be misappropriated if they take part.

I hope that has helped lay any doubts to rest. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at: competition2@cretephotography.com

One final thing... I will eat any hat you care to provide if anyone can prove I knowingly tried to cheat people who enter this competition. Or as CJ in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin might have said: I didn't get where I am today by cheating!