With the current winner-choosing structure, how are irrelevant posts handled in the event that the chosen post happens to be off-topic in the competition's thread?
Example, in the current iPad4 competition's thread, there are many off-topic posts. Will you guys simply choose a random number generator in its stead?
On the same note; could culling of irrelevant posts in competition threads to eliminate post-padding as well as attempts at rigging not be eliminated?
Example scenario, John has five different accounts with which to post, all of which meet prerequisite post counts, are registered with different usernames+passwords, to different email addresses and are each logged into via a different proxy. John is excessively thorough. John is so excessively thorough, that he will try to get the last post into a thread, realising that by having the last post, he would automatically have a 1/6 chance on average of winning as his 'last' post's number is one of the basic numbers chosen among for a winner.
Also, the basic number structure is broken.
If the total posts is between 300-400, then the basic numbers will always be something like;
*
*
*
**
**
3**-400
This quite effectively eliminates the chance for anyone that has posted in the 100-3**(excluding final post number) range from EVER being picked. If the total post count is in the 400-500 range, that expands to those in the 100-4**(again excluding final post number) range having zero chance of being picked.
It would take the total post count for a competition thread exceeding 1,000 for there to be anyone picked in the hundreds' ranges. 1234? 123, 234. 1530? 153, 530. Etc. That being said, there would still be a massive disparity in the spread, since now the structure looks like this;
*
*
*
*
**
**
**
***
***
****
In other words, there's always a bias towards those within the first 10 posts of a competition to be among the winners, for a center spread, and then whoever arrived 'late' has the least chance. I can see it encouraging people to get their posts in asap which could result in a great burst of activity, but at the same time not so much; people could start babysitting the relevant forums for competitions to crop up, post an empty post and then just edit it afterwards with whatever the post required as content to be eligible.
Also, bear with me here, but if my brain is plugged in correctly, with a four-digit total post count, if the example of 1530 were to be used, wouldn't that effectively eliminate anyone in the 531-999 range from having a chance? Similarly, if the total post count happened to be 1001, wouldn't that eliminate everyone in the 101-1000 range?
Unless I'm missing something here.
*disclaimer, I did not brain properly for this post, I'm running on gut feeling here*