Most SteemIt Game And Contest Hosts Are Breaking The Rules! Are You...

The bigger part of the contests and games hosted on SteemIt are not compliant with the SteemIt Rules. Find out if you're doing it right.

One Short Sentence

I come across them every day: contests or games that require an upvote to be eligible to play. There are hundreds of them.

I’ve known about that short sentence in the FAQ from the beginning. That one short sentence that states that contests or games that require an upvote are considered to be abuse.

Find it in the FAQ here

I’ve also been wondering if I should write a post on the topic or not, since, you know, nobody seemed to mind.

I had been discussing it with some people earlier today, and just now I discovered that there was at least someone who cared. It was @isteemithard who had left a comment on a contest, making the host aware of the rule.

Good enough for me to finally write a short post about it.

Why Shouldn’t You Require An Upvote?

I and my fellow members of @newbieresteemday and @newbiegames tell newcomers that one of the best ways to get started here on SteemIt is by joining some contests and games. It’s a great way to expand your network, and you might win a prize while you’re at it.

Now, we all know how hard it is to keep that VP above 80. If people need to upvote every game or contest they are joining, there won’t be a lot of VP left to vote for other things. And there are contests that not just ask you for an upvote, but for one at 100%...

You can imagine how fast one's voting power is drained...

On top of that, you’re blackmailing people to give your post an upvote, by telling them they can’t join without.

Many contests and games are sharing part of the earnings with contestants, but by requiring an upvote you manipulate the rewards you’re getting from that post.

So, you shouldn’t. At least, that's my opinion...

What To Do Then?

Instead of requiring an upvote, you can just ask for it. If people like it and have VP to spare, they will upvote.

Personally, I like to put it like this:

An upvote and a resteem is not mandatory, but would be appreciated.

You can mention that upvotes will help to grow the prize pool, and resteems will increase visibility.

Or you can get creative and give away an extra prize amongst people who upvote/resteem the post, just to give a little extra incentive.

winning homer simpson GIF-downsized_large.gif

To do so, you just take all names from people who have upvoted or resteemed (see: Quick Tip: How To Find Who Resteemed Your Post In 2 Simple Steps) and add them to a random name picker to select one.

Here are some examples of random name pickers:

Chances are you will get more contestants for your game of contest if you don’t make an upvote obligatory.

Please note that - after further investigation - it appears these FAQ are not so much rules, but 'etiquette guides' and are not enforced by SteemIt Inc. at this point in time. Also, they apply to the SteemIt.com website only.