Steemit Inc Disregarded Their Own Terms And Conditions
8 days ago Steemit Inc announced the 5 winners of one contest they had launched 12 days prior. Congrats to those 5 winners! I look forward to meeting you (@yidneth, @katrina-ariel, @enginewitty, @leotrap, @goyard) at SteemFest!
I'm very glad that Steemit Inc launched that contest. It is very generous of them.
Shining Some Light On Steemit Inc's Incongruence
I'm writing this post to shine the light on the fact that Steemit Inc changed the rules of their contest without providing a logical reason. This is a lack of congruence on their part and thus bad for Steem.
The terms and conditions stated that the winners would be chosen randomly. Here are the terms and conditions that clearly stated so.
On or about October 22, 2018, Steemit, Inc. will select four winners at random and one wildcard winner who nominated a Steemit creator for the Prize. (source)
The five winners will be chosen in a random drawing and will be notified by Steemit, Inc.
At first, Ned Scott, Steemit Inc's CEO denied changing the rules saying:
Your questions imply the rules were changed. The rules weren’t changed. (source)
But then Steemit Inc's employee @andrarchy admitted to the rules change saying:
We just thought it would be more fair to allow Steemians to pick the winners democratically. Didn't realize anyone would take issue with deferring to the will of the community. (source)
I take issue with this blatantly false statement. The lack of proper logic @andrarchy's statement exude is quite shocking. The winners weren't picked democratically. Nobody knew they had to vote or were voting, in fact, according to Steemit Inc, nominations weren't votes, as the winners were supposed to be randomly chosen.
Also, this statement is implying that I'm going against the will of the community but as I've shown this is blatantly false.
Rules Changes Were Allowed
The rules could be changed as the terms and conditions stated:
Steemit, Inc. reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Contest, or any part of it, if any fraud, or other factor beyond the Steemit, Inc.’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Contest, as determined by Steemit, Inc. in its sole discretion.
There weren't any fraud or factors that impaired the choosing to occur randomly as it was supposed to as described by Steemit Inc's own term and conditions. If there was, then they should have been able to provide them when I've asked why were the rules changed.
Steemit Inc Contradicting Itself
There is also another issue here. Ned Scott's statement contradicts @andrarchy's statement but never did Ned Scott corrected his statement.
Congruence Builds Trust
Trust is an important part of human interactions i.e. business investments. Congruence builds trust while incongruence builds distrust.
Working With Steemit Inc
I've shone the light on some of Steemit Inc incongruences so that more people are made aware of them and so that Steemit Inc can better be held accountable for their actions.
Image:
https://www.maxpixel.net/Steam-Coin-Cryptocurrency-Virtual-Currency-Steam-I-2996791
I’m sorry but I call bullshit on this change. Like changing the rules is something but this is something else. A raffle is just a completely different thing from voting. I know at least 15 people who didn’t nominate me or someone else because they were already nominated in the raffle.
It’s just different, voting and raffles aren’t “changing conditions” they’re changing the game. I’m not the one to complain and congrats to the winners but this is just bullshit and they ruined a good thing. Just fuck it.
I'm sorry that you had to go through this too. Their rules changes weren't fair. I too thought some people I had nominated had an equal chance as anyone else nominated. That's why I read the terms and conditions before nominating anyone. I wish more people like you will make their feeling heard!
I take responsibility for this one and I apologize. I also appreciate you bringing this to my attention. All I can say is there was no malicious intent. It honestly just seemed like the fair thing to do to go with the people who got the most votes, and I didn't realize that it would upset anyone. But now I certainly see that there is another way to look at it that is valid. This is our first time doing a contest like this, so there's obviously a lot we have to learn. On the whole, however, it seems that far more people are happy with the contestants who got chosen than who are upset that we chose to defer to the will of the crowd. But certainly you've raised valid points and we will be more careful with how we design and execute the rules next time.
Some people actively told their friends not to vote. The fact that you are repeating this non sense that what you did seemed like it was the fair thing to do is outrageously shocking.
This is irrelevant. There was no vote-based system in the contest.
You have provided no objective proof of this and even if more people were happy with the result that wouldn't make what you did fair. We've already established it wasn't fair.
Responsibility for what exactly? Changing the rules unfairly? If so why not make a formal apology for it and not just a simple comment on my post? Also, why not take full responsibility and offer what was supposed to be offered initially plus what has already been given?
Also, why isn't Steemit Inc's CEO not officially retracting his incorrect statement?
I didn't follow this too closely. At a glance it seems sort of borderline in terms of fairness and I can understand if some people feel a little cheated, but you definitely had the best of intentions.
I really appreciate the measured and respectful response to the community. This particular episode aside, I think you're doing great for this place, keep up the good work andrarchy
No one is aligning malicious intend to what was done. It was just done in an extremely unfair way that had a lot of people work against themselves. I still find myself looking at the comments where I told people that they shouldn't nominate me anymore to see what happened, then realize what I've done to cost myself, really just left in a bad mental state.
With that said. Honestly dude there's a special place in my heart for you specifically, you're the one person I could honestly say I wouldn't be here without as you recovered my account after I stupidly lost again and again. And taking responsibility is all that's needed. Good luck and have fun at the steemfest :)
Yeah, I am pretty pissed right now.
Very good initiatives!
I'm glad you're feeling the same about it as me and I'm glad you're taking the time to let me know. It's very much appreciated.
You have a point here. As one of the winners, I'm happy they chose me and I'm obviously not going to complain, but I do wish they'd at least done the wild-card draw so someone randomly got picked for nominating. When I found this contest, I admittedly got all excited and did not read the terms and conditions right away, hoping more nominations would get me to Steemfest. I did ask for people to support me with a nomination (if they like my music), and I'm grateful to everyone who took the time to do so. I'm over the moon thrilled to be going to Steemfest, and look forward to meeting you.
That said, consistency is important to build trust and I can absolutely understand why people are frustrated by the way things turned out. I think it's wonderful that Steemit Inc offered up these tickets, but feel for anyone who's hopes were crushed. I'd be pretty disappointed if I weren't chosen. Hopefully they will be more clear about how they do things next time.
Wow! I very much appreciate your honest comment! I definitely look forward to meeting you @katrina!
The greatest living Canadian is PISSED over this BS
Someone get McCoy.....QUICK!!!
Haha! I'm trying to hold people accountable as much as possible! And thanks for the compliment! Coming from you makes it even better!
https://steemit.com/steemit/@inventor16/steemit-inc-cancels-raffle-that-was-promised-to-800-steemians
I wrote about the fakeraffle 7 days ago.
I'm glad you did. I'm glad to know we're in the majority of people who realize what happened was wrong.
Cool
I would like to point out that the Bitshares contest was similarly lamely resolved. They included 2 tickets given away to those who created an art piece with Bitshares as the theme. I wanted to get a ticket for my friend to go, so I put about 4 hours into making a graphic.. For most of the time there was only two other entrants into the contest - one copied my piece and there was another. On the last couple of days a few more entrants were added but none stood out. I felt I had a good chance of winning. Then, days later, the winners were announced and the comment from the sponsor was that they didn't really bother choosing the winner based on the actual art being made.. They also didn't say how they DID choose the winners. Basically, I won't bother entering a contest of that nature again or wasting any time in relation to such things.
Could you share a link?
Sure, this is the contest and this is their winner announcement.
For the record. I had no part in this.
Part. I see what you did there.
That comment cracked me up even more than the other one you left on my previous post!
Sometimes comedic relief is needed to keep us from pulling our hair out.
Perhaps, I will have to creep on @nedshair. I need some laugh
You weren't supposed to let @ned be over your head.
Well to be fair, he has arms and outweighs me by at least 70 kilos.
well stop being a bitch, and grow some arms.
Sounds like excuses.
You’re a bit of a drama queen aren’t you?
Companies change their terms and conditions all the time. We need to decouple the Steem blockchain from the Steemit company.