Hacker News Reader

Comment by Roritharr | Hacker News Reader

As cute as that story sounds... my mother taught me that doing these types of things is unethical.

I'm not really judging, just want to hear how other people feel about "cheating" in these types of promotions.

If the contest doesn't specify how often you may enter then, I see no problem with it. It may not be exactly ethical, and really shitting thing to do if you were an adult in what appears to be a kids contest. If the contest doesn't specify the number of entries go for it, you've done nothing wrong.

If the contest did specify and the kid stuffed the ballot that's pretty low, but at least a kid who was super dedicated and excited got it. I wouldn't do it but I would definitely shrug it off if that were the case. I would be angry as hell if an adult did it, or encouraged a kid to do it.

Its incredibly low to prevent others from entering by taking all the forms.

There is a lot of things in life that aren't explicitly disallowed but make you a selfish asshole if you do them. If a kid was brought up properly by there parent and can assess right or wrong and then sees other kids being unethical and then winning, it only promotes negative behavior.

I don't see this as unethical, nor do I see it as poor reinforcement of behavior. He and his brother had to fill out hundreds of entry forms during their summer break to get this to work. Being awarded for putting in the effort to receive something like this is a good exercise.

It prepares kids for the crushing monotony of bureaucracy.

Most of the contests I've seen like this in recent years try to avoid this issue by using receipts as entry forms. You can only enter the contest after purchasing something from the store.

If you live in the US, this is considered a lottery and is likely illegal. The small print will usually have work-around that does not require a purchase

As a privileged human in many ways, I feel guilty when taking advantages I don't need. It doesn't bother me when others do these types of things though, I just won't.

"They set up the rules, and lately I've come to realize that I have certain materialistic needs."

The wealthy parent in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" that paid a large staff to open chocolate bars was obviously contemptible.

They didn't cheat.

1 - Based on what was said, multiple entries are allowed. 2 - They didn't remove ALL entry slips, left several

These contests are all about having people come back and apply gain, and again, and again.

How many little things the the parents pickup at KMart simply because they were there and it was convenient? Probably a fair bit.

It's saddening to see how much people have lost sight of doing the right thing regardless of whether it is required (or forbidden) by "the rules".

> They didn't cheat.

Also, use of physical violence isn't explicitly banned by the rules of tic-tac-toe. I think I've just found a new winning strategy that "isn't cheating" :D

This doesn't hold, since all local, state, and national laws must be adhered to by default.

If a contest doesn't limit the number of entries, you're allowed to enter as many times as you'd like. "Cheating" has a specific definition and the definition doesn't apply here.

The "spirit" of the contest is subjective. Perhaps the spirit of an easily gamed contest for me is to teach my children a lesson about math and strategy. Maybe it's to teach my kids strange ethical lessons.

No one would be down voting or calling it unethical if the state lottery allowed you to enter as many times as you wanted for free and you kept entering.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com