Comments on: 4th Of July Photo Contest

By: Sean Pate

Sean Pate — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:59:42 +0000

Bob, thank you for your thorough commentary. We are always looking for ways to improve our contests and sweepstakes to make the experience better for our fan base. We ran this contest in accordance with the published Contest Rules and can understand your frustration over the perceived inconsistencies. In the future we will be more clear as to whether or not a person can participate in a contest or sweepstakes outside of the United States (in this case you cannot). We will also publish the Contest end times within the same time zone to avoid confusion and be even clearer as to the process of how the finalists and winners are chosen. But your comment about disqualifying a person who doesn’t have the right to post the picture is baffling. You must understand that it is the responsibility of the person entering the Contest to determine whether they have the right to publish the photo before they post the picture. Clearly, we cannot do so and cannot be held responsible for images which are posted without the proper copyright. We appreciate your detailed interest in our Contest and hope that you will participate in the future.

By: BobNY

BobNY — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:47:31 +0000

Sean Pate needs some lessons in truthiness.

1. His blurb would make it appear that anyone who is willing to join Facebook can enter this contest. In reality, that is nowhere near the truth. As the Contest Rules clearly state: “The following Contest (“4th of July Family” Photo Contest) is intended for play in the United States only, and shall only be construed and evaluated according to U.S. law. Do not enter this Contest if you are not located in the U.S. at the time of entry.”

2. He says that if your photo receives the most fan votes, you’ll win a FREE World Deluxe Annual Membership. Not so says the Official Rules; there are ACOM hand-picked judges to do that. ” Each finalist entry will be reviewed by a qualified judge or panel of judges, to be selected in Sponsor’s sole discretion, whose decisions are final and binding.”

3. Sean seems to think that the contest ends midnight PDT on July 13th. The lawyers think the contest ends at 11:59:59 p.m. EST on July 13, 2011.

4. I would suspect that there will be a considerable number of disqualified entries based on the fact that ACOM is requiring that the entrant be responbible “for obtaining, prior to submission, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the use and exhibition of the entry by Sponsor in the manner set forth in these Official Rules, including, without limitation, name and likeness releases for any person who appears in or is identifiable in the photo.”
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This is not a cute little photo contest run by the local PTA. Check this out and ask yourself “How many lawyers does it take to run a photo contest?”
http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/136256/rules

More than likely, this is a gimmick dreamed up by MSL in San Francisco, ACOM’s social media agency of record to increase Facebook awareness and membership.

By: BEE

BEE — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:12:45 +0000

At least “they” removed it – it’s still up on the “Announcing Your ALL-NEW Ancestry.com Monthly Newsletter” blog.

By: BroMaelor

BroMaelor — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:49:56 +0000

So Ancestry have now deleted the offensive spam posting but haven’t removed my comment about it! My comment now seems to imply that Andy is the spammer!!!

By: My Viewpoint

My Viewpoint — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:52:36 +0000

No. 7 and 8: From my perspective, there is usually nobody at home on these blog sites to comment on, let alone take responsibility for, topics introduced. The spammers have infiltrated the Message Boards, the RootsWeb Mailing Lists, and now the Blogs. ACOM needs to run a tighter ship and keep the pesky spammers away.

By: Andy Hatchett

Andy Hatchett — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:05:57 +0000

I think you’ll find that it is the person who posts the original Blog article that is responsible for checking postings to their own article. I don’t think any one person oversees all postings on the Blog- unfortunately.

By: BroMaelor

BroMaelor — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:48:02 +0000

#6. Ancestry has allowed this blatant advert for FAKE sunglasses to be displayed for four days now!
This suggests that no-one from Ancestry actually checks postings on this blog??? Very unprofessional.

By: Andy Hatchett

Andy Hatchett — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:57:38 +0000

Sean Re: #5(Unnumbered)

“Over 170,000″- that is less than 10% of your subscriber base. What about the other 90%?

Did it really never occur to anyone involved in this contest that the correct procedure would have been to announce it on FaceBook AND the blog at the same time?

Is there no one at Ancestry, with the notable exception of the Search Team, that believes in long range planning and engages the members in that planning? If there is, I’ve yet to see evidence of it and would gladly welcome any examples of such if anyone can provide them.

What are we- stepchildren…
‘Oh- I guess we should also throw this up on the blog”.

This is, to me, just one more example of the desire of Ancestry to turn the whole thing into a social network rather than the premier genealogical research site it could so easily be – if they had the guts to do it.

By: Sean Pate

Sean Pate — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:52:11 +0000

Folks, sorry about the shorter notice via the blog. We’ve only had this up on Facebook since late last week but wanted to make sure this community was invited as well. Many people have electronic photos readily available and have uploaded conveniently. We have over 170,000 people as part of our Facebook user group so its a very large population of engaged users.

By: Carol A. H.

Carol A. H. — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:18:34 +0000

I have lots of American Revolution soldiers as ancestors, and I’m on Ancestry almost every day, but even I can’t come up with a 4th of July photo in 2 days. And I don’t want to join Facebook if I can avoid it.

Not good public relations!