question for club owners,Dj's and host ,

[HarryBullocks]

I host at a few clubs and even more in the past. One thing I have begun to note is that there sems to be some type of scam done by people form Brazil that either park alts at clubs with contests or right before the board closes you see slews of them TPing in to get on board even though they are rarely in theme. Seems that they have a few that they decide beforehand to vote on. they with very very few exceptions donate a Linden to the club,host or dj, yet I see them always with the top 3 winners most the time. Its gotten so bad at a few I worked that have had to close because the regular dedicated VIPS that were generous have been becoming fewer and fewer and rarely come back. I asked a few why and this very issue is why they don't come back. SOooooooo, have any of you noted this very thing happening in your clubs and what can be done to "Level the field" back again? One club I work at it was so bad this morning during the set I hosted when at just before we closed the board we had 26 avi's with Spanish avi names and info in their profiles pop in like strom troopers that we had to demand that everyone voice verify before we would allow any voting

[Amethyst Jetaime]

You should talk to the club owner about this.  They can establish rules against this and hosts can enforce them if they are board managers.

To be fair, Hosts can and should remove anyone's name from the contest board prior to opening it for voting that isn't dressing to the theme or participating as they should if it is a non dress event.

The contest can be closed for entries at least 30 minutes before the end of the set and the winner announced just prior to the end of it with a rule that you must be present to win.  This will discourage the people that enter at the last minute just to tp out a few minutes later. 

There also can be a rule established prohibiting anyone from TP'ing in friends to vote for them once the board is closed for entries.  The host will then have to keep an eye out for people doing this and remove them from the board.

Another way to cut back on these shenanigans is to make the contest board only open to group members.  You can then stop handing out tags 30 minutes prior to voting.

None of this will prevent it from happening all together, but at least anyone that enters or votes will have to be there for 30 minutes.  People that do this are not interested in staying at a club long because they want to get in on as many of these contests as they can and tp from club to club to club doing it.  By forcing them to stay to participate they will soon lose interest in doing this at your club.

To be fair, the rules in the contest board that are handed out as a notecard to participants should be updated and the host should also announce the rules a few times during the event.

[Alobar Valeska]

Yes, I've seen this off and on forever (well for the last 4 years, anyway.) They never speak, never tip, never listen to the music, and often don't even dance.

I kick them out of the contest and ban them from the club (rules against this behavior are included in the contest rules that everyone receives, but no one reads.)  It's quite effective at stopping/preventing this behavior, and the regular folks who are actually there for the club experience seem to approve and appreciate it.

I've also seen clubs close the contest to new entries 30 or 40 minutes before voting begins. This forces contestants to at least spend some time in the club to be eligible to win the contest.

[Christin73]

NOt sure where they come from but that does seem to happen in contests. And it never fails most who come to a club just for the contest usualy don't tip the Host or DJ. Just seems to be a common practice. If you are goign to come and enjoy a clubs contest at least show the staff a little L loving. Just a suggestion. After all contests bring people in they are there for the peoples enjoyment and contests are not cheap to run. Imagine spending 500L per contest with even one contest a day it adds up fast. And thats what the club owner is having to pay out each time. Thats why I don't run contests.

[Syo Emerald]

Fine for you, but if someone doesn't want to lose any money then they better don't join the club business at all. If people should just come for a contest itself and not for the prize, then there shouldn't be money to win. Thats it. But setting up a contest with money to be won and then complaining that people don't spend money on the whole staff group...well...

[Lewis Luminos]

I don't run contests at my club but I've been to a few places that have them and I've seen this trick.

Best advice I can give:

- Require group membership to enter contest or vote. Don't give out group tags in the last hour.  OR  - ask a joining fee.

- Require contest entry to vote (this is the key one - it means they can't mass-tp in a bunch of friends and alts unless they're already in the group AND in theme AND entered into the contest)

- Boot anyone not in-theme and dis-count their votes

- Close entry 30 minutes before voting starts

You may also want to make a "no afk" rule as well, and boot anyone who isn't participating in local chat.