Random Chocolate Factory Golden ticket

[Puss_In_Boots]

I'm partnered with a local theatre group and the want to do a giveaway as a promotion of the show. They want to do a golden ticket drawing. I have zero website development knowledge. Im currently playiong around with it but how would i keep track of IP addresses to keep from re entrys occuring? The IPs are the only thing thats confusing me because i think i just figured out how to run the generator code. If someone could leave suggestions on how to do it or maybe a link to a good resource? Any assistance will be helpful. Ill add edits to this post as i get more info on this project. Thank you!

 

EDIT: Please add anything that might help but the project might be getting called off.

 

[IgorM]

you can create it using something already developed like giveaway plataforms https://gleam.io/

[Guest]

You could require the entry of an email using PHP and MySQL. 

Then don’t allow duplicates. 

 

This way you don’t get problems of “me and my friend are using the same router but only 1 could enter.” 

Also spoofing of “I used my phone and my desktop and my laptop & my iPad” 

[ljlangley13]

If you want help developing this send me a DM or just let me know here. I'd be happy to develop it for you. It would not take long at all. 

[myselfolli]

4 hours ago, ljlangley13 said:

If you want help developing this send me a DM or just let me know here. I'd be happy to develop it for you. It would not take long at all. 

@Puss_In_Boots same

 

And IP-adress based tracking really isn't the way to go, like @fpo pointed out, having people submit their email adress (and maybe even sending a link that they have to click to confirm the email) is probably the way to go here

[codesidian]

The ideas discussed are great, but https://gleam.io/ is probably the best bet since you have zero website development knowledge.  https://givelab.com/ is a free alternative which can be embed into your own website. 

 

If you want to do it yourself, like what's been said: IP, a cheeky cookie, email activation, and maybe something more personal like address depending how you're giving it away. That way if someone was going to cheat they'd need multiple addresses, IPs etc. When you submit an entry, check for entries with the aforementioned data. It's not secure by any means but it'll thwart basic attempts. 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, codesidian said:

The ideas discussed are great, but https://gleam.io/ is probably the best bet since you have zero website development knowledge.  

Aside from the fact that creating an html form & 12~ lines of PHP isn’t hard and a great intro to developing for web. 

 

[mariushm]

First of all check local regulations and laws ... there may be anti-lottery/gambling laws... like no purchase required to participate, you can get into the draw by sending a physical mail to this address" ... you may have to provide a physical address where people could opt in for the draw.

 

My opinion is don't bother with IPs ... it's pointless. These days there's free VPN addons and solutions, and if user doesn't resort to those, he can always just hit a bunch of McDonalds or Starbucks with free wifi , or enter from home, from work, from neighbor, from street corner...

You should be happy that they're interested in a ticket so much that they'd opt in multiple times.

You only need to be concerned about them being scalpers - trying to get the ticket to resale it... just make it obvious it can not be resold and maybe only valid by showing ID (to see names match on ticket and ID, or at least make it usable by family members only)

 

What I would do ... just add in some terms and conditions user has to agree before entering info for draw, that only one entry is allowed and further entries may be rejected.

Then, once user successfully enters for a ticket, store a cookie on his pc with some unique ID (the entry number for ticket or whatever) which expires in 4-8 hours.

 

Then, if someone tries to enter from same computer but other IP (let's say free wifi or vpn) you just go on like nothing changes, accept entry, send confirmation email and whatever, but in the database just have a flag with that ticket saying "not valid" or whatever, basically invalidate the ticket... it's an equivalent of shadow banning a person on forum.

If you want to be kind, you could have a script that once every x hours goes through those invalidated tickets and sends an email saying "hey dude, sorry, but this entry was invalidated because someone else used your computer to enter for this competition before... if you're sure it wasn't you, try again... we appreciate your interest and this time your entry will be accepted regardless" ... and give him a special link to enter without setting cookie, or by this time the cookie has expired and the entry process would work without issues.