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Comment by mrpollo | Hacker News Reader

that's pretty much why i dont enter any contests online, they all seem dishonest to me

Only reason why I entered was because I was using their service, saw the contest, and I needed a camera upgrade. Checked the entries and no one had really entered, so I entered, and won....or so I thought.

I actually just won a hotel stay and dinner in a tweet contest:

https://twitter.com/CarnabyLondon/status/220192719958581248

But then again, it's not some unknown startup, it's a local marketing initiative and I can meet the organizers face to face just around the corner.

I've entered plenty of "(re)tweet this to win" type contests. The barrier to entry is incredibly low, and I've won enough times to keep myself encouraged.

If your time is so valuable that taking the time to (re)tweet something will be a drag, or if your twitter account has some intrinsic worth that could be brought down by this type of tweet, then yes, there's no reason to enter, but then again, if you meet either of these criteria, you probably don't even need to enter contests...

More importantly -- why do you think your followers' time is so invaluable?

Well... a tweet saying "I saved space with some app" is probably not any less valuable to your followers than one saying "Mmmmm... fried cheese... [insert instagram pic here]". I see a lot more useless food tweets than I do contest tweets.

Edit: full disclosure... I frequently tweet food pics and almost never tweet content entries. :)

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