Earlier this week, the moderators of the Nintendo Switch subreddit made the tough decision to temporarily ban giveaways.
It all started when there was a giveaway for the recently released turn-based tactics game, Wargroove. Soon after this, a one-year subscription to the Switch's online service was up for grabs and then another user gave away a digital game of the winner's choice. From this point onwards, the giveaways increased, with multiple games and even entire consoles on offer.
Kotaku explains how these random acts of kindness had to be stopped as more and more users kept offering bigger and better Nintendo-related items. One of the subreddit's original moderators, by the name of FlapSnapple, explained how it got to the point where it wasn't clear how many were legitimate giveaways.
“While we appreciate the generosity of our community, it has very rapidly spiraled out of control via copycats, troll posts, and more to the point where it is impacting the actual usability of the subreddit...This is admittedly a drastic action and is a decision that was not made lightly.”
FlapSnapple, who is also known as Jeff, said a tipping point was reached when there was an influx of fake parody giveaways popping up at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, the downside of this was having to turn away legitimate giveaways. The moderators also became concerned about possible scams and the realisation users were giving away items to receive karma, Reddit gold and their own "15 minutes" of fame. Another major problem was how giveaways had essentially hijacked the subreddit, making it harder for users to find out about regular Nintendo news.
The moderators intend to bring back giveaways, but right now, feel the need to convene and discuss how they will be handled in the future.
“We’re simply putting them on a brief hiatus while we re-evaluate our policies and look into requiring additional information where it makes sense."
Fortunately, it looks like the subreddit has returned to normal since the recent Nintendo Direct, with most users now focused on this year's upcoming Switch releases.
[source kotaku.com.au]
Comments 20
Give this post a like for a chance to win a Nintendo Switch Online subscription made out of pure gold.
@Delibheel so only like a fleck of gold ehhh not worth it.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
"everyone, stop! you're being too generous!"
The problem is probably more to do with the fakes than anything else.
@JackEatsSparrows Ya beat me to it!
Yeah, no denying that all the giveaways were completely ridiculous. Didn't keep me from entering about 5 of them though.
@CurryPowderKeg79 wait what?
I actually won that Wargroove giveaway. It was the only one I entered and already had about 1.5k comments, but I just thanked the person giving it away and somehow got it.
Proof: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/ap5oqn/giveaway_my_first_giveaway_code_for_wargroove/eg6bjlm/?context=3
Anyway I just feel bad for people legit giving these things away and then boom its taken down, banned, but yeah they should be in moderation of what is real or not.
I’ve never really gone to a reddit webpage. I’ve got like 5 bookmarks and that’s the extent of my interneting
You’re giving away 100 Switch games? I’ll see you with 1000! Upvote and comment below to enter. Giveaway ends in 24 hours!
Buying internet validation.
Sad.
It was way overboard.
Thousands of people on the reddit, only a small handful of winners, yet they were clogging up all the posts of substance. At first I thought oh that’s nice, then it got way out of hand. I started thinking Man I don’t even want to come here because all I see is giveaway post trying to outdo each other
Not surprised in the slightest, because reddit moderators must control everything to the point of ridiculousness.
Some people want to be nice and a lot more people turn it into a contest for a few seconds of attention and another imaginary inch on certain overrated body parts. Not that I expected anything else.
Well that sucks for the genuinly nice people.
"also known as Jeff" is my favourite line in this article
@BezBot Congrats! Now to just rub it in, I won an Xbox one!.............that I never really use at all so never mind about me rubbing it in
Thank god for the ban. The giveaways were having a very negative impact on the sub. They were drowning out all other posts and preventing actual discussion and sharing of content.
Special offer for the first person to reply. Buy a Nintendo Switch for the price of two and get the second ABSOLUTELY FREE! Hurry, only one offer available!
Playstation Communities of certain games (Fortnite when it was in a paid early access state) were flooded with beggars. Why can't people get jobs to afford games for their $300+ video game systems?
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