Re: UKNM: Funmail - The 'Big Yellow Envelope' Theory

[Tomski]

i used to scroll down the mailbox with my eyes closed then stop, open my 

eyes, and the email at the top of the screen was a winner. Taht's until one 

place i worked asked me come up with a system that would stand scrutiny 

from The Powers That Be, and I've used it ever since.


- monge emails so they're one per line in a text file

- de-dupe (sort -u)

- generate random line numbers and hence winning emails


bit of a joke really, since so many tv and radio competitions are 

*seriously* fixed (ever noticed how many excitable women always seem to 

win? you rarely get dull fat ugly blokes who are liable to go 'yeah, i 

suppose i'm happy really')


At 11:26 AM 04-08-99 +0100, you wrote:

>As far as I understand it, a lot of Internet based competition winners are

>selected at random by their email address. I've mostly seen this done

>manually - i.e. someone scrolls down the list and picks a winner.

>

>I'm working on a theory that a cool Funmail address (such as

>

shamelessopportunist [dot] co [dot] uk or quitemouthful [dot] co [dot] uk ) can give you a slight

>edge here because it stands out - and/or brings a smile to the person who

>has been assigned this otherwise dreary exercise.

>

>Of course it doesn't guarantee you a win, but if your address ends up being

>within the field of vision it certainly has the potential to give you an

>edge over the other 50 or so other email addresses on the screen (thus the

>name of the 'Big Yellow Envelope' theory).

>

>We've had a couple of wins through a certain gaming site that shall remain

>nameless, so I'm pretty sure they use this system - but was curious to know

>if this really is the industry standard. If so, I can get on with some

>serious experimentation (and maybe win a car or two).

>

>Tim Ireland

>Senior Copywriter

>DESIGNERCITY LIMITED

>

Email: timdesignercity [dot] com

>URL: http://www.designercity.com


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