Congratulations to the following members! They will be our fearless conductors in the Race to National Train Day game on Gather. They each had the closest guess to the correct answer for the question in the announcement article on Monday. I will contact each of the winners individually to go over the game.
What was the average daily passenger traffic for a busy Amtrak Station in 2007?
Answer: 3545
Blue Train Conductor: Brad D. – Answer: 2,500
Green Train Conductor: Austin Cushing – Answer: 2,000
Orange Train Conductor: Lori F. – Answer: 1257
Yellow Train Conductor: April H. – Answer: 1006
Here's how it works: The goal is to get 300 Gather members to board your train by 11:59 EDT on May 12, 2008. The conductor must first download the team's icon as their own. Then each conductor will post a boarding article in the All Aboard group entitled "All Aboard the Blue (Green, Orange or Yellow) Train Team!" A member "boards the train" by uploading the team's icon and commenting "I've boarded the Blue (Green, Orange or Yellow) Train Team!" on your team's article. The conductor and passengers can reach out to members to ask them to board your train, but you may not poach any already boarded members from another team. NOTE: Both the conductor and all of the train's passengers must have the team's icon up through midnight on May 13, 2008 to be valid.
To keep things competitive, every Tuesday I will post an article in the group showing how many passengers have boarded each team's train. The team who reaches 300 passengers the quickest will win – I will keep track of boarding times according to comment date/time information.
What does the winning team win? The conductor of the winning team will win a $100 AMEX gift card. All passengers will receive 50 Gather points and one lucky passenger of the winning team will receive a $50 AMEX gift card through a random drawing.
Read the complete rules and regulations here.
GOOD LUCK!! ALL ABOARD!
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Comments: 105 ( 1 removed by Christine Mailey )
Can we customize the icon as we did for Hallmark (so that the train appears, along with another image)?
I had thought of that but unfortunately, due to the amount of players we expect to participate in the game, we are unable to customize them. However, it is only temporary ( 3 weeks really) and the reward will be worth it I think! =) Good luck to whichever train you join!
Ashley Yes, you need to upload the icon as your main profile icon/image - the one everyone sees next to your work/comments. And you have to do that before you comment. It's only temporary though - you have to keep it up through midnight on May 13, 2008. =)
It has to be your primary icon....until May 13.
Unfortunately I won't be participating then.
Have the rules been amended to eliminate this as a requirement?
"Any team member will be disqualified from team for using mass mailing (any mailing over 5 members) to elicit team members."
If team members, or conductors, use BCC when mailing, how will the number of recipients be determined?
Perhaps all mail solicitations should be banned, or limited to one-in-one communication.
Good luck! Should be some quick fun for 3 weeks. =)
You can sign up for the GREEN TRAIN here!
All aboard!
Also, what if someone sends out 100 messages, each to 5 recipients?
Wouldn't that accomplish the same objective, but still be a violation of at least the 'spirit' of the rules?
I believe that all solicitation via private messaging should be prohibited.
Also, copy all of the other conductors (listed above) on your message.
No offense to anyone, but since mass mailing is specifically addressed it's not just an annoyance and an unfair way to win, it's just plain against the rules.
So, thanks for saying something about this Kevin and Sherry.
Good luck to everyone though and congrats to whomever wins!
Really though, please don't get all mad at me for saying I don't like mass mails when it comes to contests - it's just my opinion and other people totally like them and don't think there's a thing wrong with them.
I have personally not sent out any mass emails whatsoever for this contest I have added an underlined statement on my Team's boarding immediately after I saw that this was occurring so that this does not continue to happen.
I was informed by April that members brought to the attention of Gather for mass mailing will not be disqualified because they used the BCC option when sending their message.
Sigh! - I really LOVE the idea for this contest. I just dislike the inevitable mail component which has already begun showing itself in the community.
All aboard!
So BCCs are ok? Well dang, let's all send out BCC messages just for fun then! Yay for spam. :P
However, due to a problem within Gather's mail system, the date and time stamp of the original message does not appear when you forward a message...nor does the original sender's username. Therefore, Christine would have no way of knowing if it was 1 message sent to 500 members, or only 1 of 100 messages sent to 5 members.
Therefore, if it has a BCC, there is little that can be done.
I am not going to participate in this just because of all the spam I have gotten today alone.
Or maybe I will join the orange because they're the only ones who haven't spammed me yet.
I am so tired of seeing contests be won by people abusing the mail system on here. To many times have quality entries in contests, lost to lesser quality entries just because the owner of the lesser quality entry has nine million friends they spam every day.
(I know this contest isn't about content but it is along the same vein)
Subject: Sorry - Here's the correct addy
Tags: green train article addy, 50 points, win
Apr 23 04:48 PM
Subject: Come take a fun ride on the YELLOW Train!
Apr 23 04:44 PM
Subject: Take a Trip on The Green Train- Win 50 Points!
Tags: green train- amtrak
Apr 23 04:42 PM
Subject: Please take a fun trip on the YELLOW TRAIN!
Apr 23 03:46 PM
Subject: Get on Board the Yellow Train (corrections)
Apr 23 03:34 PM
Subject: Get on board the yellow train
Apr 23 03:30 PM
Subject: Take a trip with us on the GREEN TRAIN!
Tags: green train, amtrak, austin cushing, contests, prizes
Apr 23 03:15 PM
I deleted all of mine I should have saved them.
Choo Choo!
brain waves are transmitted over gather too!
Choo Choo! *dances away*
*Collaborate and listen*
black and white / black icons = bad
Doesn't make any sense to me.
Stop, Hammer Time.
Man, I can see the emails now. I've gotten at least 3 emails to 'jump on the train' already. I know it's against the rules but everyone seems to find a way around them. Good luck and I'll join one of you real soon.
But we need to make it that way!!!
I have asked my team members to not spam email and have not done so myself. The one team member who did this without reading the official rules first like Laura has quit the yellow train as they feel really really bad.
Can we just play nice!
It is in the official rules article.
Lets all move forward and have fun with this, there has been enough negativity recently and this can be a fun competition, it is a privilage to be a conductor to run against all 3 other teams.
Mistakes were made lets just move forward along those rails to help celebrate National Train Day!!!
I was spamed by a yellow train member.
I wonder why there was not an email sent out by gather to inform of this contest in the first place. I learn about it by spam that really stinks.
So I will not be playing at all.
Hordes of angry monkeys.
namaste
ps- play nice
I sent you mail!
I wish instead of focusing on this, Gather staff would actually answer my question,
as to why reading...
this useless stuff
x connected to z
z commented on a article **** by x
x pinged s
s pinged z
z commented on a image by s
s connected to x
is considered 'social behavior'?!
I know I am not the only one asking that question, and aksing about that & that those be turned off. I am sorry that is of NO intrest to me!
Everyone makes a huge deal out of this so called spam; and I get plenty but sometimes you got to do what you got to do to get read. I really don't blame people; I rarely send out mass e-mails but understand why some do it.
This is just a contest to have fun . . . so have fun everyone.
Blessings
- The 50 points will be awarded each week of the contest
- The $50 is for the winning conductor & one member of the team and this also will be awarded weekly
Based upon what I have read, this doesn't appear to be correct. However, this statement (printed in the official rules) alludes to a weekly prize:
Qualifying Prizes (1) winner chosen each week:
Therefore, I believe that some clarification on the prize and prize schedule should be given to the conductors and all participants.
I just wanted to clarify. There will only be one bunch of prizes given out, not 3 weeks worth. At the end of the contest, the winning team will receive 50 Gather pts for each member (including the conductor), $100 AMEX gift card for just the conductor, and one lucky member will receive a $50 AMEX gift card. Let me know if there are any other questions!
Thanks for the clarification.
Priscilla, Please forward them to the partucular conductors. As a conductor I can asure you we all are doing our best to not let this happen. And we will speak to the passenger who has accidently done this before reading our Train articles rules of play.
I find it utterly ridiculous that i have received god knows how many mass emails from these groups/people. All for a mere possible 50 points when the conductor who wins earns a gift card of $100 ............. hmmmm 50 points equals pennies compared to what the conductor wins....
Rubbish I say just plan Rubbish...
I think that any team that sends out Emails for people to join their team should be disqualified!!!!! YES I SAID TEAM............ your team should get people by articles not by emails :)
Yes im a bit tired, a bit grumpy and frankly tired of some of the crap going on here these days.
Whatever happened to the earn points by posting photos or video's yadda yadda....?
I would say good luck to all that are conductors but due to the mass amounts of emails in my mail box the past few days I say your all disqualified in my book except for BLUE who i have received NO emails about!!!!!!!!!