Topic: Dream Islands lottery (win up to 20BTC jackpot) (Read 4720 times)

Only a day or so left to enter.Don't miss out on the jackpot.
Round 1 is over now.The winner has been selected by random number generator www.random.org
Only 5 tickets were purchased (the generator starts with 0 because the first ticket started with 0 instead of 1 like normal and finishes on 4)
The jackpot is 0.25BTC for the winner.
Results will be uploaded shortly.Here they are:

Looks like ticket 1 is the winner (S001).The winner has 24 hours to claim the prize.If he doesn't claim after that,a new random drawing will take place and this repeats only once.If no one cliams after that,this wil go to good causes instead.

Once the winner claims the prize,these games will stop for a while while much needed improvements take place (expect work to start on 5th June 2012).
Expected changes to take place:
1.Well,the random selection process needs fine tuning
2.More automated/easier way of entering the games (instead of going through me)
3.New game types added giving the players new possilbities for gameplay.
4.Many more to come.
5.Expect the games to be up and running again within a month (or less depending on what changes could be implemented in that timescale)

Edit:Ticket S001 did claim the prize in time (late 1st June 2012).Sorry about that ,but I was a little slow in updating this thread due to other work getting in the way.The lottery is now closed so that much needed improvements/changes can finally take place.This thread will be locked temporarily.Once more info is available,I'll reopen this thread and add the info at the time.Thank you for your patience and I'll be looking forward to unveiling the new and improved games later this month.

Enjoy your day

I recently won the lottery in UK (small prize of £3 as a runner up).If I can win that lottery,so can you with this lottery.

Only 1 week to go.Don't miss out.Enter now.

Update on lottery developments:after the round finishes and the winner is decided,these games will take a short break so that much needed rennovations can take place (ad campaign,better winner selection system,clearer information,better ideas and a more community driven games) as well as getting some much needed rest after the developments are done before the games come live again.
Things to do (this i just to remind me):
1.Make ad campaign (easier as I'm a professional filmmaker)
2.Improve information and clean things up a bit on the website (medium difficulty for me as I'm not a web coding guy)
3.Implement a better selection system (hard but has to be done)
4.Help the community get more involved in decision making as well as selling part ownership to really improve community involvement. (very difficult for me.I think I'll delegate that to someone very trustworthy,perhaps even me old friend who I used to work with when I made a film with him.)
5.Other (whatever the community suggests,I listen to)

Thanks for the advice gorgo1 on the ad campaign Any ideas on what should be in there?

Just look in the very first post or so (that I made) I update often.It will have numbers like S001 for example as well as who entered.I list things publicly as I wish to curb cheating/confusion.I like the experience to be perfect where say a number like S005 gets picked as the winner for example,but the winner doesn't come forward,well since this forum is community driven,I've decided to tap into that ability by giving others a chance to give the winner a gentle reminder to collect his winnings.

So to answer your question it's here:https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.831455

Where is the sold ticket list?

I like entering lotteries.I think the lottery is fine as it is in terms of feedback.Maybe think about getting some PR to help the games a little though as most people are not entering yet due to the fact that the games are lacking in spice.People seem to have doubts about fairness even though this is the most fair game I've ever seen.The lotto games in my home country are not fair as selection is based on who pays the biggest bribe to the guy who chooses the winner rather than a random number generator.

You also need to come up with a good ad campaign that shows people what this is all about.Once they feel this is right for them,they'll enter.At the moment,there kind of isn't one.

Since it's getting closer to 1st June (when this round finishes).I'd curious as to who else wants to enter? If not,I'd like feedback on what's discouraging people from entering the games as I've felt that I've done a lot to try to make things better but something just doesn't fit. It's ok for people to buy multiple tickets as well.The main website has been updated with info and the use of another payment method has been added (via bitpay).

Another thing to know,when the winner is picked,the person only has 48 hours to claim their prize.If the winner doesn't claim in that time.Another random selection will happen and the person chosen from this will be the winner (still random but keeps things moving).

If anyone is interested in entering,you have the power to make that jackpot bigger (so that you can have a nice jackpot if you win).
Don't miss out on the jackpot simply because you didn't enter.Make sure that doesn't happen to you.

Hi bitlotto
I had no intention to misinform people.I simply didn't realise the full info on bitlotto.Anyway I shall reply to the points raised.
1.My lotto only requires people to send entries and contact me simlpy because this is a very new operation with very little in the way of advanced tools.Once I have a volunteer programmer (struggling to find someone willing to code me an automatic solution for entries and random selection at the moment.
2.This wasn't a critique of bitlotto,this is simply a general statement about how the lotto responds to people.
3.In reponse to your response about anti-cheat measures,well the current solution can be messed with by an unscrupulous admin but this is only a temporary system (due to the issues raised at no1 reponse to your point) and 2nd I've demonstrated that I am reputable and will continue to do so. Why is this difficult for people to understand? I'm not a scammer and I never will be. In real life people know me in person when I've had business dealings done with them.On here people know about my successfull trades (look in my post history and you'll see) and not once have I ever attempted to scam anyone on here (and in real life).Also the methods you advocate for anti-cheat system are too complex to implement and will cost me more in time to do so than keeping things fair in other ways. In my defence there are other methods to avoid cheating besides the blockchain.How do you think lottos are run in real life and on other sites outside the BTC world? Think of UKs The national lottery (and you'll see)
4.By keeping things simple,you can be more transparent by listing all entries and dealings on here for all to see.Simplicity means no use of code and a reliable/reputable person for book keeping.I admit that this can be a little long winded for me.i want to implement better measures but I have no programming skill.I'm trained as a professional filmmaker (my degree isn't in programming lol).
4b.I'll add advice about e-wallets.As I use a personal address, I felt that people can use any system universally.For me having a universal method to recieve entries is better. Yes this is a personal address (this is only temporary and changes each round) however I'm testing out bitpay as well so that things can be automated and will help reduce the chances of dishonest people claiming they've paid when they haven't. This is in progress (the migration).It asks for your email so it can send you a recipt but it will not spam anyone.
5.Thanks for the link detailing how blockchain selection works.I'll read it soon
6.Thanks for your interest.I plan to give people a vote as to what type of game they want to play on each new round.
7.Again,this is simply a general statement and not a criticism of bitlotto.
8.The address being used for other purposes and transactions going in and out.I simply sent personal funds into the exchange (from a different address on the laptop) and had no intention of mixing up entries of the lotto.I think this must have happened while I was doing some house keeping on the laptop.I'll look into this.No money has been lost as a result of this and all entries still count.
9.See the list for ticket holders and how many have sold.

I hope this addresses your points bitlotto.Anything else just contact me via PM or on here.
If you want the games to be successful,encourage others to try them out if you feel your points have been addressed to your liking.If not,just contact me and I'll reply.
Only 17 days to go before the round finishes, enter now.Who knows,the winner could be you

Replying only to stop the misinformation.
No need to register for mine either. Yours does require people to contact you and you then you list who has entered. Mine is anonymous.  
We respond to feedback too!
You just admitted that it can be cheated but your not going to. For something that happens online, how are people to know? Why not use a method that can't be cheated?
Yup, each of our tickets are 0.25. Unless you enter a pool. In that case, the BitLotto Pirate Pool is 0.1 min payment. All people in the pool then share the winnings which is at least 300 BTC (my guess for June).
They pay, and then if they win, it just shows up. I'd argue mine is even more simple. I'm not sure how yours is more transparent though?

And you really should warn people about ewallets. You tell people to pay to 1Dd8ZWThgFW97toK7kvrbVLpiNBQPTaheJ without any warning. Or are you going to wait for people to pay then contact you? I don't think that will work. I bet that one day you'll get one payment with two or more people contacting you saying they paid. You'll be stuck with no way of proving who it was.
bitlotto.com/details.html
Great! Should be interesting.
Since you comparing to BitLotto, in which way have we not responded well to our users?

Anyways, good luck on your lottery.

How many ticket have sold? 1Dd8ZWThgFW97toK7kvrbVLpiNBQPTaheJ (the address listed for the draw) appears to be used for other things and has BTC coming and going. It appears to be a personal Bitcoin address.

Hmm interesting advantages film2240 for your lottery vs bitlotto.I hope I win

Advantages:
1.No need to signup to anything or register an account.I'm not sure how bitlotto works on this point.
2.At the moment as it's run by just me at the moment (1 man setup), I can help people resolve things in an effective way (in the best way that I can anyway).Once this expands things will run a lot smoother and better :-)
3.Things are always adapting to user feedback and things overall are improving.Once I can get assistance for random selection process things will be a lot better. For now I have to make do with this random number generator: http://www.random.org/. It lets me ensure that random numbers are generated in a way that it chooses from all the lottery tickets bought,instead of say picking no1000 when only 500 lottery tickets were bought so that issue is addressed.The range will be set to how many tickets were actually bought (if less than 500) to keep things fair for all of those who entered.Yes unscrupulious admins may cheat the system but I've shown myself to be honest on here so I will continue to demonstrate this by issuing screen grabs to ensure that things stay fair/transparent.
4.The cost per entry is much lower than bitlotto as it says :"Send any amount as long as it is a multiple of 0.25 BTC to the Bitcoin address listed for the draw. (Double Check) Each draw has a different address for sending payments. Each ticket is 0.25 BTC."
5.My lottery is much simpler and more transparent than bitlotto as every entrant is listed in this post along with their ticket number so everyone who has questions to ask can simply say:'ah,I'll just look at the list of entries" instead of being left in suspense as to who entered and who won.
6.This is meant to appeal to some people outside the BTC world by not using ridiculously complex things that use the blockchain to 'pick numbers'.Someone please link me to the thread that explains this stuff so I can learn about it.
7.The simpler things are,the more transparent they are like I'm aiming for with this.
8.There will be a greater diversity of games.This was built into the beginning of this where each round is different in someway like costs of entries,diverse jackpots and diverse styles of the games so no game will be boring and stale.
9.The games are run in a democratic way where every user feedback is considered and taken into account.I'll also respond to users as well in a way that fully automated game admins don't always respond to.
10.I accept that a automated app is needed for auto issuing of ticket numbers and payment processsing but other than that I'll oversee the games to make sure things run smoothly.If needed I'll hire some help to make sure things stay smooth,fair and transparent and above all fun/interesting in some way.

I hope this addresses your points randomproof.

I guess I will be the one to ask, but what are the advantages to your lottery over BitLotto?  I think that if you can cleary explain that you may get more interest.

We have less than a month to go now.This round will end on 1/6/2012.The winner will win however much is in the pot at the time.This means that the winner may get less than 20BTC (hence it ways win up to 20BTC).If the pot is less than 5BTC,I'll top it up by a few BTC to make it worthwhile for the people who entered (I can only add 2BTC max from the reserve in cases like this though.The reserve is from my own pocket.This is not an entry as staff of the lottery like myself are not allowed to enter any lotteries they run to help keep things fair.).

New feature.I'll now update the thread with what's in the jackpot so far so as to help people see what their prize will be.Bitlotto shows the current jackpot so far.Since I like the idea,I'll add it to this now so credit goes to bitlotto and it's admin. Current jackpot is 0.25BTC  If you want to boost this,encourage more people to enter.

Please encourage as many people as possible to enter so we can have a great fun lottery for all.Tweet this,share via facebook,google + and everything else you have and invite all bitcoiners to enter the lottery.Thank you.

Edit:added jackpot total so far.

I'm planning to make the first (current) round end around 1st June this year as things have been running for long enough. There is still time so please enter now if interested. Who knows that jackpot winner could be you 

Ok,I hope this will address the remaining points so far:
1.I thought I addressed this but oh well.Anyway since the ticket numbers start from 000 to 500 in this round, I plan to try out a random number generator that will pick any number between 000 and 500.This will help me address the issue without having to worry about coding anything as there are plenty of premade random number generators available to choose from.Set the range and off you go.

2.How will people know I'm picking a random person? Well thats a good question. I will post an entry on the site (and on here) when the current (first) round has finished so that people will know not to make any further entries after the deadline. What will then happen is some sort of feedback system shall be put in place telling people that a random winner is being selected. Then the winner will be announced on here and recieve a PM from me so that they can claim the money.

3.I do say to send BTC to one address.I say that so it's easier for me to manage.The way for me to know is for people to PM me after entering so they can recieve a ticket number.It's all pretty clear I feel.You are encouraged to PM me anyway to get a ticket number plus to confirm your entry into the lottery. When a winner is picked and announced,they will recieve a PM from me asking them where to send the winnings. This is all manual I know but it will work.

4.In the case of doubt if 2 people claiming to have bought tickets on here.Here's how I'll have to handle it.If the 1st person PMs me with all necessary info and I see the transaction in the client,then he gets a ticket number (but in most cases they'll get a ticket number before a 1 confirm because most people are fairly honest but not fully).If the 2nd person then says they enter but I see no transaction of any kind and doesn't PM me with the info,then that entry would have to be ignored. If the situation is unusual in anyway,I'll take a closer look at it first before accepting or declining the entry in question.

I think it's time to concede that I do need a volunteer programmer (I can't pay them at this point though) to code a site (a single page will do) that can accept payments without me having to handle things manually and give auto feedback to the entrant like their ticket number. This is my first time in running any sort of lottery before so I'll be trying my best to make this work.

Your still missing how you are picking the winner and how you will make sure it's fair. How will people know you are picking a random person?
You also say to send BTC to one address. How do you keep track of who paid and where to pay the winnings to? For example say someone pays 0.05 to the address. You then get two people saying they bought tickets. It will be hard to know who is honest. You could have people saying they bought a ticket but didn't.

Good questions bitlotto and guruvan. let me assure that since I reformed some of the earlier rules to clarify this and to improve the fairness aspect. However since there is a greater need for transparency than I anticipated,I'll make the following changes:
1.Every person who enters the draw (PM me after sending payment to get a ticket no) will be given a ticket no.
All the entries I've recieved will have a ticket number. All people who've entered so far will recieve a ticket no via PM.
2.The random selection will now be based on the ticket numbers handed out rather than the previous method of BTC addresses (which by the way are very hard to trace in the stock client and not worth the trouble)

Id love to see how bitlotto works.
Do bear in mind that I can't code anything so I'll literally have to keep a list somewhere of ticket numbers and entries but it'll still work.

Who's entered so far:
1.TheLastDovah ticket number S000
2.gorgo1 ticket number S001
3.squall1066 ticket numbers S002 and S003 (as he bought 2 tickets).Note while buying multiple tickets may (or may not) increase your chances of winning,this will only work if you are chosen by the random generator so it's still a game of chance like for everyone else.
4.kidder2012 ticket number S004

I've only mentioned people to show that they've got ticket numbers now and that their entries are still valid to reflect the changes above. I'll add some new entries to this post from now on (trasparency and the copy of this is also stored on my laptop in case the info is lost here).

I hope this helps with your suggestion guys.I've listened and I've delivered.Keep up the good work guys on making these games even better

+1 I'd like to play, but more specified rules would be great

bitlotto's rules are very clear. It would be excellent to have two competing games that work well and attract attention.

How do you guarantee it is a random draw?
How do you pay the winner? I see no mention of how you manage who's ticket is who's.

Update: The original post has now been clarified and simplified. The games are still open so enter while you can.The round is still open so please encourage other people you know to enter the lottery here: 1Dd8ZWThgFW97toK7kvrbVLpiNBQPTaheJ and spread the word as well.

The jackpot is (up to) 20BTC for the winner so enter now.

Thanks.

Things are looking quiet in this thread. Why not spread the word to everyone so they all have the chance to enter the lottery. Keep things going and keep it fun for everyone. Make the most of this extended round. I'm open to feedback again so if you have any suggestions,please post them here so I can make changes work better (bear in mind I can't code anything so it'll have to be general or anythnig else that isn't coding based at all).No trolls please.

It's all gd 2 know film2240.thanx.

I apologise for the confusion guys.The lottery that originally started from the 5th March was meant to end on 19/3/2012.Since I failed to update the info on the site about the change of deadline. As a gesture of good will,I've extended the deadline until all entries are recieved.From now on,rounds will be annouced on here and not on the site,that way there can be no confusion about the rounds.Since the round was extended,the BTC to enter will stay the same until a new round starts. All entries recieved so far will still count (so no need to re-enter). Good luck for everyone in the lottery guys.

This is still round 1 guys.I like to give a chance for everyone to enter so that it's a fair game for all (even if it means extending the current round) :-)

I hope this clears things up. In future I'll try to be more forthcoming of any changes (proposed or otherwise) and be more careful not to cause confusion.
Have a good day (and night) guys

Did a new round start?  I thought the last lottery ended on March 19th?

Thanks for entering gorgo1.Good luck by the way for the lottery everyone.

There is still time to enter so please join in if you can.

Thanks

I've made an entry into the Dream Islands lottery. 0.05 Bitcoins an entry. I hope I win this. (C'mon big money.)

All feedback up to this point 18-3-2012 (18th march 2012) has been considered.I'm happy to announce that the games are now officially open 
There's still some time left for all of those interested in entering the lottery.So far 1 person has entered.There's plenty of room for everyone to join :-)

Since there is no technical way I know of for enforcing this rule,I'll simply have to ignore more than 10 entries from the same address as that's easier or even yet abolish the rule (but if I do that it won't be fair to people at all so I have to set a cap). Thanks for your feedback marked. Should I abolish the rule or keep it?

Edit:On second thought,Since I see no easy way of keeping an eye on which addresses have entered,It'd be a lot easier and fairer (on me and everyone by not tracking BTC addreses at all) if I abolished that rule. I now see no need for this rule so it'll be removed.This should mean a more fun lottery.It's completely random now

You've really no way of enforcing this beyond not accepting more than 10 entries with the same sending address. The coderr anonymity extensions to the mainline client, and I believe armory both allow you to set the sending address to be used. The mainstream bitcoin client can also do it at the command line but it is a bit of a pain.

marked

Hi,
I'm launching a lottery.I plan to make this a good,fun and fair game for everyone.Since I'm new to this I'll be open to feedback before I relaunch this officially.You are all welcome to suggest,praise,critique as you please but no trolling please as I'm very new to launching and running these games.

It's all here: http://film2240.webs.com/dreamislandslottery.htm
All intents and info is fully transparent. It's a simple pay for a lotto ticket to enter like in other games now.

I'm looking forward to hearing feedback and working with you all to make this a great lottery.Thanks. :-)

You can enter by entering here as well now: 1Dd8ZWThgFW97toK7kvrbVLpiNBQPTaheJ

Edit:added an easy payment button so you don't need to ask me or go through me anymore which should speed up the entry process and people can now enter even when I'm offline.

My lottery website has now undergone some updates containing the easier to use payment method as well as more up to date information.Expenses have now been reduced by a fair margin so for the first time,there may be a little bonus from the reduced expenses added to the jackpot.You'll find out how much when the winners have been picked at the end of the round.

Please test this button and see if it works for me as I'm new to using bit-pay.com.It'll ask for an email but don't worry it'll just send you a recipt. Only thing to do is once you get a recipt,Just PM me so I can give you a ticket no along with your forum name so I know it's you.