**Tips and reminders about giveaways**

Hi everyone, there is a long and generally very positive tradition of giveaways on BLF. This has resulted in a lot of fun and goodwill over the years, and it's something I personally hope will continue. So first of all a big shout of thanks is in order for the companies and individuals that have organized giveaways.

A few tips and reminders are in order to prevent a fun giveaway from turning into a sour experience. First of all, giveaways participants:

Giveaway Participants

  • As always, be polite and respectful in the giveaway thread.
  • Don't post anything that could put a damper on the fun.
  • Do not create multiple accounts or do anything else to try to manipulate your chances of winning. Cheaters will eventually be caught. Accounts and posts from VPNs and TOR nodes look very suspicious, so don't use them to register or post in giveaway threads.
  • Please visit BLF at other times to engage in friendly discussions about flashlights, not just to receive free stuff.

Commercial Vendors Organizing Giveaways

  • Giveaways must be completely free.
  • Giveaways must not require purchasing or owning a product to enter.
  • Please do not require users to post URL links in order to participate.
  • Please do not post giveaways that require signing up outside of BLF, for example on Facebook or Instagram.
  • As always, please don't use tricks to dominate the Recent Posts list, and don't do anything else that could annoy other users.
  • Follow through and send the prize(s) that you promised to the winner(s). Failing to do so will lead to very negative publicity for your company. It's better to not even start a giveaway if you don't plan on fulfilling it.
  • You are allowed to require that a user have a minimum number of posts or a minimum amount of time as a BLF member in order to enter.

Thanks to everyone, hope this helps to maintain the generally positive spirit of giveaways here at BLF. Have fun!