What the heck does "fair" have to do with anything about this contest, as in life? ECF is a business. Cloupor is a business. If you consider (if you can) what THEIR interests are in putting this on, you will quickly realize what THEIR objectives might be, and understand that their methodology will likely be along the lines of enhancing those objectives. But never mind that, just keep telling them how YOU think they ought to do things to meet YOUR objectives.
Well for one. Part of business is good practices and politics. Part of (good) politics is being impartial. Being impartial implies a certain amount of fairness to how you operate.
Now yes, this doesn't always apply and yes there is a huge amount of unfairness in the world. But with that being said, any company can see that when you're doing something like this type of giveaway (unless otherwise noted) being fair and impartial draw a larg crowd and keep the majority happy.
We already have a lopsided side of this contest (the social media share to win giveaway) that's why there is points for sharing. But for the ECF thread giveaway, it would be logical to approach the drawings in a fair (as possible) way, such as a truly random drawing. 1 entry per person. Done.
Now granted there is a plethora of other "fair" ways to do the drawings, such as the fact finding questions or other odd things. And that's just as fair for what it is. It gives people a feeling of equal chance to win.
In things like this, you have to walk a fine line between "only the elite win" and "everyone can win" to even out moral and public image.
If you make it unfair, or seem unfair too much, you get less of a reach because some people just won't bother to try because they figure "it's unfair/rigged"
Truth be told, in any contest, there is going to be winners and losers, I think it's just a matter of what do you want out of the contest. Because they already have the publicity side of it (link spamming on social media) it's wise to do the other side of it as well. Even if there is less prizes and such.
Just my 2 cents....