Why you shouldn't bother with online prize sites.

I was invited to Prize Rebel, Rewards 1 or something like that, and Lockerz, each when they first started by, various friends, but I guess I'll focus on Lockerz because it'll be fun to write about a variation of those survey sites. You know those sites, they're the ones where you fill out a billion questions on a billion different pages to get a free iPod after ten billion surveys, quizzes and questionnaires.

But Lockerz isn't like that, it's a different beast. It's a kat in banana's clothing.

One of the first things you notice about it, is that it's pretty well made. Shit load of AJAX? Check. Snazzy new boots? Check. False sense of security? Check, check, and check.

The first bad thing you notice, though, is how self consciously awkward the site feels. It's like when your third cousin who lives in Hong Kong wants to buy you a birthday present, and all she knows is that you're male, 14, and you live in America. So she gets you a football, because that's what all 14 year old males who live in America like, right? Well, Lockerz does the exact same thing. They've latched onto the whole generation Z thing, and gone wild with the letter Z. Lockerz, PTZ, whatever. Even the videos they post of themselves are terrible. Calling themselves the Lockerz "crew", wearing a scruffy top, a backwards cap and taking a dog to work? Who are they kidding?

Whatever. You probably know all that by now.

Why you shouldn't go there. You remember the questionnaire sites, things like Prize Rebel? They work by gathering a lot of data on everything about you, and stuffing it into their databases, then selling it to clients who want to target their crap at you. These databases swell to crazy sizes, and contain everything you ever said about yourself, and then some. They probably know your favourite social media sites, toothpaste, and what food your cat likes.

The end result is that if a company wants to sell more of their cat food they find out what age groups are buying it most and where, then they can target specific stores. Then they use that information to target even more groups, thus completing the stalker circle of life. If most have high incomes, then it's not worth putting a lot of adverts on public transport. If most prefer MySpace over Facebook, then it's not worth spending as much on Facebook adverts. It's either that or they do the opposite, and mass target the people who aren't buying it yet.

Sites like Prize Rebel have a big flaw, in that nobody wants to give them real information. Most people who use them on a regular basis probably fill in bogus information, and for the database of media companies, this is a nightmare. Who could tell that John Doe has several thousand birthdays, and likes everything from extreme canoeing to self help books? Lockerz solves this problem, by hooking them in with small questions, one day at a time, using reverse psychology. This or that? Yes or no? Small comment, please? Oh, and don't forget your address and age bracket? What about this demographic form? Can you just check off the races and income brackets you aren't? Then to keep people from buggering off, they add videos and other such nonsense.

I don't want to live in a world where people are constantly selling me things, things I don't want and probably don't like. So please, tell Lockerz you like hot sauce in your banana cream pie, and your cats deep fried, and that your real name is John Shazzlehazzle.