Maybe a small number of badges?
Anyone who has a minimal level of interaction with the community has at least a few – first like, first reply, first mention etc.
I dunno. I share in your feeling that I don’t like time to be a restriction. I was a very active member from day 1 and almost couldn’t enter my first GA because it had a 2 week restriction, even though I had many badges already.
I personally feel like a small number of badges is a less oppressive prequisite.
I’m sorry this isn’t going as you expected. I suppose people will always try to abuse other people’s generosity. We can either decide to accept it or take measures against it, I guess.
Sometimes we have to accept it for the greater good. Here, though, I think there are small actions you could do to prevent it from happening too much.
Most people who create brand new accounts do it for GAs. Doesn’t mean they won’t stick around, but that doesn’t change the fact we can’t tell either. It’s your call if you want to be extra safe these people aren’t gold diging, or if you just want to weed out those who are too lazy to pretend they aren’t.
Another requirement idea could be having commented on a different Chrono thread that isn’t a giveaway thread BEFORE the creation of your giveaway thread.
That would weed out both people that have old accounts and only use them to enter giveaways and people who just created an account for yours.
Thoughts.