If you tend to consume Pepsi products, then you’ve probably been playing this Every Ten Minutes promotion that Mountain Dew has been pushing with Microsoft to give away a new XBox 360 every ten minutes (appropriately).

I entered my last two codes tonight. Even if I buy a mountain dew sometime tomorrow, I will probably just throw away the caps. Why? Well, we are rapidly approaching the point that throwing one entry into the pool is pretty much meaningless, except to skew the numbers. Until the promotion ends tonight at midnight, there are about 3,000 entries per 10 minute block, and 11,000 entries at 11:50pm. That last bit boggles my mind. Why would you put entries in that spot, unless you happen to have 1,000 of them. Even that would be a pain, though - entering 1,000 codes by hand?! Another issue that constantly trips me up is understanding whether or not my code was valid. When you enter a valid code, the end of the message (which is visible since its (a) near where you clicked and (b) on its own line) says “try again.” That usually tends to mean that you did something wrong, even though this is the success message.

I also found it interesting that, while the promotion ends tonight at 11:50, you can still enter codes for November 1st and 2nd. Admittedly, there’s a big warning on the home page saying “The last sweepstakes for Every10minutes.com will be on October 31st, at 11:50pm EST;” but I still want to enter a code for 12:00 AM on November 1st to see if I will win anything by default. Yeah, the chances are slim, but won’t you feel silly if I win something and you don’t? If the option is there, isn’t it there for a reason? The ultimate paradox of bad usability - was it done on purpose, or simply overlooked? I guess we’ll see!

PS - I didn’t really dump my last two codes on November 1st. That would just be silly.
PPS - Does anyone want my “Collect to Get” points? I have enough to “Get” a beanie cap or a keychain. Both look not exciting. But if, like my buddy Ben K who will never accept a blue drink from me again, you need a beanie cap to keep your hair in check, let me know. It’ll be a Thanksgiving gift.