New Comps Board Guidelines Discussion

Mamzie · 16 March 2011 at 10:30AM

Could we have a post with the revised multi poll options bought forward please - hopefully it could either all run at once, or over 2 polls, as Glad said she can set up Multi Polls on MSE? And maybe spend another 24-48 waiting for comments.

I have updated the possible guidelines slightly on post 3 to add in some points from the MSE - Please Read thread, so would appreciate it if you have chance to have a quick read.

fire**fly · 16 March 2011 at 12:04PM

Mamzie wrote: »

Could we have a post with the revised multi poll options bought forward please - hopefully it could either all run at once, or over 2 polls, as Glad said she can set up Multi Polls on MSE? And maybe spend another 24-48 waiting for comments.

I have updated the possible guidelines slightly on post 3 to add in some points from the MSE - Please Read thread, so would appreciate it if you have chance to have a quick read.

no disrespect to anyone else

but it all got a bit confusing reading through
& this is the most understandable post i've been reading on the thread mamzie

regarding the helping with guidelines,
thank you

crin · 16 March 2011 at 6:15PM

Only just found this thread as I haven't been comping much lately. I found reading all the posts a bit confusing but have persevered to the end.

The main posts that made sense to me were post 3 and post 9 by Mamzie & One eye respectively.

My personal opinion is this from post 9 these options: 2a, 3b, 4b

as I use the dailies thread regularly but not the weeklies and monthlies as there are just too many PLUS a lot are actually posted on the main boards anyway so I often find I click only to find I've already done it from the thread.

I think Mamzie's post on post 3 is very sensible.:)

I hope this soon gets sorted out as it got a bit much to always have the same stuff posted time and time again as if by rote in the discussions thread and elsewhere so I simply stopped posting and reading, I am sure I'm not the only one who felt like this.

beffffff · 16 March 2011 at 10:48PM

Mamzie wrote: »

Could we have a post with the revised multi poll options bought forward please - hopefully it could either all run at once, or over 2 polls, as Glad said she can set up Multi Polls on MSE? And maybe spend another 24-48 waiting for comments.

I have updated the possible guidelines slightly on post 3 to add in some points from the MSE - Please Read thread, so would appreciate it if you have chance to have a quick read.

Read through it again Mazmie, still reads fine to me. My improvement suggestions would be
1) adding the link to the regulars board in the rules and say that it is where the stickies are found
2) add "to the title" to 15b & 15c and remove text and postal from 15a as they both go in postals - maybe some reference to that thread needs to be in the rules too? (unless I've missed it)
and
3) to point 1 after " Please search beforehand to ensure it has not already been posted by someone else." maybe add something along the lines of "Competitions already posted should not be re-posted as this can cause upset and creates extra work for the BGs who have to merge duplicate threads".

(I think point 3 is essential even if you reword slightly the others I'm less fussed about )

I think we've been told we won't get 9b so should maybe remove it for now? There's nothing contentious in there so if we do one day get what you're asking for 9a could probably be swapped for 9b with fairly little resistance.

You know my feelings that there are a couple of other things that could be defined/tied up so we're doing a complete job instead of 90% of one but failing those going to a vote aswell, to start with why don't we just have the following 2 polls.

1) What is your preference from this? 6a OR 6b (link is Mazmies proposed rules)
2) Are you happy with this being the new rules? Yes OR No. (link is Mazmies proposed rules again)

So if it's a yes to Q2 we can implement your rules in a week or twos time.

So this is how it would read on the bits I've proposed changes for.....maybe needs reference to the postal thread added somewhere?

Mamzie wrote: »

Possible Competitions Board Guidelines

1) How to Post Competitions - Post all single/limited entry Competitions and Reg Competitions with an End Date in the Main Board. NB postal/text/phone competitions have their own Sticky Thread. Please search beforehand to ensure it has not already been posted by someone else. Do not post a competition if it has already been posted as it can cause upset and creates extra work for the BGs in merging posts. (Please make sure a link plus comp info is posted at end of relevant sticky thread in Regs Sub-Board if needed).

PROPOSE WE VOTE ON
6a) Ongoing Competitions with no End Date are to be posted in the Reg Sub Forum - State “Daily/Weekly/Monthly prize/entry” in the thread title. New posts can be added to the thread for new questions/answers/links. Post a link to the thread at the end of the correct sticky.
or
6b) Ongoing Competitions with no apparent Promotion End date, but which hold a regular d/w/m competition, are to be posted as E: 99/99 (Ongoing) to enable them to be found via the display options or by running a search. these should also be linked to the relevant Regs Sticky
Suggested Title Tags, to help people Enter Comps
a) Please mention Kids, age guidance, photos/purchase required, effort, email, text, newsletter sign up, etc in title if entry requires these. (edit - removed postal, text as they have their own thread)

b) Please mention FB, Twitter, Blog in the title if the comp is hosted on these sites.

c) Please remember to add Daily, Weekly or Monthly in the title when posting a comp with multiple prizes or entries. These also need to be linked with the relevant Sticky

(some of these guideline have been already stated in the MSE Please Read thread)

purplecatlover · 17 March 2011 at 12:50PM

im in agreement mamzie, thank you for taking the time to make sure all the rules are well defined, and non have been missed out

re 9b, i wonder if instead of changing the name and making it an official chat forum, which would mean all the other sections of mse may want their own sub forum for chat and which i very much doubt they or mse team will accept that comps forum is different and thus can ignore mse wide rules, perhaps we and the bgs could agree that chat/question threads could be posted in either regs forum or iwon? possibly i won would be better as it kind of already is a chat subforum? i know its fast moving and lots dont read it often, but people seem to be more inclined to go and find threads there than in the discusssion thread or at the end of the comping guide thread.

re posting everything on main with the E: 99/99 tag i will ask again, why was regs forum introduced in the first place? and will that not mean more threads for people to sift through?

does the E: tag sort numbers before letters in which case E: Ongoing would all end up after all the numbers anyway? but would that also mean a few more pages to get through between E: 01/01 and E: 02/02 for example? or will they end up in the last 50 pages say of comps no matter how they are sorted if they are posted as either E: ongoing or E: 99/99 on main?

if they will stay permanently in the last 50 pages ish of comps on main then i cant see a problem with them all being on main. if they will intermingled with all the other comps on main then i see a lot of complaints about the extra pages of comps to sift through? i would also wonder what would be the advantage if people will have to specifically go to the last pages to find new comps posted that are regs instead of having to click to the regulars board which personally i find easier than guessing where the page might start and having to go up/down 10pages at a time followed by 1 page at a time to find those specific pages. i am also not seeing how it would prevent people from missing the comps in that case, which i think is the main objection to the regs forum?

One-Eye · 17 March 2011 at 3:20PM

purplecatlover wrote: »

would the ongoing tag not work in the same way as E: 99/99 ? thus anything with ongoing would be sorted and show after all the E: 02/02 etc?
would posting all ongoings on main then cause lots of extra threads to sift through for people who dont sort by end date?

We have This Thread on the main board with E: 99/99 (temporarily - I've done it to see how it behaves) so you can see how they would sort. By coincidence there is also a thread on the board with E: Ongoing so to answer one question - E: Ongoing and E: 99/99 both work and would serve the same purpose - as would E: Weekly etc. The E: 99/99 suggestion is just to retain a trace of the E: dd/mm format and to prevent moving to GO.

Taking the E: 99/99 comp at the current time, the behaviour is exactly what I would expect.:-

Standard View - it appears on page 32 due to the last post in the thread from 15/03 (ie. alongside other 15/03 posts).

New Topic View - it appears on page 217 due to the OP dating from 20/01 (ie. alongside other 20/01 threads)

End Date (descending) - it appears on page 1.

End Date (ascending) - it appears on page 234 (this would be the last page but for a few 'non-standard' titles)

============================

Consider the life cycle of a comp like this where a) it is on main with E: 99/99 and b) it is in regs.

Stage 1 - Brand new comp
a) It appears on page 1 of main using both New Topic and Standard Views. Those who comp by newly posted have the opportunity to enter (and bookmark it or whatever) whether they use regs or not.
b) It appears in regs below the stickies - not visible to those who don't use regs and also not visible to those who use only the sticky ie. Only visible to anyone who looks through the regs board below the stickies.

Stage 2 - Sticky updated.
a) and b) no difference. Becomes visible to people who use the sticky - (especially with the colour coding in dailies, but a bit harder to spot for a weekly or monthly).

Stage 3 - New Question/Answer/Link/Prize
a) It is bumped to page 1 for anybody using Standard view. No effect for those using New Topic view.
b) It is bumped up to page 1 on regs for those using standard view who look through regs below the stickies.

Stage 3 - Same Question/Answer/Link/Prize.
a) and b) Must rely on the sticky or your own bookmark.

============================

In conclusion - Would posting all ongoings on main then cause lots of extra threads to sift through for people who dont sort by end date?

Answer = NO

For the most time the threads would be "dormant" well down the main board, but brand new ongoing promotions would appear on page 1 allowing ALL to enter.

purplecatlover · 17 March 2011 at 3:54PM

thanks for answering me one eye

so entering by end date i would have to go to the last number of pages and skim through them all to find any newly added ongoing comps that the poster may have (hopefully) or may not have (as does happen a lot) added to the relevant sticky OR skim all the pages of newly added comps each day instead of being able to just skim the first couple of pages on regs to find any unticked comps which might not yet be in the stickies. once all thosecin regs are moved over, we are not looking at them only being on the last page given there are 30odd pages of comps in regs, we are looking at that mnay pages to pick through looking for unticked comps. unless the E: 99 or E: ongoing etc are sorted differently amid their own grouping?

i understand that people who dont use regs or the stickies miss out by them being on regs, dont think i dont, but liekwise i miss out if i dont get time to or choose not to enter comps ending tomorrow for example, its my choice to miss out on them and i forget it and move on accepting that i made the decision to miss them. similarily if comps move to game over before they end its my own fault i miss them if i was not up do date and a day ahead of myself, likewise its my fault if i miss short end date comps or comps posted with the wrong end date because i dont keep up with newly posted comps and i find them the night before the posted end date only to find actually they ended already. its my choice to comp how i do, same as its anyones choice to ignore regs. obviously if its decided to do away with regs then i will live with that and accept that i will miss many more reg comps because they are not added to the stickies or i dont work through the stickies that week/month before they are added so miss that months comp, same as i accept that i miss them now if they are added after ive done the sticky if i dont check regs board *shrug*

Glad · 17 March 2011 at 4:24PM

the original poll on what should be posted on mains ie regs with end dates or all regs, was well worded and voted on by a large number of compers, so we can ssume that's what most people wanted

due to the confusion though on what is a reg with an end date and what is an ongoing reg, more problems have arisen and there hasn't been an opportunity to see this new way of posting 'in action' and wether it is a better way for the comps board, so the purpose of this discussion is to 'write a rule' that covers most comps/promotions, which determines on which board they are posted

Andrea tried to sift through all of the messages she was sent and write such a rule, but when that didn't work she handed it over to you to come up with something

as I see it the team set up the regs board in the first place as regs were causing problems on the main board, I wasn't a user of the comps board then but Divadee was and if she thinks the regs board is still a good idea I'm happy to agree with her

there are so many different ways of comping and people all have their own take on how the board is best laid out to suit their way of comping, that what we need is a rule that most people will say 'it might not be perfect but I can work with it' and that also suits the BG's and the OP's of the stickies ie doesn't create more work for them

at least let's give it a chance before going for another change straight away

ETA once the regs/mains question is sorted I'll start a new discussion for 'any other business'

One-Eye · 17 March 2011 at 6:01PM

purplecatlover wrote: »

so entering by end date i would have to go to the last number of pages and skim through them all to find any newly added ongoing comps that the poster may have (hopefully) or may not have (as does happen a lot) added to the relevant sticky OR skim all the pages of newly added comps each day instead of being able to just skim the first couple of pages on regs to find any unticked comps which might not yet be in the stickies. once all thosecin regs are moved over, we are not looking at them only being on the last page given there are 30odd pages of comps in regs, we are looking at that mnay pages to pick through looking for unticked comps. unless the E: 99 or E: ongoing etc are sorted differently amid their own grouping?

I understand this problem. It requires a quite specific set of circumstances (and end date comping), but the problem is genuine.

It is possible to get the results you want but you have to be very specific with your search. As there aren’t enough 99/99 comps to try it out, to get the idea try this instead:-

Use advanced search with keyword 29 AND 03 and select “Search titles only” in the box below, and select “Thread Start Date” in the “Sort Results” box.

The results show all comps ending 29/03 in the order needed. Note on page 3 the comps switch from 2011 to 2010 (game over) comps. (BTW – I would use this search anyway if I comped by end date. It also has the advantage that there isn’t a problem with comps being moved to G.O. early!!!. It’s primary disadvantage is the limit of 300 results – it doesn’t work for 31/03 as there are more than 300 comps ending on that date)

Ideally we should find something better than 99/99 to use as a search term. It needs to be searchable and fairly unique (like guessedenddate) but also short enough to go in the title. Ongoing or ongoing works a little better in this respect but is not unique enough and is a little bit long. 99/99 is bad due to the repeated 99 and also because 99 appears in titles for prices (Win a thing worth £29.99). 32/12 works better than 99/99 and 32/13 is even better. Strangely DD/MM would work best of all!

Mamzie · 18 March 2011 at 1:31AM

Glad wrote: »

the original poll on what should be posted on mains ie regs with end dates or all regs, was well worded and voted on by a large number of compers, so we can ssume that's what most people wanted
due to the confusion though on what is a reg with an end date and what is an ongoing reg, more problems have arisen and there hasn't been an opportunity to see this new way of posting 'in action' and wether it is a better way for the comps board, so the purpose of this discussion is to 'write a rule' that covers most comps/promotions, which determines on which board they are posted

Andrea tried to sift through all of the messages she was sent and write such a rule, but when that didn't work she handed it over to you to come up with something as I see it the team set up the regs board in the first place as regs were causing problems on the main board, I wasn't a user of the comps board then but Divadee was and if she thinks the regs board is still a good idea I'm happy to agree with her

there are so many different ways of comping and people all have their own take on how the board is best laid out to suit their way of comping, that what we need is a rule that most people will say 'it might not be perfect but I can work with it' and that also suits the BG's and the OP's of the stickies ie doesn't create more work for them

at least let's give it a chance before going for another change straight away

ETA once the regs/mains question is sorted I'll start a new discussion for 'any other business'

Thank you Glad, I think that the way One Eye finally managed to explain it, seemed the cleariest I have seen. When they said, that an Ongoing Competition was one that held regular d/w/m Competition Draws, but without any apparent Promotion End Date. If this was acceptable then, I think that in the OP this definition should be clearly explained, along with some multi poll options, possibly

Whether to continue to post Ongoing competitions in the Regular forum, or to use E:99/99 (ongoing) and post everything in main - but this would likely require member to use either the search function and/or the Display options to find them.

plus some of the other polls that have been suggested by Beffffff, and One Eye at the same time.

New Comps Board Guidelines Discussion

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free