Competitions Discussion Thread Part 11

crin

blackmidnight wrote: »

i think it's fairly easy to search most of the time and that searching threads is actually harder than searching the board as a general.

the problem is with threads is that there often becomes a lof of unncessary chat and also that people who comp by end date would probably find it harder.

i don't really get why some of the comps are all in one place. sugar is at least on the regulars board which makes sense. if there are comps which are open for a day only the thread makes sense as otherwise it would instantly get moved to game over - maybe that's why it's done that way? Glamour i don't really get - surely it should have just been posted once and the put in dailies as the link and question is the same everyday - all it would need is a list at the start to say what each daily prize is and then it wouldn't get bumped everyday.

i like the way it is now but that's just me.

Just to add my point of view which will probably be poo pood as one post I entered I got rollicked for putting were I did lol

I like the set up as it is at the mo but with the 30 days of comps I don't see why those can't be all input onto one thread for the magazine they are on. I have often found that I am going to a thread and entering then when I am doing the main comps board they're on there too which can be a bit confusing and the time it takes to check can be a right pain.

Of course, the bg's do a grand job and they are volunteers so it makes sense to have the boards a simple as possible so they don't have to spend ALL THEIR time putting things here there and everywhere plus merging etc.

I am quite happy with the boards as they are at the mo.

Thanks to all the bg's and the posters you all do a grand job

bargainhuntergal

purplecatlover wrote: »

question....since we discussed this a couple of times now on another thread.

we have regularly updated threads (puzzler, tab eg) where all comps form that site go into the thread as a new post rather than having a whole new thread to themselves. i knwo this is mainly because the mags have to be bought etc. likewise the daily comps with a different prize each day are posted on one general thread and updated daily (like sugar mag, the all about you, glamour etc etc).

it seems to me that doing that for most sites, (eg itv, gmtv, scifi, company comps, t3, loaded) which have regular comps and add new ones every day or so would make searching for duplicates easier, would mean one thread needs closed, moved and restarted rather than loads of different individual ones.

then if say iw anted to post a gmtv comp ive just noticed, i would simply have to go and search or look back a couple of pages of the gmtv thread to see if its already here. that would hopefully cut out on the number of merges needed and the frustration when you spend ages posting comps because search didnt find them but they do turn out to be on here already anyway lol

would also mean if there is a particular website whos comps you dont often want to enter you can skip that thread or if your short on time you can easily find the ones you favour to enter the newest comps rather than trying to pick them out of the aprox 200 new threads added daily to this board....

i guess in a similar way to how the postal thread works, all new postal comps go on it, we dont duplicate entries because we keep up to date, end date is posted in each individual post so it doesnt matter that thats different for them all, nor that the prize is different, and questions get answered easily and in one place instead of on 10 different threads.

new sites, or sites that comps are infrequent on could and would still be new individual threads or a infrequently updated thread that just gets bumped when there is a new comp.

is there some reason why we dont do that sort of thing that i have missed or am missing in my logic? or has the individual threads for every single comp just gottne to the ammount the are a day because when the comp forum was started it was smaller, and there werent so mnay comps or sites offering comps regularly and such like?

i also know that with say loaded i end up searching and trying to find all its comps when ive logged in once so i dont have the faff of trying to log in frequently, and frequently ill not be able to find the thread i want because there are 30 pages of threads found with the same prize or 50pages found with the same end date, or my searching is just rubbish lol if they were all posted on one thread i could then log in and go back through all those i havent yet entered in maybe 10mins instead of the length of time it currently takes me.

what does anyone else think?

I can see where you're coming from, but I think it would cause havoc to change the system.

One thing I can foresee happening if this was to change is say someone posted a thread separately for a website say this is Website A Post 1, and then another person posted say 3 competitions in the right thread for Website A say Post 2, 3 and 4 and the other one had to get merged into the thread, if it takes a while to be merged (if the BG's are busy or not online) people might have gone into the thread and done Post 2, 3 and 4 and not done Post 1 because they've not opened it up due to not knowing what site it was on from the title, Post 1, when merged, will then go infront of Post 2, 3 and 4, so it could be easily missed, I hope that makes sense!

Also I hope no one minds me saying, but the one thing that's completely confusing me at the moment is when comps are posted with the next days ending date and (00.01) after the date (sometimes with a space, so it's near the beginning if you work by title, and sometimes without a space so it's near the end when sorted in the same way), if you work by end date and are really behind, you have to check both days comps before you know you've not missed any. I've also previously seen at least one where it was posted with the next days ending date and it wasn't mentioned apart from in the post itself, so until you get to it, you don't realise that it's expired the day before. (I can't think of any specific ones right now, I've got a bad memory, but I've definitely seen it before)

I can understand this if it's a competition that's ending the same day (although I do think it's easier if everyone knows to check the first page of Game Over, or maybe the first 2 pages if it's the last day of the month and theres been a lot of posts, rather than checking what could be anywhere between 4 and 60+ (at the end of the month) pages to make sure you've got all the ones ending that day) I'm just finding it so confusing now that there seems to be an increasing amount of comps, some ending months in the future, posted in this way.

I was really nervous about asking this because I don't mean it as a complaint, and I do really appreciate everyone that posts on here, it's just more a wanting to know if anyone else is finding it confusing too and if theres a way that works better to find them, if you don't work as the comps are posted. Any advice would be very gratefully received.

blackmidnight

I don't really know what you mean as i don't comp by date ending - what would be the best way to post a comp that ends that day for you to be able to find it?

bargainhuntergal

blackmidnight wrote: »

I don't really know what you mean as i don't comp by date ending - what would be the best way to post a comp that ends that day for you to be able to find it?

I guess it would be better to post it with the day it does end (if months in future) rather than 00.01 the next day so theres only one days worth of posts to check rather than two, or if it's posted with the (00.01) to have a standard format eg, E: DD/MM(space)(00.01) rather than E: DD/MM(Space)Tonight or E: DD/MM(00.01)(space) or E: DD/MM(space)00.01, if it's posted the first way, E: DD/MM(space)(00.01) then it would be on the first few pages of the next days competitions and/or they would all be together, which if theres a lot can be a huge help if working by end date. I don't know if theres an easier way of finding them if posted the other ways though rather than going through all the pages to check?

weeowens

Hi,I think I am a little guilty of posting with (00.01hrs) in the date.I do tend to post as.................. E: dd/mm (00.01hrs) though.
The reason I started to do this was that when a comp ended at midnight on a certain day I noticed that admin was sometimes moving it to Game Over on that day so some could lose out entering at the last minute.I just thought by posting as I did more would have a chance at entering.
I had never thought of the effect on people that entered by date.I enter day by day as they are posted.Then I go all random on the page numbers.Then I go by likeability view.

wingobins

I agree with you there weeowen as I also tend to put in time ended so folks would know if they have time to enter last minute. It would also save people bumping threads to say comp closed if they knew that a comp ended at ..say for instance...9am that day, in the title.

blackmidnight

wingobins wrote: »

I agree with you there weeowen as I also tend to put in time ended so folks would know if they have time to enter last minute. It would also save people bumping threads to say comp closed if they knew that a comp ended at ..say for instance...9am that day, in the title.

i wish people would just use the expired button

wingobins

blackmidnight wrote: »

i wish people would just use the expired button

Yeah, would be easier but when new peeps come on they dont always read VG's comping guide.

bargainhuntergal

weeowen67 wrote: »

Hi,I think I am a little guilty of posting with (00.01hrs) in the date.I do tend to post as.................. E: dd/mm (00.01hrs) though.
The reason I started to do this was that when a comp ended at midnight on a certain day I noticed that admin was sometimes moving it toGame Over on that day so some could lose out entering at the last minute.I just thought by posting as I did more would have a chance at entering.
I had never thought of the effect on people that entered by date.I enter day by day as they are posted.Then I go all random on the page numbers.then I go by likeability view.

I can understand where you're coming from, and if they're all in the same format then it's definitely much easier, it's just not that easy to get everyone to use the same format, lol, there's still problems with the end dates being put as E: D/MM or E: DD/M etc etc, so it's probably a bit much to ask for a format for something else too!

Personally I tend to change the way I enter for variety, but I always revert to end date as I like the fact that some days theres not many and other days there's more (I find when I've worked by thread started there seems to be the same amount each day except Sundays), I do try and get a few days ahead, purely because of the guessed end date ones, but the way I see it, it's my own fault if it's ended because it didn't have an end date on the comp itself and had to be guessed. I do end up checking both dates (ie. today and tomorrow) about 3 times a day just to make sure theres nothing been posted that ends on the day that it is (ie: today), I would do it by post start time, but it makes my eyes feel wonky as the dates and formats are all over the place, I find it easier on the eyes to work by end date as all the same formats at together, my brain seems to prefer it that way! :rotfl: It might just be me that has the problem with the 00.01's, I just really wanted to gauge opinion and see if anyone had any tips!

I suppose another problem with posting with the next date if it's not just for a competition that's ending the next day, we could end up with the whole board end date shifted as the majority of comps end at 23.59! :rotfl:

Out of interest, do you find likeability view useful? I've never really noticed whether anyone uses the likeability button! (I'm guilty of not using it myself, too many things to do already, ie. thanks button and subscribe to all the ones I've entered!)

And thanks, I'm so glad that you haven't taken offence at my post as that's really the last thing I would have wanted! I guess when you enter by one way, you don't really think of the effects on entering other ways, I do that myself too, I might have this time too, lol! But as I've tried a few different ways of entering I'm not sure whether the 00.01 thing would have any effects on other ways of entering, please shout if it does though!

Thanks again, sorry it's long!

bargainhuntergal

wingobins wrote: »

I agree with you there weeowen as I also tend to put in time ended so folks would know if they have time to enter last minute. It would also save people bumping threads to say comp closed if they knew that a comp ended at ..say for instance...9am that day, in the title.

I agree that having the time is really useful if it's a non-standard ending time, ie. not at the end of the day. I don't think some people pay attention though as they still get bumped to say they're ended even with it in the title! :rotfl:

I've just noticed how many times I've used 'ie.' in these posts!!

Edited to add: Tbh, I'm not sure why I spend so much time entering comps, I don't seem to be lucky recently!! lol

By the way, if anyone wants a break from posting from any sites for a while, or needs cover, I'd love to help out!