Competitions Discussion Thread Part 12

Amilucky?

I can see that the way this is going there is going to be a lot of extra work for poor Gilla the Regulars board should work without any intervention on Gillas part

as I have said before trying to rejuvenate the Regulars board is like trying to flog a dead horse

if something isn't broke then it doesn't need fixing if something is broke then it needs replacing!

oh well I've had my say and I'm not going to post in this thread anymore as I feel that it isn't really a true debate as the vast majority of compers voices are not being heard anyway

I'm sorry if you have been offended Glad by any of my post's as you are doing a great and thankless job I have always spoken my mind and it is sometimes not always what people want to hear

but I fear you are on a loser with trying to breathe new live into the Regulars board

Best of Luck

Amilucky?

Glad wrote: »

if there is an end date in the title somewhere it comes up when I do a search

I use advanced search, put the date in this way eg 31/12
select 'search titles only' then select 'competitions time' and underneath tick 'also search in child forums',

so the search bring me up anything with 31/12 in the title in main or regs comps boards

sorry I know I said that I wasn't going to post any more but couldn't go without answering the above

using the above method you can only search for one date at a time unlike the main board where you can list all of the comps in date order with just one click!

TTFN

fire**fly

Glad wrote: »

you're right korky and something I hadn't thought of there may not be a way of doing it then unless we had a sticky for mag threads that you could update with the latest link?

or just leave them as they are that's what this discussion is for

it has been asked a few times for a sticky for the mag comps,
as they are a bit different from the others

twotimes

Glad wrote: »

the threads would still be posted the same way with the same titles/end dates, so however you search for them now will still work if you do the search for the whole comp boards not just the main board, or am I missing something? I'm happy to be told of any problems people are seeing

The problem I have (not everyone has this problem), is that the way some are posted I miss them, so the way I search for them now doesn't actually work for me with every comp.

I sort the threads in to ascending order by title and go to the approriate page, so right now I would go to where the "E: 23/11" comps start and try and work my way through. If competitions are posted as "E: WEEKLY" or even "E: 31/12 (WEEKLY)" then I will never find them working the way I work. However if they were posted "E: 23/11", "E: 30/11", "E: 07/12" etc I would.

I do try and do a few when they are first posted as well but often don't have time.

purplecatlover

Glad wrote: »

just a few points from the above posts

there aren't going to be major changes, as I see it, it's just a case of using the 2 boards MSE have in comps properly for the purpose they were set up
once I've gone through every thread in the regs board (and opened them) to check they are still open comps, I'll ask gilla and ppd to go through their threads and update them, hopefully this will just be a case of clicking every link on the list and if the comp is now in GO they can take it off the list, I think it will be the monthlys list that will change the most as people notice more when a daily/weekly ends and lets gilla know.

there's been a lot of posts on having long threads instead of individual threads for some comps from particular websites, that isn't a change I thought of and there's no reason to change the way any comps are posted, just where they are posted
the mag threads that are posted around the same time every week/month could go in regs (maybe just for a trial) and be linked in the regs lists, and that would be mentioned in the sticky info thread

as far as that goes, i, and im sure others, would be more than happy to go through all the dailies when im entering one day and post the dead ones in a single post at the end of the daily thread, in much the way that we notify her there of comps in the thread atm that are expired and of new comps. i dont do monthlies form the thread, but again if ppd would find it helpful id be happy to try working through and help identify any that are in game over.

iwannabeonthebeach wrote: »

i tend to agree. ones like the gmtv ones where you can enter unlimited times, (although think this may have changed) - i would just enter this the once as i came to it on the main board. If this was posted straight into the regular board i would have missed it completely.

you wouldnt miss it if you checked the regular board daily like you do main. gmtv ones that can be netered daily should be linked to gilla anyway, those that are 3/5 entries per number could stay on main as they are so few entries that anyone who is going to do 3/5 entries does them all at once rather than coming back each day (im guessing anyway).
tv is no more and daybreak comps no longer seem to be daily.

twotimes wrote: »

I guess I'm one of those people. To be honest the simple answer is I don't keep up with all those threads. I look though gm at the Comps Discussion thread as it is a sticky at the top and it is only one thread. I click through the page numbers in that thread to find where I had last finished reading. I never go to the Inn or Postals. I find it extremely difficult to keep up with a lot of the threads that are posted with more than one prize draw in one and often end up missing loads. I don't think I've seen the Company "daily" thread or Sugarscape "daily" thread in months. I couldn't even tell you if they were still there unless I had a search. Things like Takeabreak and Puzzler magazine I usually get to about once a month because I have them bookmarked at the side of my browser, but I often find I've missed a few of the competitions if they were only open for a few weeks. In answer I don't really keep up with any of the ongoing threads, despiute the fact that I am on here many hours each day. Hope that kind of answers from my point of view.

From the sounds of it we both enter competitions in complete opposite ways.



This highlights the problem of not having an official MSE definition of a regular. What you have described is exactly what I regard as a regular entry competition. In my definition the ones where the prizes or questions change each day/week/month are not regular.

seems we do enter differently, which is not really surprising.

glad has said an mse deffinition will be made.
i regard anything that is regular entry ie enter once a day or week for the same prize liek the sci fi ones, OR anything that ahs daily/weekly prizes questions and answers as regular comps.

all should be linked to in the daily/weekly thread....but to do that if they are posted as individual threads is impossible.

fire**fly

Amilucky? wrote: »

I can see that the way this is going there is going to be a lot of extra work for poor Gilla the Regulars board should work without any intervention on Gillas part

as I have said before trying to rejuvenate the Regulars board is like trying to flog a dead horse

if something isn't broke then it doesn't need fixing if something is broke then it needs replacing!

oh well I've had my say and I'm not going to post in this thread anymore as I feel that it isn't really a true debate as the vast majority of compers voices are not being heard anyway

I'm sorry if you have been offended Glad by any of my post's as you are doing a great and thankless job I have always spoken my mind and it is sometimes not always what people want to hear

but I fear you are on a loser with trying to breathe new live into the Regulars board

Best of Luck

i have to say that when i used to pop in the regs board i couldn't make head or tails of some of it
but since Glad has been tidying it up & sorting it it's a big improvement, it seems clearer & easier to find the ones you want/wish/subscribe to if you want

Miss_Cinnabon

can i just say about the monthlies glad? the main reason for doing that was for everyone to make it easier to access the reg board, all the daily, weekly and monthlies are on the one thread and have links etc going to the comps in the reg board

did the monthlies so people wouldnt have to go through 30 odd pages, found at the start that was fine but my big prob now is that hardly anyone lets me know when a new monthly has been put onto the board and the same goes for when a comp has expired, from the start i had put a note saying for people to let me know and have stated that a few times on the thread but like i said hardly anyone lets me know

also what is the reason why people dont use the monthlies list? for those that do venture into the reg board? if i can change the layout at all on the thread to make it easier to read etc and enter then let me know and im happy to change it

also would like to bring up the subject of the postals, ideally i would love to see it have its own sub-section like the game over and reg board has, so then each comp could be listed seperately then once a comp is finished then it can be moved to game over, there is and has been for a while now, a lot of chat on the thread and people saying what they have won and then of course people saying congrats etc not a prob in itself as its now turned into a great community for us but have had pm's from people saying how long it takes to work through it all and find the comps, plus they all have to go through the expired comps as well, just wondered people's thoughts on this as i know a few of us has discussed this before?

at the moment a new thread gets created at just over 100 pages as any more than that and its too much to scroll through (for any newbs joining) a thread only takes a month and a bit from start to finish as the postals is becoming very popular now and think the majority of mags in the shops are now covered, so i do feel something more needs to be done about the postals

purplecatlover

crin wrote: »

I actually like the way the dailies and weeklies comps are listed at present it makes it very easy to run through.

If there all the dailies were posted under each other in just 1 thread then I feel it would get very messed up very quickly and a lot of people would miss comps because of the way the postings were equally, the bgs and regs work very ard with stickies and stuff on a voluntary basis and giving them much more work to do would detract from time they could spend entering comps on their own behalf.

i honestly think that posting daily comps with different answers/prizes each day as individual threads would mean they cannot possibly be added to the daily (or weekly for weeklies) thread as it would be unfair to ask gilla to remove one link and add a new one every day. if all (regular) comps were to be posted like that on the regs board then we may as well do away wioth the regular stickies completely..except for the comps that are multi entry like sci fi.

Amilucky? wrote: »

Not quite sure about some of the post's that are now posted on the Regulars board

I note that the SCi-Fi Online comps are now posted on the Regulars board

they are not true dailies in the real sense of the word yes you can enter them dailie but it is the same prize and they have a set closing date

I think that comps should only be transferred over to the Regulars board if there is a new (Daily) (Weekly) or (Monthly) prize and not just because you can make multiple entries in a given period of time

there will be a lot of people who don't do multiple entries who don't venture over to the Regulars board who will now miss out on entering these and numerous other competitions which used to always reside on the main board

there will also be a lot of people who when they get used to things being on regulars will venture in there every day to catch up even if they only enter all the comps in their once just like they now enter them once on main.

korkythekat wrote: »

"the mag threads that are posted around the same time every week/month could go in regs (maybe just for a trial) and be linked in the regs lists, and that would be mentioned in the sticky info thread"

hiya, would that mean we've got to keep pm'ing/sending the info to whoever runs the reg lists in the stickies every time we post the new ones?
it does take a long time sometimes to type out all the info/t&c's, check issue numbers etc & specially on the puzzler/tab monthly ones as some are holidays etc,
also the prize details/etc on the weekies,
that's life/pick me up sometimes change the format on the forms so have to rearrange them every week so all in all it does take up a while to type them all if we have to keep asking the stickie people to update them as well it's going to take even longer ?

they cant be added to the weekly thread unless they ar eposted as one thread which is updated with the new answers each week. an initial post with general terms and conditions, text entry details, phone entry details and postal entry details as well as a link to the website for logging in which you (you post a lot of the mags korky) would only need to change any details on if they change in the mag, a quick check and no need to retype it all out again every single week. then the weeks answers, with any special terms for holidays etc and a link to the specific entry form could go in each subsequent post. that thread could then be added to the weeklies sticky and would only need swapping when its reached its post limit.

if they move to regs but stay as new posts each week with you adding all the info every week then they will have to just be posted on regs and we will all have to remember to go and enter rather than follow links form the reg threads thats all.

purplecatlover

mintymoneysaver wrote: »

I think if people were going to move to the idea of one thread for one comp, then the easiest thing would be to make sure you add a subscription to it, with maybe a note on the first thread saying something like 'If you wish to see each new comp posted you will need to subscribe to this thread'
Generally I don't subscribe to the comps as it's just a quick enter and thanks, and then hope for the best, but f this was introduced that would be my best way of keeping on track. Then if something popped up in my use cp I'd know there was something else to look at.

just want to pint out that as we now have the enter button to show obviously on main which we have entered people who used to use subscribe to spot that they had already entered a comp no longer need to do that so using the subscribe button to spot new posts in a thread WOULD now work.

bargainhuntergal wrote: »

With the end dates, did comps always used to have end dates, but muddled up and written in different formats? I was just thinking that if they did, it wasn't a huge drastic step, from like no end dates to having them? So maybe if any changes are made, small steps are the best option? So like add some changes and then when everyone is used to them just slightly tweak it a bit more so it's not like one massive jump?

from old posts ive found in searches i think it used to be that there was one thread for comps ending on such and such a date with all comps ending that date linked in it. end dates dont appear to have come into titles. but was before my time so maybe someone else could answer that one?

Glad wrote: »

then I've got to ask, why are they in gillas dailies list? which is probably how a lot of people find them every day so it doesn't matter when they click on that link which board they are in, or if they subscribe to those threads to find them daily that will still work

i think the objection here is that some people dont use gilals threads, they find a comp that is multi entry on main and add it to their own bookmarks which they work through daily or weekly and dont venture into regulars ever, not even to the stickied threads so miss any comps that are posted on that board instead of main (im guessing that form the various comments that go on posts on main along the lines of ive posted here so everyone who doesnt use regs can see it, or i hope this thread now doesnt get moved and hidden in regulars)

mintymoneysaver

purplecatlover wrote: »

from old posts ive found in searches i think it used to be that there was one thread for comps ending on such and such a date with all comps ending that date linked in it. end dates dont appear to have come into titles. but was before my time so maybe someone else could answer that one?

If I remember rightly, it was near the time I started and someone would agree to look through all the comps and then post one thread showing all the comps ending on that day. So if people wanted to enter for a certain day they just found that thread and all the links were there. From what I remeber there were lots of issues with this ( can't remember what over as I never comped that way!) so the idea of everyone putting an end date on each post was introduced and worked wonderfully. Otherwise the only other way you could enter was by thread start time, and you just had to remember where you'd finished off last time!