Competitions Discussion Thread Part 12

purplecatlover

twotimes wrote: »

Another point I have about things being posted as a thread in the regulars is that you have to be very on the ball if you want to keep up. Obviously you can't see any closing dates without going into the thread itself.

Say I went in there on a Monday to do all the "weeklies" one week. I would then have to go there the next Monday at exactly the same time in order to do the next week's "weeklies". If I was busy and didn't get round to this until Thursday or something, I would miss out on all competitions that ran from Wednesday to Wednesday. The same goes for "monthlies", not all of them start/finish at the start/finish of the month. If competitions are posted separately with separate end dates this isn't a problem. I am specifically talking about "weeklies" and "monthlies" at the moment as I know there have been issues brought up about "dailies" such as ClassicFM being posted like this.

this is what i was looking for to reply to (so ill quit with the other quoting and replying again now)

i do my weeklies from the weeklies thread (and weekly advents in that thread atm) on a monday. i dont find i miss many at all. if, as for example the pringles advent today, a comp hasnt been updated on the monday when i am entering them i subscribe to the thread and pay particular attention to watch for an email/it in my user cp so i can then enter it the day it is bumped by someone posting a new post saying its now open or adding the new answer.

occasionally i dont have time on a monday and only get to weeklies on a tues or even a wednesday. very occasionally its been as late as saturday. if there have been any ive missed an entry to because i didnt manage on monday or didnt see an update in thread its been an odd one and certainly not a regular occurence.

also if a comp runs weds to weds you would catch it on the monday as it would have started the weds previously..after you had entered the week before, but before the current week ended. the only time that would be a problem is if say you entered them on the weds when you may then miss both weeks depending on timing. or have to go and enter the same one twice to get the previous weeks and the new weeks answers in.

if they were all posted as individual comps or not linked in the weekly thread i invariably miss out on many more and its way more noticeable to me that i am misisng some that way. such a s the mag ones, often im entering the night before comps finish. say the mag ones for example, i miss entering many of the weekly chat ones because i get to them in the midst of the 100plus other comps that end the next day. i know they take a lot more time to enter by time ive logged in, and answered everything etc so i skip them until ive been though all 10 -12 pages of comps that end next day. by then i can rarely be annoyed to go back and find the specific chat thread i missed (if i forgot to keep that tab open in a separate window) or its already past midnight and the entry period has ended and the entry page has been shut down at midnight on the dot (happens frequently with the radio times comps too).

your mileage varies and thats fine

purplecatlover

Amilucky? wrote: »

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

does end date view not work on regulars?

korkythekat wrote: »

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

how would a sticky work korky? if they are all posted individually as they are now i mean? if they go on one thread then it could be either stickied, or a sticky thread containing links to each mags thread could be maintained easily. i see it as being a lot of work for the thread maintainer to keep on top of adding a new post every single week as they are posted now?

fire**fly

purplecatlover wrote: »

how would a sticky work korky? if they are all posted individually as they are now i mean? if they go on one thread then it could be either stickied, or a sticky thread containing links to each mags thread could be maintained easily. i see it as being a lot of work for the thread maintainer to keep on top of adding a new post every single week as they are posted now?

not sure pcl, i was thinking along the lines of a sub forum/sticky or whatever ? with the headings

Weekly Chat Magazine Puzzles answers

(then tttjay updates the new ones each week on the thread
as she does now on main board but adds it to the headied one ?

Weekly Take a Break Magazine answers

Weekly Pick me Up Magazine answers

etc for the weekly ones

then,

Upated Monthly Puzzler.com Puzzle book answers

Updated Monthly Take a Break Puzzle book answers

Updated Fiction Feast (Take Break) answers

Updated Take a Break Specials answers

etc,

then, after a couple of weeks when the dates are closed on the older
ones, we send them to Glad/BG for Go ?

purplecatlover

princess_pixiedust wrote: »

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

which is why i love those threads, all grouped together in one place so i can get to them once a day/week/month and not have to go back again until the next day/week/month.

princess_pixiedust wrote:

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

i think there are probs very few people use the monthly thread tbh, or dont open many fo the threads as they dont enter that one so they dont know its expired and thus cant tell you.

princess_pixiedust wrote:

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

ive attempted to use it twice. there were 3 or 4 posts at the start of the thread all full of links. it took me all day once, but i went through every single thread in the first post, many of them had expired, others the answers had changed, others said id already entered (so presumably had been posted on main more recently). iirc i posted a few of them at the end of the thread for you, and shortly after that you did have a massive clear out.
i then started finding a lot of the newsletter sign up ones for example were posted on main newly every now and again, so i was duplicating, or where one entry per email only rather than can enter every month.
the time it took me to go through just the first number of comps plus the ammount of duplicates or ones i couldnt enter again because id already used my email to sign up once before meant that i gave up with that thread completely.
you do a great job of trying to keep on top of it, but i think you have no hope of ever actually doing so.

princess_pixiedust wrote:

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

thats the reason why i dont popst to say congrats to everyone...10 post all saying congrats in there bug me as im looking for comps lol i will post in their to say if ive had a win or to answer a question. perhaps a reminder about not using it to chat and not bumping unnecessarily? im behind atm, but i havent noticed a lot of chat except when its been discussion about the thread or queries regarding things in the thread which tbh i feel are appropriate in there.

i love the postals thread. but i keep up with it every day, or couple of days. im currently about a week behind so will set aside a couple of hours later this week to catch up. i use the thanks button to mark where im up to, go to the last page and go backwards until i find the first page with posts ive thanked then find the first not thanked post and start form there.

id hate to see them all posted separately, as it is i can fish our my postcards etc once a day when im doing postals and put them away the rest of the time, open one thread and simply scroll through it to see all the details i need for every single comp. if they were all posted separately i would ahve to quit doing them as the extra time it would take to open each thread individually would add too much time onto the time it takes me. or id have to quit entering some other comps...something would have to give. but thats me.

purplecatlover

korkythekat wrote: »

not sure pcl, i was thinking along the lines of a sub forum/sticky or whatever ? with the headings

Weekly Chat Magazine Puzzles answers

(then tttjay updates the new ones each week on the thread
as she does now on main board but adds it to the headied one ?

Weekly Take a Break Magazine answers

Weekly Pick me Up Magazine answers

etc for the weekly ones

then,

Upated Monthly Puzzler.com Puzzle book answers

Updated Monthly Take a Break Puzzle book answers

Updated Fiction Feast (Take Break) answers

Updated Take a Break Specials answers

etc,

then, after a couple of weeks when the dates are closed on the older
ones, we send them to Glad/BG for Go ?

but then that would mean a new sticky to be added almost every week as the first end date is reached, and a whole new post posted again every week?

plus if its moved when the first end date is hit then all the subsequent posts which are not yet ended would need copied into the new thread?

which seems to me a lot more work for everyone involved in maintaining it and moving it?

i think your on the same lines as me about them all being in one thread though, but maybe replaced every month or 2 (if people really cant stand the idea of hitting 100 posts) rather than as soon as the first end date is hit. the indivdual threads wouldnt then need to be stickied but we could have one sticky thread containing links to each individual thread which is then changed when the new thread is posted and old one sent to game over. old one would be linked in first post of new thread as it would still ahve a couple of live comps when moved to game over....the way postal thread and puzzler and tab threads are done now iyswim.

which is th eother thing, would the ongoing threads, ie postals, tab and puzzler monthy, stickied regular threads be less daunting if they were cut of at say 50 posts instead of 100?

bargainhuntergal

twotimes wrote: »

Say I went in there on a Monday to do all the "weeklies" one week. I would then have to go there the next Monday at exactly the same time in order to do the next week's "weeklies". If I was busy and didn't get round to this until Thursday or something, I would miss out on all competitions that ran from Wednesday to Wednesday. The same goes for "monthlies", not all of them start/finish at the start/finish of the month. If competitions are posted separately with separate end dates this isn't a problem. I am specifically talking about "weeklies" and "monthlies" at the moment as I know there have been issues brought up about "dailies" such as ClassicFM being posted like this.

I found I had this problem too, which is why I find keeping a very simple spreadsheet (more like just a list, with the site link, site name and any notes I might need to know when entering) that I can change the colour of the ones I've done for that week and make a note of the end date etc.

princess_pixiedust wrote: »

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

Thanks PPD, I think you do a great job with it, I think the main reason people tend not to use your list (as good as it is) is because at the time all the threads were locked and answers/prizes couldn't be updated when they needed to, I'm sure now Glad is taking a look at all the regular threads and unlocking them this will encourage more use of your thread.

I was going to ask both you and Gilla at some point (if others find it's helpful too) whether it's possible for all the new ones added to the posts to be added at the top, so it's easy to keep track of which ones are new since the last visit to the thread, I know it's more difficult for yours as there's more than one post, but at the top of each post would work I think. (I've got to admit though, you may already do the monthlies like this, I don't keep as close an eye on it as I would like to, so apologies if I'm suggesting how it's already done )

princess_pixiedust wrote: »

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

That's a fabulous idea!! :T It would be so good to see all the postals/texts in their own section as seperate threads!

purplecatlover wrote: »

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.

If they're all posted as seperate competitions then they wouldn't need to be sent to Gilla for adding to the thread as no one should miss days/weeks no matter which way they enter?

Though if this happens then I think they should be on the main board as technically they'd be posted the same way as any other post, ie. one entry and one end date.

The only ones that would need links to be added to the daily thread are the competitions that are multiple entry with one end date at the end and enter as many times as you want.

Amilucky?

Definately the last post in this thread by me and maybe the last post ever see #4670

Best of Luck

fire**fly

purplecatlover wrote: »

but then that would mean a new sticky to be added almost every week as the first end date is reached, and a whole new post posted again every week?

plus if its moved when the first end date is hit then all the subsequent posts which are not yet ended would need copied into the new thread?

which seems to me a lot more work for everyone involved in maintaining it and moving it?

i think your on the same lines as me about them all being in one thread though, but maybe replaced every month or 2 (if people really cant stand the idea of hitting 100 posts) rather than as soon as the first end date is hit. the indivdual threads wouldnt then need to be stickied but we could have one sticky thread containing links to each individual thread which is then changed when the new thread is posted and old one sent to game over. old one would be linked in first post of new thread as it would still ahve a couple of live comps when moved to game over....the way postal thread and puzzler and tab threads are done now iyswim.

which is th eother thing, would the ongoing threads, ie postals, tab and puzzler monthy, stickied regular threads be less daunting if they were cut of at say 50 posts instead of 100?

if the headings for all the diff mags were stickied in one
place, then the mag posters could just add the new one to the threads for that particular magazine,
bit like the puzzler.com/tab one, then as you say after 50/100 pages have a new one made as we do on puzzler/postals but the link is added to the old thread as in puzzler/postals/tab,
then the thread wouldn't get to long ?

fire**fly

Amilucky? wrote: »

Definately the last post in this thread by me and maybe the last post ever see #4670

Best of Luck

:sad: but Glad is trying to help sort it out as peeps have been saying they don't use the regs boards as they're confusing,
a lot of posts were made a few months ago with some members saying the comps boards need a facelift/bringing up to date etc
& think this is what Glad's trying to do for us all xx

Glad

princess_pixiedust wrote: »

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

I'm working my way through the regs board and sending all dead comps to GO, once I've finished your sticky can be updated, it might even be an idea to split it into 2 threads, one for monthly comps and one for 'register with this site/sign up for our newsletter and be entered into a draw'
having looked through the board it's the second type of monthly thread that people don't seem to comment on when the link goes dead

princess_pixiedust wrote: »

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

got an idea if people would like to comment on it please
we could have a thread in GO for expired postals, it would mean people pm'ing a link to an individual post which can be moved into the thread in GO, now that's slightly more work for the BsG but I'd be happy to do them all if whoever starts the thread posts in the OP 'please pm Glad with expireds by clicking on the post number and sending a link for the post'