Competitions Discussion Thread Part 12

amsquared

I'm happy with the postal txt thread as it is why do we need to change it.

I keep a record of the post number and page number of where I finish each day eg this post is p78 post 1542 so its easy for me to find where I was. If we start deleting posts and send them to GO I'm sure it would be more difficult finding where I had got to on the postals. I tend to do postals/txts a couple of times a week when I feel like scribbling I think they need a different mindset to the online and email comps.

Its also more work for somebody to send the expired posts to GO so why bother.

Change is not always the solution to a problem. Having worked in change management as a lean process facilitator most of my life - its about keeping the process for the customer (eg us compers) as simple as possible. Its not always about redesign its about understanding how people use the existing process and deciding whether the process needs to change to make it more efficient.

Its dangerous to implement a "good idea" without checking with the users. eg Lets have the same process for everything - that must be better. This is usually the management or consultant expert view but is nearly always not the end user view.

My personal view is that the Postal/txt thread works very well as it is so why annoy the existing users by changing it?

Glad

timmmers wrote: »

I think the suggestion to leave until after Xmas is a great one, lots of comps mean lots of eyes ALL over the sections...and we can all help tidy up during that time by clicking expired on out of date regular comps can't we? To that end, maybe a temporary sticky in the main board explaining this tidy up and inviting people to come here to discuss and also for help finding the trash and marking it for GO would help while there's a big population?
Maybe a gentle hint that when smeone wins and thanks in IWIW, they also try and click expired if the comp has indeed died and isn't regular?

It's silly to expect one or two peeps to tidy up the mess left behind by hundreds of keen posters, much better we all do our part.

It's never going to be tidy or perfect here, to many different types of comps and lots of new people trying to get into the whole comping thing will see to that. I have something in the back of my head whispering about pigs ears and silk purses lol

I have a sneaky feeling that FB and twitter are going to be the next problem RE regular type comps if we're not careful too. There's several random but regular ones running now, some multi dailies, and some single entry (be a fan). They are bound to become more complex as they are so new right now...maybe even take the majority of comps place quite soon?

I'm not sure why more sections and stickies worries people, surely it's better well organised and categorised than a heap of mixed stuff ? People get used to any system eventually, you never get used to clutter unless you cluttered it personally

Wherever you got to tidying up Gad, tell us here and I'll spend some time helping backwards frm there or whatever way you're heading

t

thank you

I'm working backwards at the moment a live comp is unlocked
a dead comp is moved to GO
any I find with an updated prize I'm posting on too
if anyone wants to start from the front of the board that would be great, go through the pages until you find the start of the locked threads (about page 12) choose a page and start checking, as the threads are locked you'll have to pm me the links with either live or expired after the link then I can open them or send to GO
if new details need posting you can either say (needs new details adding) and I'll pm back the link when it's opened, or send me the details to add to the thread

the reason for keeping them locked until they've been checked is so we know which ones have been checked

or someone could work forward from the first page and check through the unlocked ones sending me links as above but you'd be able to post any updates on them, they are the most recent ones so shouldn't be as hard to check
if an unlocked thread has a recent post on by me it means it's one I've already checked, unlocked and updated

I'll also quicky go through the current unlocked thread ttitles (the first 11 pages) and check the end dates that won't take long as lately most of them seem to have an ...until date

thanks again

ETA when going through old comps I've noticed that a lot do take you straight to a comp form, but if you then check the websites home page it's an old link and the comp may no longer be running

Glad

ikkle87 wrote: »

With the regards to the whole one thread per competition mag/site. You can only use the enter button on the first post, so you will need to subscribe in order to know if a thread has been updated with a next comp, you will have to use the thanks button from then on, which kinda makes the efforts gone to to create an enter button kinda a waste of time. Also if subscriptions dont update which they sometimes dont then you are still at risk of missing out on comps.

I'm not sure how I feel on the whole lets move x,y and z to the regulars board either. It seems like a few people agree with Glad and so its being given the go ahead. I would like to know what the other BG's opinion is as obviously they have more experience of the comps board, wasn't diva one of the ones to set it up? (no offence to you Glad, i think its great you are showing such interest ) Also not all regulars get moved over, the Glamour Daily for etc has always been on the main board.

All I'm doing at the moment is checking all the comps in the regs board before looking at the stickies, and letting people discuss things here, the subject of the regs board and which threads need to be in it was ongoing way before I started commenting on it,
all the BGs have moved threads to the regs board when they see one on the main board that they think needs moving over, also all of us are in touch by pm so I made the other BGs aware of the discussion in here and the clearing up I am doing in the regs board and have had replies saying yes it needs a sort out
yes Diva did help set up this board :T and as she went to so much time and effort to set up the regs board in the first place maybe it's only fair we have a try at getting it back on track before deciding whether it's still an asset or not

Glad

amsquared wrote: »

I'm happy with the postal txt thread as it is why do we need to change it.

I keep a record of the post number and page number of where I finish each day eg this post is p78 post 1542 so its easy for me to find where I was. If we start deleting posts and send them to GO I'm sure it would be more difficult finding where I had got to on the postals. I tend to do postals/txts a couple of times a week when I feel like scribbling I think they need a different mindset to the online and email comps.

Its also more work for somebody to send the expired posts to GO so why bother.

Change is not always the solution to a problem. Having worked in change management as a lean process facilitator most of my life - its about keeping the process for the customer (eg us compers) as simple as possible. Its not always about redesign its about understanding how people use the existing process and deciding whether the process needs to change to make it more efficient.

Its dangerous to implement a "good idea" without checking with the users. eg Lets have the same process for everything - that must be better. This is usually the management or consultant expert view but is nearly always not the end user view.

My personal view is that the Postal/txt thread works very well as it is so why annoy the existing users by changing it?

at the moment it's only being discussed in here

but it is an existing user, in fact the person who starts the thread, that asked about changes as she has 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
and when an existing thread gets very long and is moved to GO then it will still contain some ongoing comps

purplebutterfly

Hiya peeps, wasn't sure where to post this but decided that comps discussions would probably be best.

I just wondered if there was a way of checking whether you had won on Facebook comps? Often competitions run on there announce winners on their wall and expect you to contact them - but if you miss that announcement how do you know you've won?

I'm really really bad on FB (much to my shame ) - is there any kind of search button that shows if your name has been mentioned or anything? Or do you just have to keep a note of every comp entered and then keep checking back?

Thanks in advance for the help

toniq

Purple I google my name with winner and that generally shows it, there is a facebook search but that doesn't pick anything much up xxx

toniq

Ahhh it does pick up better try this pop ur name in, i just checked and it is showing posts i made today x
http://www.facebook-search.com/

Shellybee

You could try google purplebutterfly just type in site:facebook.com "your name"
Or just hope that other comping friends you have on FB recognise your name and let you know

Coversnail

Sorry purplebutterfly I can't find any way of doing this. You can search for your name using the search box at the top and selecting 'see more results...' from the dropdown box that appears, and then click "Posts by Friends' or 'posts by everyone' on the left hand side of the screen, but this doesn't show results from pages that you are fans with, which is what's needed for this to be of any use. Sorry I can't help

fire**fly

site feedback - slow again

posted by MSE Martin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/38734476#Comment_38734476