Competitions Discussion Thread Part 12

fortuna93

Hi, I'm new around here but have myself just gone through all the regular forum and it does seem a little unorganised. The main posts are brilliant and updated regularly but the locked threads are a bit odd. I found that some threads were the same comp but as it had been locked it had been reposted making it very easy to dupe.

Maybe posting ALL comps on the main board and then send the links to the appropriate OP in the main 3 lists therefore people using the main board will see them whereas people who do end date and still check regs won't miss out.

It just seems a little outdated in that board now, but thankfully I've entered or at least ticked that I have all 30 odd pages so now it's just any new comps

Hope people don't mind me putting my thoughts in seeing as how i'm a newbie

blackmidnight

fortuna93 wrote: »

Hi, I'm new around here but have myself just gone through all the regular forum and it does seem a little unorganised. The main posts are brilliant and updated regularly but the locked threads are a bit odd. I found that some threads were the same comp but as it had been locked it had been reposted making it very easy to dupe.

Maybe posting ALL comps on the main board and then send the links to the appropriate OP in the main 3 lists therefore people using the main board will see them whereas people who do end date and still check regs won't miss out.

It just seems a little outdated in that board now, but thankfully I've entered or at least ticked that I have all 30 odd pages so now it's just any new comps

Hope people don't mind me putting my thoughts in seeing as how i'm a newbie

That would make more sense to me. Having all posts on main board with just the link on the daily/weekly/monthly thread. If i ever post a daily on the main board that's what I do now and tbh i've never even thought about posting the whole thread on the regulars board rather than the main one

I guess regs board is more useful for those who comp by end date. I enter as they are posted so any that I would want to enter daily I bookmark from day 1 (or 2/3 if i'm a little behind lol)

beffffff

fortuna93s suggestion would work for me too....best of both worlds - those of us that use the regular boards still can and those of us that can't be dealing with a separate board don't have to.
And posts on the main board don't seem to get locked so no need for someone to remember to repost each day/week/month

bargainhuntergal

fortuna93 wrote: »

Hi, I'm new around here but have myself just gone through all the regular forum and it does seem a little unorganised. The main posts are brilliant and updated regularly but the locked threads are a bit odd. I found that some threads were the same comp but as it had been locked it had been reposted making it very easy to dupe.

Maybe posting ALL comps on the main board and then send the links to the appropriate OP in the main 3 lists therefore people using the main board will see them whereas people who do end date and still check regs won't miss out.

It just seems a little outdated in that board now, but thankfully I've entered or at least ticked that I have all 30 odd pages so now it's just any new comps

Hope people don't mind me putting my thoughts in seeing as how i'm a newbie

:wave:

All thoughts are welcomed around here!!

That's largely the way it works at the moment, but it does seem that a lot of posts aren't communicated to Gilla and PPD that they're daily/weekly or monthly until fairly far in, so end date enterers miss a lot, plus I'm not sure it's completely fair relying solely on Gilla and PPD to keep them updated, they might get a bit overwhelmed with the only way people can find dailies/weeklies and monthlies being via them, but that's for them to decide I guess! (Plus you have to think of holidays and things, the only people who can update the first posts (bar the BG's are the OP's) so in the case of holidays there will be a big chunk of days missing and a lot of work for them on their return!) If all posts are posted seperately then anyone can post them if someone is going to be away.

(I hope no one minds me taking this on, it's just I think very logically and always look at things from every angle just to make sure there's no problems that could arise from doing things a certain way, just the way my brain works! )

fortuna93

Maybe instead of sending them a PM post it as a reply to the relevant thread, that way Gilla and PPD can update the first post as and when they have time and if people subscribe to the threads they can opt in to recieve an email with any new posts from that day. Should eradicate any holiday or time issues and people can check their thanks and find where they were up to on the thread without relying solely on the OP

beffffff

If the original thread was updated daily/weekly/monthly then Gilla and PPD wouldn't have to update their first page unless the comp ended as the link would still go to the same thread.
Links only change now as threads in regulars get locked then a new thread gets started....if all comps went on main board OR regular comps didn't get locked in future unless they were not active then there would be no change or increase in work for Gilla and PPD I think?

bargainhuntergal

fortuna93 wrote: »

Maybe instead of sending them a PM post it as a reply to the relevant thread, that way Gilla and PPD can update the first post as and when they have time and if people subscribe to the threads they can opt in to recieve an email with any new posts from that day. Should eradicate any holiday or time issues and people can check their thanks and find where they were up to on the thread without relying solely on the OP

Yeah, it would work that way, as long as people do remember to send the link *crosses fingers* maybe a good way is when it's been added to the first post people go back and delete their post asking for it to be added, so theres less clutter on the thread in the long run?

To be honest, I prefer it when the link is added to the end of the thread at the moment anyway, because if it's PM'ed to Gilla and they're not on for a day, or not on until really late that day, and so it can't be updated in time for people not to miss the first day, it's a real shame, it's less pressure on Gilla to always be around to keep it up to date too.

Whatever happens (and I think we'd all be in agreement that something desperately needs to change!) I think it needs to be well documented, so that everyone knows what's going on and what to do!

One thing I would say is that maybe to people that haven't used the daily/weekly and monthly lists before, it would be very daunting, because they're quite long and even though I use the daily list I'm still not sure of the pattern to posting the new ones.

Although, because I do use the daily list everyday I check the whole list and can see which ones are new by the name because I can remember which ones I've seen before (I also keep my own daily list in a spreadsheet (only the ones I want to enter rather than everything) which helps)

Maybe if the lists were going to be the only way for finding the regulars and for the people that would be new to using them would it be a good idea to put all the new posts at the top of each section so they're easy to find day by day? By section I mean like in the dailies the sci-fi-online, beauty guild, daybreak, etc, then the section with all the general ones at the top.

So it's like:

General
NEW today
OLD three days ago
etc

Daybreak
NEW today
NEW today
OLD yesterday
OLD two days ago
etc

(obviously it would say the name of the competition instead of 'NEW today' etc etc, but everyone would know to check the top of each section for new posts?)

I hope that makes sense?

Once again I really do appreciate the great job Gilla and PPD do keeping the lists up to date for us! :T :T (Although I don't currently use the monthly list because of all the locked threads in the regulars section!)

bargainhuntergal

beffffff wrote: »

If the original thread was updated daily/weekly/monthly then Gilla and PPD wouldn't have to update their first page unless the comp ended as the link would still go to the same thread.
Links only change now as threads in regulars get locked then a new thread gets started....if all comps went on main board OR regular comps didn't get locked in future unless they were not active then there would be no change or increase in work for Gilla and PPD I think?

It's more to do with adding the new ones to the first page as they're posted, which isn't such an issue if they're posted to the end of the thread rather than PM'ed across, as everyone can see they're needing to be added.

loobie-lou_2

I'm new to MSE... hi everyone =]

Just wondering how many competitions, on average, everyone enters per week?

Lou xx

purplecatlover

because only gilla can update the op in daily/weekly threads i post links to any daily or weekly threads i come across as a new post on the thread. that way we can all see it even if gilla doesnt manage to update the op for a few days/is on holiday whatever. when the link is pmed to her no one else can see its there or do anything with it until she is available and it clogs of her pm box since we ahve the limit on here.

it really bugs me to see a daily being posted as a new comp every single day. they are either moved too early, or are missed and are still showing months later when they ar enull and void. eg the classic fm a-z daily that is posted many days as a brand new comp.

monthlies i ignore in regulars, there are to many of them, lots were out of date when i tried, and they are frequently posted on main anyway. ppd does her best but if people dont tell her when they hit an expired comp and she doesnt enter herself they get left. same with gilla and the dailies and weeklies.


the eg, carphone warehouse comp on face book is more or less a weekly. i would far rather see it posted in one thread and that thread updated with new prize and answer each week as then i can subscribe, get an email tellingme its been updated and dont miss it even if i dont get a chance to enter any of the comps ending the day it does too. that to me is the whole point of the reg board...not missing comps that are regular.

i love how the postal thread, and the puzzler and tab threads work....its so easy to see if someone else has already posted a comp by searching just that thread which will have at most 1000 posts, as opposed to searching the whole forum of threads and all posts comntained in each of those threads to try and find the specific one you want. its easy to see that ive already entered/read by looking for the point i left of thanking at...thats my bookmark in those threads.

i frequently miss good comps that have been running for a week or two daily because i hit them the day before they end.....so i will often leave a comment along the lines of what a shame nobody told gilla. everytime i see a comment form someone saying they dont know how to get it added to dailies or whatever i pm them with instructions. occasionally it helps and they start adding to dailies, more often than not it doesnt and ive seen the same person say the same thing again so i trans;late it to they cant be bothered to link it and want someone else to do so (same as when i know someone has been told how to pm for a merge etc).

the main problem is that everyone clarifies regular comps differently.

the sugarscape thread is a daily comp. it has different prizes and answers each day though so by some deffinitions each keyword and link should be posted as a whole new thread every single day and not just updated in that one thread. to me that just makes more work for the board guides as instead of having one thread to move to go at the end of the month they have 30 to move throughout the month.

figuring out how or where i need to ask me towers or martin for an official clarification of what = a regular comp is on my to do when i have time list and hasd been for the past month.

if we had a specific definition, and a specific rule then everyone would have to follow it and everyone would then know where we stand. as it is with so many deffinitions in practise its a confusing minefield and the regular board could be much much better used and organised.

sorry i may have gotten carried away there.