Competitions Discussion Thread Part 13

bargainhuntergal

allisoca wrote: »

Hi

http://www.watchesshop.com/daily-giveaway.html

Is still current - I use it everyday.

Thanks for all your efforts

Thank you, sorry I didn't make myself clear before, what I meant was that the current link goes direct to the site, but really needs to go through to a thread somewhere on here so that people that don't use dailies don't miss it, I wasn't sure whether to repost or get the most recent of the Game Overed posts back onto the board, the only problem with this one is that it doesn't really have an end date as it's ongoing, although they're having a break after tomorrows comp and will be back 1st Feb (there's a message on their Facebook) so unless it's posted on the regulars as 'E: DAILY - Watches Shop' the end date will need to be regularly updated as if it's on the main board it will be sent to Game Over once the date passes.

purplecatlover

there is probbaly little point in this debate really until
1. we get an official deffinition of what a regular comp is
2. an official decision of if comps meeting the criteria for regular are posted as a brand new post each day/week/month or one thread updated each time the prize/question changes.

and this is where i think some of the confusion is coming in, some people are objecting to what was merely a suggestion that some comps eg the magazine comps could be posted as one thread.....thats what some people have got stuck in their heads as is the whole debate rather than anything else.

at the minute those comps are posted separately each week...no one is saying that must change if we make use of regular boards (though im still saddened that people shot down hjb's attempt at trialling it without even giving it a chance for a few days let alone a week or two to see how it worked out).

so how about we ignore that issue for now? forget about magazine comps, below im talking about comps like the ones in was it november, phones4 you, carphone warehouse on facebook, the brit films advent..which were all the SAME comp but with a dailyu or weekly prize and maybe a question that changed with the changing prize each time.

the problems with how things worked so far...as i see them ( and thus largely from entering by end date and form regular sticky threads point of view)

1. some posts were posted and the thread bumped with new answer/prize when relevant.....people objected to this bumping.
2. people complain they cant keep track of a thread like that and cant possibly tell what they have entered or not as the entered button only works on the first post...to which i ask how do people tell where they are in this thread? or in the inn? how did you keep track of dailya dvents posted like that? (i genuinely want to know)
3.people dont tell the thread maintainers when they post a new daily etc on main or in regulars. thus it doesnt get added to the threads so those of us who enter by end date miss all but the last day or two. this is a FREQUENT occurence and not just the odd comp, nor is it possible to search for comps by name like you can eg sci fi comps which you know are regular monthly comps and bound to be somewhere or need posting.
4. there is currently no consistency since there is no proper definition of regular, nor what should be on main and what should be in regs.
5. thread maintainers dont necessarily have time to swap one link for a new one each day/week when the original link would take you to the same place anyway, which means those of us relying on them loose out again.

separate issue:
without being prepared to try people are insisting its too much effort to search to include the regs board, or drop by it to check for new comps. likewise without being prepared to try peole are insisting that posting comps with daily/weekly answers in one ongoing thread is a stupid idea and should never happen (yet its worked well in some cases so why not in others?)

could you imagine how much of a nightmare the advents thread would have been if all those that needed daily answers were individual posts amid the normal comps on main? which is what happens with some daily comps atm.

personal issue here lol the recent classic fm daily comp was posted as a brand new individual comp each day...its not one im interested in and quite honestly it possed me off big time that almost every single day id forget it was mostly just classical music cds as prizes and id open the thread to see what it was before realising i could happily have skipped it, had it been one thread id have ticked entered and ignored it from then on in.

i think there are at least 2 or 3 separate issues being jumbled up amidst all the discussion, before xmas more so than now admitedly and admitedly im probably partly responsible for jumbling things up, so ive tried to separate things.

bargainhuntergal

purplecatlover wrote: »

there is probbaly little point in this debate really until
1. we get an official deffinition of what a regular comp is
2. an official decision of if comps meeting the criteria for regular are posted as a brand new post each day/week/month or one thread updated each time the prize/question changes.
I think this is the most important, but also the hardest thing that needs doing tbh, it's very difficult to figure out what's classed as what as there as so many variables.

and this is where i think some of the confusion is coming in, some people are objecting to what was merely a suggestion that some comps eg the magazine comps could be posted as one thread.....thats what some people have got stuck in their heads as is the whole debate rather than anything else.
I think for something like the magazines which are regular either weekly or monthly, it would work, especially as the same person posts them each time, or if they can't do one for some reason it's always pre arranged for cover, so they can explain what needs to be done to the person covering.

at the minute those comps are posted separately each week...no one is saying that must change if we make use of regular boards (though im still saddened that people shot down hjb's attempt at trialling it without even giving it a chance for a few days let alone a week or two to see how it worked out).
I think the main issue with hjb's post was that a decision is yet to be made on what's going to happen, I don't know whether the post would have remained on the main board like the Puzzle ones or whether it would have been moved over to regulars, if it had been moved over to regulars, it seems from reading the posts in here, that a lot of people would have missed it and that would have caused more issues?

so how about we ignore that issue for now? forget about magazine comps, below im talking about comps like the ones in was it november, phones4 you, carphone warehouse on facebook, the brit films advent..which were all the SAME comp but with a dailyu or weekly prize and maybe a question that changed with the changing prize each time.

the problems with how things worked so far...as i see them ( and thus largely from entering by end date and form regular sticky threads point of view)

1. some posts were posted and the thread bumped with new answer/prize when relevant.....people objected to this bumping.
2. people complain they cant keep track of a thread like that and cant possibly tell what they have entered or not as the entered button only works on the first post...to which i ask how do people tell where they are in this thread? or in the inn? how did you keep track of dailya dvents posted like that? (i genuinely want to know)
3.people dont tell the thread maintainers when they post a new daily etc on main or in regulars. thus it doesnt get added to the threads so those of us who enter by end date miss all but the last day or two. this is a FREQUENT occurence and not just the odd comp, nor is it possible to search for comps by name like you can eg sci fi comps which you know are regular monthly comps and bound to be somewhere or need posting.
I agree, this is soooo frustrating, like I said the other day though, if one good thing is coming out of this discussion it's making people more people aware that the regular entry threads are there and what to do should they post or come across one. I've added the section for enter once only but regular draws so if you or anyone else comes across those I can add them to the daily thread (I don't think it should matter even if the draw isn't daily as it's clearly labeled as a one entry only section, and if the first draw is shortly after it's posted or discovered, the dailies is probably going to be checked more often due to the possiblity of new comps being added each day, so probably the best place for it?)
4. there is currently no consistency since there is no proper definition of regular, nor what should be on main and what should be in regs.
5. thread maintainers dont necessarily have time to swap one link for a new one each day/week when the original link This is part of the reason I was going to do the direct links on the other side of the thread, so that people can also see when a new comp is added to the website easily would take you to the same place anyway, which means those of us relying on them loose out again.
It's very difficult to know what to do for the best as people seem to want polar opposites, and I don't envy Glad and the other BG's as the ones that have to make a final decision really, but I'm sure whatever happened, we'd all get used to it after a little while of trying.

separate issue:
without being prepared to try people are insisting its too much effort to search to include the regs board, or drop by it to check for new comps. likewise without being prepared to try peole are insisting that posting comps with daily/weekly answers in one ongoing thread is a stupid idea and should never happen (yet its worked well in some cases so why not in others?)
It frustrates me a little too (and I know I've been gulity of it too, but I did say I was willing to give it a go if decided upon) I can see their point, it's daunting trying something new, and I suppose from the outside it does look like it would take a lot of time to look through, but if the format in there could be tweeked slightly to make it easier it might work better? I've got to say, I've noticed that new daily thread I posted earlier has had 456 views already, that's incredible for a part of the forum people aren't supposed to use very often!

(I know I was sort of on the fence, veering towards being against it before, but after sorting out the dailies it's changed my mind a bit, as some things are basically ongoing as they always add a new one as soon as the other one finishes, like Hello (although the prize changes), both Celebrity Angels (again prize changes), Elliot and Buttons is an ongoing monthly draw from the daily entries in that month (prize is the same), Dorset Cereals and Gu Puds always seem to extend their comps when one finishes too (prize is the same for Gu and Dorset change their big prize regularly anyway), Pink Wishes always add another draw to their £50 draw as soon as one finishes (prize is the same), Sci-Fi-Online - specifically the Xbox and PS3 comps a new one is added within a few days of the old one finishing (prize is the same), so maybe it is a good idea to have them all on their own updated if needed threads and then have that thread linked to in the dailies? When I think of it that way, that would be easier for people that don't normally use regulars as it's only one thread they need to check each time, less confusion? But then I suppose the issue is we all like to see what a prize is by looking at the title, and if it completely changes each time that can't happen when they're all on the same thread unless it's edited by the OP or a BG each time a new one is added.

You can see if you search for some of the ongoing type ones that they keep getting posted and game overed once the guessed end date goes by, it makes more sense when it's the same comp being posted to either post as an ongoing on the regulars, or to keep the old thread updated rather than to post a new one.

One of the trickiest ones I've seen is Trippin Nomad, they're posted with guessed end dates and a lot of them are in GO now, but they still seem to be running, there's 17 individual competitions on there, and only two are posted as a current comp on either the main or regulars board, there's one on each board. I've no idea what to do with the links on the regulars as I don't like only posting two links when theres 17 on there, but to post them all seperately seems crazy as they're easy to access from one page and no one knows when they will end?! I'm so confused with that one! Best option, for me, would be a post in regs with 'E: DAILY - Trippin Nomad, Various prizes - check the website for details' or something like that?)

could you imagine how much of a nightmare the advents thread would have been if all those that needed daily answers were individual posts amid the normal comps on main? which is what happens with some daily comps atm.
I know what you mean with the advents, my previous idea about posting all of the comps as their own thread was probably unrealistic, although I suppose it could be done with the weeklies and/or monthlies? Freeing up the regulars board for the dailies or the dailies and the weeklies?

personal issue here lol the recent classic fm daily comp was posted as a brand new individual comp each day...its not one im interested in and quite honestly it possed me off big time that almost every single day id forget it was mostly just classical music cds as prizes and id open the thread to see what it was before realising i could happily have skipped it, had it been one thread id have ticked entered and ignored it from then on in.

i think there are at least 2 or 3 separate issues being jumbled up amidst all the discussion, before xmas more so than now admitedly and admitedly im probably partly responsible for jumbling things up, so ive tried to separate things.
One of the things I was worried about before xmas, was the suggestion (I think it was your suggestion, so I apologise in advance, but I just want to explain ) that other things could be posted all in one thread, I was quite concerned that the whole boards would end up like it, whether they were regular comps or not (by that I mean they add comps regularly to their site, but not on a certain day/date each time, or a regular entry) I could see issues that could arise from it what with possible merges mixing in with earlier posts and people not realising they'd not entered it and things and I just thought omg noooo! :eek: :rotfl:

It won't let me post without adding text that's not in the quote too, so just adding random waffle!

bargainhuntergal

Vladivar wrote: »

Possibly a temporary post on the main comps board concerning this? For all the people who never even check out the discussion threads, it would bring the discussion to more who may be concerned?

Please excuse my intrusion ......... I just live here

I think that's a great idea, the poll can be added to the thread and everyone that wants to can chuck their ideas in there.

When I mentioned the other day about the poll being private, what I meant was so that it just says the number of people that have chosen which option and not their usernames, just incase.

The one thing I would say though, if there is still to be a poll at some point, it's not quite as easy as saying, either 'Do you use regulars?' yes/no, or 'Would you use regulars?' yes/no, because it depends on any changes that would be made, if any proposed changes make the idea of using the regulars more appealing to the people that would have voted no, then the poll result is likely to be different, and this whole discussion is about making further changes to the way the regulars works to clarify it for everyone, so the discussion and some sort of decision on what would happen IF people wanted it to really needs to come first.

purplecatlover

trippin nomad, tbh i think its best left in the dailies thread as a link to the site itself, individually posted comps can be thanked when found the day before the guessed end date and added to the thread if/when posted but theyre another one that adds new comps all the time with no regularity, and they dont end until all the prizes are won, which can take months if people dont play since they require quite a bit of time/effort for entering so even guessing an end date is often wrong.

re your very last bit bhg, im not even going to attempt to quote lol, i know ive made that suggestion somewhere very recently in response to something else...but i was being sarcastic, there is no way it would work for everything, and i was getting incredibly frustrated because i clearly wasnt managing to explain myself properly and/or people where not listening but just assuming i meant every single thread.
ill try and explain again for the sake of it lol
i meant it for things like the itv tv comps that are weekly or daily shows with a new comp each week or day. one thread per show, not one thread for all comps. the same poster posts them every time, anyone else who dares to gets jumped on. if eg all the bargain hunt (is there even one for that or is that a bbc show rofl i dont have tv channels of any sort and havent entered them in ages) that is on at the same time every day, with a comp every day, was iin one thread updated daily by the person who posts it then there wouldnt be issues with duplicates as merely checking the previous post would show it there or not, and no harm would come really if its posted twice in the one thread, as they can be entered more than once anyway, and it tells you if your at your limit. its another that is same link every time ( it think?) but answer and question change. that thread could then be added to the dailies too, much like the hello comp etc are suitable for updating a thread.

or the weekly mag comps, real people, tab, etc again its one poster every week, dupes end up locked atm anyway, if people know they ar ein a reg thread then they know to ignore dupes if they do get posted by someone else, as happens often enough now anyway, but searching before posting would pull up a weekly updated thread rather than 12 pages of threads to check iyswim.

does that make that any clearer? im sure it was mags and itv comps i mentioned as being suitable to be posted in a regularly updated thread many many others wouldnt work like that (now i think i may have mentioned that ideally id like to see each site in a thread of its own, but that would be in an ideal world were there was no such thing as merges because nothing got posted apart form in the relevant thread and thus any dupes were in posts one after the other lol, never gonna happen in a zillion years.)

i dont actually think the sci fi ones would work too well as one thread, not even the ps3, tv etc ones which are mostly the same each time. they do change subtly and the release day/end date is too variable. if they had weekly draws on set days with daily entry or such like it would work, but i can see it being a mess really as they are atm, even leaving out all the dvd ones.

they are a daily entry, but many many people only enter dailies once when they find them on main....i do wonder how being able to thank every day you enter would change the amount of thanks they get while running their course, the low number of thanks being one objection and used as proof that people dont use the regs board (despite the almost 500 views of new daily thread in less than 24 hours).

Miss_Cinnabon

Nothing to with the discussions about the regs, but have changed the monthly thread into sections so its easier to go through, will go through it today to find game overs then will add the new comps to it, been meaning to do sections for a while now , would love some input as to what everyone thinks, is it easier to use now?

toniq

princess_pixiedust wrote: »

Nothing to with the discussions about the regs, but have changed the monthly thread into sections so its easier to go through, will go through it today to find game overs then will add the new comps to it, been meaning to do sections for a while now , would love some input as to what everyone thinks, is it easier to use now?

:T:T:T:T Very nice Ppd! Very easy to see and use, Many thanks xxx:A:A:Axxxxxxxxxxx

bargainhuntergal

princess_pixiedust wrote: »

Nothing to with the discussions about the regs, but have changed the monthly thread into sections so its easier to go through, will go through it today to find game overs then will add the new comps to it, been meaning to do sections for a while now , would love some input as to what everyone thinks, is it easier to use now?

Thank you PPD, it's brilliant, I really like the sections, if, for example, you didn't want to enter the 'Pets' or 'Ticket' prizes, you could just avoid them!! :T :T :T

Just as a note, and because I only figured out how to do it in the early hours when I was trying to get the dailies back to a normal size (I copied from a text document and the writing was BIG!) you know if you want to get rid of the formatting and get the text back to how it is on these posts? (Don't worry, it leaves the links in place, or it did for me anyway, but there's an undo button if it doesn't!) You can select all the text you want to change and click on the button in the top left of the post editor the one with two A's and the red cross, it looks great as it is though, I just thought I'd mention it incase you were doing the same thing as I was and thinking how on earth do I do that?! (Weirdly, the size of the text in these posts is not one of the sizes on the selector at the top?! I tried 2 which was too small, and 3 which was too big! )

toniq

Bargainhuntergal, what i found worked for me, I split the screen so I could see the list and edit on the other side using mse format, then I didn't have to mess with dragging it back to mse and resizing etc xxxx

bargainhuntergal

purplecatlover wrote: »

trippin nomad, tbh i think its best left in the dailies thread as a link to the site itself, individually posted comps can be thanked when found the day before the guessed end date and added to the thread if/when posted but theyre another one that adds new comps all the time with no regularity, and they dont end until all the prizes are won, which can take months if people dont play since they require quite a bit of time/effort for entering so even guessing an end date is often wrong.
With Trippin Nomad, I think there really needs to be a post on the boards, I know there's the 2 individual ones, but the problem is, if people (that don't use the daily thread) don't want either of those prizes, they won't go into them so they won't see from the website that there are also different prizes?

re your very last bit bhg, im not even going to attempt to quote lol, i know ive made that suggestion somewhere very recently in response to something else...but i was being sarcastic, there is no way it would work for everything, and i was getting incredibly frustrated because i clearly wasnt managing to explain myself properly and/or people where not listening but just assuming i meant every single thread.
ill try and explain again for the sake of it lol
i meant it for things like the itv tv comps that are weekly or daily shows with a new comp each week or day. one thread per show, not one thread for all comps. the same poster posts them every time, anyone else who dares to gets jumped on. if eg all the bargain hunt (is there even one for that or is that a bbc show rofl i dont have tv channels of any sort and havent entered them in ages) that is on at the same time every day, with a comp every day, was iin one thread updated daily by the person who posts it then there wouldnt be issues with duplicates as merely checking the previous post would show it there or not, and no harm would come really if its posted twice in the one thread, as they can be entered more than once anyway, and it tells you if your at your limit. its another that is same link every time ( it think?) but answer and question change. that thread could then be added to the dailies too, much like the hello comp etc are suitable for updating a thread.
That makes sense, and like you say, it would hopefully help on the ITV ones, so that no one else posts it (although this is the reason I think that a discussion or an explanation needs to be somewhere that everyone will see it, as if things change dramatically like that, people might think 'oh I haven't seen it, I'll post it up' but it is on here, just somewhere else?

I didn't realise you were being sarcastic, lol! :rotfl:

or the weekly mag comps, real people, tab, etc again its one poster every week, dupes end up locked atm anyway, if people know they ar ein a reg thread then they know to ignore dupes if they do get posted by someone else, as happens often enough now anyway, but searching before posting would pull up a weekly updated thread rather than 12 pages of threads to check iyswim.
I've definitely come around to the idea, if they're weekly too, they could be added to the weekly thread?

does that make that any clearer? im sure it was mags and itv comps i mentioned as being suitable to be posted in a regularly updated thread many many others wouldnt work like that (now i think i may have mentioned that ideally id like to see each site in a thread of its own, but that would be in an ideal world were there was no such thing as merges because nothing got posted apart form in the relevant thread and thus any dupes were in posts one after the other lol, never gonna happen in a zillion years.)
I think you're right there, lol! :rotfl:

i dont actually think the sci fi ones would work too well as one thread, not even the ps3, tv etc ones which are mostly the same each time. they do change subtly and the release day/end date is too variable. if they had weekly draws on set days with daily entry or such like it would work, but i can see it being a mess really as they are atm, even leaving out all the dvd ones.
Yeah, I know what you mean, I don't mind adding in a new link each time it's posted, I just thought it might be easier for the people posting it? But at least I've got the direct link to the site so people can see when something new is added.

they are a daily entry, but many many people only enter dailies once when they find them on main....i do wonder how being able to thank every day you enter would change the amount of thanks they get while running their course, the low number of thanks being one objection and used as proof that people dont use the regs board (despite the almost 500 views of new daily thread in less than 24 hours).
That's why I seperated the true dailies and the extra entry ones, because I've seen people mention they only enter those once before, so this way they can decide what they want to do.

I would really appreciate some more feedback on the daily thread if people have a minute, only three people have given me any feedback so far and at some point I need to put my second post into the first so that's the only list there will be, but before I do, I want to make sure it's ok, as I don't want people to feel like I haven't tried to ask before I make changes.