Competitions Discussion Thread Part 13

One-Eye

Comments on Andrea's post

"Guessed End Dates

If there's no indication of when the competition ends then rather than put a possibly too-early end date, put one that's slightly over-optimistic rather than under. That way, if it does end early you can click the expired button and when enough have clicked expire it'll go over to Game Over."

I disagree. Over-estimating the duration will mean that ending date compers are highly likely to miss out. The only people who will miss out if the date is under-estimated should be people new to the comping board who have just joined (as the comp will be in G.O. even though it is still running), but these people will be busy with the hundreds of comps that are on the board anyway. Established compers all have the opportunity to enter with an under-estimate and this should be recommended.

In a few cases the comp is re-posted and is effectively a dupe. This can also happen when the promoter extends a competition that was posted with an accurate ending date. When this happens the procedure is to either "check thanks" or preferably to merge and fetch the original out of G.O. and I think this should continue.

"Where on the Regulars board do we post the link - a reply in the sticky or a new thread?

Both.

That way, while I realise it's something extra to do, you'll be keeping everyone happy, rather than just a certain group so it's a win-win situation for everyone!"

A bad idea and totally unnecessary. If ANYBODY thinks this is a good idea please reply with your reasons - I would be surprised if anybody does.

A quick look in the regs will show that this has NEVER been done. The link needs ONLY TO BE PLACED IN THE STICKY. This serves two purposes. 1) It is notification to the person who maintains the index in the sticky so they can update it. 2) End date compers can (and do) look at the end of the sticky for new comps before the index has been updated - often because the person who maintains it hasn't got around to it yet (they do have non-comping lives!). This is also the reason that posting a link is better than a PM.

purplecatlover

about dailies.....if things are being posted every day i will not be replacing links every day. sorry to anyone (else) who misses out because a comp is moved to game over on the morning of the day it supposedly ends, or because they dont make it anywhere that day other than dailies but i dont have the time to swap that many links every single day.

also, in line with andrea's guidelines...any competition that has a different answer or a different prize, thus requiring an entry every day (as opposed to extra entries for one overall prize draw) i now read as needing posted separately on a daily basis. at least that means there will be no more confusion over what threads to update regularly and what to post separately. i wont remove links that are there atm until they expire but i will no longer be adding in any of the new prize draw everyday threads since they dont count.

its fairly obvious i think that andrea (sorry) has little understanding of the way the comps board works, and hasnt discussed things with the bgs who may have given her more of an idea what the issues actually are/where which is a real shame.

im also VERY disappointed that because we are a minority and didnt shout loudly enough or bully enough us regular users and end date compers have been largely not considered! whomever it was that said mse team would listen to whomever threw their toys the furthest and yelled loudest was correct

twotimes

* All regular comps with end date stay on main board but posters then post link on the regulars board Poll result

* A regular competition is one that Can be entered on a daily/weekly/ monthly basis with fixed answers for the duration or different answers which can be updated as & when Poll result

We (I say 'we' but I refer only to the 250 people who managed to get their vote in before the polls suddenly closed) have successfully managed to create the vaguest definition of a regular that could have been created.

One thought regarding what PCL said above - can the BGs not just agree to not move anything to Game Over until it has definitely finished? I don't think this would create any extra work, it would just mean doing it 24 hours later. This would solve one of the major issues that there is with certain 'daily' competitions.

purplecatlover

twotimes wrote: »

One thought regarding what PCL said above - can the BGs not just agree to not move anything to Game Over until it has definitely finished? I don't think this would create any extra work, it would just mean doing it 24 hours later. This would solve one of the major issues that there is with certain 'daily' competitions.

they get moaned at if they havent moved by 00:01 on the day of the posted end date..ive seen a number of complaints over the last 18mths that a comp ended yesterday (possibly when the date changed at midnight, possibly earlier) but hasnt yet gone to game over out of the way. which si why some people post with an end date of the day after published end date (eg good to know comps i entered yesterday with end date 27th were still active, but those with end date 26th had ended as soon as the day switched form 25th to 26th yesterday morning so i was too late for all of them).

also moving them the day after the end date, instead of on the day, would work for specific end date comps, but any with a guessed end date the bgs would then meet the same issue im having in the daily thread....move the comps as end date said 27/01 but its still running a week later (as eg the girl/femail comp with E 17/01? had not ended yesterday when i checked the site).

purplecatlover

would it be possible that for comps with a guessed end date everyone could use the same format for the ?
so instead of some being E: 27/01? and some being E: 27/01 ? and more being E: 27/01 (?) or any other variation all are the same which would mean they can be searched by the ? so those of us whom will miss out because they expire before the guessed end date can search for them all a couple of times a week and get them all grouped together instead of all over the shop as they are now?

have i explained that properly? cause atm by end date there are frequently 1-3 pages of guessed at the start of the days ending, and 2-4 more at the end and searching for every variation of using the ? going will be even more time consuming than searching for just one. i know its down to each individual poster, same as adding fb/twitter/blog etc is but it would be very helpful if even most people worked form the same format.

edit: using the word guess instead of any variation of ? would make it easiest of all in terms of searching, but i know htat might cause trouble for title length,

ImmortalBeloved

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

You've had the opportunity to vote and the majority verdict is:

• All regular comps with end date stay on main board but posters then post link on the regulars board Poll result
• A regular competition is one that Can be entered on a daily/weekly/ monthly basis with fixed answers for the duration or different answers which can be updated as & when Poll result

The total number of votes is a sad reflection of the fact that many forum members, myself included, did not have the opportunity to vote due to the sudden closure of the polls on Friday 21st January (instead of Monday 24th as originally stated on the thread )

Maths was never my strong point in school but surely 158 votes out of a total of 370 (42.70%) and 90 votes out of a total of 249 (36.14%) is not a 'majority verdict'. 57.30% of people who voted in the first poll and 63.86% of those in the second, choose options different from those which are now classed as the new 'rules' :huh:

Amilucky?

I'd just like to say that since the recent changes and the definition of a regular comp I'm more confused than ever!

and further clarification has only made me more confused - god help newcomers to the boards

posting daily comps on a daily basis? (which results in more work for the OP the regulars thread maintainers and the BG's)

posting on two boards and stickies? (again more work for the OP, the regulars thread maintainers and the BG's and could also lead to people duplicating there entries)

whatever happened to good old common sense!

"Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness."
— Karen Joy Fowler (Sarah Canary)

purplecatlover

one thing is for sure...i think that the overwhelming majority now would ALL agree that the new rules are more confusing than ever, dont help matters in the least and create more work for everyone involved. which was so NOT the intention of asking for clarification so we all followed the same rules over posting instead of some doing one thing, others doing another and yet more doing something else.

crin

Originally Posted by MSE Andrea
You've had the opportunity to vote and the majority verdict is:

• All regular comps with end date stay on main board but posters then post link on the regulars board Poll result
• A regular competition is one that Can be entered on a daily/weekly/ monthly basis with fixed answers for the duration or different answers which can be updated as & when Poll result

The way I read the polls was that the ones with end dates are posted to the main board BUT with a link posted to the sticky/regs board this would include the ones like sugar that are daily entry for a fixed period but with a different updated answer.

I DIDN'T read it to mean each Answer in a daily comp was to be posted seperately as that will confuddle everybody.

It seems that it is the perception and the wording in the polls that is now causing a bit of a problem.

fortuna93

crin wrote: »

Originally Posted by MSE Andrea
You've had the opportunity to vote and the majority verdict is:

• All regular comps with end date stay on main board but posters then post link on the regulars board Poll result
• A regular competition is one that Can be entered on a daily/weekly/ monthly basis with fixed answers for the duration or different answers which can be updated as & when Poll result

The way I read the polls was that the ones with end dates are posted to the main board BUT with a link posted to the sticky/regs board this would include the ones like sugar that are daily entry for a fixed period but with a different updated answer.

I DIDN'T read it to mean each Answer in a daily comp was to be posted seperately as that will confuddle everybody.

It seems that it is the perception and the wording in the polls that is now causing a bit of a problem.

I agree with Crin and if I had realised this was what you meant I certainly wouldn't have voted that way and I suspect many others wouldn't either

I personally would keep daily's running as usual on the SAME post on the main board with a link sent to PCL for the sticky - I don't see any problem with this method so why can't we use common sense?