Competitions Discussion Thread Part 13

fire**fly

onetreehillgrrl wrote: »

Yes Shane Picture of Martin making a couple of last minute adjustments to the TARDIS:

:D

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: :T:T onetreehillgrrl :D

beffffff

One-Eye wrote: »

I've come across a great example showing the historical AND ongoing problems in the regulars debate.

1) This comp was first posted on regulars as an ongoing monthly in Feb 2010. It needs a new link and answer each time, although the prize does not vary significantly.
2) From March to June it received an average of 35 thanks each time on regulars.
3) The regular was then locked so posting switched to Main.
4) From July 2010 to Jan 2011 it received an average of 144 thanks each time on main.
5) In January 2011, with the regular now unlocked, it was posted on main (06/01 - 167 thanks) AND duped on regulars (08/01 - 10 thanks). The dupe was not spotted or corrected.
6) In February 2011 it was posted on regulars first, so the normal ‘main’ poster has not duped by putting it on main.

In effect the unlocking of the regulars thread has meant that a comp established on main has been transferred to regulars without anybody moving any threads!

What happens next month?
a) Post it on either board (but only one) depending on who sees the new month’s first?
b) Close the regular and post only on main?
c) Post on both boards and have a dupe?
d) Post on regulars only and have only a quarter of compers entering?
e) Post on both boards using Amilucky’s link type post on main?
f) Post on main & put a link in the comp thread on regulars (ie. The reverse of ‘e’)

In my opinion (a), (c) and (d) are daft. (e) and (f) would work but are messy and involve extra work by somebody, and (b) is the solution that is neat, sensible and should satisfy the most compers.

I'm at work so have to be brief.

I am fairly sure you are referring to the bears4u monthly. Isn't that a regular by the poll definitions? Unless ongoing monthlies aren't regulars I thought I posted it in the right place?

People only have to bookmark the regular thread or use the regular sticky (or look a the regulars board if that's how they roll) to find these each month.

And the comp was "established" on regulars before it was posted on main when the thread got locked.....

purplecatlover

we had the poll, and this is still coming up every other day so i have a suggestion:money:

ok so if everyone wants everything on main then lets do that. the stickies can be maintained merely as a list of sites that run comps so those of us who use them can find them every month and week even if someone forgets to post them on main.

lets have every single thread in both the weeklies and monthlies added as a new thread every week and every month to main, how many more pages will that be?:( including all the ones that are really only meant to be one time entry by newsletter sign up.

if we are going that way dailies need to follow suit, lets have clarity and consistancy so everyone knows what to do. so someone can post them every day as new threads too

then everyone can get on with complaining about how hard it is to get through comps on main now there are so many extra ones there and I, gilla and ppd will ahve a heck of a lot less work to do maintaining threads since they wont really be needed and if you forget to do one before it ends at 5pm or noon or whenever cause your stuck going through extra pages of comps on main to find each one that you want to enter then oh well

lets try it that way (again, thats how it worked before the regular subforum was put in place) and then lets re-evaluate in a few weeks time!

and im pming andrea a link to this post as a serious suggestion.

no one is ever going to be completely happy, there is no ideal solution for absolutely everyone but im very tired of the continued inconsistancy and optional following of rules over what to post where. even with the poll deffinitions as a guide now people are ignoring that, and shooting down every suggestion that is offered to try and please as many as possible without offering any other suggestions of there own. im all out of fresh ideas or suggestions that are not "idiotic" or "silly" !


edit: just in case its NOT clear, i am not attacking anyone, nor having a dig at anyone. i am just fed up and frustrated at the never ending issue and want a solution that works for most people one way or another. there have been a few compromises and ideas suggested through out which have largely all been ignored to keep coming back to the just post everything on main argument.

fortuna93

It's quite obvious not everyone agrees and we're not going to come to a solution to suit everyone. The continued unrest to me indicates that despite the polls it's not working out

PCL I don't get your point about extra pages, surely it's the same as regs? The extra pages are just placed their instead of the main board, either way the same amount of threads where ever they're put as monthly's will have already moved to GO before the next one is put up etc. (if that makes sense)

It isn't necessary for daily's to be posted everyday, We carry on as usual making 1 thread for the duration of the comp and add the link to the daily's (which I don't see a difference whether it's on the main or regs as if people know it's there they'll use it if they like)

Using the new technique for end dates that aren't certain ensures everyone sees the comps etc.

I personally am hating what MSE is becoming, constant bickering and sniping. I know I'm a faily new user with little posts but I've been a long time lurker and under other user names before. To be quite honest I'm thinking of just lurking again until everything calms down and returns to normality

Barnabysue

Have been a member a long time and have to say it has really changed recently - manners cost nothing!

Which is why I thanked you in the thread for posting and asked if you knew how much the wine was for a bottle. When you didn't reply I searched for myself, found it was upwards of £8 a bottle and PMd Glad to ask if she would have a look as it exceeded the £1.53 rule. Sorry you have seen it as 'rude' and taken it so personally, but the rules are there to be followed by everyone and as has already been pointed out, the NPN route was postal entry only.

thingamaBob

beffffff wrote: »

I'm at work so have to be brief.

I am fairly sure you are referring to the bears4u monthly. Isn't that a regular by the poll definitions? Unless ongoing monthlies aren't regulars I thought I posted it in the right place?

People only have to bookmark the regular thread or use the regular sticky (or look a the regulars board if that's how they roll) to find these each month.

And the comp was "established" on regulars before it was posted on main when the thread got locked.....

One-Eye may have been referring to bears4u but chocolate-now has also followed a very similar path. When I posted chocolate-now on main about 18 months ago it was met with complaints that it should have gone on regulars and that the BG's should have been asked to unlock the thread, post the new month, then get it locked again.

Although I rarely, if ever, looked at the regulars, I have always thought it very necessary to keep the clutter of the weeklies and dailies off the main board but have also thought that, with monthlies only occurring once a month, they should be handled differently and all go on the main board unless there was no specific End Date. (Main board comps MUST have an End Date for people who comp that way and I gather that was a rule right from the beginning).

Since the poll, there have been more daily/weekly comps with end dates being posted on the main board and I have certainly found that it has been taking more time to do my comping. I have entered a few I might previously have not found, but not many. If everything was posted on main it would only get worse particularly if continuing comps were being given "false" end dates which then needed updating.

As purplecatlover says, there will never be a way that makes everybody totally happy. There will always be people, both current and new who will never read the stickies/rules, will post in the wrong place or with the wrong format and get upset when they are told.

The Poll has happened and we should make the best of the result (with a few minor alterations with experience).

It's time to stop complaining and get COMPING.

purplecatlover

ill state again to be clear, not attacking, not having a dig, not picking, not saying everyone must agree with me etc etc etc
this is just where i am coming from.

yes its the same ammount of threads for people who go through both boards every day. all the people who only use main, its 2o odd extra pages of threads to add in. a lot of them are ongoing threads. split them up into single threads and its going to increase the extra threads posted on main daily by a large proportion. as well as not being able to use the stickies to run through them easily picking out the ones you want to enter, when you have time to do so, or choose to do you will now have those extra threads in the E whatever date they end on comps on main board

eg lets look at E 31. everyone who comps by end date knows that there are usually a minimum of 50 pages of them each month. add to them another thread for each of the monthlies in the monthly sticky. how many more pages are there now on main to be looked through checking all thread titles to see what you want to enter when your trying to get through end that day :eek:

for the people who comp by newly posted its another number of threads to go through as they are added

your right, it makes no difference whether an ongoing thread is in regs or on main for the links to work. there wont be any threads to link to though if they are all posted as a new thread every week or every month as appropriate

whilst i agree that an ongoing thread is better for keeping up with things, including the dailies, the argument is that ongoing threads are not liked and everything should be posted as a brand new comp with the daily or weekly or monthly end date of that days weeks or months comps rather than a thread that is updated. at the minute whilst a lot of ongoing dailies are posted as one thread, others are posted every day and thus never get a mention or a link in the daily thread

at the minute, how a comp is posted depends on who is posting it and as demonstrated by one eye above results in dupes.

does that help explain my point any?

nothing to do with the guessed end date thing

and your not the only one who wants it to go back to normal, i think we all do.

Former_MSE_Andrea

Just FYI, we've added a bit more to my post, at the bottom.

It sounds like a good suggestion from Amilucky and others. If it works it works, if it doesn't then it's been worth the try. Thanks to everyone for coming up with new ideas.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3010138

Mamzie

Until Regs came up so much in discussion last year I never used it - but now I would really miss the board and the Stickies as I use a mix of both. Yes I spend most of my time on the Main board, but thats because its huge.

Personally, I think its time for the BGs or MSE Andrea to just sort it out between them, and give us some reasonable and concrete rules... What I thought was an opportunity for COmpers to revitalize and use the Regs board really effectively has turned into a long drawn out call to just ignore it and put everything onto Main Board.

I have never managed to catch up with comps on main board completely for more than a few days. So I would miss comps, unless I spent time searching for various Title Tags - daily, weekly, FB, Guessenddate, etc... I would miss dailys posted within roughly 36 hrs of ending, as I try and stay at least a day if not 2 days in front of comps ending. Yes we could move the Stickies over to here, but that mean more stickies after we had asked for less on stickies on Main. We could have asked for a FB, Blog, Twitter sticky to start over on REgs (not necessarily move the comps as well, but link to them hopefully).

Basically, unless compers get used to using the Stickies and/or regs or their bookmarks, they will miss Comps - whether they comp by end date or new threads. New Thread compers won't notice when ongoing comps are updated you see.

I posted these earlier

Mamzie wrote: »

the colour coding on the daily sticky, is a fab and mega quick way of spotting new comps,and adding them somewhere, esp as 24 hour daily comps can get moved to GO and get missed so easy on main.

I know I try and stay around a day in front with comps ending, so I would miss these on the main board, unless I changed and comped by new threads posted.

Mamzie wrote: »

tbh, I am actually getting really fed up of all this discussion, and regs comps versus main comps feeling. While I don't want to offend anyone, this is what I am starting to feel.

The boards may have needed a few tweaks previously, but this is getting ridiculous now I know that I will have missed out on lots of comps over the years, but that was my choice. The same as its my choice not to use the postal thread, or enter blog comps.

If people don't want to make the effort to use links and stickies in Regs that have worked for years, then they should accept that they may miss some comps.

The general feeling and advice that has always come over from the comps forum, as been only to enter comps that interest you. Now its starting to feel that people want to enter absolutely every comp under the sun, but without it taking them any effort or work to do so. Its making the comps forum a much less pleasant place to be and use.

Basically I get the impression - Put the Comps all out on a plate in front of us - OR ELSE..........

and I really don't like that impression and have no idea what to do to get over that

Mamzie

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Just FYI, we've added a bit more to my post, at the bottom.

It sounds like a good suggestion from Amilucky and others. If it works it works, if it doesn't then it's been worth the try. Thanks to everyone for coming up with new ideas.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3010138

Could you please read through the responses to the trial threads,

Originally Posted by Amilucky?
Oh well if the general concensus is that the new links are causing unrest on the boards then I will not post them any-more if anyone else would like to post them then that's fine by me

I thought we where moving forward but we now appear to be moving backwards again with recent post's opening up old wounds that where beginning to heal

I myself do not use the Regulars board, or stickies or even the new links that I have posted up so it doesn't matter to me one iota whether they are posted or not, I was just trying to be helpful by trying to make a compromise that I thought would be acceptable to both boards

I don't even need to post the answers to the ongoing weekly comps on the regulars board in fact I don't even need to post any comps at all or help anyone when they ask for help

I do it because I believe in good Karma and what goes around comes around, for me there is no us and them only just us compers

maybe I should just enter comps and become a lurker and just let you all argue among yourselves

Mamzie wrote: »

Amilucky, I appreciate you posting comps and answers, the same as I do with all the members who help make the comps forum so active.

I was under the impression from reading this thread, that you made a suggestion and trialled just a few threads as a result. So you wanted comments and input, whether they agreed with your idea or not. You can't make a suggestion and then get upset when it doesn't automatically meet with 100% approval.

There has to be a line drawn somewhere, or we may as well just lose the Regs board. It was originally intended to keep the main board flowing, yet if every single thread from there is double posted, even if its just a link to main, then there is no need for the board

I also firmly believe that in fact, us compers are more likely to miss comps with them all drowning on the Main board then if we used the Regs section properly.