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New Comps Board Guidelines Discussion

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  • Mamzie
    Mamzie Posts: 2,540 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 20 March 2011 at 1:42AM
    I am sorry it has taken me so long to come back, and thank you for the comments and pms, I have had a really crazy day today, but have slightly tidied, tweaked and updated the possible guidelines as suggested. The main thing is that I moved the Ongoing Comps info from point 6 to point 2 as that seems to flow better in advising how to post comps. I have also added a brief intro to explain where and what the various forums are. I guess it is mostly Point 2 re the Ongoing Competitions that needs to be decided. I have renamed Point 9b, as Comper Chat, didn't really define what it could be, but as Glad said earlier we could discuss that in the next thread.

    I have again updated Post 3 on this thread, but will also quote them below to save people going back. Again I am very grateful for any comments, xxx

    Mamzie

    Possible Competitions Board Guidelines


    There are 4 Forums within the Competitions Board. The Main Board is where you will find the majority of competitions to enter. There is a Regular Sub Forum, where Ongoing Competitions which have no apparent end of the Promotion but which have a Daily/Weekly/Monthly draw are posted. At the top of the Regulars Sub Forum, you will find the Daily/Weekly/Monthly (d/w/m) Sticky Threads maintained by Volunteers to co-ordinate links to the Regular Competitions posted throughout both Main and Regular Forums. The I Won, I Won Sub Forum is where you can share your news when you win a competition, and read fellow members winning news. While the Game Over Sub Forum is where expired competitions are moved too by our Board Guides (BGs).

    1) How to Post Competitions - Post all single/limited entry Competitions and Regular Daily/Weekly/Monthly Competitions with a Promotional End Date in the Main Board. Please search beforehand to ensure it has not already been posted by someone else. Do not repost a competition if it has already been posted on the Main or Regular board, as this may cause people to duplicate entries and creates extra work for the BGs in merging posts. How/where to post ongoing and d/w/m is covered below. Please update the relevant Daily/Weekly/Monthly Sticky thread in Regular Sub-Board with a link to the Thread, and competition info when posting a Regular Competition.

    NB
    Competitions which are postal/text/phone entry are directly added to their own Sticky Thread at the top of the Main Board.

    2a) Ongoing Competitions - These are competitions with no apparent Promotion End date, but which hold a regular d/w/m competition, they may require repeat d/w/m entries, or can be a one time only sign up. These competitions are to be posted in the Reg Sub Forum - State “Daily/Weekly/Monthly prize/entry” in the thread title. New posts can be added to the thread for new questions/answers/links. Please update the relevant Daily/Weekly/Monthly Sticky thread in Regular Sub-Board with a link to the Thread, and competition info.
    (or)

    2b) Ongoing Competitions – These are competitions with no apparent Promotion End date, but which hold a regular d/w/m competition, they may require repeat d/w/m entries, or can be a one time only sign up. These are posted as E: 99/99 (Ongoing) instead of a normal or guessed end date. This will enable them to be found via the forum display options or by running a search. Please update the relevant Daily/Weekly/Monthly Sticky thread in Regular Sub-Board with a link to the Thread, and competition info.

    3) Daily Regular Competitions – These are posted as a single thread per competition for the duration of the Promotion - State “Daily prize/entry” in the thread title. New posts can be added to the thread for new questions/answers/links. Please update the Weekly Regulars Sticky with a link to the Thread, and competition info.

    4) Weekly Regular Competitions - These are posted as a single thread per competition for the duration of the Promotion - State “Weekly prize/entry” in the thread title. New posts can be added to the thread for new questions/answers/links. Please update the Weekly Regulars Sticky with a link to the Thread, and competition info.

    5) Monthly Regular Competitions - These are posted as a single thread per competition for the duration of the Promotion. Please state “Monthly prize/entry” in the thread title. New posts can be added to the thread for new questions/answers/links. Please update the Monthly Regulars Sticky with a link to the Thread, and competition info. NB, Occasionally a Monthly Competition may require an individual thread every month. Please use common sense with posting and ask a BG or on the Competitions Discussion thread if advice is needed.

    6) Expiry Date Format - Post all comps using the expiry date format, e.g. E: 01/01 Win.... If unsure of end date, then use your best estimate and put guessedenddate anywhere in the thread. This is only to be used where a Promotion has a definite (but uncertain) End Date and not for Ongoing Competitions as these are to be posted in the regulars Forum.

    7) C&P -
    Do not c&p entire articles from sites due to copyright issues.

    8) Only Competition Threads - Only Threads linking to a Competition may be posted on the Main Comps Forum. There are Sub Forums where you can post a thread in when you win a prize, etc. All miscellaneous threads and duplicated competitions need to be merged/moved by a BG to the original or correct thread or forum, which increases their workload.

    9a) No Bumping of Posts - Posting on competition threads is discouraged unless communicating information to fellow compers, as this causes threads to be bumped, and can affect the way that people view the threads to enter. Please ask any comping questions on the Competitions Discussion thread. Please use the Compers Inn for chatting.
    or

    9b) Help, Hints and Tips Sub Forum - This is a place to ask all Questions, chat, etc in. Posting on competition threads is discouraged unless communicating information to fellow compers, as this causes threads to be bumped, and can affect the way that people view the threads to enter. (Possible if Regs Forum allowed misc threads)

    10) Title Tags – These are very useful in thread titles (see below) so are often used when posting a new competition, to help members decide which competitions to enter and assist with searching the Competitions Forum.

    11) Magazines – These will normally have regular poster (please check before posting), as these involve people committing to buy the magazine regularly and to solve each issues puzzles. Puzzler/Tab magazines are posted in one thread due to answers crossing over different issues. Most ITV.com comps are posted by Comping Cat to avoid dupes on the board.

    12) No Vote For Me Competitions - Please do not post vote for me competitions, they are not allowed on this forum.

    13) No Advertising Of Own Websites or Self Promotion - This site is free from advertising. Posts on any board considered to be advertising goods, services and/or companies will be removed. This includes the posting of a competition from your own site or from a site that you are employed by. We also do not allow advertising via PM. Examples of this can include anything from a specific sales post or a link to your own website in which you attempt to sell something to someone offering their holiday home to forum members. Unfortunately we cannot allow any advertising of any description no matter how honourable the intention.

    14) Free Competitions Only - This is a not a place to advertise competitions you have to pay to enter. Limited cost text message type competitions are allowed up to a max of £1.53. This is also the Max cost for Purchase required Competitions.

    15) Linking Regular Competitions to Main Board - It's ok to post a thread on the main board with a weekly/monthly end date linking to the actual comp thread on the regulars board. The thread shouldn't include a link to the actual competition site though to avoid duplicate entries and the risk of disqualifying yourself. Please add (REG) to the title to save Compers who use Regulars needing to open the thread or duplicating their entry.
    [FONT=&quot]
    16) Finally - Please remember to be polite and helpful to fellow posters.[/FONT]

    Some Title Tag Sugestions


    We all want to be able to enter competitions easily and quickly, however we do need to co-operate and help each other to be able to do this. These are a selection of Title Tags that members have found useful in the past. You will not need to use every tag in every title, just which ever ones work best for your competition.

    a) Please mention Kids, photos/purchase required, effort, email, newsletter sign up, etc in title if entry requires these. Occasionally a competition may have specific entry requirements ie 10-14 year olds, teens, 21+, etc, please ensure that these are mentioned if necessary.

    b) Please mention FB, Twitter, Blog in the title, when a competition depends on these sites for entry.

    c) Please remember to add Daily, Weekly or Monthly in the title when posting a competition with multiple prizes or entries. Please remember to update the relevant Regular Sticky Thread in the Regular Sub Form

    (some of these guideline have been already stated in the MSE Please Read thread)
    My light may be on, but that doesn't always mean I am looking at the PC - I am far more likely to be cuddling or feeding Tianna atm, so please don't think I am ignoring you if I don't reply quickly :)

    Our Precious Baby Tianna has now joined our Family, she is much loved and very welcome, xxx
  • i think the no duping rule deserves a point of its own and needs it making clear that it applies also to comps in regs as well as those on main. (not being picky, just that as it is it could be taken literally to mean dont dupe anything that is already on main if someone chose to do so since its only mentioned in the section about posting on main).

    the other thing id suggest changing slightly is the guessedenddate bit. maybe needs to be very clear that the guessedenddate is to be used for overall promotion end date where eg it says for 6 weeks we will give away a whatever a week type thing? its not to be used as a way of getting ongoing regular comps with no promotion end date on main? (again im just looking for the potential arguments now so we can make sure they are ironed out now rather than hit them later).

    id still suggest iwon iwon as the unofficially allows chat type threads, because it is already basically a chat forum anyway and doesnt contain any comps which could be hidden on page 3 or 4 or 5 by chat threads being bumped iyswim. perhaps renamed as i won and any other business or something? id still be wary of calling it a chat forum though as i forsee lots of other sections of mse forums overall saying that if comps can have a chat forum we want one too. i dont think old style, or disability and dosh would be happy to agree that comps is different and thus allowed because theyre different too in their opinion (and are two areas i remember as having chat threads get locked and/or moved to arms and posters being very disgruntled at being told to go to arms instead).
  • Mamzie
    Mamzie Posts: 2,540 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Thanks for that PCL,

    I've tweaked point 1, to make reposting clearer, and I'm thinking on how to word guessedenddate better, as I see what you mean.

    I'm only keeping point 9b, in until we have the next decision thread, just so we don't forget it, iyswim. I'd be happy wherever they went, if we could just consider the idea further.
    My light may be on, but that doesn't always mean I am looking at the PC - I am far more likely to be cuddling or feeding Tianna atm, so please don't think I am ignoring you if I don't reply quickly :)

    Our Precious Baby Tianna has now joined our Family, she is much loved and very welcome, xxx
  • toniq
    toniq Posts: 29,340 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Mamzie, I need help to understand something x

    Are all monthlies going on main or just select ones? if all are then i understand i wont need to use monthlies thread, but if only some are then it's gonna be very baffling figuring out what u have entered and what u haven't.

    Alot of the threads don't have an update on regs so no way of seeing u have entered it that month if u click from monthlies thread. it will be impossible to track it back to mainx

    I generally do monthlies from monthly and weeklies from weeklies, if something major has changed I might have missed it whilst away with arm in cast.

    If they are on main I can cope as i won't use the sticky threads no more but need to know is it all or just some? x

    Thanks T x
    #JusticeForGrenfell
  • toniq
    toniq Posts: 29,340 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hi,
    I've had it explained by a very kind Beffffff, but there is a major issue, if only dated monthlies are going on main and not dateless monthlies, how can u keep track? the sticky can't be used as it will cause duping as the sticky leads to the posts on reg board not main.

    So I can't use sticky to do monthlies unless i totally ignore every monthly posted on main, I'm hoping they will be clear to spot, and if i do them from main as they r posted i wont be able to use sticky as i'll dupe.

    I hope i'm explaining the issue clearly, how are others overcoming this? are they using duck for monthlies or have people got a diff system in place? x
    #JusticeForGrenfell
  • Glad
    Glad Posts: 18,926 Senior Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Name Dropper
    hi toniq

    there shouldn't be a problem with duping :)
    promos that are running monthly until a set end date will be posted on mains
    ongoing promos with no set end date will be on regs

    both types will be linked in monthly sticky :)
    I am a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Wales, Small Biz MoneySaving, In My Home (includes DIY) MoneySaving, and Old style MoneySaving boards. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • toniq
    toniq Posts: 29,340 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 19 March 2011 at 9:05PM
    Glad, xx

    I'm not sure if ur understanding what i'm trying to say,or if i'm conveying this well, if the ones with a date are on main and ones without are not, how do u find the ones without? You can't use the sticky otherwise u will trip over ones u have already done from main.
    U can't use the sticky to do monthly comps, as the sticky opens the reg link, if the comp has been posted on main u cant see by the sticky u have already entered it x

    I'm hoping i make sense
    #JusticeForGrenfell
  • Glad
    Glad Posts: 18,926 Senior Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Name Dropper
    because each promo will only be one or the other, you won't find them on both boards :)

    eg a promo running monthly on a website until 31/07 when the promo ends, can be posted as one thread on mains with with an end date of 31/07

    a promo that is ongoing every month from a website with no end date in the t&c's will be posted as one thread on the regs board

    so if you use the sticky to do monthlies the link will take you to the thread, whichever board it may be on :)
    I am a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Wales, Small Biz MoneySaving, In My Home (includes DIY) MoneySaving, and Old style MoneySaving boards. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • beffffff
    beffffff Posts: 1,878 Forumite
    Hi again toniq

    Finished my dinner now ;)

    I'm with you - would rather one or the other (have said as much a few pages ago) - and if I could choose I would rather everything was posted as one ongoing thread and added to the sticky so it doesn't get forgotten about for months on end. But I'll live with whatever :)


    I'm so behind I'm probably not going to see the posts that have cause you problems today but in case it helps you or anyone who feels the same.

    How I understand things:
    If the monthly comp has an end date it should go on main. If it doesn't it should go on regs. It should then be added to the sticky.

    Some people post monthlies each month as a new thread. These should not go on the sticky because that would mean PPD had to update the links on the sticky each month and would mean lots of people dupe if that's not done. If that type are on the sticky they should be removed. Or just posted once as an ongoing monthly comp, the sticky updated one last time and then they should be left alone.

    I think it also causes confusion that some regular comps with no end date are posted on regulars and then reposted on the main board with a link to the thread on regulars. This is because some people complained that comps were being "hidden" on regs.
    Before this was introduced people just used to post comps already on regs onto main as a brand new comp meaning people that used the sticky duped without knowing. IMHO this new way is better because it gives you a chance not to dupe (see below). But it is still far from ideal.

    The way I stay on track (ish) is by thanking and unthanking the OP each time I enter so no matter how I end up at a thread (sticky or linking thread) I can see if I've entered that month or not by when I thanked

    Hope that makes sense. I'm drinking so sure it doesn't ;)
  • toniq
    toniq Posts: 29,340 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I understand what u r saying, but if i comp tonight on main i will trip over newly posted monthlies with end date,if i enter those, i can not then go to monthly thread once a month and open them all one afternoon and do them like i have done , as the there is no distinction in the monthly thread as to which is which. Becuase i would have thanked the thread on main, i wont see the thanks on the thread that opens from the monthly sticky as that leads to a reg.

    example to try and explain it better, the lovely granny biker has posted several tonight this is one https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3121596
    if i enter that as i come across it on main, i will have no way of distinguishing when i open the monthly sticky that has been entered already.
    my tick will be on main so that will be no help.
    when u look at the monthly list u can't tell which are which.
    so as i see it if i do the ones posted onto main i cant use the sticky anymore. and as they aren't all on main i need to use the sticky to have some order in what i'm doing but wont have any order xx

    I have no issue on what goes where and am happy to go along with any decision made, i just see the monthly issue as chaos as others surely will be in same situation x
    #JusticeForGrenfell
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