New! Competition end dates posting

elver_man

I think that MSE need to explain a lot more about this end date function. Its Ok saying it may need to be discussed but its live and there are questions about its use and purpose already. As it is I can't see the point of duplicating the info in the title and as for searching by end date I've never had any probs.

It feels like its just adding more time and effort to posting a competion and I dont post nearly as many as some on here.

weeowens

Cheers for your post,Elver Man.

We now seem to have some of the the main comp posters saying much the same.
I like this forum & want it to thrive & develop but please can MSE lets us know where this new feature is leading,if it is leading anywhere.
If we can achieve what is asked here it will great :-)

Quote : When the new end date is Sortable and Searchable then it will be useful

tgroom57

[STRIKE]I can see that it will improve the formatting for the date in the title line - that's good and will hopefully reduce the strays with odd spaces that get left on page 1 when you search by title.[/STRIKE] It didn't do this.
[STRIKE]
I can see that, for now, its left as an extra line in the listing. As a programmer I'm guessing that's so we can check it is working ok and how we want it. I would expect this extra line to disappear when we are happy with how the date formatter works.[/STRIKE]Since it doesn't do anything (see above), it can be deleted now ?

I haven't posted any new comps lately - so cannot say how much extra work it is for posting comps.

lilias

Can this thread be copied over to Site Feedback? Otherwise we're just talking amongst ourselves.

Blulu

I do take the points that people are making here, especially from those who post a lot of comps. I totally agree that prolific posters views on this issue should hold a higher priority. I'm not about to bite the hands that feed me

However, I just want to add that clearly MSE brought this in to try to address a problem, so perhaps the best answer is to think again, but not necessarily go back to as it was - because otherwise whatever the issue was, will remain.

To my way of thinking, we want a solution that above all makes it as quick and simple as possible to post comps; something that doesn't hinder established comp posters, while making it helpful to newer posters.

Am I right that in the original discussion MSE or someone else suggested that opening a new thread automatically created a title of: "E: XX/XX" or something similar? What do you guys think about that as an option?

And BTW no offence taken at all from anyone who disagrees with me. That's just part of the process :T X

xxgeexx

sounds like a fab idea the current system never works for me very well!

mclarkie

Blulu wrote: »

Am I right that in the original discussion MSE or someone else suggested that opening a new thread automatically created a title of: "E: XX/XX" or something similar? What do you guys think about that as an option?

And BTW no offence taken at all from anyone who disagrees with me. That's just part of the process :T X

I like that idea , I was thinking along similar lines..

thingamaBob

Blulu wrote: »

However, I just want to add that clearly MSE brought this in to try to address a problem, so perhaps the best answer is to think again, but not necessarily go back to as it was - because otherwise whatever the issue was, will remain.X

MSE brought this in only after the previous discussion which sort of gave the impression that we wanted it. Unfortunately what was really wanted wasn't clearly understood. The only real reason to bring in a mandatory field was to overcome the missing and incorrectly formatted dates that were frequently posted by people, mostly newbies, who hadn't read or understood the comping guide. The only way that this field would be any real use would be if it was a box at the start of the Title with the format E: DD/MM and would then, hopefully, be searchable as it always has been.

Blulu wrote: »

Am I right that in the original discussion MSE or someone else suggested that opening a new thread automatically created a title of: "E: XX/XX" or something similar? What do you guys think about that as an option?

Yes you are right.It was One-Eye....

One-Eye wrote: »

On end dates....

These are important points. I agree it is needed more for infrequent posters (who omit or mis-format the date) than for regular posters (whose most common error with dates is to copy a previous title and forget to change the date). Slowing down the posting of a sequence of comps would be most unwelcome.

A previous idea I advocated might help and should not require any drastic changes. When you click on the icon to post a link the box is prefilled with http://. In a similar way if you posted a new thread could the title box be prefilled with E: DD/MM as a guide and reminder to less experienced posters. This can obviously be copied over etc. and would at worst require a few presses of the backspace key.


Interesting, and I'm not sure whether a default date is a good or bad idea. It might be good if having posted one comp the default date for a subsequent comp was the one previously used. Also should the default be a "guessed" or "known" end date?

I feel that what has been created now is worse than having no mandatory box at all. Having this box to fill in will most certainly encourage newbies to not put any date in the title (it certainly shouldn't need to be entered twice) and as it is not editable any errors or changes can't be corrected.

It's good that MSE are trying to help us with improvements but they don't really seem to understand what we want and we don't seem to be able to explain it clearly.

priorslee

OnceUponADream wrote: »

Can someone tell me if and how I can amend an end date please!?!

I've just got caught by this issue too!

I don't have any strong feelings on the merits of the new field, but if it stays, I think we need the option to be able to change it under the Edit functionality.

tgroom57

Anyone who is desperate to sort by end-date can also use this string in google

"E: 10/11" site:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com

when the results come out, click 'more search tools' > 'Past year'

that will pick out just one day's competitions (more or less)