Competitions Time End Dates

bargainhuntergal

I still don't understand how we're supposed to find the newly posted ones that have 'Unknown' in the title as they don't show up with the new sort button AND they don't have the old format end date in the title, so they just get lost amongst everything else unless you've got the time and the ability to go hunting them down as they're posted everyday!

I personally get dizzy and feel unwell trying to scroll through and pick out the unknown end dates, I did before too with the old system but at least the old system didn't require that as you could sort them in order so you didn't need to read them all when scrolling through every page, you just needed to find a start and end place and any that didn't have it, it was added by the BG's or you could find them on the first and last pages until that happened.

I can see in the future that the new system would work, with some changes, but for the time being it's NOT working as it should and neither is the old system.

Edit to add: As has been pointed out, I don't think anyone realised that this would mean the end of the old system.

As has also been pointed out:
1. When searching say for eg. 'itv.com' if there's no date it's very difficult to know when they end without opening them all up
2. With no end date in the title it's impossible to bookmark and work from them without adding the title into each one you bookmark, a ridiculously tedious task
3. It makes the daily email redundant as you've no idea of the end date

One-Eye

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Thanks One-Eye

Is that a different post to the one you mentioned before though?

I'm not a techie but I'll try to answer this as the techies are working on the points you've raised so I don't want to disturb them...

Sometimes changes to titles don't update as quickly on forum and main board display level as they do on the thread level - the site takes a while to update.

Is it possible this is what's happened here?

If you could check the post you referred to before to let me know if that change has updated or not, then this may be what's happening.

Hopefully I've understood your point! Let me know if not

Problem applies to any thread prior to 31/01 that you edit - I picked this one because continuum is an easy search term.

Thread was edited at 11:04 - forumview is still showing old title at 11:49 - so after 45 minutes I would not think it is a timing issue.

I am pretty sure it is more likely that with E: DD/MM in the title it accepts the change to post title but the "banning of E: DD/MM" routine rejects a change to thread title. I think this is proved by another thread I edited which was posted at the same time as the continuum one on 28/01. With this second thread I removed the "E: DD/MM" and both post title and thread title changed instantly.

rugmaker

Cheeky_Chicken wrote: »

I didn't comment on the discussion post about the end dates because I didn't think it would affect me at all. I thought you were introducing an end date box for end date compers as an extra facility, which wouldn't impact me. Had I had the slightest idea that you would be banning the use of end dates in the titles, then I would have commented - loudly - in the discussion thread.

Agree with this entirely. Removing the existing arrangements was never mentioned and seems to be entirely intended to make everyone use the new system. Given time and a few good humoured reminders, this would have happened anyway in the same way that regular posters advise newbies on the correct format for posting comps before the change.

This rather reminds me of the banks closing their counters to get people to use automated machines instead whether they want to or not. Choice is the key and something that I would have thought that MSE would support.

Is the obvious compromise to allow people to continue putting the end date in the title as before but for all users to commit to also use the new facility (and prompt others too) and review the situation in a few months?

Jokey

Nicky63 wrote: »

Hi Andrea, thank you for braving the wolves and appearing here.

Please may I try to explain something. If we do a search for a particular competition, in my illustration its for all ITV comps, at the moment they will come up showing the E: xx/xx date and we can easily see if we have time to leave them and come back to them or if they need dealing with soon. If you take out the naming convention then they will just read, for example, Win £10,000 with The Chase, the forum implemented end date does not show in this view. This is just one of the many reasons why we all wish to be able to keep the naming convention we already have but use it alongside the new method.

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Just how many problems are there ??

The date NEEDS to be in the title. There's no way around it!

Former_MSE_Andrea

Thanks One-Eye

Can you do us a favour to test this?

Can you check it again later this afternoon, and then again tomorrow morning if it's not yet changed, then let us know?

You could post here but probably best if you PM me too so I know you've posted

One-Eye wrote: »

Problem applies to any thread prior to 31/01 that you edit - I picked this one because continuum is an easy search term.

Thread was edited at 11:04 - forumview is still showing old title at 11:49 - so after 45 minutes I would not think it is a timing issue.

I am pretty sure it is more likely that with E: DD/MM in the title it accepts the change to post title but the "banning of E: DD/MM" routine rejects a change to thread title. I think this is proved by another thread I edited which was posted at the same time as the continuum one on 28/01. With this second thread I removed the "E: DD/MM" and both post title and thread title changed instantly.

Al_Mac

MSE Andrea

Can we assume you are only interested in technical issues. As you seem to have ignored the majority of people's request to reinstate end dates in post titles, alongside the new system (which people are happy to use).

Thanks

Al Mac

surfboard2

gabbyevs wrote: »

we didnt ask for the main title to be completely banned from using an end date aswell though did we-noone wanted that

Exactly this. It's nice to see what's closing that day and enter quickly, but i can't recall anyone asking for the main title to be banned.

One-Eye

*KatieL* wrote: »

You entered an end date in the past. Please enter an end date for today or in the future

PROBLEM - Fault confirmed - this is quite important

If you have a competition with an ending date that matches today's date, and you GO ADVANCED in EDIT, then you always get the error message above and you can not make any changes at all.

Simple edit still works OK and you can even CREATE a new thread with today's ending date - it is just in GO ADVANCED where the fault exists.

ie. it is applying <= instead of < for rejection, or applying > instead of >= for acceptance.

Lakshmi7

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Thanks One-Eye

Can you do us a favour to test this?

Can you check it again later this afternoon, and then again tomorrow morning if it's not yet changed, then let us know?

You could post here but probably best if you PM me too so I know you've posted

Each time I find a way to include the end date in the title, MSE does something to block it!!!

Why???

Abbafan1972

I agree with the previous post about the ITv comps. I search for these as well and can see instantly which ones I need to enter quickly, such as the real deal ones, as they only have a few days till closing.

Please keep the dates in the title!