Sorting & filtering - what I really want

scottme

My ideal competition forum would ask the people who post competition details to categorize them according to (for example):

• the nature of the prize(s) - e.g. Electronics, Tools, Vehicles, Cash, Holiday, Food, etc (must be easy enough to define a list)
• the potential value of the prize(s), maybe using "up to" amounts like £10, £50, and of course a super duper "Over £10,000" category.
• the form of entry - online form, email, Facebook app, Facebook Like, Twitter post, etc.
• whether you must opt in to subsequent marketing etc.,
• and of course the start date and end date for entries.

All of these bits of information about a competition could then be used to filter out the competitions we don't want to see and let us focus on those we do want. I spend far more time than I should ploughing through the competition listings, visually filtering out the comps I definitely won't enter (for me, that means anything that requires Facebook or Twitter or Rafflecopter, anything where the prize is a DVD or a book or suchlike).

It would be fantastic if I could set up a profile so that the only comps I would see would be ones I might like to enter. And then of course I should be able to filter that list by closing date and sort by value!

Wouldn't that be great? Come on MSE admins, are you up for a challenge?

Barnabysue

I think we need to remember that there are many many forums on this site, competitions are just a very small part of it. After all of the problems last week when they tried to make changes, I personally think we're better to 'lay low' for a while.

bishopsgirl

Barnabysue wrote: »

I think we need to remember that there are many many forums on this site, competitions are just a very small part of it. After all of the problems last week when they tried to make changes, I personally think we're better to 'lay low' for a while.

Hear Hear . Have to agree Sue.

ellemm

bishopsgirl wrote: »

Hear Hear . Have to agree Sue.

I agree too, let's enjoy the board being back to the way it was for a while

[Deleted User]

That sounds like a lot more work for the regular competition posters- and they are already putting in a silly amount of time as it is completely out of the kindness of their heart. Sounds good if you had paid people posting comps but as this is all free and voluntary I doubt you could ever have something that complicated.

cagsd

it's a great idea, in theory - but as has been said above, it would add SO much more hassle for the people posting comps, not to mention the site admin who would have to work hard to implement all the changes. While I love the idea of just being able to filter comps at the touch of a button, I think we just have to accept that we have to put in a little bit of hard work ourselves in terms of rooting out what we do and don't want to enter. Personally, it doesn't take more than a second or two to scan the title of a post or hover over it and see what's involved, before deciding whether to open up the thread and read more, or simply red X it. Anything that mentions eg. Twitter in the title, or fishing / pet / horseriding / baby goods etc, just gets red X'ed without further ado. So in terms of actual time spent, I think it's already pretty quick to filter out what I do and don't want to enter.

Luckyone

Fluzz wrote: »

That sounds like a lot more work for the regular competition posters- and they are already putting in a silly amount of time as it is completely out of the kindness of their heart. Sounds good if you had paid people posting comps but as this is all free and voluntary I doubt you could ever have something that complicated.

This .........

jaibaby

I would love to agree but having posted comps and after last weeks... um... thing, I'd like to leave the forum as it is. This is now my third year comping and I have had no problems with the way it is and been very lucky with wins. The only thing that does annoy me is when I'm working through the pages (I'm an end-dater) and suddenly it jumps to another date - normally when threads are removed / moved / etc - which I'm not complaining about as I know it needs doing.

I don't see the need for making categories for the prizes - I think at most if posters could put it in the title - I know a few do - fishing / equine etc - then just by glancing at them we can see which ones we don't want to enter.

softpad

I completely agree that it's not necessary to mess with things any more than they have been recently. It's such a huge relief to get things back to how they were! I don't think we need to make it more complicated, it's not time consuming, only takes a few seconds to search and because there aren't 'buttons' then it's completely flexible and customisable. If you don't want to put the time in then no-one's forcing anybody. I'm very wary of people asking for changes that may not actually be a good thing. There may be competition pages like that on other sites but this is forum based and I love it as it is.