Should the spend limit on comps go up?

purplebutterfly

5. Yes, to £2.10

I'm pretty certain that nobody is intending to introduce a raft of pay-to-enter comps other than the standard text entries we already have here.

We'd simply like to be made aware of more competitions including purchase necessary comps.

However, even if we were suddenly inundated with online raffles costing £10 per ticket, nobody is being forced to enter anything. Just like nobody was forced to buy 500 packs of Trebor mints or 400 cans of Pepsi but they did.

Somehow spending £500 on mints is acceptable because an individual pack cost less than £1.53? That simply isn't logical

tranmereforever

5. Yes, to £2.10

I agree Purplebutterfly as posted before we are in a situation whereby an item could cost £4 be on offer at £1.50 for 1 month ( with the competition valid for 6 months ) then need to be taken off again which is silly imo

Also as I said there are matched betting parts to the forum and grabbit sections so I fail to see what the issue is on the comping side if the rest of the site forum feels it is okay

Prices are going up by the day, even in text voting, I noticed yesterday the Gadget Show competition has a free postal route but the text entry side has risen to £2 per text meaning even the new limit could be outdated soon if others follow

Blulu

5. Yes, to £2.10

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last few days.

It seems to me from the replies that there is some sort of consensus about a spends board. Those who would like the limit raised or scrapped seem to be saying they would be ok with those comps being housed separately. Those who don’t want this to happen seem to be saying they wouldn’t mind so much, if they were separated.

A huge factor has to be MSE’s take on this. Martin and co clearly do not currently support the idea of a free for all re spends. I can understand this, as I assume that when the comps forum was set up here, it was probably done as a bit of a concession, given that doing comps are not as perfect a fit with the money saving ethos of the site as most other boards are. I’m not saying comps are not money saving, just that it’s more debatable. Now some of us are asking to raise/scrap the level, which could be viewed as taking it even further from MSE’s stance.

However, MSE has always shown itself to be innovative and to welcome change. I suggest that the comping forum has moved on a lot since the early days, and has perhaps outgrown its original constraints. It is a very popular and very well used section of the website and is one of the best, if not THE best, competition resource out there.

It seems to me that we are ready to take the forum to the next level, and should try to find a way to widen our nets to include some of the genuine comps which at the moment we are not able to include. The tricky part being how to do this, without risk of damage to our/MSE's ethos.

I have thought of a way to trial it safely, to just see how it would work. Suppose MSE increased the spend limit as per the poll result, to either £2.00 or £2.10, which is clearly the way the voting is going. But what if we also asked MSE to trial another board for £2.10+ spends competitions. I haven’t a clue how difficult it would be for them to do this. I’m hoping it wouldn’t be too huge a task.

The advantages would be that we could trial this without risking any effects on the main competitions board. The same rules would apply, i.e. no spam, no self-promo, weed out the nasties, etc. It might show it works fine for purchase required spends, but not for entry fee ones. If so, when the trial is over, we could change it accordingly. Or perhaps it will be a disaster from start to finish, either being underused, or worse, overrun with too many expensive competitions that do indeed go against the ethos of the site. On the other hand, it might be that it would work well by successfully widening the scope of the forum. Who knows, perhaps only a handful of extra comps will be posted which, once we know it’s safe, might end up being incorporated back onto the main board.

The reason I think this is important is because we owe a huge debt to MSE for starting, running and supporting this forum. But we also, in my opinion, have grown big enough to owe a responsibility to the wider comping community, to be the best and most comprehensive competition resource as we can be.

Blu X

mjm3346

No

I see no reason why pay to enter should be raised above the standard premium rate call/text limit as they really are just a gamble that costs money if you (and most wont) do not win.

Purchase Necessary competitions should not be lumped in with pay to enter as you are not paying to enter you get a product at its standard price which gives you free entry to a competition.


Will the board be overrun if the limit is raised and/or higher value purchase necessary comps allowed?

I have no idea, perhaps (pinching a bit from the post by Blulu) a small trial should be run to get some idea of numbers, maybe just a couple of threads (one for pay to enter and another for purchase necessary) on comps or chat corner which they get added to.

mclarkie

No

Luckyone wrote: »

Thank You Andrea,

The poll is a brilliant idea could do with this more often so Thank You.

I voted No

I believe entering competitions should be free. I do understand that people may of brought the item needed so is in effect free but it won't be for everyone.

I feel the more people who enter the comps where you need to spend money will encourage company's to hold more of them, which is something we don't want

xxx

I totally agree with this, surely no one wants more "buy to enter" comps?. at the end of the day we are the ones that do the promoting of competitions, by posting on sites like MSE on the behalf of the companies, and then by entering comps we create a market for them. we have the power to steer the marketing machine which ever way we want.

Buy to enter comps are only good if you buy a particular product as part of your weekly shop (effectively free to enter) , so why would it be useful to promote this on MSE? the only reason is to get people to buy more of something! which is what the marketing people want.
I fail to see how this fits in with money saving?

tranmereforever

5. Yes, to £2.10

mclarkie wrote: »

I totally agree with this, surely no one wants more "buy to enter" comps?. at the end of the day we are the ones that do the promoting of competitions, by posting on sites like MSE on the behalf of the companies, and then by entering comps we create a market for them. we have the power to steer the marketing machine which ever way we want.

Buy to enter comps are only good if you buy a particular product as part of your weekly shop (effectively free to enter) , so why would it be useful to promote this on MSE? the only reason is to get people to buy more of something! which is what the marketing people want.
I fail to see how this fits in with money saving?

But then by the same token what about the Grabbit sections that it could be argued are encouraging inpulse buying?

Also they are allowed now as long as they fit within the limit - and thats mostly if they are on offer for a small period of time within one supermarket to get around the rules in place

mjm3346

No

mclarkie wrote: »

Buy to enter comps are only good if you buy a particular product as part of your weekly shop (effectively free to enter) , so why would it be useful to promote this on MSE? the only reason is to get people to buy more of something! which is what the marketing people want.
I fail to see how this fits in with money saving?

I did consider that if you were buying the product anyway you would see the on pack promotion however they rarely hit all the shops at the same time so if it was posted on here you would know to look out for promotional packs and maybe delay buying until they were available locally. (also it might just be a question of switching brands without any cost change)

cagsd

4. Yes, up to £2.00

tranmereforever wrote: »

But then by the same token what about the Grabbit sections that it could be argued are encouraging inpulse buying?

I agree, I used to frequent the Grabbit board before I came over here, and the amount of times I'd see some bargain or other posted and then people replying jokily "ha ha this is meant to be a money saving board, all I do after looking on here is SPEND" etc etc. I don't see the difference. If people truly think that those reading the Grabbit board are forced to spend money, and likewise that people wanting to enter a purchase necessary competition are forced into buying that product, then neither thing should be allowed on MSE. A bit dictatorial in my opinion, but I can't see why it should be one rule for one and one for another!

mjm3346

No

Getting it back to the front page for the final days voting.

mclarkie

No

tranmereforever wrote: »

But then by the same token what about the Grabbit sections that it could be argued are encouraging inpulse buying?

Also they are allowed now as long as they fit within the limit - and thats mostly if they are on offer for a small period of time within one supermarket to get around the rules in place

I'm not concerned about the rights and wrongs, just pointing out that if we promote a certain type of comp, whether it be L&S, RC or in this case Buy to Play then we will inevitably see more of this type of competition, quite possibly at the expense of the free to enter comps that we all prefer.