Mag Dailies Debate (Please be civil) Poll will close 23rd February

Blulu

Like Firefly, I feel it’s all been said before. But I will try again.

As rugs has said, there are two separate issues:

1) Should the Mag Dailies (MDs) be listed on the main board?

Yes they should – regardless what the poll shows, or even what the majority want. People usually vote what benefits them. If we ran a poll about listing family comps on the main board, I might vote ‘not’ (except I hope I would vote for what is best for the forum, not just for me.) This is not about pleasing the majority it is about making the MDs accessible to as many forum users as possible, including newbies who may be here a long time before venturing into the regs, and long-standing members who don’t do the MDs, but might try one if tempted when seeing it on the main board.

It is crazy to talk about comps cluttering the main board. I have pages of red ex-ed comps. I don’t mind. At least I’ve had a chance to see what’s available.

So in my opinion, ‘cluttering up the main boards’ is not a good enough reason to not list comps there.

2) Should the MD links from the regs go directly to the mags?

I also don’t see what the problem is re linking directly to the magazines. However, I assume there is a reason why this was changed. I don’t see it as a biggie either way. Since I’ve been a member here, the MDs have changed often. Mostly each was a pain. But I worked out a new system, which always (I think) seemed to make it better/quicker.

When they introduced videos, I hated it. Until I realised you can leave them to play and keep comping. Similarly when Cornish changed the system, I didn’t like it, and voted against it in that poll. But I adapted my system and found it was better. I’ve done the same thing again now, and I have my best system yet. I do the MDs most days, and it prob takes me just 30-40 mins.

I don’t get why this causes so much grief. It is good to debate and review. But if things don’t go my way I try to count my blessings and move on. Plenty around the world are suffering with terrible disasters, poverty and tragedies. And we’re upset because some comps aren’t listed the way we like?????

I think it is about attitude. I’m grateful to have access to all these comps. Perhaps I’m just adaptable by nature. It makes life easier. When life gives me lemons I make lemonade. And when it gives me prunes…(well, never mind that one.)

Blu X

cornishpasty1

Glad wrote: »

When I was running the Daily sticky and CP suggested splitting the mag dailies off into their own thread I presumed it would be run exactly the same way as the Daily sticky was

the question of whether comps should be on the Main board individually has come up frequently and we even had a poll, 370 members voted with only 34 choosing not to have every comp on the main board
I don't think that would change if we polled again, so the only remaining issue is whether to have direct links to the mag sites in the mag sticky and really that's up to the person running it

Glad wrote: »

no it really was should all comps be posted individually

which is why I thought it was relevant to this

edited to add: plus there were weeks of discussions about comps being in plain view on the main board as well as linked in stickies to try and please all types of compers

cornishpasty1 wrote: »

OK so for jambodaveprince to do this, he would post the comp on main board, put link on mag daily sticky, THEN when adding the post to the front page CHANGE the links to direct to comp?

OK it appears I may have misunderstood what Glad said from post #20 and copy and pasted what I thought the question was

As I see it, there are 4 options really, for practical reasons
1. post all comps on main board, link to mag daily sticky, and sticky op to update front page (as currently operated)
2. one stickied thread only with mag dailies added to the end of that and OP to update front page (but not posted individually on main forum) (but any 'specials' posted on main forum)
3. post all comps on main board and don't bother with mag daily thread
4. post all comps on main board, link to mag daily sticky, sticky op to update front page but to change it all about so links are direct to comp link (which is a hell of a lot of work for op)

Nothing has ever been intentionally hidden away, and we worked through obstacles to finally get it stickied on main forum (in full view), but I agree that 'specials' should in hindsight have been posted on main forum.

Please Glad would you come back and clarify the actual poll question?

rugmaker

Thanks CP and Blulu, excellent summary of the position.

All I would add is that I am not convinced that CPs option 4 is really much more work than option 1, the current system, and I think that maintaining the mags thread could and perhaps should be split between several people.

JamboDP

There are a very lot of people on here who have strong opinions on how the thread should be run. Only one person has offered to help with running a new thread. All the time I have been running the thread only 3 or4 people have bothered to help with the posting of comps which I am very grateful for.
You do not realise how long it takes to post and then update the board, I do it in a way that is quickest for me.
As far as I am concerned all the comps must be posted on main board, for all those people who say it clogs the main board up you do not know what you are talking about, most comps are posted on a Tuesday and only appear once on the main board and are not bumped like the "Glamour & Easy Living" comps. The rest of the week there may be only 4 or 5 comps a day so where the clogging the main board comes from I do not know.

I have said this before but somebody will need to take over soon or none of the comps will be posted.

cheers Dave

elho

I personally work off the daily magazine post - I subscribe to that thread and therefore can see if new competitions are added. I bookmark all the competitions that I am entering on my internet browser and do the daily list from them adding new ones and then deleting old ones.


Whatever is decided is never going to please everyone. The main consideration for me is for the people who have volunteered to post them - the way they are posted should be the easiest way for them to put them on the site. As long as they are on the site it is up to people to find them (and they have never been "hidden"), they are under no obligation to make it as easy as possible for everyone! They are giving up their time for free to benefit everyone and we should all help them to make it the quickest way to post.

bargainhuntergal

comping_cat wrote: »

Third point -

Why are we having this discussion again? MSE is run for EVERYONE - and although, if you read through this discussion, you can see lots of people want it one way, and lots want it the other way - even if one person wants to keep the mag dailies on the main board, then surely that is what happens?

I am not saying there cannot be a sticky, either on the main board or in a sub board with the links or whatever - i think this is the best idea anyway because it keeps everyone happy (main board and sticky) - but you cannot take any competition off the main board, otherwise, what is the point in having a main board? Shall we have a facebook sticky, twitter sticky, ITV sticky, Channel 4 sticky, radio station sticky (dont forget, there will be a few of these stickies because there are a few different groups of radio station) rafflecopter sticky, email sticky - need i go on?

The whole point in the MSE competition forum is that all competitions are available to all people, however they comp.

If someone has the time, and inclination to keep a sub board/sticky up, then well done and thank you - but please remember that not all people use them, and by making them exclusive, you are taking competitions away from the majority.

Im sure someone will now come along and say 'but the poll is proving the sticky idea is more popular' but, remember i have already admitted being an idiot and voting for the wrong option, and from all the comments i have had time to read so far, its the same people who are arguing for and against this idea every single time i have seen it come up - its the silent majority i am talking about - the ones who will not see this post or the ones that come after this post.

My final point is, if its too much work for the posters to post on the main board and run a sticky - then offer the job to someone else. None of us who post on here are indispensable, there will always be someone who would love to post a few comps as a way of giving back so it is not a case of, if its not done this way people are going to miss out, because they wont. I already see people posting daily/weekly competitions, not posting in a sub board and someone posting afterwards that they have done it for them - so things are not missed on here, there is always someone willing to help out.

Oh, and final, final point - the person who won the big Christmas mag daily - they would not have won if it had not been on the main board, so unless people are deliberately trying to hide them away for those who do not have lots of time to read stickies or sub boards, i think this proves the point that the competitions need to stay on the main board.

I totally agree, I'm getting rather fed up of people saying they're fed up of mag dailies 'cluttering' up the main board, that's like me saying I don't do Facebook or Twitter and they are cluttering up the main board and that I don't want them there! :eek:

I'm not going to ask for them to be in a sticky only as that's not fair on everyone who uses the comp board that does use them and doesn't necessarily want to have to wade through a sticky to find them!

Also some people might only like to enter the mag dailies once, and being on the main board they can do this quite easily, where as they'd have to go through a sticky to do this and then not all of us like to only use the front page of the sticky, I know I like to cross check with what's posted at the end of the thread, but if you take some time out from entering, like I'm doing now (luckily I still check in at times, otherwise I wouldn't have seen this) when you come back there's pages and pages on the sticky that aren't relevant anymore and it looks very daunting, at least if you then work your way through the boards you'd find them that way and then if you did want to go through the sticky you know where to start from!

For me posting on the main board is actually the none issue here, every competition should have it's own thread somewhere on the forum and that shouldn't be what we're voting on! If it was up to me neither the Puzzler or Puzzle mags would be run that way either...;)

Now if all we should be voting on is whether the direct links return or not then blimey this really is a very long and heated debate for essentially nothing, it really is such a small issue with a very easy solution, even with the way the thread is run now.

There's three ways I can see that would help (almost?) everyone, taking away the none issue of whether they're posted on the main board or not, all very simple changes:

1. Post to the main board, post to the end of the sticky with both the direct and the thread links, very easy to do just copy and paste from the address bar, OP for the sticky copies both links into the sticky, then you can use whichever link you choose to use whenever you choose to use it.

2. Post to the main board, post to the end of the sticky with both the direct and the thread links, again, very easy to do just copy and paste from the address bar, OP for the sticky copies only the direct link into the sticky, then if you work through the thread you can tick/cross the thread link as it's in there somewhere, you don't have to go hunting for it on the main board and once it's ticked/crossed, you never need look at it again, and then the direct links are back into the sticky for entering daily.

3. The same as now, post to the main board, post to the end of the sticky with the thread link, OP for the sticky copies the thread link into the sticky and then everyone can bookmark/favourite the direct link the first time they enter to then enter daily from their bookmarks/favourite or however many times they wish, very simple to do, very easy to organise to how you want it to be, into folder for each mag etc... and very easy to delete that bookmark once it's ended.

That is how easy it could be, so why such a drawn out debate? I really don't understand. What must new members think when they see this kind of thing!?

Edited to add: If it's decided to do any of the above, I don't mind helping to get the thread off to a start, I can't run the thread, but I don't mind helping out to sort any new links for the comps that are on there now if that would help anyone at all?

AlainaJane31

I like the mag dailies as they are now posted to the main board, this is how they were when I started comping a year and a half ago, I didn't like it when they moved in their own thread, even though I had bookmarked a link for the thread I never went in to and thus missed out on the mags because I didn't have time, I only enter the dailies once anyway as I don't have time to do them everyday. Whilst they are on the main board I can do them and they move on. Last year I won 2 very big prizes by only entering once on the mag comps so just shows they don't have to be entered every day. Please leave things as there are now I do realise this makes work but I for one do like them as they are now!

cornishpasty1

jambodaveprince wrote: »

There are a very lot of people on here who have strong opinions on how the thread should be run. Only one person has offered to help with running a new thread. All the time I have been running the thread only 3 or4 people have bothered to help with the posting of comps which I am very grateful for.
You do not realise how long it takes to post and then update the board, I do it in a way that is quickest for me.
As far as I am concerned all the comps must be posted on main board, for all those people who say it clogs the main board up you do not know what you are talking about, most comps are posted on a Tuesday and only appear once on the main board and are not bumped like the "Glamour & Easy Living" comps. The rest of the week there may be only 4 or 5 comps a day so where the clogging the main board comes from I do not know.

I have said this before but somebody will need to take over soon or none of the comps will be posted.

cheers Dave

Thanks Dave :beer:

perhaps while we're on this thread anyone could put themselves up for taking over from Dave soon.

handmadetsunami1

AlainaJane31 wrote: »

I like the mag dailies as they are now posted to the main board, this is how they were when I started comping a year and a half ago, I didn't like it when they moved in their own thread, even though I had bookmarked a link for the thread I never went in to and thus missed out on the mags because I didn't have time, I only enter the dailies once anyway as I don't have time to do them everyday. Whilst they are on the main board I can do them and they move on. Last year I won 2 very big prizes by only entering once on the mag comps so just shows they don't have to be entered every day. Please leave things as there are now I do realise this makes work but I for one do like them as they are now!

Exactly the way I do it. I don't have time to do them everyday, if I win, I win from one entry.

Saying the Mag Dailies clog the board is the same as saying all prizes relating to children clog the board. It depends how/what you enter. They should all be listed on the main board.

toniq

I've asked Glad if I can take over the mag dailies thread when Jambo goes caravanning, I'm more than willing to do a direct link in the thread to each mag.

If you would rather I didn't just say and I'm more than happy to withdraw my offer.

x