Advent Competitions 2014 - Chat

WeAreGhosts

Oh sheesshus, how much carp needs to be waded through now?

sax11

i don't eat chocolate either

or cakes or drink wine or like christmas jumpers/socks

it really is so hard to find something to enter

JamboDP

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

sorry to be a pain but is there any chance there could be a space between each advent link in the list?

also could they be in bold? in the Raff thread i just put the at the top of the post and the [ /b] at the bottom [without space of course] and everything is listed in between.

thnx

Yes I have made a note of this and the ones already posted have been altered.

cheers Dave

Stewart_Osborn

Excited for these first started comping with the advent competitions last year x

toniq

If people use the back of the thread as guide they will be fine, as every advent is added to the back of thread, if they just thank each one they have collated into their folder when they next go onto the thread they will immediately know where to add the newly posted ones from.

Simple but effective way of keeping organised. I don't think in the last 3 years I've actually used the main list and just organised from the added ones at the back.
Seems less daunting.

x

JamboDP

toniq wrote: »

If people use the back of the thread as guide they will be fine, as every advent is added to the back of thread, if they just thank each one they have collated into their folder when they next go onto the thread they will immediately know where to add the newly posted ones from.

Simple but effective way of keeping organised. I don't think in the last 3 years I've actually used the main list and just organised from the added ones at the back.
Seems less daunting.

x

I do exactly the same for the mag dailies, even though I post them.

slbhill

BlueBella wrote: »

Maybe others could post tips on how they organise their Advents too to give newbies a chance to get organised before the Advents start.

Moneybot wrote: »

Advents check list

• Extra appointments with therapist - check
• List of things I want to win - check
• Valium - check
• Extra comfy seat at pc - check
• Realistic idea of how long it can take each day - check
• Sarcasm mode to max for the stupid post - check
• Wine as back up to valium - check
• Wrist support for keyboard - check
• Sick note from Doctors for December - check

Ok I think I'm good to go.

I like Moneybot's checklist!


I would say first have a realistic idea of how much time you want to spend on them, and try to stick to it - it really can take over your life if you let it. I have a full time job and a child, and have to keep reminding myself that both are more important than comps. Hubby can cope with being in the background for a few weeks LOL.


I will start putting together my list as the Advents thread gets added to over the next few weeks, and then put aside a big chunk of time the weekend just before they start to do more listing. It will be quite time consuming.


Last year I found a setup which worked for me - I use a spreadsheet to make my list of Advents, and I list the ones I can go to direct in one section and then the ones which require a new answer or link each day separately. (I use a similar setup for weeklies and for dailies). The first ones I just go to the comp page direct and don't use the thread, the second section I go to the forum thread first (and update it if needed but hopefully someone has beaten me to it). Sometimes I subscribe to the threads but actually with this approach it's best not to. Within the first section I group FB comps together and Tw ones together as that makes them slightly quicker to load.


First column is end date, 2nd is name of comp (for my own reference), 3rd is url for the forum thread, and 4th for the comp link itself. The last is useful for those days when the forum goes down just at the worst possible moment :eek:


The important thing (as others have said) is to only include ones you actually want to enter and which are worth the effort to you. Personally I wouldn't include Rafflecopters and other time-consuming entry routes unless the prizes are particularly exciting to me.


Then I have a column of tick boxes for each day to keep track of which I've entered. I enter "y", "n" or "x" (n = didn't enter, not interested, x = no comp available). If I spot more than 3 "n"s or "x"s in a row then I delete the comp from my list unless it's one with really impressive.


Setting up the columns in advance also lets me highlight if there are days I'm particularly interested in (or not at all interested in) if there is a prize list available ahead of time. Also useful for comps which run every other day or whatever.


It also lets me keep track in a slightly nerdy way of my total entries on each day (countif(A:A)="y) and for each comp (countif(E4:AB4)="y").


It sounds quite complex but it's quite simple to work once it's set up. I always feel slightly guilty that it means all the effort that's put into maintaining the big lists on the Advent thread doesn't have any great benefit to me - I just use the daily updates direct. But I'm still grateful to the people (jambodaveprince this year) to are willing to put in that huge effort.

CheCazzo

Is it just me? Is it?:eek::eek:

Halfway through slbhill's post my eyes started bleeding then what's left of my brain started to short-circuit......now I'm sitting here still totally unsure what it all means with a large hole in the back of my head where the explosion was!

:rotfl::rotfl:You organised people leave me .....just.......:eek:............I don't think I'll ever achieve that level of preparedness!:rotfl:

One-Eye

The period between boxing day and new year is very quiet for new comps, so the best advice I have for December is to bookmark/favourite any normal comps that end 31/12 or later and enter them after Christmas.

defairmans

My best wins have always been after Dec.25--first few weeks of Jan.