Should regs be posted on main board?

mjm3346

Any other suggestions?

Blulu wrote: »

True, but then, that's how most stats 'work' - LOL.

Blu X

That's true I did attempt to make the vote percentages look as high as possible, taking the 4,000 figure of views that single posts can get would put turnout at less than 2% and the highest voted options at less than 1% each of the potential vote.


There probably isn't a "one size fits all" thinking of "Goodreads" for example, normal competitions, normal open and close dates with different prizes for each competition, not on the main simply because there are "a lot" of them!
On that basis the express group (star, now etc) with multiple entry routes and competitions along with the mag dailies and their various entry routes and multiple competitions shouldn't be on main either as there are probably more of them than are Goodreads, it's certainly "a lot".

renegadia

Ren's written a story...please don't report this one....it's taken me years to write.

There's another, far easier option, although it's a bit drastic. If we take the discussion of this thread as a general concensus of every comping member and non-member that uses MSE as a portal (impossible to as noted above but hear me out), the vast majority either don't use the Regs board for comping, or don't have time, or just don't even visit.

If every comp has to go on the main board anyway then cut out the confusion and remove the Regs board entirely. One board for comps, one board for expired comps, and a board for CCC.

The comp threads in Regs could just be moved to main, and left titled as they are. If it's an ongoing never ending comp then E: DAILY, E: WEEKLY, it's fairly obvious that it's a daily or weekly, you could even put which day it's drawn on in the title. Ongoing Monthlies have always been reposted every month so that's all fine.

Weeklies and Dailies that have a kill date, they can just be left as they are again with E: 08/12 Win some stuff (weekly).

It would possibly reduce and prevent dupes for those that search the main board only. (Is there any reason why we've stopped requesting merges by the way? Only saying as we're discussing about making things more accessible...)

For those self-promoters...er....sorry, genuine new users that post comps they find because they want to join in the fun, those that get the date wrong, or say something is E: ONGOING or E: 31/12? when there is a kill date, then BG's are there to edit the date/title if required, it what I always used to do for those that were E:08 or E: 8/ etc etc...

That only leaves the link lists on the Regs board....I'm not sure why the Weekly one is even open as someone mentioned earlier it's not been updated for years. Now, I appreciate everyone has their own methods of comping, and I'd never tell anyone to go suck an egg (unless it was for money) but I've never used these linky lists....am I right in assuming that they exist purely as a bookmark of sorts? If I'm not right, then forget this entire post, but the forum has a limited thread subscription system...I think it's 200 threads? "But Ren, I hear you all cry, "I have millions of threads on this list" I don't know how iPad or phone comping works, I've won neither, but most if not all browsers have a bookmarking system or something?

It would also mean posters of the comps wouldn't then have to crosspost onto a thread, saving time. It means those threads wouldn't need updating, saving more time. No doubt there is something blindingly obvious I am missing, but my suggestion is to just remove the Regs board.

Pros -

All comps have to go on main by default.
Comps would be titled as is in regs, making it easy to decipher it's a regular ongo'er
No need to link to anything, just post the comp and carry on.
If you sort by date order, it would group them altogether at an end.
They can be managed better, bumped for new weeks etc.
Date errors/issues could be rectified much the same as now.
Easier to manage and maintain

Cons -

People might have to change their comping method of bookmarking.

mansey

I have always thought everything should be on one board with links to the area you would like to go to.
It is OK for folks who have used the boards for years but it must be so confusing to newbies.
As Ren mentioned there are posts on the weekly/daily thread that are several years out of date.
Why are they still there?
Why is the thread still there?

It's no wonder there are only a handful of folks who post comps when you have to post a comp on the main board then post it again in another category, what a waste of time.

The problem with MSE is it is old and stale and stuck in it's ways it drastically needs modernising.

It has been mentioned many times before on many threads that a lot of folks are comping from Competition Database because it is so simple to use you go to one main page then there are lists down the edge of that page to take you to which ever area of comping you like to do, a chat room, a winners page and no heavy handed policing.

Do you think this thread will get any attention/any action?
Many people have tried many times before and most get ignored.

Glad

Hi and evening all

Andrea has asked that I take a look at this thread, there seems to be a little confusion over what was decided when we had the last major discussion (back in 2011!)

Looking back over the discussions and my email folder this is what eventually came out of weeks of discussion about the regs board

Monthly comps - to be posted on the main board with a new thread each month.

Weekly comps - if they have a weekly change of prize/terms or are running for a set period then posted on main board with a new thread each week. If they are running indefinitely with basically the same prize every week then posted on the regs board

Daily comps - set end date then on main board with an overall end date and a link in the dailies thread. Running indefinitely posted in regs board

Once only entry comps - set end date posted on main board. Ongoing eg newsletter sign up posted in regs board

At no point was it agreed that a comp could have two threads, ie all posted on main board with a thread in regs linking to the main board

The problem back then was finding a sytem everyone was happy with, we didn't get it sorted properly then and I'm not sure how to sort it now unless we get rid of the regs board altogether and find a working method to have all comps on the main board

choices are

leave it as it is and some people change their way of comping so they don't miss out on comps posted in regs

post all comps on main board and some people change their way of comping to accomodate that

it's your board and I'm happy to BG it however it works best for you, it's deciding as a community how to set it up that's always the sticking point

hdh74

Having an on-going thread on the main board which gets bumped when new regular comps are posted

Get rid of the regs board and have it all on one works for me.

Blulu

Posting them with an end date E: 31/13?

I also would like to see the regs board go. I think it's more trouble than it's worth. Also, a friend just recently got into comping - probably with a little influence from me. But she's using Loquax because she found MSE too complicated. I suspect if we did away with the regs board it would make things easier and better for most of us.

Thanks for your input Glad :A

Blu X

Blulu

Posting them with an end date E: 31/13?

Right, me again, this is going to be another long one, and I make no apology for that. I think we should thrash this out and reach the best solution we can, for the good of the forum.

Currently, 82 people have voted, and only 6 of them opted to post any comp directly to the regs board. Nobody has yet offered any argument,convincing or not, as to why they prefer some comps not posted to the main board. If we make no other change, the very least we should agree on is to change this, so that every comp is posted on the main board.

The reason I say this is because this whole thing came up when I found an ongoing comp to post, but didn't know where to stick it. If I had posted it directly on the regs board, lots of, probably most, compers would not have seen it.

The only issue with posting on-going comps to the main board is deciding what end date to give them. If we cannot find a perfect solution, then we should probably use 31/12. That would be far from ideal, as they would still expire, but at least it would mean all current users would have the chance to see every comp. End-daters would have to work out how best to find them. They could incorporate end of the year comps, as part of their on-going routine.

However, even better, in my opinion, would be if we could find a way to use an end date specific to on-going comps, one that would mean they never expire without us clicking to expire them. I'll ask again, would using "E: 00/00" or "E: 00/13" work? This wouldn't only be useful for end-daters, but it would make the listings more accurate. We'd see at a glance that a comp is on-going. I think that would be a big improvement.

Now then, I also have an idea to simplify the regulars. I think we should do away with the regulars board completely. Instead, we should run a regulars thread, or better still call it "On-Going Comps" or "Multiple Entry." See Firefly's point above, about the confusion re calling it "regular".

This On-Going Comps thread should replace the entire Regulars board. It should probably never expire. There would be no need for anyone to run it. All comps would be posted on the main board. And then we could cross-reference them to the On-Going Comps thread. I suggest copying the title and MSE link of any newly posted on-going comp to the bottom of the thread. There would be no need to sort them into categories. It wouldn't matter if it was a daily, weekly, monthly, RC, Gleam or anything else.

End-daters, and anyone who wanted to, could subscribe to the thread, or check it as part of their comping routine. Similarly to the Puzzler/Take a Break thread, we could click thanks to mark where we reach on the thread. Then it would be a case of quickly scanning newer ones. Yes, it might be a little more faffing and time-consuming for end-daters. But I think the advantages would outweigh that by lots.

It would mean everyone would have the chance to see every comp posted. It wouldn't be complicated to post any of these. The OP could add a link to the On-Going Comp thread, or someone else could do that later, as happens now with links added to the dailies, etc.

I'm done - for the moment at least

Blu X

sleepyjones

Any other suggestions?

I don't really follow the regular comps so if they were on the main board then I'd probably enter more of them (once) ... but as soon as I've green ticked it I'll never look at it again so I'll always forget to re-visit "regularly".

If it's an on-going / regular competition could we not just change the title format to :

O : 02/12 " .... Using an O instead of the E ... it wouldn't really screw up the sorting too much

BlueBella

Having an on-going thread on the main board which gets bumped when new regular comps are posted

Like I said earlier, if every comp gets posted on the main, it is going to be manic when the Advents start! There are 100s od Advent dailies!

Blulu

Posting them with an end date E: 31/13?

BlueBella wrote: »

Like I said earlier, if every comp gets posted on the main, it is going to be manic when the Advents start! There are 100s od Advent dailies!

Apologies Blue Gal. I didn't realise you meant this as a reason not to post regulars on the main board. It's a good and important point. I assume the Advents would be done as they always have been. That shouldn't be a problem because everyone knows where to look for them.

Blu X