Problem with End Date upgrade on Competitions Time - ONLY PARTIALLY SOLVED

Molly4

thingamaBob

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6146702/e-06-07-10pm-win-a-scottish-fine-soaps-hand-care-set#latest
This one was posted on 23rd May and edited by yourself on 3rd July is also closed. I thought it was just newly listed posts from 1st July that were being closed but it appears because the edit was made after 1st July then that also affects the post status. 

thingamaBob

molly57. said:

thingamaBob

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6146702/e-06-07-10pm-win-a-scottish-fine-soaps-hand-care-set#latest
This one was posted on 23rd May and edited by yourself on 3rd July is also closed. I thought it was just newly listed posts from 1st July that were being closed but it appears because the edit was made after 1st July then that also affects the post status. 

I have Edited and added the End Date field on ALL of my posts, even the old ones. So any of mine that reach the end date will get closed. The sooner all current posts have the new field completed, the sooner MSE will be able to use it for such things as the new end date sort field but they also need to adjust or remove the thread closing.

One-Eye

molly57. said:

thingamaBob

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6146702/e-06-07-10pm-win-a-scottish-fine-soaps-hand-care-set#latest
This one was posted on 23rd May and edited by yourself on 3rd July is also closed. I thought it was just newly listed posts from 1st July that were being closed but it appears because the edit was made after 1st July then that also affects the post status. 

Bob will have added a "new format" end date of 06/07/2020 when it was edited on 03/07 (there would have been an error message if a date wasn't added).
The problem simply boils down to an automatic process running in the early hours of 06/07 that closes all threads with a "new format" end date of 06/07/2020. The problem is summed up in my post #1:

Threads are being closed a day too early.

There is actually no need to ever "close" threads on competitions time. Competitions that have finished are moved to "Game Over" and users should still be able to add replies etc.

I recommend that no threads are ever automatically closed on Competitions Time.

Misslayed

Competitions are moved to GO by unpaid volunteer Board Guides, which on the new platform takes up to two hours! More at the month end. It is very tedious and time consuming. Ultimately the closed thread function will lead to expired comps being automatically moved to GO, but there are teething problems which are being worked on.

One-Eye

Misslayed said:

Competitions are moved to GO by unpaid volunteer Board Guides, which on the new platform takes up to two hours! More at the month end. It is very tedious and time consuming. Ultimately the closed thread function will lead to expired comps being automatically moved to GO, but there are teething problems which are being worked on.

It makes sense to have the comps moved automatically to GO according to the "new" end date - but they should not be moved 24 hours too early, and they should never be closed.

One-Eye

Any progress? or at least acknowledgement of the problem?

MSE_Ben_H

Hi all,

Sorry it's taken a while for this.

We are working with the team to get this remedied and will hopefully get an update today.

Long story short: comps are currently being marked as closed at 00:00 on their closing date and we're changing this to be 23:59:59.

To confirm, this doesn't close the thread to comments.

Thanks to @Misslayed and the Board Guides too for sticking with us - they do a great job in moving expired Comps off the main board and it has been tough in the switch to the new Forum - part of the reason this Expiration tweak is taking a bit longer is because it is connected to the work we are doing to make the process of identifying threads ready to be moved so that Board Guides have an easier time in doing that.

I will let you know as soon as we have an update on when this will be remedied.

As always, thanks for all your patience on this.

thingamaBob

MSE_Ben_H said:

Hi all,

Sorry it's taken a while for this.

We are working with the team to get this remedied and will hopefully get an update today.

Long story short: comps are currently being marked as closed at 00:00 on their closing date and we're changing this to be 23:59:59.

To confirm, this doesn't close the thread to comments.

Thanks to @Misslayed and the Board Guides too for sticking with us - they do a great job in moving expired Comps off the main board and it has been tough in the switch to the new Forum - part of the reason this Expiration tweak is taking a bit longer is because it is connected to the work we are doing to make the process of identifying threads ready to be moved so that Board Guides have an easier time in doing that.

I will let you know as soon as we have an update on when this will be remedied.

As always, thanks for all your patience on this.

@MSE_Ben_H Thanks for this update, it will be a great help to get this sorted.
Just to clarify, at the moment when the threads are "closed" it is no longer possible to make replies and so is closed to comments. Perhaps more of a problem for most is that the Entered/Skipped buttons can no longer be used. Are you saying that the update will still "close" the threads but a day later and that the threads will still have a reply box available and the Entered/Skipped buttons will still be available?  If this is not the case, it would be better not to "close" the threads at all if the new end date can still be used to move the thread to Game Over.

It can be necessary for a thread to be updated and returned to the Main Board if the people running the comp decide to extend the End Date or if the end date on the original thread was only a "guess" and the comp is still ongoing.

One-Eye

The change to closing at 23:59:59 on the date input is now working - thanks for that.
It leaves two problems outstanding:-

1. When the thread is closed NEW REPLIES CAN NOT BE ADDED, (posters can edit their existing comments)
2. As stated before, THERE IS NO NEED TO CLOSE THREADS, EVER, although it would help board guides tremendously if, instead of closing the thread, it was moved automatically from Competitions Time (f=72) to Game Over (f=74).