I'm missing out so what am I doing wrong? 27 December 2020 at 7:40AM in Compers chat corner 30 replies 1.3K views

Molly4

Good Morning
This has been puzzling me for ages so I've got to ask. 

I enter these competitions everyday although usually last minute (On the closing date) which should not make any difference if the competition is still open and running.
I sort the listings in date order and work my way through. For example today I am working on 27/12 onwards. 
I refresh the pages several times throughout the day so that any newly added competitions are not missed.
I do this sometimes up until late at night on the closing date and yet when I check the next day competitions appear that I did not see.
 For example yesterday 26/12 there were not many competitions listed so I definitely would not have missed this one.  

25 December at 9:56PM in Competitions Time E: 26/12 (3pm) Win £1,000,000

And yet there it is this morning so I've missed out on the chance of winning a million!!!!

As this competition is closed now I cannot see what comments may have been added. I know competitions move around when someone adds a comment. But surely my constant checking and refreshing should still pick the competition up by closing date? This is not the first time this has happened. I also find sometimes when scrolling through the pages, especially when there are several pages of competitions for a particular date that the same competitions appear page after page as if I am still on the first page I looked at. (Hope that makes sense) For example I could look at page 64 and then go onto page 63 and 62 etc. and yet the same competitions appear on each of these pages. 

What am I doing wrong or is there something wrong with the "sort" option?
CONFUSED I AM.......
Regards
Molly4

mjm3346

For all sorts of reasons don't enter by end-date (apart from anything else it takes longer)

Molly4

mjm3346 said:

For all sorts of reasons don't enter by end-date (apart from anything else it takes longer)

Thank you mjm3346
What is the best way? When the forum changed and we couldn't sort in any order I was literarily working my way through page by page picking out the competitions I wanted to enter. But that meant I was having to go through the whole forum and keep going back and refreshing to find the new competitions added. It did seem quicker in a way but I was reading/scanning an awful lot of "end dates" and "headings". 

roseroserosenose

Having the exact same difficulty Molly! I used to do it this way with the old forum setup, but now I have no rhyme or reason to my entering because, like you, I find the search function isn't as great.

Misslayed

If you select 'new' from the drop down sort menu, all the competitions posted since you last checked will be on the front page

Molly4

roseroserosenose said:

Having the exact same difficulty Molly! I used to do it this way with the old forum setup, but now I have no rhyme or reason to my entering because, like you, I find the search function isn't as great.

Yes the old forum was brilliant. I sorted by end date and it was absolutely fine. 

Molly4

Misslayed said:

If you select 'new' from the drop down sort menu, all the competitions posted since you last checked will be on the front page

Thank You Misslayed
But that does not explain why this competition 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6226800/e-26-12-3pm-win-1-000-000 
which was posted at 9.56pm on 25th December did not show up at all on 26th December and only appeared when I searched this morning 27th December. 

mjm3346

Molly4 said:

Misslayed said:

If you select 'new' from the drop down sort menu, all the competitions posted since you last checked will be on the front page

Thank You Misslayed
But that does not explain why this competition 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6226800/e-26-12-3pm-win-1-000-000 
which was posted at 9.56pm on 25th December did not show up at all on 26th December and only appeared when I searched this morning 27th December. 

I assume you were not sorting by "New" when this did not show - I believe the system uses the date entered on it to sort by date and not the date entered in the subject line and I am guessing by the "edit" that the wrong date may originally have been put on the system as I cannot think of any other reason to edit the post after it was over  "25 December at 9:56PM edited Today at 7:42AM in Game Over"

Molly4

I was sorting by "Closing Date" which for the above competition was 26/12 

mjm3346

Molly4 said:

I was sorting by "Closing Date" which for the above competition was 26/12 

That was the date in the title which was probably was not same as the date entered on the system and it is the closing date on the system that the sort function uses.



(when a competition is posted a date has to be entered on the system - makes no difference what date is on the title)

Molly4

I'm sorry mjm3346 you have confused me even more.
As the closing date for this particular competition was 26/12 and I sorted by "closing date" then this competition should have showed up in the "sort". I looked at every competition that showed up in the "closing date" for 26/12 and this competition did not show up at all. Irrespective of when they are first posted all competitions with a closing date of 26/12 should show up in the "closing date" search. Some of the other competitions in this "sort" were posted a month ago, some only a few days ago or even a day before so it makes no difference at all when they are posted.