Sorry for duplicating the posts

lukgs7

Not doing it on purpose. Just trying to help.

I have been searching the weblink and title before posting. Not sure what I am missing.

Any tips pls?

203846930

Don't kick yourself too hard, the search on this 'new' platform has been hopeless from the start.

Better to have duplicates than miss the comp all together.

lukgs7

I feel like I am doing more damage to the forum by posting than not posting.

203846930

The forum can take it, you do well to find them in the first place, I seldom find a comp that has not already been posted.

I don't use the search, if I find a comp I know when entering it if I have done so before it tells me, if not, I can safely post it on the board.
Not an ideal way of doing things but it works for me.

One-Eye

Don't give up - your efforts are really appreciated. Everybody who posts has posted dupes (even me  )

The problem is with the search function - Like Sheffield United, it is pretty ropey at the best of times and is currently suffering an additional fault that causes particular problems on the Comps forum. The fault has been reported here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6236380 and acknowledged by MSE, but three weeks later there is no progress.

I am currently finding dupes mainly through my own memory and a combination of searching methods. One indication that there may be another thread is a search result like...

... where search is finding a thread (as shown by the orange arrow), but refuses to display it (as shown by the "no results for").
The thread not being displayed in this instance is https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6243745

You have to sort the forum by closing date, then locate the pages with the relevant closing date and search them all for the title that matches the one you want - using Ctrl+F helps. It is a pain, and fails if the closing dates don't match.

Mouse400

I'm really grateful for all your posts. It takes time and effort to find and post comps, so I'm thankful for anyone who tries! As One-Eye says, it's really hard to completely avoid dupes at the moment. But I think it's definitely better to have the odd dupe than miss the comp or lose great posters to different forums.

lukgs7

Thank you all for your kind comments.

Thank you One-Eye for explaning the work around.

elsien

Just to add to this, I have been asked by MSE to give feedback on the forum. The search function is on my list. 

thingamaBob

I do my comping by as and when comps are posted and I look at every one that gets posted. At the moment, with not too many being posted, I can frequently spot dupes just from memory of seeing it before.
In addition to doing a search, it is a good idea to just check back manually over the last page or two. Another current problem with search is that it doesn't find threads posted since the previous, approx 7:30 PM. This was reported some time ago but is still not fixed..

As One-Eye says, sorting by closing date and checking for matching titles on a particular day can find ones missed by search but even this cannot be relied upon. Sort does also seem to "lose" comps but I haven't been able to spot any pattern for the ones that go missing. I posted a reply on one thread recently and when i looked for it a few moments later, it wasn't showing. I repeated it shortly after with another thread but that one didn't disappear. I have looked for posts that I absolutely know exist but don't show up for a day or two and then do suddenly start showing. Could it be something to do with the massive "overlapping" that occurs in Sort or perhaps even be linked to the Search problems?

Until these problems are resolved duplicate posts are inevitable and you shouldn't worry or get upset when someone finds them.

Ms_Dee

Thank you for keeping the board active @lukgs7, I usually search the whole link, if I don't get a result, I'll shrink the link to just the website name, removing the https www and the com and co uk like: richardjacksonsgarden
I have also noticed that you take comments into consideration and update your posts accordingly, so thank you!

Can I just request one thing, that if you find a post starting with gleam.io or woobox etc. Please could you post where you found the competition, if it was from their social media or website etc. Just to help confirm it is from their genuine site. 

lukgs7

Ms_Dee said:

Thank you for keeping the board active @lukgs7, I usually search the whole link, if I don't get a result, I'll shrink the link to just the website name, removing the https www and the com and co uk like: richardjacksonsgarden
I have also noticed that you take comments into consideration and update your posts accordingly, so thank you!

Can I just request one thing, that if you find a post starting with gleam.io or woobox etc. Please could you post where you found the competition, if it was from their social media or website etc. Just to help confirm it is from their genuine site. 

Sure, thanks.