Returning to comping - it's changed a little

newtocomps88

Hi all, 

I have just recently returned to comping and unsure how to search. I previously did E:30/06, however, it has all changed. I have read the guide for new compers and looked at how to search. When I click sort I only have hot, top, new, closing date (which always shows E:00/00). It says in the guide to change your display options at the bottom of the page, however, I cannot find such a thing. Any help would be grateful. 

Thanks

thingamaBob

@newtocomps88 Search is not currently working at all well and is not due to be "amended" until the end of July.
If you must search by End Date, I suggest you use the following url but amend the date in the Title parameter to the date you wish to search for. Ensure that the quote marks are included. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search?Page=p6&adv=1&author=&cat=72&comment_comment=1&date=today&discussion_discussion=1&discussion_poll=1&search=&subcats=1&tags=&title="01/07"&within=1+year
This will include a post or two from last year so watch out for any that are shown as in Game Over rather than Competitions time.

Search is not a particularly good way to find comps ending on a particular day simply because too many people do not format the end date in the correct standard format and search will not find anything not posted exactly in the format searched for. You may note that the above url does not include the E:, so that search will include posts where the poster has (incorrectly) omitted that part of the format but many other posts are made with 0's omitted or colons inserted in the wrong place plus other errors and search will not find these.

The Sort function when used with Closing date does sort the board by Closing Date. The Closing Date field is a new field which has to be filled in, in the format dd/mm/yyyy, when posting the comp. This field is not visible on the board except to the OP when Editing their post. It should ALWAYS be the same date as the one posted as the End Date in the Title but is all too frequently mis-posted which puts the thread out of place in the Sort but generally this is better than searching by end date.

The E: 00/00 that you mention is only on the first page and a half of the results. These comps are ones that only need to be entered once and have no specific end date. After the 00/00 ones the posts are in Closing Date order with the longest dates first, so to get to "today", you need to go to the last page of results.
Sort is not without problems the worst one being that as you work from page to page many of the results are repeated and it gets irritating to keep finding the same posts cropping up over several pages.

Hope this helps as a starting point.

Blulu

Just to add, MSE are aware that there are problems re the changes they've introduced. You might want to read what MSE Kirsty has commented about it, along with her reassurance that they are 'on the case'. As thingamaBob mentioned, they are aiming to sort the search issues, hopefully, by the end of July. If you want to read more, here is the link: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78407012/#Comment_78407012

Blu XXX

newtocomps88

Thank you all