"closed comments" prevent marking comps as entered/skipped. Please change

LagrangeL2

Can the link between "comments closed" and the "entered/skipped" buttons be broken so that people can still mark comps even if comments have been closed? 

I don't know why people close comments but the fact comps can't be marked as entered/skipped is quite annoying. J

BootsMullery

andrew_g_scott said:

Can the link between "comments closed" and the "entered/skipped" buttons be broken so that people can still mark comps even if comments have been closed? 

I don't know why people close comments but the fact comps can't be marked as entered/skipped is quite annoying. J

Threads get closed automatically when the date entered in the Closing Date field has passed.
The change takes place at 23:59 GMT on the relevant date.
This is only really a problem when the wrong date has been entered in the Closing Date field and the comp is still running. These "wrong" Closing Dates readily show up when the Board is "Sorted" into Closing Date order and the Closing Date does not match with the End Date in the Title.

The "Closed" threads then get moved to Game Over. The moving used to be done by a Board Ambassador until something went wrong and they lost that ability. It is currently done by a member of the Forum Team, usually during the following day except at weekends when it has to wait until Monday. So there can, at times, be up to 3 days of expired "closed" threads on the main board.

LagrangeL2

It's not closed threads/comps but the COMMENTS on those threads/comps that are being closed by the OP, I presume, and prevent a comp from being marked. 

LagrangeL2

For example https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6386389/e-11-09-win-the-ultimate-cookie-x-coffee-dunking-bundle-ig#latest 

Note the "This discussion has been closed". You can't click the green tick or red X. 

mjm3346

andrew_g_scott said:

It's not closed threads/comps but the COMMENTS on those threads/comps that are being closed by the OP, I presume, and prevent a comp from being marked. 

Do you have an example of a thread/comp that is still open (not shown as closed on MSE) that you cannot comment on?

(The marking "This discussion has been closed" is the thread being closed and the comments above by BootsMullery apply)

Cross posted the example is a closed competition

pate-ci0

My understanding was that when a comp end date is passed the system automatically closes the thread to any further interaction from users, both comments and marking, in the belief that such interaction is no longer relevant. Comments on that comp can be made by starting a new thread on Compers Chat and referencing the expired comp. Game Over stores expired comps for reference only. The OP has no say in the matter unless they change the End Date before the comp expires. I would not know how to block comments on a live comp.

pate-ci0

andrew_g_scott said:

For example https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6386389/e-11-09-win-the-ultimate-cookie-x-coffee-dunking-bundle-ig#latest 

Note the "This discussion has been closed". You can't click the green tick or red X. 

The End Date was yesterday, so it has now expired. I marked this previously as Skipped.

BootsMullery

pate-ci0 said:

My understanding was that when a comp end date is passed the system automatically closes the thread to any further interaction from users, both comments and marking, in the belief that such interaction is no longer relevant. Comments on that comp can be made by starting a new thread on Compers Chat and referencing the expired comp. Game Over stores expired comps for reference only. The OP has no say in the matter unless they change the End Date before the comp expires. I would not know how to block comments on a live comp.

You should differentiate between "End Date" and "Closing Date". The date posted at the start of the Title has always been called the End Date and this has no actual effect on the thread. The Closing Date is the date entered into the field named as Closing Date, which is supposed to be a mandatory field entered when posting a competition and which cannot be seen by anyone except the OP. It is the Closing Date which is used by the Sort function to sort the board into Closing Date order and also to "Close" a thread. (They may even have named this field as Closing Date because it Closes the thread rather than because it is when the competition Ends.)

I said "supposed to be mandatory" above because some people do seem to manage to post a thread without entering a date, in which case the system defaults to 00/00/0000 which is not good because 00/00/0000 is specifically the date which is used for continuing regular comps with no specific end date. It would help if this field was actually made mandatory so that a thread could not be posted without it being completed.

At the time of posting this, the "Closed" threads do not seem to have been moved to GO since last Thursday. Now updated.
There are three threads which seem to have defaulted to 00/00/0000 which I have posted a note on but the OP hasn't been back on since posting them on 28th August.

Comments cannot be Closed separately from threads, it is the same thing and cannot be done by ordinary members.

pate-ci0

Quite agree Boots, I was slipshod in equating the End and Closing dates, but my excuse is that they should be the same and that it should not be possible to post without filling in the 'mandatory' Closing Date. Quite frankly, as someone who has been in the IT business since1991, I find it irritating that so many of the useful features we have been longing for since the change in the Forum software have still not been implemented. Picking up the start of the string in a Post header and using the End Date to automatically fill in the Mandatory Closing Date is something first year Uni students can do with their eyes shut.

BootsMullery

One reason for a Thread/Comments being closed when the comp is actually still running is when a poster enters the wrong date in the Closing Date field 
See the thread here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6380679/e-16-09-md-win-180-of-disney-and-stitch-story-crafty-treats#latest
Although the comp ends on 16/09 as shown in the Title, the Closing Date field was entered as 09/09/2022. So the thread became closed at 23:59 GMT on 09/09 and, as a closed thread, it has been moved to Game Over.
It is quite an easy error to make when selecting the date from the calendar provided, just clicking 1 week earlier.