Fault with the "Closing Date" field when posting on Competitions Time

One-Eye

When posting a new thread on Competitions Time there is an extra field to be completed in comparison to the rest of the forum (see picture below). This field is the Closing Date and is primarily used for sorting the forum. There is a large minority who enter competitions according to the closing date, and sorting by closing date is very important to them.

Until very recently, completing this field was mandatory, and if you tried to post without it, you got an error message - I can't remember the exact wording but it was some kind of "exception error".

Now, the software allows you to post without completing this field.

Please can the Closing Date return to being mandatory

PS. I don't expect this to be high priority, but newbies are especially prone to posting without completing the date field, and I think it may be causing the forum team to be asked to insert a date when a newbie has not entered one.

MSE_James

Thanks @One-Eye - just confirming we've seen this. Can't promise a very quick fix but it's now on our radar, so thanks again.

BootsMullery

MSE_James said:

Thanks @One-Eye - just confirming we've seen this. Can't promise a very quick fix but it's now on our radar, so thanks again.

@MSE_James Is anything happening about this problem? It is quite important on the Competitions boards as it is this date that controls an expired competition thread being "closed" and moved off of the main board to Game Over. 

When first created, this field WAS mandatory but the message given when the date was omitted was totally meaningless to the poster. So they would keep trying to post again and the system would then accept the post without date. 
It seems that, now, there is no warning given at all when the date is omitted but the system defaults to 00/00/0000.
If left with that date, they may sit on the board long after they have expired as they would never get automatically "closed".

These cases can be spotted if the board is "Sorted" by Closing Date and the end date, as posted in the thread title, is completely out of its correct position. I have been pointing out these cases to the OPs and mostly getting them corrected but it seems to be happening more and more often with even experienced posters forgetting to enter the date.
Here are two recent cases:-
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6510663/e-31-03-win-a-one4all-gift-card-worth-100#latest
and
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6510436/e-31-03-win-a-74-fox-bloom-sustainable-gift-hamper#latest

These were posted on 4th and 3rd March respectively and neither poster is a newbie. Both should have Closing Dates of 31/03/2024 but are being placed right at the end of the listing when sorted by Closing Date, presumably because they have the system default date of 00/00/0000.

ETA: Not surprising, the second of the two examples has now been edited and amended.
09/03 - ETA: Both of the example threads posted above, have now been edited and corrected.
BUT the problem remains. What, if anything, is happening?

MSE_Stephen

Hi everyone

Just to explain.

The expiry date being mandatory was previously kind of an accident. If you didn't provide one, the forum didn't know what to do and created a confusing error message. That stopped happening when that error was fixed.

in the coming months it is expected that changes will be made in the background to the Competitions Time features. These behind-the-scenes changes are just to make the special features locked in as a proper part of the forum rather than being 'bolted on'.

So when that change is made we can definitely make sure that the a mandatory expiry date is part of that.

But I'm checking with our provider if we can add a fix before then.

MSE_Stephen

And I have some good news!

A fix is begin tested, and unless we find any issues, it will be put in place at the end of this month.

When it's in place, if you don't add a Closing Date, you'll get the same kind of warning you would get if you'd forgotten the title or used too few characters...

BootsMullery

Sounds great!

One-Eye

Great news - thanks

BootsMullery

MSE_Stephen said:

And I have some good news!

A fix is begin tested, and unless we find any issues, it will be put in place at the end of this month.

When it's in place, if you don't add a Closing Date, you'll get the same kind of warning you would get if you'd forgotten the title or used too few characters...

@MSE_Stephen  Was this actually put in place at the end of March?
If a date is not entered and a warning is generated, can the warning be overridden and the thread still posted or will posting not be allowed until a date is entered?  This really should be a completely mandatory field and posting prevented until a date has been entered but this wasn't happening in the original version and after the (incomprehensible) warning was generated, the thread could still be posted without a date being entered.

I am asking because there are currently two threads posted during April where the date MAY have been omitted. Obviously I can't see the field on these threads but the threads are not being "sorted" correctly when the board is sorted by Closing Date and their positioning makes it look as if they may have gone to the default 00/00/0000.
These threads are:-
1. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6519633/e-05-05-win-lenovo-yoga-laptop-bundle-acc-req-gleam#latest  (Should have a Closing Date of 05/05/2024)
and
2. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6519640/win-coffee-and-a-variety-of-treats#latest  This one may no longer be on the board as it is, a) a duplicate thread and b) probably self promotion, so it may be removed at any time.

MSE_Stephen

BootsMullery said:

MSE_Stephen said:

And I have some good news!

A fix is begin tested, and unless we find any issues, it will be put in place at the end of this month.

When it's in place, if you don't add a Closing Date, you'll get the same kind of warning you would get if you'd forgotten the title or used too few characters...

@MSE_Stephen  Was this actually put in place at the end of March?

Hi @BootsMullery

I've just checked, and it looks like this fix was delayed for a few weeks. 
Current timeline is for it to be added in the week starting 22nd April.

When in place, much like the Title field, it won't let you continue posting until a date is provided.

BootsMullery

MSE_Stephen said:

BootsMullery said:

MSE_Stephen said:

And I have some good news!

A fix is begin tested, and unless we find any issues, it will be put in place at the end of this month.

When it's in place, if you don't add a Closing Date, you'll get the same kind of warning you would get if you'd forgotten the title or used too few characters...

@MSE_Stephen  Was this actually put in place at the end of March?

Hi @BootsMullery

I've just checked, and it looks like this fix was delayed for a few weeks. 
Current timeline is for it to be added in the week starting 22nd April.

When in place, much like the Title field, it won't let you continue posting until a date is provided.

Hi @MSE_Stephen
Another thought on this. What will happen when a thread is being transferred from another board which does not have a Closing Date field. Presumably the transfer cannot be prevented but will there still be a warning?
As it is at the moment, this is a far from unknown occurrence but the MSE team member effecting the transfer does not think to enter a date, perhaps they do not even realise that one is needed.

MSE_Stephen

BootsMullery said:

MSE_Stephen said:

BootsMullery said:

MSE_Stephen said:

And I have some good news!

A fix is begin tested, and unless we find any issues, it will be put in place at the end of this month.

When it's in place, if you don't add a Closing Date, you'll get the same kind of warning you would get if you'd forgotten the title or used too few characters...

@MSE_Stephen  Was this actually put in place at the end of March?

Hi @BootsMullery

I've just checked, and it looks like this fix was delayed for a few weeks. 
Current timeline is for it to be added in the week starting 22nd April.

When in place, much like the Title field, it won't let you continue posting until a date is provided.

Hi @MSE_Stephen
Another thought on this. What will happen when a thread is being transferred from another board which does not have a Closing Date field. Presumably the transfer cannot be prevented but will there still be a warning?
As it is at the moment, this is a far from unknown occurrence but the MSE team member effecting the transfer does not think to enter a date, perhaps they do not even realise that one is needed.

I don't think this is something that we'll ever be able to completely avoid. 

e.g. It will always be possible to create Competitions threads from the "Create New" button on the homepage. And that version of the New Thread editor lets you select the category you want from a drop-list rather than being the special one for Competitions.