Competitions

[Calvin]

Just a little suggestion for the competitions department, perhaps instead of just official competitions that close in like 20 days or so, do quick competitions that close in something like one day, or you could do quick questions like when Archie died in Eastenders you could of done a competition asking who do you think killed him and whoever chose the correct answer, pick a random number.

This would get more people entering competitions as sometimes users don't enter the current competitions as they take ages for the winner to be announced.

Another suggestion could be, on the thread of the competition actually bump it with the winner or on the thread and at the end of the month do a list with all the winners.

[Inseriousity.]

I'm not really a fan of 1-day competitions because that means you're cutting out people who maybe aren't on that day. Every competition lasts for 5 days, which gives people enough time to enter but isn't too long. The reason that competitions take so long to announce isn't really the fault of the competition but the administrators (me and Alex) and we'll both admit we're far too slow but this is something we're working on and there should be improvement.

As for the latter suggestion, this has been suggested before and we were going to do it but at the end of the day, I don't think the benefits are that great so it won't be continuing. If anyone asks me when are the winners going to be announced, I redirect them to the Competitions Winners thread in the Competitions forum and they don't tend to come back after that.

[Calvin]

I'm not really a fan of 1-day competitions because that means you're cutting out people who maybe aren't on that day. Every competition lasts for 5 days, which gives people enough time to enter but isn't too long. The reason that competitions take so long to announce isn't really the fault of the competition but the administrators (me and Alex) and we'll both admit we're far too slow but this is something we're working on and there should be improvement.

As for the latter suggestion, this has been suggested before and we were going to do it but at the end of the day, I don't think the benefits are that great so it won't be continuing. If anyone asks me when are the winners going to be announced, I redirect them to the Competitions Winners thread in the Competitions forum and they don't tend to come back after that.What if that person wasn't on for 5 days then? ;)

But you should try and do more 'quick' competitions, such as the day before the killer of Archie on EE was revealed you could of done who do you think killed Archie and it closes before the episode is shown. If you were to do this then do it in the community notice board, as when I go to competitions I think it's the ones that take ages to close.

[marriott0.01]

What if that person wasn't on for 5 days then? ;)

But you should try and do more 'quick' competitions, such as the day before the killer of Archie on EE was revealed you could of done who do you think killed Archie and it closes before the episode is shown. If you were to do this then do it in the community notice board, as when I go to competitions I think it's the ones that take ages to close.

I agree with having 1 day competitions, like quick-wins. But the problem with having things like "who killed archie" would be that there are quite a lot of leaks in the news and someone would genuinely know and some will just be guessing. But it's a good idea and with the right competition in place it would work. I don't do the current competitions but I would probably do the quick-fire ones as they'll be simpler to work out than the ones that take 5 days and less effort.

[Inseriousity.]

Sammeth tried having a 1 day competition and entries were low so he gave people more time to enter. Which is why I will never do any. Well, the competitions department won't be anyway but other departments are free to do one-day competitions if they wish.

[marriott0.01]

Sammeth tried having a 1 day competition and entries were low so he gave people more time to enter. Which is why I will never do any. Well, the competitions department won't be anyway but other departments are free to do one-day competitions if they wish.

I know a lot of users nowadays are discouraged doing the longer time competitions because quite frankly I *** waiting that long for a competition to end, I'll prefer quick competitions that can just be over and done with and then you can try again in quick succession. Some of the things you have to do in the 5 day competitions have always been long-winded and tbh I'm too lazy to do them, and no doubt some other people are too.

[Alex3213]

I know a lot of users nowadays are discouraged doing the longer time competitions because quite frankly I *** waiting that long for a competition to end, I'll prefer quick competitions that can just be over and done with and then you can try again in quick succession. Some of the things you have to do in the 5 day competitions have always been long-winded and tbh I'm too lazy to do them, and no doubt some other people are too.

It was when he was General Manager and the entries were indeed very low. Five days is a reasonable time, remember competitions did used to go on for a fortnight. I think this gives everyone enough time to enter. Some of the things I agree are long-winded, I've done that and quite a few members of the department have too. However, there are very simple ones too which require one sentence or answering a few questions.

[Inseriousity.]

However, our figures will disagree with you (I'll go get the graph and edit it in). There are easy competitions (e.g Search the Squares) and there are also harder ones as people were both complaining that there were too many easy competitions or too many harder competitions, so it's all about finding the right balance.

I'm standing with what I say; we will be sticking with the 5 days competitions as this gives a fair chance for people to enter who may not be online that day but isn't too long-winded (competitions used to be open for a month).

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/5800/compsentriessept.png
Number of entries a month