COMPETITIONS FEEDBACK

Your feedback would REALLY help and I will actually take all of it into consideration. You guys need to tell me what you want to see as I don't just want to do things for the sake of it if nobody wants it.

Competition entries are really limited and have been for ages. What is it that makes you guys not enter them? Effort? Crap prizes? Don't really play Habbo? What kind of competitions are your favs and what sort of prizes would make you enter competitions? We're thinking of a monthly voucher prize at the moment, would this interest people? Mainly Amazon as you can pretty much get anything and everything from there.

Feedback appreciated.

@buttons; @Cerys;

Members who have read this thread:
buttons*, Catchy, Cerys, despect, scottish

lmao

Plz feedback :( or i cant give you nice prizes

I think prizes are okay but maybe some could be more branded for people who do not use Habbo so it could be more forum things, more competitions for the competitions VIP too because I haven't seen that given out for agesss. Does it even still exist? I definitely agree with the monthly vouchers too, that would be great and it would I think get people entering them a lot more!

I don't personally enter graphic competitions but I know they are very popular so more of those would be good too. I think something that competitions have had a lack of advertisement on client and on twitter. I know Martin has been doing some competitions and his competitions have been advertised and getting a decent amount of interest which is great to see!

Maybe you could also get other departments involved in competitions so other departments could have like a monthly competition, I know for one that HabboxLive would be very up for doing a monthly competition if that's something you'd be willing to let us do.

Well done and good luck in your new role either way :).

Dw I'm writing u a nice lil paragraph when I get onto my laptop x x

I know I'm staff again now, but I'll still give my input on why I didn't usually enter competitions!

Firstly, when I left as Competitions Manager and James and Rosie took over they changed the way competitions were released and had them where X amount of them began and ended on the same date, which is fine, but once you've entered them all you're literally waiting 5-6 days for new ones. I think it could be interesting to do 'Quick-Fire' competitions that last less time, but the prizes are still worthwhile - a little like Quick Quizzes in the Forum Department and the ones they run for Habbox 24. You need to give members something new to enter most of the time whether it be on Habbo or on the Forum. When I say on Habbo as well, you could easily just create a mini maze, get them to screenshot themselves in the last room and say if you enter you're in the running to win X prize, just always keep them interested and it might pay off!

I think the prizes could be improved, I know you want to do this already, so I won't go over this too much! I think the prizes should be expanded for the likes of those who have a lot of VIP/Tokens/Creds as they probably don't really need it - you could also do a points system for members who enter/win competitions so they can reach milestones to win certain prizes, similarly to the Staff of the Month scheme.

I think you might have gathered this when I returned, but I hate competitions that follow the same aim that are done repeatedly, it gets really boring when there are so many potential ideas out there!

Also, the names of the competitions in the past have gone downhill, they don't grab my attention and make me want to enter, a competition name should be snappy, but should also summarise the competition's aim in it as much as they can too. I remember in recent months there were stupid names that didn't even make sense nor explain the competition - plus the name actually didn't relate at all, what's the point in that? I think they could be improved, but I'm sure that will come in time and I have seen an improvement recently too.

Edit: In relation to the prizes, there's already an exclusive VIP for the department, but you could also release exclusive icons for the winners/entries too. This could probably be expanded and be explained more in-depth, but it's something to consider.

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Originally Posted by despect

I think prizes are okay but maybe some could be more branded for people who do not use Habbo so it could be more forum things, more competitions for the competitions VIP too because I haven't seen that given out for agesss. Does it even still exist? I definitely agree with the monthly vouchers too, that would be great and it would I think get people entering them a lot more!

I don't personally enter graphic competitions but I know they are very popular so more of those would be good too. I think something that competitions have had a lack of advertisement on client and on twitter. I know Martin has been doing some competitions and his competitions have been advertised and getting a decent amount of interest which is great to see!

Maybe you could also get other departments involved in competitions so other departments could have like a monthly competition, I know for one that HabboxLive would be very up for doing a monthly competition if that's something you'd be willing to let us do.

Well done and good luck in your new role either way :).

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In regards to the special VIP I'm not too sure but will find out, this is something I was thinking to myself earlier though. An exclusive VIP colour which only one person can have at a time and maybe a badge if people like forum badges. In regards to the vouchers, this is something I'm seriously considering as Habbo prizes aren't enough anymore and I think it would increase activity on the forum generally. In talks atm on what types of competitions these would be though and how they'd be run e.g. posting comp? or normal comps? Gonna aim to try set this up shortly though with monthly vouchers as I think it could definitely work. Would also be interested in working with other departments such as the radio and events so let's talk soon about that @FlyingJesus; I now have access to the twitter and gonna aim to try promote more and encourage more users and posters, also got a few other ideas for promoting which I'm gonna be working on shortly.

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Originally Posted by Samanfa

I know I'm staff again now, but I'll still give my input on why I didn't usually enter competitions!

Firstly, when I left as Competitions Manager and James and Rosie took over they changed the way competitions were released and had them where X amount of them began and ended on the same date, which is fine, but once you've entered them all you're literally waiting 5-6 days for new ones. I think it could be interesting to do 'Quick-Fire' competitions that last less time, but the prizes are still worthwhile - a little like Quick Quizzes in the Forum Department and the ones they run for Habbox 24. You need to give members something new to enter most of the time whether it be on Habbo or on the Forum. When I say on Habbo as well, you could easily just create a mini maze, get them to screenshot themselves in the last room and say if you enter you're in the running to win X prize, just always keep them interested and it might pay off!

I think the prizes could be improved, I know you want to do this already, so I won't go over this too much! I think the prizes should be expanded for the likes of those who have a lot of VIP/Tokens/Creds as they probably don't really need it - you could also do a points system for members who enter/win competitions so they can reach milestones to win certain prizes, similarly to the Staff of the Month scheme.

I think you might have gathered this when I returned, but I hate competitions that follow the same aim that are done repeatedly, it gets really boring when there are so many potential ideas out there!

Also, the names of the competitions in the past have gone downhill, they don't grab my attention and make me want to enter, a competition name should be snappy, but should also summarise the competition's aim in it as much as they can too. I remember in recent months there were stupid names that didn't even make sense nor explain the competition - plus the name actually didn't relate at all, what's the point in that? I think they could be improved, but I'm sure that will come in time and I have seen an improvement recently too.

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Mazes are a good idea, are they still popular? @xxMATTGxx; @Absently; how would I go about making a maze? Need your expertise, also @Red; and @Kyle; you were always good with rooms and had lots of good ideas so your help would be good if you have the time.

In regards to comp names @Absently; has come up with a good idea to attract the right people for the right comps, so if we're running a real life prize we will simply put [REAL LIFE PRIZE] [HABBO PRIZE] [VIP] etc etc. Would that work for people? And if you seen [REAL LIFE PRIZE] would people be more inclined to click on the comp to see what it was about? Im gonna look into all the things you've said sam, thanks for all the feedback!

after being in competitions management for around 2 years, i've already seen a lot of the competitions being posted multiple times so i don't enter because i can't be bothered to enter the same competition over and over again. the prizes aren't really an issue for me because i just converted to rep anyway (i don't know what the substitute for this is, sorry i'm not up to date).
i think you need to focus more on advertising on habbo rather than the forum. a lot of the prizes you offer are habbo-based and not a lot of forum users are regular players any more and interested in those prizes. so i think that, instead of fully adjusting the prizes to suit the forum members, you should be focusing on advertising the competitions on habbo since those are the people that are actively playing and will be more likely interested in the credits. focus on the noobs. haven't seen management advertise on habs in a while, but it worked when i was in comps management since entries doubled.

good luck :)

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Originally Posted by Catchy

In regards to the special VIP I'm not too sure but will find out, this is something I was thinking to myself earlier though. An exclusive VIP colour which only one person can have at a time and maybe a badge if people like forum badges. In regards to the vouchers, this is something I'm seriously considering as Habbo prizes aren't enough anymore and I think it would increase activity on the forum generally. In talks atm on what types of competitions these would be though and how they'd be run e.g. posting comp? or normal comps? Gonna aim to try set this up shortly though with monthly vouchers as I think it could definitely work. Would also be interested in working with other departments such as the radio and events so let's talk soon about that @FlyingJesus; I now have access to the twitter and gonna aim to try promote more and encourage more users and posters, also got a few other ideas for promoting which I'm gonna be working on shortly.



Mazes are a good idea, are they still popular? @xxMATTGxx; @Absently; how would I go about making a maze? Need your expertise, also @Red; and @Kyle; you were always good with rooms and had lots of good ideas so your help would be good if you have the time.

In regards to comp names @Absently; has come up with a good idea to attract the right people for the right comps, so if we're running a real life prize we will simply put [REAL LIFE PRIZE] [HABBO PRIZE] [VIP] etc etc. Would that work for people? And if you seen [REAL LIFE PRIZE] would people be more inclined to click on the comp to see what it was about? Im gonna look into all the things you've said sam, thanks for all the feedback!

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We could always contact maze owners on habbo and promise them advertisement around our forum if we can have their mazes included in our competitions, just as mazes can take quite a lot of effort to personally make!

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Originally Posted by Sho

after being in competitions management for around 2 years, i've already seen a lot of the competitions being posted multiple times so i don't enter because i can't be bothered to enter the same competition over and over again. the prizes aren't really an issue for me because i just converted to rep anyway (i don't know what the substitute for this is, sorry i'm not up to date).
i think you need to focus more on advertising on habbo rather than the forum. a lot of the prizes you offer are habbo-based and not a lot of forum users are regular players any more and interested in those prizes. so i think that, instead of fully adjusting the prizes to suit the forum members, you should be focusing on advertising the competitions on habbo since those are the people that are actively playing and will be more likely interested in the credits. focus on the noobs. haven't seen management advertise on habs in a while, but it worked when i was in comps management since entries doubled.

good luck :)

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Perfect, thank you! Did you promote using a seperate account or just your regular habbo name?

I'm def up for doing some joint work sure, but for me the thing that puts me off comps half the time is that they're not competitions, they're random draws :P seems sometimes like Habbox can't come to any decisions without using a random number generator which removes any incentive to put effort into entering

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Originally Posted by Catchy

Perfect, thank you! Did you promote using a seperate account or just your regular habbo name?

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just my regular account! ust don't spam rooms with it and it should be fine. i used to just chill in the help desk or in the event and whenever someone mentioned credits or whenever people were waiting to play a game, i'd just mention habbox.com/comps and advertise some of the current competitions. during big tournaments is a good time to advertise, shame you just missed habboxween :P some djs used to advertise on air while i was in management too, gina was one, but not sure if the djs still do that

OK SO lets think hmm I'm just gonna write down ideas as they come to me so if it seems all over the place then i'm sorry x

Firstly I think too long has been spent trying to increase prize quality rather than competition quality. Who knows if behind the scenes the previous manager was trying to increase competition quality as well but it certainly didn't come across that way to me :) But yeah I think rather than focusing on bigger and better prizes it's more important to actually make the competitions fun again cos no matter how big the prize is it's unlikely that people will enter a dull and boring comp just cos they get 5 extra credits than before. And if they do happen to enter for the better prize e.g. a voucher, obviously you can't give them out for every single comp so it's gonna be a lil bit extra activity just for that one comp. (Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the voucher prizes etc but in the long run I don't see them as a solution !)

So leading on from that, the competitions are so samey you know, it's always just 'blah blah little introduction, do this for me, prize' it gets a bit boring! I dunno maybe like expand from that template, encourage staff to experiment with their ideas and formats. Maybe also stop isolating the comps just to the comps forum? Yknow if there's a comp that relates to TV post it in the TV subforum as well, or music-in the music subforum. That way people who wouldn't usually go in the comps forum but are interested in music or TV etc will see the comp and be like ooh i can do that that sounds fun woo. You know what I mean? (obviously still keep posting them in the comps forum aswell otherwise it'd get too tricky to keep track of whats where haha so maybe post the comp in e.g. the music forum then at the end say to enter post here then give a link IDK : ) )

Another idea is bring comps onto habbo every now and then. I don't think you were around for the past few months where we had little games with a scoreboard and you got a point for reaching the end, but they seemed to go down really well! Or a nice lil competition of last man standing, people always love them. It is bordering into events territory I guess but im sure nobody will mind cos its not as if events is really doing much anyway, so I'm sure theyd appreciate the collaboration!

Idk what else to say really. I do think something needs to be done to actually get people to even look at the comps subforum cos I won't lie I don't bother even looking to see if the comp is fun enough to enter, so I bet if I do that then others definitely will too! I dunno what solution there is to that tho, so youre on your own there ;)

I'm looking forward to seeing you as a manager tbh, it'll be nice to see you bring a department back from being dead for so many months! :)

i find nearly all of the competitions on hxf very cringey

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Originally Posted by lemons

i find nearly all of the competitions on hxf very cringey

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You're going to love my next one then isn't he @Catchy;?

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Originally Posted by Samanfa

You're going to love my next one then isn't he @Catchy;?

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definitely! @lemons; there a new one out to win a dino egg which isn't too cringe!

The forum is even quieter than it used to be and the same system comps has had for years simply won't work anymore - bulk comps that last 5ish days. Nah. If it were me then i'd look for have less competitions coming out but of a better quality that last longer. If you write a competition and you're not irritated because you can't enter it yourself then your competition is shit and shouldn't go public, you should be focussing on bringing the quality of competitions up, not having more of them to enter. With quality will hopefully come enjoyment of entering > more regular entrees > more entries.

Also even tho I don't really use habbox much anymore I still really care for the dept, the new way (don't know its just a test or not) of displaying the competition threads "WIN THIS FURNI AND THIS THING" is really ugly and is the kind of thing that instantly makes me want to look away. Imagine flicking through facebook and you see "WIN AN IPAD" how often do you ever actually stop and look at it. Just my thoughts.

Good luck in the role tho.

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Originally Posted by Yupt

The forum is even quieter than it used to be and the same system comps has had for years simply won't work anymore - bulk comps that last 5ish days. Nah. If it were me then i'd look for have less competitions coming out but of a better quality that last longer. If you write a competition and you're not irritated because you can't enter it yourself then your competition is shit and shouldn't go public, you should be focussing on bringing the quality of competitions up, not having more of them to enter. With quality will hopefully come enjoyment of entering > more regular entrees > more entries.

Also even tho I don't really use habbox much anymore I still really care for the dept, the new way (don't know its just a test or not) of displaying the competition threads "WIN THIS FURNI AND THIS THING" is really ugly and is the kind of thing that instantly makes me want to look away. Imagine flicking through facebook and you see "WIN AN IPAD" how often do you ever actually stop and look at it. Just my thoughts.

Good luck in the role tho.

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I know Jake has some good ideas and has been thinking about how long the competitions run for as well as other aspects! He got the role a couple of days ago so it's fairly new to him, and he's trying to put his own stamp on it I think (hence you see a competition saying WIN A DRAGON EGG to try and entice people to enter). He's probably just trying to see what works!

I have more feedback to give so I'll post it here, as Jake will take it on board at some point. I'm not sure if forum members know these things about the department though, but one of them I would push to try increase applications.

Firstly, the forum where we submit competitions is now private, meaning we can enter any competitions from another person in the department providing it's not our own. Although this has been a long time coming, I don't actually know if forum members know this and may all believe that we still cant enter competitions ourselves. To a point, I believe it's a good idea as there should have been no reason for us not to enter them. However, to me personally, it takes away the fact that we are a team and therefore we should act like one - give feedback on each other's competitions, help others out when they need it. It shouldn't solely rely on the manager, on in other cases the Senior Competitions Staff if there is one!

Secondly, we no longer pick competition winners, again it's down to the managers, which again I don't think it should be, a department shouldn't be run like if the manager is away then the department can't run. Competitions is a department that can run without a manager providing there's someone to move out competitions or to check that their up to scratch (other members of staff can do the latter). I returned a couple of days ago to find that we don't pick our winners - the only link we have to the community is the competition we wrote for them, but surely if it was our idea for the competition, then we know ourselves what we're looking for in terms of entries and have a different train of thought from the manager. Now I'm not saying the manager can't give feedback on our winner if they don't believe the one we chose was the best entry, but a department shouldn't solely be down to putting all the work onto the manager.

There's currently a competition I wrote that's out, and I've noticed with Jake already that he's all about staff interaction and trying to make the department great again, he's not someone who just goes through the motions and hopes it will improve in time by doing nothing. He wants to bring real life prizes and sought after Habbo prizes to the table, which he has begun to do. Not only that, but he actually okayed it with me about the prize we were offering for my competition - I've never really experienced that (unless we wanted to put a prize on the competition ourselves), but I thought that it was a really nice addition to the department! I informed him it doesn't usually work like that, but like I said he's wanting to make the department great again and I think to start with, although the quality of competitions need to improve, so does staff communication and the link we have between the members entering our competitions too.

I agree with what @Samanfa; says about the Quick fire quizes I think they're a good way of giving incentive to users for entering quick comps that are only active for max of 48 hours and have some great prizes.

I think the Forum Department did a great job releasing these and it's a shame they're only released during specific event times - as I feel these are greatly popular because they don't follow the tradition rules of competitions where you need to:

come up with 'x' and explain 'y' or purpose a new 'x' to help 'y'

These are so generic now and as @Sho; has said they have started to recirculate within the department which makes them meaningless and boring to enter.

I anticipate that introducing Amazon vouchers could be another great incentive for the department and its partakers but how long will this be sustained? and, how long will this keep users happy? Multiple people have tried to do the same thing by offering "real-life" prizes as a prize form but haven't followed through - I would love it if it was followed through as it is definitely something worth entering for then.

I think that the department could also benefit from more advertisement around the forum and this is something I highlighted in my app to @Absently; and is something I think could benefit entry levels. Also, along the lines of advertisement I do think things could be done to strengthen this such as, more Twitter activity, as well as possibly more recognition from the radio dept? Client advertisement too? @Elegance; did an amazing job of constantly adverting competitions and they did spike in entries when they were being advertised as well as the people applying for comps staff - so advertising definitely does work!

Just want to say a massive thanks for everyone taking the time to feedback, and feedback is always welcome either through this thread or you can pm me directly with any ideas. I'll be going through this thread properly in the next few days and noting down everything people have said and hopefully come up with various ways as a team to implement all this feedback. Will report back shortly. I'm already focousing on better prizes, there is a big prize comp out at the moment which is really easy to enter if anybody is interested :)

Oh and @scottish; I'd quite like your feedback as you always have lots to say, plz????

the competitions themselves are OK however i think for me personally it's because am not entirely interested in habbox in terms of its events, djing, etc and never have been. the forum has only ever been for me to talk to people, not to gain rewards or to improve the place. what i think would make *me* participate is if it was advertised more, not just "hey enter my comps" but if it was posted in spam and actually appealed to forum members too? really hard to explain what i mean, but the format for competitions events official forum stuff etc is so boring:

[Competition] Title: Ends ____!

just so boring and robotic and doesn't appeal to me although the content isn't that bad

i would like to see more forum based competitions/events, ones that get people participating TOGETHER, or competing with each other at a bigger level? am not imaginative enough to come up with who would be my twin in the womb, or captioning a picture, what appeals to me is more person focuses or team work events.

hope that helps !

I think I kind of get what you mean about this (I hope I'm gonna get this right).

Basically, when I applied I suggested something called "Categorised Competitions" and basically what it would entail would be is that if a competition is posted, but has a specific subject area (e.g/ Photography, TV, Habbo) these competitions wouldn't just sit in the Competitions forum it would also be exploited into its relevant sub-forum categories such as "Other Graphics, including Pictures & Photography" or "TV & Film" I felt like this is something that would encourage comp entries due to more people viewing sub-forums like Spam than the comps section.

I don't know if this is what you meant but this is how I would of thought you meant by advertising???

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Originally Posted by buttons

the competitions themselves are OK however i think for me personally it's because am not entirely interested in habbox in terms of its events, djing, etc and never have been. the forum has only ever been for me to talk to people, not to gain rewards or to improve the place. what i think would make *me* participate is if it was advertised more, not just "hey enter my comps" but if it was posted in spam and actually appealed to forum members too? really hard to explain what i mean, but the format for competitions events official forum stuff etc is so boring:

[Competition] Title: Ends ____!

just so boring and robotic and doesn't appeal to me although the content isn't that bad

i would like to see more forum based competitions/events, ones that get people participating TOGETHER, or competing with each other at a bigger level? am not imaginative enough to come up with who would be my twin in the womb, or captioning a picture, what appeals to me is more person focuses or team work events.

hope that helps !

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Originally Posted by James

I think I kind of get what you mean about this (I hope I'm gonna get this right).

Basically, when I applied I suggested something called "Categorised Competitions" and basically what it would entail would be is that if a competition is posted, but has a specific subject area (e.g/ Photography, TV, Habbo) these competitions wouldn't just sit in the Competitions forum it would also be exploited into its relevant sub-forum categories such as "Other Graphics, including Pictures & Photography" or "TV & Film" I felt like this is something that would encourage comp entries due to more people viewing sub-forums like Spam than the comps section.

I don't know if this is what you meant but this is how I would of thought you meant by advertising???

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not rly but that's a gd idea that i think would work
i basically just meant advertising in general, in the past advertising consisted of posting a thread saying post in my comp but not really selling it. ur idea (think sum1 else posted it too) would work tho and i think it helps if a manager can get across to a wide range of people not just stick to their friends/other comps staff etc

Yeye I mentioned that too James and I've noticed it already being implemented so it's definitely making a difference already yey cos I've actually noticed a competition this time since he's posted it in the subforums haha
great minds think alike eh ;)

I like your idea Jen with the like team competitions, they always seem to get great interest like the mole and this hunger games thing they're doing soon
It's great to see something actually being done in competitions!