Comps visibility

[FlyingJesus]

Soooo since I've been entering more comps recently it's come to my attention that we're still for some reason using the old method of "make a bunch of comp threads and then wait a week or so before putting them out in public" that has always been totally useless. The upshot of this is that when they get moved into the visible comps area, no-one realises unless they manually check because they won't show up in new posts/activity stream which is how anyone with a brain scans the forum these days, and so comps go largely unnoticed until someone stumbles in and posts an entry. The way things currently are the average amount of entries (apart from Rosie's comps where she forces people to enter) is about 4-6, which frankly is crap.

Why this practice is still in place is beyond me, especially since there are three exceptionally simple ways to solve it and potentially bring far more visibility to comps, which I assume the department would like.

Solution 1: Instead of simply moving the threads from their hidden areas, clone them and move the clone (with the new post date) into public view so that it shows up in new posts stuff.
Solution 2: Just let people post them live on the day :S no idea why it was ever thought a good idea to have a bunch of comps sitting around out of view waiting to be picked up when they could be in use and getting entries.
Solution 3: The absolute simplest method, and can't believe it's never been implemented, just BUMP THE THREAD when you move it. A simple message saying "this comp is now live!" or something would be sufficient to push it into view, and since comps is a job that otherwise takes about 5 minutes a week to do it's not particularly taxing on the staff. As Elegance has shown with her constant badgering of everyone who'll listen to her, advertising works, and what better way to advertise a forum competition than to let the bloody forum know it's there.

[Samantha]

The way the Competitions Department works is you have a competition due date, and then there are about 5 days before the competition goes out to give chance to management to iron out any errors, make sure the competition hasn't been done recently etc.

I could be wrong, but I thought @Jam; did start bumping competitions - unless these were fixed answer ones, but it sounds familiar that he bumped the threads. I couldn't find an example recently, so maybe it was only done for a bit!

I would go with solution one; I haven't copied a thread in ages so I'm not 100% aware if it goes with the post date of when it was posted in the previous forum (I think it might though), so it wouldn't appear on new posts.

The second solution I don't agree with - it might be an easy option/obvious one, but the time before the actual competition goes live does help. I know it doesn't take a lot of time, but if it's posted that day, due to go out a couple of hours later there isn't time to SPAG check, add prizes, check if it's been done recently, if someone can't get on until it should actually be out and available to enter. However, the gap could potentially be shortened or alternatively the competitions can be posted by James or Coral, as the competition calendar already has who the writer of the competition is so it wouldn't be a problem much. I remember at one point most Competitions Staff did post all their competitions at the start of the month (which I think is fine, as long as members know that they're available to enter) and that behind the scenes was going to change, but James would have to verify what happened with this as I left before it was changed or implemented.

The third solution I went over before.

I agree that something does need to be done about it, as I've been entering a couple (I only really enter ones that aren't done every month/are different as I get sick of repetitiveness lmao), but I didn't know most of them were there until someone entered one.

[James]

We keep them back so we have time to edit the ones that need it, or to ensure everything is good to go.

If you wish, I can bump each competition once it's moved to the public, that is not an issue at all.

I don't think I would ever allow them to be posted live because lets face it, some comps i have seen are dreadful and require a lot of editing (@Samanfa; cough).

[MKR&*42]

Posting them live isn't a good idea, speaking from past experience a lot of comps do need some editing/tweaking in the comps staff subforum before they are satisfactory enough to go out. But the idea of bumping and cloning does seem like a good solution

[Kyle]

yes just clone them then
dob jone

[Elegance]

i remember i used to post a thread in the community notice board forum every night when the competitions had been moved for the public to see, the thread had a little hint as to what the competition was about and a link to where you could enter it. i know a few other previous comp managers also did this but it always seemed to become forgotten about after a few days but at least this way it'd be shown in the activity feed. could be half of a solution

[Expling]

i remember i used to post a thread in the community notice board forum every night when the competitions had been moved for the public to see, the thread had a little hint as to what the competition was about and a link to where you could enter it. i know a few other previous comp managers also did this but it always seemed to become forgotten about after a few days but at least this way it'd be shown in the activity feed. could be half of a solution

Yupt (bolt?) use to do this too!!!!!

It was cool cos although people might not see it, you'd still see the title of the new comps in the cnb which would make you want to go look

& they use to do the comps subscription too... is that still a thing? If not, you should deff think about bringing it back

& Yeah I agree with the cloning thread thing or something to make the threads look fresh

[Yupt]

it's all about advertisement. assuming its the same as when I was manager then the system works, its just people need to be made aware when new comps are made public. CNB, Competitions subscription - they work! they're just effort to do, I did them for a while but it does become incredibly dull to do every evening (I was always lazy). The dept has always had a rule against "advertising your own competitions, advertise the department instead" which is both sensible and stupid - can't remember what my stance was on this when it was my department tbh... but if my opinion counts for anything now then i'd suggest allowing staff to advertise their own competitions and have a in-dept competition for getting the most entries etc, both encouraging originality and advertisement which lets be honest is the whole point of the dept in the first place.

[!:random!:!]

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[FlyingJesus]

Thank you for your support it means a lot to me *+*+*+

But yeah seriously even something as simple as a thread bump when they go live would be smashing I reckon, puts them in view of EVERYONE that way rather than just people who've already chosen to subscribe to comps