Site Comments & Suggestions

Contest Forum Suggestion.

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  • Sep 20th, 2012 5:10 pm
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Deal Guru
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May 25, 2011
10105 posts
14411 upvotes

Contest Forum Suggestion.

Problem: Newer posters are forgetting to post the date the contest expires - this causes some difficulty with sorting and moving contests to Expired.

Suggestion: Date of expiration be added to the New Post title format in the contest forum. It could be a software update or a simple reminder of sequence in the new post function.

The title should look like: year/month/day title of contest (exceptions).

Thanks
7 replies
Deal Guru
User avatar
Jul 30, 2005
12922 posts
106506 upvotes
Richmond Hill
Since the timing of contests is rather critical, perhaps RFD could look into implementing a dates function for new contests posts.

In the same way that we currently have the "category" drop-down with "Once", "Monthly", "Weekly", "Daily", etc. and it won't allow us to post the new thread without selecting this first, perhaps we could do the same for expiry dates, or even better one of those pop-up calendars that we frequently see on websites where you can scroll through year/month/day until you find the date that you want and select that.

This would accomplish several things:
  • most important: it would ensure that everyone inputs an expiry date (it's shocking how many contest posters don't do that, even though a cursory glance through Contests Forum should tell you that's something standard)
  • it will ensure consistency in the expiry date format
  • if implemented properly the expiry date would be sortable and searchable which would help the contesters find the contests that are expiring soon, and also so that the mods can easily locate the expired contest threads and clear them out
Iv ta'be' Hev SoH, ghobe' Qoy lIj mu'mey, as SoH jaH pa' vo' vetlh tuq joq vetlh veng, shake lItha' the dust vo' lIj qamDu' (translation from the original Klingon: And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet)
Deal Guru
User avatar
May 25, 2011
10105 posts
14411 upvotes
Grrrr, well I am in the West so really I posted mine first!
Deal Expert
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Dec 22, 2006
44565 posts
44973 upvotes
Economy, NS
Is it possible to have a software update to the Forums that would allow people to input a date from a dropdown menu?

IMO it would make things alot easier.
Deal Guru
User avatar
Jul 30, 2005
12922 posts
106506 upvotes
Richmond Hill
I just reported my post, so don't report it again!!
Deal Addict
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Nov 23, 2010
2502 posts
575 upvotes
Hey all,

Yes this is something that has been discussed (more for the hot deal section but also for the contest section). Its in the pipe line and on our road map, we are just waiting for some development cycles to free up.
For all community related matters, please PM TomRFD
Deal Expert
User avatar
Dec 7, 2009
17762 posts
3550 upvotes
Toronto
Copying my below post in the contests section to this section:

As an FYI, other sites implemented the drop-down menu for entering expiry dates - which in theory was a great idea - HOWEVER, due to the way the new 'drop down' expiry date appeared in the thread, it was non-searchable. The drop-down date appeared kind of like a side-bar to the actual thread title - and it was no longer possible to search for contests by expiry date because the formatted date was no longer included as part of the manually typed, proper (and searchable) title (note: it also was not searchable under any of the advanced search features).
So, although it guaranteed uniformity in posting, people lost the benefit of being able to search by end-date (which, in my opinion is extremely important and, i believe, is one of the key reasons that contest posters on rfd adopted the recent change to the date posting format). I'm in favour of a drop-down but ONLY if there is a way for the end dates to remain searchable.

*** PLEASE only make the change if you can ensure that we can still search by end date ***
Deal Guru
User avatar
Jul 30, 2005
12922 posts
106506 upvotes
Richmond Hill
jiffi wrote: Copying my below post in the contests section to this section:

As an FYI, other sites implemented the drop-down menu for entering expiry dates - which in theory was a great idea - HOWEVER, due to the way the new 'drop down' expiry date appeared in the thread, it was non-searchable. The drop-down date appeared kind of like a side-bar to the actual thread title - and it was no longer possible to search for contests by expiry date because the formatted date was no longer included as part of the manually typed, proper (and searchable) title (note: it also was not searchable under any of the advanced search features).
So, although it guaranteed uniformity in posting, people lost the benefit of being able to search by end-date (which, in my opinion is extremely important and, i believe, is one of the key reasons that contest posters on rfd adopted the recent change to the date posting format). I'm in favour of a drop-down but ONLY if there is a way for the end dates to remain searchable.

*** PLEASE only make the change if you can ensure that we can still search by end date ***
Or at least sortable, like what we're doing right now with the YYYY/MM/DD end date format, which as long the date is placed at the front of the thread title, allows us to sort the contest threads by end date.

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