Question Contest Questions

[konakid]

I am probably doing this wrong or posting in the wrong place. If so - sorry. I read the following, but saw no "Question Category," only "How Do I," Bug," and "Feature Request."

"How Do I?": If you have a question regarding what our products can do, choose the Question category.
Please do not choose the "How Do I?" category if you have a problem and would like assistance!

Sorry - couldn't understand what you meant by that, there was no Question Category in the drop down.

I just bought the year license and immediately set up my first contest on my test platform. So far it isn't what I thought. I may be getting buyer's remorse, as I just read the other thread regarding the contests. I bought this software mainly for that. I simply wanted to run a contest every other week, and award the user with the most points that week a T-Shirt with the website name on it. Is it not possible to award physical prizes?

When I set up the contest, I thought there would be some kind of notice issued when a contest was pending or running, with info about the dates, prize(s), etc. - but I understand there is not - is that still the case? I assume the only option is to have the Admin keep track of the various contests, their dates, prizes, etc - and monitor, and announce each one as their time arrives and expires, through the notification or other means - is that the only way?

I also thought that the users could see a running total of the score day by day, as that would generate a lot of interest and competitive posting, but I think this is not a feature either - is that right? Are the scores even available for the users to see after the contest, so that they can verify the results, and see how close they came to winning?

Please tell me I am overlooking some things. When I read that contests were possible, I naturally thought of a winner (or 2/3) with the most points winning an actual prize. And a way for users to monitor and verify the contest was fair. Am I out of luck?

 

[Fillip H.]

There is, and probably won't be, an interface for awarding physical items. There's an uncountable number of problems and issues with supporting physical products. There's nothing stopping you from creating an Award that identifies who should be shipped the item, though

There's absolutely a score list after the contest. It does not include the user's position in relation to the winners, only the winners themselves.

The reason why there isn't one during the contest is because we wanted it to be up to the admin to announce if there was a contest running. Since the mod still lacks some key features in being able to prevent spammers from winning contests, we felt it would be best if the admin themselves decided how many details to give away.


With this in mind, could you please re-post the thread as multiple threads each with their own feature suggestion? So for instance, "new contest type: most points within the time period" would be one thread, "ability to see scores during the contest" would be another, etc. That way, you can be sure none of your suggestions are overlooked when we're planning out the next version

 

[konakid]

Thanks for the reply Fillip H. - I don't understand the problem with a physical prize. It doesn't even have to involve the software. All that is needed is the ability to determine a winner after a certain length of time. Or a first, second, and third place winner after a certain length of time. When the contest is announced, it would be stated in the announcement what the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes are. Is there anyway to do that now? Is there a way to determine who has the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd highest point total after a chosen length of time?

And regarding the running totals. If the point system is based only on criteria that registered members can participate in, how could spammers become a part of the contest? In my situation, I screen every new member. So a spammer could never post, start a thread, message, etc.

IMO, if the purpose of a contest is to increase posting, etc. then I can't think of any reason not to announce a contest. What possible good could a contest be for increasing participation if nobody knows it is running? And I can't think of any reason not to let people know where they stand during and after the contest so they know the contest is being run legitimately. It would be so easy for an Admin to "fix" the results.

I will add these requests to the appropriate area as you requested. But until you offer a new version, is there anyway you can think of that I can run a contest for a week or two and know what the "score" is when it is over? Or anyway I could get a score every few days and post it?

 

[Fillip H.]

Is there anyway to do that now? Is there a way to determine who has the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd highest point total after a chosen length of time?

I answered this question in the other thread

And regarding the running totals. If the point system is based only on criteria that registered members can participate in, how could spammers become a part of the contest? In my situation, I screen every new member. So a spammer could never post, start a thread, message, etc.

By spammer, I don't mean a spambot, I mean someone who posts spammy posts (short posts, off-topic etc). Currently, vBActivity does not take away points when the item that awarded points is deleted - and I'm not sure if it's going to be possible, since making that change would involve altering a database table that will crash the installer on larger boards...

It would be so easy for an Admin to "fix" the results.

Actually, it's impossible for admins to fix the results at the moment

I will add these requests to the appropriate area as you requested. But until you offer a new version, is there anyway you can think of that I can run a contest for a week or two and know what the "score" is when it is over? Or anyway I could get a score every few days and post it?

There's no easy way to do that, unfortunately

 

[Nemanja]

I totally agree with konakid on all his points!
I have purchased this mod mostly because of contest, to find out that it is practically useless , at least for me....

I have wrote some new features we need for contest ASAP, you can fin them here:
http://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/threads/4662-Contest-lacking-some-critical-features!?p=27276

 

[Ozzy47]

That thread has been replied to.