Here's more food for thought... coming up with ideas such as this to mainly cause my volunteer moderators issues will not be looked kindly upon by me, and may earn someone a vacation from the forums if I think for a moment that they did it intentionally.
Here's the thing... we may take a look at the rules once in a while to see if they still apply, or if they need to be tweaked. That's all fine and good. But I will not allow people to "creatively circumvent" the rules in order to prove their point. It won't end well, take my word for it.
well, this might mean my estimation needs changing.
anywho, u missed my point completely, as the rule is now, it's hard to enforce. it doesn't effectively do what you want it to, and it instead hurts honest contests
as it stands i've shown that it's basically 6 in 1 hand, half a dozen in the other.
hopefully my point made it across this time because now i think it fair to reply:
Angus, i'm sorry to say, but, ECF is not the be all and end all of existance. nor are u the only game in town. the people who come here grace you w/ their presence, and support just as much as ECF's presence is a grace to them.
if i was going to circumvent a rule, i wouldn't advertise it. and if the way my post was taken if i did decide to i'm not all that worried as i'm starting to believe my purpose would be fulfilled well before it got noticed. what i was doing was showing you the ineffectiveness of the rule as it stands so it would be fruitful to suggest alternative ways to go about it in order to create something that WILL in fact work as intended and w/ less harm to the contests u'd want here.
i'm trying to help if you'd open your mind and pay attention.
I really feel Angus's pain here. It takes an enormous amount of work to run a forum. Last time I checked this forum was primely intended to to further educated the public about electronic cigarettes.
Contests, while a bonus, do nothing other than to benefit the supplier at hand.
Acutally, between contests, Trades done in PM and PIF, i've spent a lot less out of pocket than i could have. there are so many contests out there that you can't lose them all!!! i have to wonder since discovering this rule how many ppl didn't get the chance to not lose a contest here because the thread had to be stopped. Sure it brings members back but ultimately their focus is on the contest and not banner ads. Les we forget that banners are not shown to members logged in. If the contest becomes poplar enough, images or posts, creates a lot of connections to the Database.
Someone has to pay for the bandwidth and it's easy to criticize when your not the one paying the bill. yeah, they're called suppliers that pay for the bandwidth but that's a non-issue anyway if those posts aren't being put into contests they're put in social groups or outside. if people want to post they WILL post. contests give those that don't post a reason to come back, maybe click on a banner ad or 2, maybe even start posting and start donating.
Essentially your going to McDonalds and getting irritated because the play pen doesn't fit enough people. It's a bonus and not the intended reason for the establishment. I think a little appreciation would be nice and a thanks that contests are still permitted in the first place. Like Angus pointed out, every post created is more work for moderators when something goes wrong.
hence the need to create rules that moderate it effectively, preferably in a way that doesn't make it exclusive.
While the rule might not be perfect I think the energy is better spent protecting our rights to vape rather our rights to hold a contest.
actually i got energy for both since contests help protect my ABILITY to vape.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having contests. I think they're great. They benefit all of our members, suppliers and non-suppliers alike, and they're just plain fun. I'll fight for everyone's right to hold contests here. It brings the community together. Heck, we even have a whole forum section devoted to contests and events.
I just want to make sure that while we're all having fun, not one person has an issue connecting to the forums because we have a few members posting meaningless babble as fast as they possibly can to try and reach a magical post number, and sucking up forum resources that are here for the benefit of the entire community.
i concur whole heartedly w/ this hence y i've brought it up - i'm not asking for the limit raised that would only make things worse. i'm asking for an open mind to change the rules in a way that the limit won't b necessary.
i think the xxxx post wins a prize contest concept is stupid to begin with IMHO...all it does is generate spam and makes a section or supplier forum look busy when really it is not. a supplier should be busy on its products and merits rather then a contest.
to be clear: I LOVE contests, LOVE them, they are super great, but come up with something that doesnt involve making 100 posts in a row.
+1 part of y i posted, seems the spam 1's are getting through while legitimate 1's are being asked to close. i'm trying to help fix this.
Maybe a section in the outside-so it doesn't boost the post count. Or have the suppliers support/host the contest on their site.
actually i like this idea, i think contests section is like that already, but what about supplier sections, and social groups?
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ok, now that that's out of the way. i have a suggestion
that instead of reading like this:
"Contest" Threads Contest threads are permitted providing the following guidelines are adhered to:
Suppliers must only run one contest at a time.
Suppliers must close the thread after 300 posts.
Anyone else is welcome to run contests (eg, in social forums), but they should be closed after 300 posts.
The moderators may close these threads at any time, and they must not be reopened.
perhaps something like this would be more effective.
"Contest" Threads
Anyone is welcome to run contests (eg, in social forums, suppliers forums or the contest forums) but must adhere to the following guidelines:
Suppliers may only run one contest at a time.
Contest must have content (not "X post wins") and not designed to merely generate useless posts, be it following a particular topic to just staying on topic and not generating gibberish.
The one(s) running the contest are responsible for their content. and the moderation of their contest's content to stay within contest rules.
Moderators may close these threads at any time and they must not be reopened.
if it becomes a question of anyone being able to run a contest because they don't have any way to moderate their contest a solution to that would be in the contest forums the creator of the thread has the ability to moderate it. (i don't remember if there was a toggle for that or if i had some1 add it for me way back when i did it using PHPBB 2.something - but it CAN be done, i know that much)
