Competitions forum has been moved to a new competition type

moocher on 08/04/2014 - 08:59
Last edited 09/07/2015 - 07:24

The competition section has now been upgraded. Instead of a generic forum topic, competitions are now their own post type and you can add specific details such as:

  • Prize info - how many prizes, total prize pool value
  • Dates - closing and winnner announcement dates
  • Entry requirements - residency, entry methods, prerequisites
    etc

The competitions are categorised as follows:

  • Lucky Draw - where winners are drawn from a pool of entries and announced at a later date.
  • Instant Win - where you obtain a product that reveals whether you have won a prize which you can claim.
  • No. of Words or less - where each entry is required to contain a short write-up limited by a number of words. e.g. “In 25 words or less, describe your ideal holiday”
  • Creative - where you have to upload a photo or video or something that you've designed. Usually involves a judging process.
  • Guessing - where you have to correctly guess a value to win. Sometimes closest guess wins.
  • Other skills - includes non-creative skills such as winning a game, ability to eat large number of hamburgers, etc.

Hopefully this will help provide the information necessary for filtering/selecting competitions.

Any suggestions/feedback/issues, please leave a comment.

Update 3 July 2014

  • Voting has been enabled for comps.
  • Users can record entered competitions by clicking 'Mark as Entered' below a competition thumbnail. A list of entered competitions are visible by clicking 'My Account', then 'lists' in primary tab, and 'competitions' in secondary tab. Your entries are private to yourself and the moderators, but a total number of entries is displayed under the number of clicks as a statistic.

Update 5 Sept 2014

  • Users can now record their competition wins. The requirement is for users to leave a comment when they win as we want to know what you've won. Winners will be displayed in a winners side block, and on the winners page. Recording a win is public, unlike entries.

Update 9 July 2015

  • Competitions main page and 'Not Entered' page now have filters so users can filter by type, location, requirements and entry limits. Filters on 'Not Entered' page can also be saved to user settings.
  • Users can hide competitions from the 'Not Entered' comp listing page.
Site Discussion

Comments

  • hamza23 on 08/04/2014 - 12:45
    +1

    Looks awesome :)

  • mafmouf on 10/04/2014 - 15:47
    +2

    Niiiice. Makes it a lot easier to navigate now and now I'm inclined to actually visit that section without figuring out which is just a raffle etc.

  • Moderatormoocher on 15/04/2014 - 09:14

    There is a layout issue for mobiles which will be fixed.

  • scotty on 05/06/2014 - 10:47

    By the way all the new competitions posted on OzBargain will be tweeted to @OzBargainComps. That would be one account to follow if you are interested in competitions.

  • Moderatormoocher on 03/07/2014 - 09:13

    We have now enabled voting for competitions, and the ability to record competition entries against your account. See updated description.

    • happychild100 on 03/07/2014 - 19:12
      +1

      Small thing but is it possible to put a link to the 'popular competitions' somewhere (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/popular), maybe in the menu drop down?

      Also, able to change the day duration of these popular competitions for when competitions go for longer than 7 days or a month.

      Not sure if these are coming in a future update but thought i might mention it anyway.

      Enjoying the new section but not entering very many, not very good at 'words or less' type ones.

      • Moderatormoocher on 03/07/2014 - 21:47

        Yes it's coming, I was waiting for some votes to be cast first, it wasn't very useful while all comps had 0 or 1 votes:-)

      • Moderatormoocher on 04/07/2014 - 12:09

        The Comps top menu now has links for popular competitions. There is also a new link for competitions not entered yet.

        Also, able to change the day duration of these popular competitions for when competitions go for longer than 7 days or a month.

        You can add the number of days to the URL like this:
        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/popular?days=7

  • tightarse on 03/07/2014 - 21:06

    Great work guys. Well done!

  • battler on 04/07/2014 - 16:05

    nice work guys, but I notice that the category has now dropped off.

    I could previously identify only those I wanted to enter from OzB home page (eg, don't click on one that says 'Creative'…. too hard basket).

    Any way to get it back, or is real estate an issue?

    • Moderatormoocher on 04/07/2014 - 16:13

      but I notice that the category has now dropped off.

      The competition type should still be displayed on every competition page. On the listing page, it is the first row under the OP's name. On a specific comp page, e.g. this one, the competition type is above the title. If there's one missing, could you provide a link please?

      Edit: You can also go directly to the comp type that you like from the Comps top menu.

      • battler on 04/07/2014 - 16:43

        I was referring to front page, right hand side 'new competitions'.

        • Moderatormoocher on 04/07/2014 - 16:53

          Ah the side blocks, yes, I did take them out. I'll look into putting them back in if it helps.

        • battler on 04/07/2014 - 17:07
          +1

          helps me. I tend to avoid the 'words or less' and the 'creative' and stick to 'lucky draw'
          Thanks.

        • Moderatormoocher on 04/07/2014 - 18:15

          @battler: Not a problem, I'll add it back.

        • Moderatormoocher on 07/07/2014 - 18:07

          The competition types have been reinstated in the side blocks.

        • battler on 08/07/2014 - 13:36

          thanks

        • battler on 24/07/2014 - 09:20

          in side block on home page, text 'Lucky Draw', 'No of Words', etc all point to:
          https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/

          I suggest they should point into their respective categories.

        • Moderatormoocher on 24/07/2014 - 10:18

          @battler: They were definitely meant ot be pointing the right comp type. Apologies, I'll fix it up.

        • Moderatormoocher on 24/07/2014 - 10:43

          @battler: Fixed now.

  • scotty on 03/08/2014 - 20:28

    @kirynflare suggested these improvements in TWAM. I'm copying them here:

    • Marking competitions as entered helps with tracking what has or hasn't been done already, but some competitions aren't always relevant to yourself. Making a Hide from Listing option for competitions just like what is available for deals would be great!

    • Clicking on Not Entered only shows 2 pages of competitions, while clicking on Closing Soon shows 7 pages of competitions. If there was a way to sort competitions by closing date, but also have Entered competitions hidden, that would be excellent!

    • Keeping track of what competitions you have entered is sometimes difficult when you enter so many! If there was a way to view on one page all the competitions you have marked as entered, so you can chase up whether you have won or not, that would be awesome!

    • Moderatormoocher on 04/08/2014 - 09:07

      Thanks kirynflare for the suggestions.

      some competitions aren't always relevant to yourself. Making a Hide from Listing option for competitions just like what is available for deals would be great!

      Can you elaborate on how you would decide what to hide? Even though we could technically hide a poster or a store, sometimes a store could offer prizes for competitions that are not their usual merchandise. For example - A beauty magazine (not interested) may offer a travel prize (interested).

      Clicking on Not Entered only shows 2 pages of competitions, while clicking on Closing Soon shows 7 pages of competitions

      That sounds like a bug, I'll investigate.

      If there was a way to view on one page all the competitions you have marked as entered

      There is, in 'My Accounts' -> 'Folders', then 'Competitions' tab. You can access yours here, visible to yourself and mods only.

      • Moderatormoocher on 05/08/2014 - 07:44

        The 'Not Entered' competitions bug has been fixed.

      • kirynflare on 04/09/2014 - 02:02

        Sorry for the late reply!

        Can you elaborate on how you would decide what to hide? Even though we could technically hide a poster or a store, sometimes a store could offer prizes for competitions that are not their usual merchandise. For example - A beauty magazine (not interested) may offer a travel prize (interested).

        What I mean would probably be easier if I stated an example.
        1. I click on competitions not entered.
        2. I enter the competitions I find relevant to myself and click "Mark as Entered".
        3. When I click on competitions not entered the next day or two, I have to sort through the competitions I'm not interested in to find new ones that I am interested in.

        If there was another option to click when you view a competition, like a "Not Interested" or "Hide Competition" underneath the "Mark as Entered" button, that hides that particular competition from Competitions Not Entered, and even in Closing Soon, it would help when looking through at a later time!

        • Moderatormoocher on 04/09/2014 - 13:28

          I see, so you want to remember which ones you have already viewed and aren't interested in, rather than hiding based on a specific criteria. Interesting.

        • kirynflare on 04/09/2014 - 14:09

          @moocher:

          Exactly! So if there's a particular competition that's not drawn until a few months down the track, but I'm not interested in it, having a way to 'hide' that particular competition, so I don't have to go through it again would be excellent :)

          I hope it's not too much effort to implement though :( Wish I could contribute in some way to help out haha

        • Moderatormoocher on 04/09/2014 - 14:54

          @kirynflare: I can see how that can be useful.

          Although it's not quite what you're asking for, we do have a way of bookmarking things at the moment. There is an 'Add to folders' link on every competition page. So you can add your favourites or things you want to file away to enter later etc.

          The competitions listing page usually lists the latest stuff first, which are things you wouldn't have filed away yet if you haven't seen. A combination of your own folder and checking the latest comp listings every now and then may work for you for the time being.

          I'll have more of a think of your suggestion in the meantime.

  • aeon on 25/08/2014 - 09:14

    Hi all, really enjoying the competitions section, but just wondering if it's possible to combine the state and competition type filters.

    For example, there is:

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/draw
    and
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/nt

    But I'd like something like:

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/draw/nt (this is a valid url, but just gives all the lucky draws)
    or
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/draw+nt

    • Moderatormoocher on 25/08/2014 - 09:29

      Hi, thanks for the feedback and suggestion. I'll look into it.

    • Moderatormoocher on 26/08/2014 - 07:54

      On the competitions by location page, you can now filter further by comp type using the new select box under the title. e.g.

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/nt?comp_type=instant

      Edit: See comment below

  • Moderatormoocher on 05/09/2014 - 11:29

    Description updated: Users can now record their competition wins. The requirement is for users to leave a comment when they win as we want to know what you've won. Winners will be displayed in a winners side block. Recording a win is public, unlike entries.

    • happychild100 on 05/09/2014 - 12:47

      Awesome!

    • Moderatormoocher on 05/09/2014 - 16:51

      There's also a winners page now.

      • [Deactivated] on 05/09/2014 - 21:36

        Love this feature! Thanks moocher! I gotta admit, I get as much of a kick out of seeing that other people here have won, than I would if I'd won myself lol.

        • Moderatormoocher on 05/09/2014 - 21:39

          Glad you like it, like you I've been enjoying seeing people's wins today :) I haven't won anything myself though.

  • aeon on 03/10/2014 - 14:01

    Seems to be an issue with the RSS Feed at the moment, a bad character in one of the deals maybe?

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/nt+draw/feed

    Live bookmark isn't updating in Firefox, and trying the url out in Internet Explorer returns this error message:

    An invalid character was found in text content.
    Line: 161 Character: 113

    <p>Purchase any size pack of Obela dips, Red Dock Deli Dips and Copperpot dips, Sakata crackers across all pack sizes between 24.09.14 and 21.10.14</p>

  • kirynflare on 02/11/2014 - 13:45

    Hi moocher! It's been a while, but you're probably really busy, but I just wanted to revisit the idea I suggested back in September! :)

    So currently, if you go to Comps at the top menu, then to Not Entered, it brings up a list of Competitions that haven't been marked as entered by my account. Within the competitions that I haven't entered but have interest in, there are a few competitions that aren't relevant to me, e.g. a competition for WA, QLD, SA, NSW people, but I live in VIC.

    I could mark the competition as entered, to remove it from the Not Entered list, but that would add that competition to my Entered list. If there was a button, similar to the Hide button for deals, that would only hide a particular competition from the Not Entered page, it would be awesome!

    Imagine this, you've had a crazy amount of time, and you've entered every single competition that has been posted on OzBargain. Instead of clicking on Not Entered, and seeing all the competitions you can't enter/don't want to purchase an item to enter, you see a… blank page! You check back every 10 minutes, as you do with new deals, and as soon as a new competition comes up, you can recognise it straight away, and either enter it, or mark it as hidden, depending on its relevance to you!

    • Moderatormoocher on 03/11/2014 - 10:37

      Hi Kirynflare, so sorry for not getting back to you. I was also thinking that the 'Not Entered' list should be more customisable, like what you have said:

      • showing only comps relevant to your location
      • allowing the user to hide specific ones (seen and not interested)

      We don't want users to have to mark competitions as entered when they haven't if we can avoid it. :)

      So yes I will look into it as soon as I can.

      • kirynflare on 03/11/2014 - 13:18

        Woooot, thanks moocher!!

  • Moderatormoocher on 09/12/2014 - 09:29

    Two changes rolled out this morning:

    • Users can hide competitions that have been seen from their Not Entered comps list. Each competition has a 'hide' link under the report link that can be toggled.
    • New user setting to set location for Not Entered comps - My Account -> Settings, then choose the competitions secondary tab, and save your desired location.
  • spackbace on 30/12/2014 - 14:36
    +1

    Thought, as this section develops, is maybe having some sort of optional monetary amount that can be listed for winners. In the new year it might be kind of cool to keep track of the big winners, how much is won due to the listings on this site etc (so come the end of 2015, we could see a tally of the total won by Ozbargainers).

    By keeping score so to say, it might make the section more popular.

    Also, with the 'I won' declaration, being able to mark that more than once for instant win comps, to really keep track.

    • Moderatormoocher on 30/12/2014 - 14:57

      Yeah marking more than one win per comp is definitely useful.

      I'll discuss tracking prize amounts with the others. One problem is that we can't really verify the amounts. Then again we can't really verify the winners either…

      • spackbace on 30/12/2014 - 14:59

        Could be semi-moderated, or maybe reportable? Someone could just have mis-typed and missed the decimal or something.

        Yes we cant prove the winners, but it would be a rare minority that would bother lying about it!

        • Moderatormoocher on 31/12/2014 - 12:49

          We have discussed this and the decision is that we will implement multiple wins per comp per person, but not the monetary prize tally for now. We may look into it later though.

          Thanks for the suggestions.

    • Moderatormoocher on 13/01/2015 - 07:58

      As of this morning you should be able to record multiple wins for instant win + multi-draw comps.

      • spackbace on 13/01/2015 - 12:46

        Cheers moocher :)

        Now another one!
        Could we make it that the comp entries number was a link to a popup to list the winners? Could be tabled with number of wins or something?
        I'm sure in some of the big instant win comp threads, it'd be nice to show the successful members (in no way do I mean this all in a negative way btw!)

        I guess what I'd love to see eventually is to go to a members profile and you'd also see comp wins, from there we could always have awards for top winners or most successful competition or something :) (could certainly exclude instant win comps from the awards)

        • Moderatormoocher on 13/01/2015 - 14:16

          When we implemented comp entries, we told users that their entries would remain private, so we probably won't be showing those.

          However, we did warn compers that recording their winnings is public, so it should be possible to display some of this information.

  • happychild100 on 15/01/2015 - 00:47

    Hey,
    Just had a look in my entries list and it is showing everything as 'closed' when a few are actually still open.

    • Moderatormoocher on 15/01/2015 - 09:05

      Thanks, will investigate and fix.

    • Moderatormoocher on 16/01/2015 - 07:58

      The fix has been rolled out, thanks for reporting.

      • happychild100 on 16/01/2015 - 11:07

        Yep, seems to be working again.

  • happychild100 on 27/01/2015 - 20:26

    Not sure if it's another bug or duplicate winnings on each comp per person aren't shown but there seems to be a difference between what is shown on the winners page and the little winners section on the other pages.

    • spackbace on 27/01/2015 - 20:29

      I think you'll find the winners section on the listing is the number of winners, but doesnt take into account the number of wins, if you get what I mean.

      If it said number of wins instead, some would read like 50 entries, 100 winners :P

      • happychild100 on 27/01/2015 - 20:31

        Hmm, not quite sure i know what you mean, but i'm talking about this tab. I'm sure it use to display every winner, regardless if that person had won on the comp before.

        Edit: On reflection, my original comment may not of been too clear outside of my head :P

    • Moderatormoocher on 27/01/2015 - 21:06

      The winners page currently lists each win for each competition, and the little side block only shows unique winners, so that users who mark 10 wins for a competition in quick succession won't flood the side block.

      • happychild100 on 27/01/2015 - 21:17

        Ah yep thought so, good change since it was flooded sometimes.

  • Moderatormoocher on 28/01/2015 - 11:45

    As of this morning, logged-in users should be able to see competition 'wins' tab which tables each comp win. The little stats line under the OP and time submitted now displays

    X entrants, Y wins (Z unique winners)

    instead of just

    X entries, Y winners

    The winners page also shows wins and unique winners now.

  • hamza23 on 02/02/2015 - 01:51

    Could we add an option to 'hide closed comps' on the popular comps page, basically a copy of the same feature on popular deals

    Sometimes go to that page to check out the top voted ones and that feature is handy to see which popular comps are still open / able to be entered, as there are often quite a lot of closed ones. I'd imagine like the deals, where a lot of users would go there to see what popular deals are still available, users would go here to see what popular comps they can enter and would want to temporarily hide the 'closed comps'.

    • Moderatormoocher on 02/02/2015 - 16:15

      Ok sure. Will add it to TODO list.

  • hamza23 on 17/02/2015 - 11:17

    Just adding this here for those that are interested, scotty has added the Nova2win competition referral link into the referral system, for those that want to add their link into the system or want to sign up you can click on the random referral link here. For more details and instructions see this comment

  • helga22 on 30/06/2015 - 22:36

    I was just wondering whether it would be possible to have a 'entered' and 'hide' button already in the 'Not entered' listing; so I don't have to click the actual competition listing to hide or mark it as entered. Often I already know from the headline whether I am interested or not or whether I have already entered this comp. It would save me (us) a lot of time and also Internet bandwidth which is scarce if you are on satellite Internet.

    • Moderatormoocher on 01/07/2015 - 09:47

      Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see what I can do :)

      • helga22 on 01/07/2015 - 14:41

        Thanks a lot; it's very much appreciated :)

    • Moderatormoocher on 09/07/2015 - 07:15

      'Hide' link has been added to the 'Not Entered' listing page.
      As for 'Entered', it's still being considered, we want to keep the listing page as simple as possible. Adding enter means adding removal of entries as well so it's a bit more involved.

      • helga22 on 24/07/2015 - 21:37

        Thanks very much :)

      • helga22 on 25/07/2015 - 11:25

        Adding and 'entered' button would be very beneficial for you as well because it would decrease traffic on your server :)

  • aeon on 09/07/2015 - 13:50

    Hello, looks like with the new filter formats in the Comps section, the RSS feed link no longer works… previously I've used this feed:

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/draw+nt/feed

  • Moderatormoocher on 12/08/2015 - 07:46

    The filter on the competitions page now includes a checkbox to exclude closed comps. The not entered page already excludes closed comps, so does not have the new checkbox.

  • happychild100 on 03/09/2015 - 16:49

    How is the relevance to searching on the comps page done? If i search 'Woolworths', i would think the current open competitiions would come before comps that closed in April and June.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/woolworths+type:com…

    • spackbace on 03/09/2015 - 17:04

      Until they answer, I guess you could always go straight to the store page: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/woolworths.com.au

      Then click competitions up the top :) https://www.ozbargain.com.au/competition/woolworths.com.au

      • happychild100 on 03/09/2015 - 17:29

        Ah of course! I mean it's not hard to scroll down a couple times at all or changed the sort by, was more just curious as to why closed comps were still being weighted above current open ones.

    • Moderatormoocher on 03/09/2015 - 17:18

      In terms of relevance, see Scotty's answer here. You can sort by post date to override the default. We don't have a way to search by closing date yet.

      • happychild100 on 03/09/2015 - 17:35

        Thanks. Yer sort by post date is fine. I guess i was more curious on the weighting of the keywords used for comp pages. I guess it's a tricky situation when some would prefer to see old comps up top for x reason and some would prefer current open comps up top.

        • scotty on 04/09/2015 - 00:22

          You can also add "type:competition" to the search keywords to limit only searching competitions. For example — searching "Mini Cooper" only in competitions and only from Woolworths:

          mini cooper domain:woolworths.com.au type:competition

        • happychild100 on 04/09/2015 - 01:20

          @scotty: Oh sorry, i forgot the search is all the same. I meant searching from the competition page which adds "type:competition" to the search (as per my link above from the comp page). For some reason i thought they were different search pages and hence my original query. I guess it's just a personal preference but it's not a big issue.

  • happychild100 on 05/11/2015 - 18:35

    Not sure if i'm missing it somewhere but is there a way to just see what competitions are being drawn soon? For the ones you have entered after it has closed, without going into each one and seeing yourself.

    • spackbace on 05/11/2015 - 18:54

      Oops no, there isn't, not everyone puts in the proper draw date :P

      • happychild100 on 05/11/2015 - 19:31

        Haha i know, i was just looking at my list of entered comps before wondering which ones haven't been drawn yet, so i can get myself excited about possibly winning! ;) I'm not really sure how it could be shown, maybe just displaying next to your entered date or when hovering over the 'closed' tag?

        Dunno, just a thought!

    • Moderatormoocher on 06/11/2015 - 09:00

      As Spackbace mentioned, the draw date is not a required field and not everybody fills it in, so it's not possible to have a page sorted by draw date at the moment. The closest thing we have is the Recently Closed page…presumably those are the comps which will be drawn soon.

      • happychild100 on 06/11/2015 - 11:55

        That's alright, thought i'd ask anyway. I didn't really think its own page would be suited, just mentioned on the entered page next to your specific entered date (for example). Not sure how this works on your end if it's not filled in though.

        • spackbace on 06/11/2015 - 14:16

          Hard part is the number of competitions that say 'drawn by xx date' or similar, just no way of knowing the draw date even if you could be bothered putting it into the post ;)

          Then like the OMO one, gets drawn today, but winners will be notified 'by the 12th'… so even though we know it's drawn today, still waiting 6 days to hear if you've won!

        • neil on 06/11/2015 - 14:20
          +1

          @Spackbace:

          You should see the comps in New Zealand. Forget about draw dates, lots of times I have to guess when they are ending and the majority of them don't have T&Cs!

        • spackbace on 06/11/2015 - 14:24

          @neil:

          Lol yeah I sorta see what you mean! Goes to show the different between regulated vs non-regulated!

          That said, really p-d me off when JB Hifi did a 25WOL one recently, and they don't count small words (and, it, etc) in their word count, yet mentioned that no where! 1 of the winning answers was officially 31 words! :/

        • happychild100 on 06/11/2015 - 15:45
          +1

          @Spackbace: There's also things like the daily draws and such. Could get quite complicated i would imagine. I'm just lazy and thought it would be neat until you think about it more and realise :P

  • sagitox on 14/03/2016 - 14:42

    Did I miss something? I remember seeing if people had won a competition that was created by OzBargain and won they would get a small gold trophy on their user page. Did this disappear?

    • Moderatormoocher on 14/03/2016 - 14:43

      The comp winner badge still exists but it's for competitions organised by OzBargain.

      The competitions section is for all comps from all stores.

      • sagitox on 14/03/2016 - 14:47

        I won a competition that I thought was run by OzBargain, https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/216906.

        Or is it more for Member of the Month awards?

      • sagitox on 14/03/2016 - 14:51

        Thanks, I was waiting patiently, but then after a while I was thinking maybe I had been forgotten. ;)

        Cheers! :D

        • Moderatormoocher on 14/03/2016 - 14:51

          Sorry we forgot to award the badge. This has now been rectified. It is a manual process.

        • sagitox on 14/03/2016 - 14:52

          @moocher: No problems. All good :D

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join