I just dont get it, I enter the guessing comp every day and also every competition everyday and am always way behind the leaders, so I do not know what I am not doing. At present 41 points behind the leader. ????????
The critical factors that determined the winners are: *The total amount of random daily points you've accumulated throughout the month. (1-10 points per day) *Also whether it's a members birthday month. +25 bonus points
Note: An additional 25 birthday bonus are awarded at then end of the month. (Despite stating on the leader board page: 25 points - Rewarded on your birthday (just before mid-night AEST). It's was changed a few months ago to be rewarded right at the end of the month around 11:30pm AEST)
Due to the late addition of the birthday bonus the leader board may change right at end of the month. Good chance this month a couple of the current leaders, "might/likely" just end high enough to be unaffected if any birthday members about.
To have a genuine chance : Visit the home page every day to obtain your random daily points Do the guessing game every day to obtain it's bonus View all the competitions that were posted within the current month before they expire. Also for the new comps posted not expired in the current month viewed before the end of month to count.
It appears that you understand all that from logging each day etc.
Comparing your score to the leaders. The leaders have 192 daily random points and you 152. Also you've currently view one less competition that was posted this month making it total or 41 points behind the leaders. So it all adds up no missed points from any of the guessing game issues this month.
You haven't been crossing your fingers and toes hard enough for the "lucky" daily "random" points. :)
There have been 23 games played this month, the server has gone down twice and it is almost impossible to know if you were affected or not.
Those with 22 games played have received 50 points 'Guessing Game Fix 1' with the assumption they were affected. Those with less than 22 games placed have received 100 points 'Guessing Game Fix 2' with the assumption they were all affected.
Any issues, feel free to use the little icon on the bottom right of your screen to chat with us.
I've let admin know if a flaw in the implementation of this fix where a number of people who had not entered their daily guess when admin made the adjustments subsequently entered their guess later that evening and effectively doubled up on points for that day as they were given adjusted points as well as their daily guess after the adjustment was made.
@spyglass I presume that will covered by fix 3. You know what they say when you assume. I was wondering how long it would take members to do the the maths after the subtle hint in the meme. :)
@spyglass Hopefully the @admin will be able to identify those user's that received the additional guessing game bonus easily and rectify it with fix for the fix, otherwise the winners will be "fixed".
A quick fix could be done either at the end of a day or the month by finding those with too many guessing game + fix bonus points.
Will add this quote from a users tagline on a computing forum was reading this morning. The problem with making anything foolproof...is that fools are so darn ingenious! :)
Yes I was one of those people given an extra 50 points.I only missed out on 1 guessing game day and not 2.I have sent them a message to notify them of this. Was nice sitting on the top of the leaderboard !!
@Winner1 Was standing out like a sore thumb at the end of the day, along with a few others. Possibly more down the list that haven't crossed a lot of comps off. Maybe the admin was looking after it's favorite members. :)
I think in light of everything you should award everyone with 50points especially as you actually don't know who was effected, I went from #2 to way down the list overnight WT
@Lemond Not really sure about being a favourite member! Just did my guessing game later that day after they had done fix 2 and must have thought i missed out.Have been told they will do another fix and look into this as I have had a look and some other people have also got 50 extra points too.
Difficult for @admin @Zedmin when issues like this arise....and ... issues will arise. It is, of course, an imperfect system. It places them in a difficult position. To @admin, thank you for reconciling points for this month. It demonstrates that you are truly promoting a level playing field. Thanks. :)
Wow, my profile pic has changed without my knowledge , it's a nice bike, although I ride a Harley :) Maybe my luck will change too!! Good Luck to everyone!!!
I am such a BIG believer in karma. I read online about people complaining about winners cheating and think 'Karma will get them' and move on. Why sweat the small stuff.
Weird just caught a short period where the site appeared down. On top of that it appears it's only showing only 2 competitions for me posted today. From the looks of things that's wasn't the case for some members.
Yes same here, have not received my daily points once again, so that's twice now. The last lot have not been added yet either!!!!! Does this mean we need to check the time stamp each time we login, to try an ensure we get the points.
@wolverine Well that confirms you must of registered your guess as well before 10am today.
You might also notice the random daily points displayed were the same as yesterday and haven't actually been generated or added to the total. You'll have to make sure you revisit the home page after 10am AEST unless they have "fixed" the time issue before then.
Hmm you could try doing a test post each day and check first. Argh
@admin The site time settings are out of sync again. Also the cascading issues resulting from that are back. I.e. The guessing game bonus not adding to the total, daily random points not generating until after 10am, expired competitions still being displayed as active etc. etc etc.
It appears whenever there are any time issues on the site the guessing game registration is working independently to everything else. i.e. working off AEST like it should. The guessing game bonus addition and probably everything else is most likely working off the server's Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) time.
Today's time issues might of started from yesterday May 18th around 2pm AEST when the site appeared down for a while.
@wolverine I've noticed that there might be a member who has two days not registered for the guessing game earlier this month. Their high daily random score hints that might be the case, thou possible they just forgot to do a guessing game. I don't think they have posted yet.
Really the @admin should be able to regenerate the calculation of the guessing game bonus instead of relying on members to know if bonus points weren't added.
I always log in early morning and I'm now missing 2 days of guessing game points, didn't even think about the bonus points being out too......well looks like this month is a write off
sigh.....if only my lead was really as big as it's currently showing, but I expect a few of you will peg it back once the points issue is sorted...damn!
@spyglass well I just know from my current total daily points if got a realistic chance. The average is 5.5 points per day ie. for 31 days an average score is 171.
For top 3 looking around 192ish-206+. So 206/31*19 = 126 if around 120+ at this stage in with a realistic chance. :)
Easiest way to look at it how many points you're currently above average. 19*5.5 days is 105 and require on average about +25 before getting too excited. Allowing for a couple of birthdays looking at requiring 171+25 = 196+ plus. If it's your birthday month almost a formality.
Let me see your on 127 +22 above average currently, so good chance of top 3. Still need slightly above average till end of the month. The downside you're overdue for bad week after about 6 weeks punching consistently above average scores. lmao
Maybe with all the current mess the top score might end up a touch lower this month. i.e. members not realizing didn't get a bonus due. Depending how many birthdays about be good news for them. i.e. might still sneak in top 3 with close to average to touch below.
Argh I'm out of luck need around 90 points from 120 available. It's probably not going happen this month.
I'm annoyed at a certain person who for nearly every competition they enter they write my son had leukaemia and past away. No disrespect to her. But I hate to use that to win a competition. My grandmother past away and I had Uni exams during that week. I could have been exempt but I don't think my grandmother would be proud if I did that.
I don't enter those sorts of competitions but it would be interesting to see if the same person has won something with the same story on more than one occasion (and also how long ago the unfortunate event would have occurred - assuming they are being truthful as well)
My husband had cancer and I've only once used it as a comp answer. It was a story of my struggle with cleaning the bathroom on account of his hair falling out EVERYWHERE. I didn't win.
Conversations feature now active on the website, I see. Check out the new icon! Another communication means with our admin. Yay. Like private messenging, akin to Facebook Messenger. Timely, and very welcomed. Thank you, @admin and @zedmin.
I haven't received my guessing game points it's 4 days in to the month and I only have 150 but should have 200, I have guessed 10 numbers since Sunday so should have more points. Thx
@admin Maybe if you have got a way to calculate how many days members have registered a guess could reconstruct the guessing game bonus. It might be complicated adjusting for members with double guesses.
Assuming for the weekly guessing game the guesses each day are time stamped, for the first to guess the number to work maybe could do a query that obtains each day guesses were registered. Then group according to unique days guesses registered and then perform a count of days for each member. Also filter from May 1st onward, otherwise will count Sunday April 30th.
It would require converting guessing game time stamps to a date only, stripping out the time.
There also could be a chance of royally stuffing up the guessing game bonus points while attempting to reconstruct them via a mass update, if not careful.
Or of course individually adjusting members affect scores which seems to be the current solution.
Good luck.
If relying on members to reply to this post an email might be advised. I don't get the impression a high percentage of members read the forum regularly.
Awaiting points reconciliation though I suspect this will be effected late(r) in the month. There might need to be some code written, as a check for this/these type of glitch/es.
@Lemond, re my earlier comment in a separate post, yes, there's a new contact feature I saw this evening. Not a chat frame exactly, more like leaving feedback via convenient portal within the Forum. I'm sure @admin ( and @zedmin) will inform users shortly. :)
@toxicgherkin They're probably still waiting for the flood members to wake up that they might of missed some guessing game points last week. From a quick eyeball last week might of been around 15 members that were fine out of 45ish regular "determined" members that were affected. So expect at least 20 members to have posted.
@admin argh make that 2 days it hasn't added the guessing game bonus. It didn't addethis mornings guessing game bonus which did just after midnight. Also checked the daily points at May 19th 12:10am AEST and appears that's not generating as well.
@admin hmm looks like time stamps are back to UTC i.e. 10 hours behind. So... place bets another morning of missed guessing game points anyone logging guesses before 10am. Probably also when the random daily points will be available for May 19th.
@admin @Zedmin, I didn't receive random daily points and guessing game points for this morning. Please remedy all affected members' accounts, from when the issue arose - yesterday - and continuing this morning at least. Thank you.
@admin @Zedmin these comments were from today, Thursday morning, 4th May, yet the date/ time stamp is way off. This now represents two (partial) days of nil daily points (Wed, Thur) and nil guessing game points (similarly) for presumably most of the daily site interacting members. Please resolve. Thank you.
@toxicgherkin I think you got the last few days of the random daily points. I can't recall your first day, fairly sure your total daily visit scores were: May 2nd 8, May 3rd 16 and 26 as at May 4th 5:21pm AEST
Did you get a chance to do today's guessing game? If have registered a guess today, yeh the today's guessing game points haven't been added.
It's confusing when currently when the day rolls over. Looks like on UTC time i.e. 10 hours behind AEST. Weird thou today the guessing game for me was available I think from about midnight AEST thou the daily points only from after about 10am AEST.
Argh looking at the leader board might be easier to dock 50 points from the members not affected. Maybe 10-15 members might of got through the last few days without hassle.
@toxicgherkin Patience. If they're rectifying the guessing game issue similar to previous months, it appears they will obtain a list of members affected and get around to adding a patch to guessing game bonus. Hopefully it's done ASAP and enough time before the end of the month so if anyone gets overlooked and ask for more.
@toxicgherkin Overall they need a way to avoid this inconsistency between guesses registered and it's bonus points. "Hints" that using a calculated field which makes checking and reconstructing the bonus points difficult.
@admin In case members aren't aware it doesn't appear the random daily points are being generated and added to the total for today. Placing bets it should be ok after 10:00 am i.e. midnight UTC. Try visiting the home page after 10:00 am to obtain the random daily points. X fingers.
The guessing game seems to be fine for today.
@Adim ps I didn't get yesterdays bonus points for completing the guessing game
@wolverine See the previous post/replies. I've made it perfectly clear there are there are many members effected. Other members could do a quick post in the reply to help @admin identify those concerned. :)
I've Won
| Fashion Journal - Win 1 of 3 pairs of Dr. Martens Original 1461 shoes!
Haven't posted in a while, but have had a pretty great week. Sunday I won a new GHD hair straightener and today I won a new pair of $250 Doc Martin shoes and a $1000 red balloon voucher. Feeling pretty happy right now. Hope you all are getting some luck come your way
Logged in today and it says no new competitions and that I have already guessed today! Looks like today hasn't been reset? Anyone else with the same problem?
yes, no guessing game, new competitions or daily points. have noticed though this posting came up as 2 May 10.08pm, actual time when putting message on is 3 May 7.40am (SA time) so still same issue as when Lemond mentioned it earlier
Guessing game is back it seems (although points were not added to my profile as yet) but the time issue is still not correct according to posted messages here
@admin Is there a bit of lag when midnight occurs now? Waiting on the guessing game and also looks like the daily points aren't generating and/or adding to the total. 12:20am.
I'm guessing not the only one as the leader board hasn't changed for the midnight crew :)
I get the impression the guessing game etc is down for "maintenance" or the cleaners have pulled out a plug. :)
Is anyone else "experiencing" issues this morning with the guessing game and/or the daily points? i.e. The daily points are the same as yesterday and not adding the to the total.
@admin That's unusual my post is dated 02 May 6:33 pm and it's currently 03 May 4:33 am AEST. Placing bets something is up with the time settings being used. The day will roll over at 10 am Wed which is "coincidentally" midnight UTC time.
Thanks. @Trevsta Agreed way to long to receive my welcoming "gift".
God if wasn't this month next realistic chance could be a year away. From memory forget about June with what was at least 6 birthdays. Hmm May can't recall lmao.
Think there's a period from July to Sept with few birthdays for non birthday members to look forward to next.
Argh I think blew my luck on the guessing game last year just missing about a few weeks in a row.
Happy birthday for @bj74 for April better luck next year. :)
Congratulations @Lemond. Not showing birthday points on the leaderboard at all is an interesting way of operating, but it does leave everyone in suspense!
@spyglass Yeh it's a "cunning plan" to try keep members in the dark.
The currently trend is around three or four birthdays each month of determined compers. Once there's more then 6 birthdays in a month little chance for the non birthdays members. i.e (40-45% chance of a birthday member having a higher total score then any of the non birthday members.
X fingers the vast number of members don't get inspired on their birthday months otherwise will definitely be at least year for a genuine chance.
It's an interesting competition as it highlights who and how many determined Aussie compers there are.
Congrats also @wolverine @Brookemaree93 and @spyglass :)
Really disappointed. I bought 3 bottles of prosecco and was pleased to read the tag on the bottle advising of a chance to win a gourmet trip. Not so pleased to find I needed to keep my receipt to enable me to enter (I don not think I even received it. As well, I also see I need the last 5 digits of the barcode.
You do not see the terms and conditions until after you open the tag - who keeps this type of information let alone the bottle for the barcode - you drink the prosecco and the bottle goes in the bin.
The only advice as "comping" protocol demand all receipts upon payment and store in a safe location, until second chance draws are completed. :)
Always could do a quick google for the competition while shopping, if that was conditional on purchase. Even better check out what purchase competitions are about before shopping and plan ahead. You may come across T&C's that need X amount of the product on the same receipt. With that information could ask nicely to split up receipts. Eg Ask the checkout if they could please do all my 20 items on each separate receipt. ;-)
Enjoy the 3 bottles of Prosecco. It will soften your disappointment :)
Usually for the barcodes just write them down or take a photo of it and store digitally if really need to keep a record. That way you can also keep a tally of how much you have consumed this week. ;-)
Good point about purchase competitions. Someone remind me in about a month's time to add functionality for purchase competitions to connect photographed receipts or details to a competition entered for my database.
@bj74 lol. Generally I'm pretty bad at keeping receipts. Thou I've allocated a draw to stuff them in. OK I've also got the Eftpos comp pics still sitting on the PC and probably littering my Facebook account. They could be cleaned up any volunteers?
I'm liking the idea just take a photograph and file away on the PC. Then could associate it with the competition entered. Also acts as a backup in case the physical receipts fade get damaged etc etc.
Could do some basic organisation with folders and meaningfully name the receipts. Issue might be if the same receipt is used for a number of comps. Either copy the receipt and rename for each comp. Endless ways to hoard/organise them. lol
I doubt competitions these days would ask to physically send in the actual receipt. A photo should be ok. X fingers. Guess read the fine print just in case.
I don't do many purchase competitions so not a priority. Wonder what organisation tips for keeping receipts for purchase competitions member's have.
@gpbristow, I get a little sad on missing out on a good comp too!. it's pretty standard on purchase comps to keep receipts, barcode/ whole product especially with the big ones and keep the receipt for three months after in case of a second chance draw. For me, rule 'numero uno' is always to read the t&cs first to find out what they want you to keep. Sometimes entry needs a photo upload of the receipt but if you are lucky enough to win the major prize generally they will want the original as well because of the value of the prize. It all helps making sure it's a genuine entry and keeps cheats at bay. At the end of last year three major companies required winners to mail in ALL receipts entered in their comp. Some wanted original barcodes as well! A couple of years ago, I even had to get a signed statement from a JP for a second prize. Agree with @Lemond and @bj74, I've never had to mail them in but I've never won a major, major holiday yet either! Why take the risk, I'd hate to miss out because I didn't keep the original receipt as per the t&cs. Here's hoping for everyone lol! :) There's a couple of articles on entering purchase comps in the blog from memory. Enjoy and good luck with comping :)
@fourleaf Wise words to file away the physical receipts. I still think at least a photo of the receipt should be enough proof of purchase. If mailing them in they could get lost or damaged. At worse a photo acts as a backup.
For bar codes I kept a big bin of empty dairy milk bottles for their competition for ages. Was to lazy to take the bar codes off.
I've Won
| Jack London - Win a 'Jack London' wardrobe, valued at over $1,400!
I had a phone call yesterday with the good news. I get a leather jacket, black jeans, men's suit and doc martens shoes. So happy and greatful for this amazing prize. Thank you Jack London.
Giving me hints to get back into comping mode. As soon as I get around to finishing off setting up my database to damn manage the comping. It's slowly getting there :)
@admin Is something up with the guessing game this "morning". 12:11 am and not allowing me to enter my daily guesses. Appears I can't register my daily guess and as a result not getting the 50 bonus points.
@Smalot11 Argh had me worried for a while. I seemed to have "slight" delay before could register today's guessing game. Thought might of been caused by refreshing the browser around right on midnight to do the guessing game.
I have noticed one issue in previous months when doing the guessing game on the first of the month and missing the double guess. I seemed to get caught just after they cleared the previous month scores before working out if I had double guesses or not. Then was fine for the rest of the month.
Lesson is not don't try doing the guessing game on the first of the month for least a few minutes after midnight AEDT. If showing incorrect number of guesses come back a few minutes later and refresh. i.e. assuming you know if ended up 4-50th previous month and got double guesses.
Probably what should be done is disable the guessing game while any maintenance is being conducted. Bonus if they added a message stating down for maintenance would also be nice. :)
In celebration of Mother�s Day Canvas Champ brought for you an amazing Mother's Day Photo Contest! You are requested to submit your favorite photo of �Selfie with Mom �and get a chance to win $1000 awesome Canvas Champ Prizes. Tell your friends and family to vote your photo. Best Luck!
@admin @Zedmin are you permitting advertising in this format here, in the Forum? I'd like to know whether members report this as spam, or not, or whether the competition should be promoted via the requisite channel. Please advise.
Assuming not an exaggeration ie. 98 - 1*6 - 1*10 gives a min score of 82 from 12 days So, how many 10 and/or 9's did you get in the first 12 days?
Overall you're currently still better off then @toxicgherkin :)
If it's you're birthday month you might still have a chance. Would need roughly 170ish (+5 above the monthly average). Don't give up just yet @FARMERTYSON :)
Good luck and Happy Birthday to all April birthday members. @FARMERTYSON, and @rianlana I think. Might be one or two more. :)
@Winner1 A better question is what would be the odds for a similar scenario? You can use combination probability have fun. I'm preoccupied :)
Eg Assuming 100 active members what be the odds within a year for a similar scenario occurring. i.e. For any given number occurring 6 times within 7 days. End up with 90 possible combinations out of a total (10^7).
For a year hmm 358 seven day periods and 100 members 35800*70= 2506000
2506000/10000000 = 0.25 i.e. 25% chance occurring in a year or on average once in approximately every 4 years
Be a rough starting point would need to check if used the correct methodology.
Taking one members run of numbers for a week may hint at an issue it's stretching it. You need to look a larger sample of random scores. I wouldn't expect your scenario to reoccur for a while. It's not impossible.
Eg The odds of two consecutive days being the same number 10/100 , 3 days 10/1000 etc. So good chances at least one member out of 100 may get repeating numbers for the next 3 days.
It's not to say there may be an issue, by just using a sample of a couple of members scores over one week doesn't demonstrate much apart from that combination is a possibility. One out of a possible 10 million combinations for each member in a week.
Sort of ... Outback Spirit allocated my nominated community group, 1st Myrtleford Scout Group, a pack of BBQ sauce for our next Bunnings BBQ. This time we'll be raising funds to help more kids get the chance to go to Cuboree.
5. More and more people are entering comps. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Plus with being advertised on media and Facebook, so much less of a chance. Everyone's in on the game.
@pizzaman yep people play the poor woe me answer to get sympathy. Does that really win the hearts of the judges? I think they'd think the same as you @pizzaman.
I downloaded the magazine with the app (it is free), had a look through but wasn't able to find it. I only have a small phone screen though so it was difficult and I still didn't find it. If you do please share, thank you very much.
I set up an email address, Twitter and Instagram mainly for competitions. A different email address allows the filtering of emails as a result of entering comps to remain separate from main emails. When a friend is starting to enter comps and they ask my advice, the first thing I tell them is, setup an email address and use that for comps.
I use 2nd Twitter and a 2nd FB account for my 'sharing' entries (so I dont annoy friends and family). And yes I have multiple email addresses but i still play by the rules and enter once per day.
separate. honestly I have only started back entering comps for about a month. and again only enter big prizes travel etc I don't enter anything I wouldn't really like to win anymore and my comp email is packed full of emails now. although I guess if you have a lot of free time it doesn't matter.
O.K. guys, forgive me for my ignorance, as I'm quite new at this comping thing, but; Is it just me or do some of the questions asked in 25 words or less comps not make any sense? I have seen a few that seem rather obscure, like the current one from Sharp, where you can win a microwave/convection oven and the question is "In 25 words or less (tell us) your 'original' convection recipe and why?"...huh? Why what? Are they asking me why do I want to cook food?... Why do I want to eat food? Maybe I'm just slow but I don't get it. I bet some of you other compers out there have seen some pretty weird ones. What are some of the strangest 25WOL questions you've seen? P.S. One of their other questions was "Do you own a Sharp product?" and I must admit, I was tempted to say "Yes I have several knives, some scissors, a circular saw..."
Good attempt folks :) but if you click on the t&cs the full question is listed " in 25 words or less (tell us) your 'original' convection recipe and why is it original." Eg I discovered this during a science experiment in my microwave (?)
Unclaimed draw winner - received unexpectedly - as I missed viewing the sent email (um....) - and signed for today one $100 Caltex StarMart card. Yay! Cadbury's 'Obey Your Mouth' promotion.
Found one. Very tiny. 3rd item down in the outdoor section. Table and 2 chair for $69.95. Just under the description. Hope you find it and good luck :)
@Smalot11 sending you positive vibes to receive something great. Never give up, There is always something great out there for you. It happen to me , got used for a job was employed for a part time position but only was dumped as soon as the girl come back from holidays . Now im close to home 4 mins away pt time place, manager loves me the pay is better, and things are looking great. Havent won a big prize in years , but you just keep on going. Happy Easter and good luck
I haven't done comps for a while. my question is are the brand leader ones etc worth entering. (the ones I mean are where they get you to fill out heaps of extra questions rather than just contact info) I know in the past they generate soo many spam phone calls/emails even if you click no to all the questions. also if you don't answer all the questions do you still get in the draw?
I entered one a few weeks back, no sales calls from that entry but I did receive a follow up call to do a survey of which if I did it I'd then go in another draw. From that survey I have now had quite a few sales calls.
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