SITE OVER VIEW -- and -- LEARNING TO SEARCH

[ilovemykids]

HERE in the Site Related forum.


Table of Contents of this thread:

Post #1 in this thread
A list of mods and an over view of the thread.

Post #2 in this thread:
Reposts

Post #3:
Searching Before Posting

Post #4
Posting a New Offer

Post #5
Posting a US/UK Freebie

Post #6
Ordering Freebies

Post #7
Referral Links

Post #8
SC Icons Explained

Post #9
Site Related Questions/Comments

Post #10
SC Free Gifts

Post #11
Some Key Forums Sections

Post #12
Private Messages

Post #13
User CP (control panel)

Post #14
Candies Explained

Post #15
Giving Credit for Posts

Post #16
Reputation Explained

Post #17
Freebie and coupon related short forms

Post #18
Inserting a link into text

Post #19
Using an Image from your Album

Post #20
Rating a Thread



Post #22
Posting a Youtube video

Post #23
Trade Ratings

Post #24
More to come.... PM me if you feel there should be something added.

[ilovemykids]

Hi there.

I've been working harder to clear out the sections of expired threads.
This is done one by one starting at the back pages of the sections.
Checking links to see if they are still available.

I come across those that are DATED! With an expiry and I want to stand up and do some crazy happy dance. It makes a mods life so much easier. Especially at the rate the lovely members of SC post.


I was hoping from now on if we could:

• put in the expiry date for every deal posted. (like "expiry: July 31, 2008" not 07_31_08 or Jul 31 08)

• If you don't know the expiry put in something "expiry unknown".

• If it's an ongoing deal then if you could put "on going" or something.

The same as we do for contests.

A very special thank you for everyone that does.

[Scooter]

Yes, I concur. In the rules of the Electronics forum that I drafted I explicity stated that when posting deals, the date of the sale should be posted whenever possible. Otherwise, I have the task of having to follow each undated link to the vendor's site to see if the sale price is still valid.

Nobody appreciates following a posted deal only to discover that it is expired, and I work hard to weed out those expired ones for that very reason. It wastes people's valuable time.

Not angry here, but it would certainly make the mod's jobs a lot easier and help create a more up to date set of deals and a tidier forum.

Thanks for speaking up, ILMK.

[seajay]

Can we as members do even more to help you? ei. Emailing you expired threads as we come across them in our searches?

[Scooter]

Can we as members do even more to help you? ei. Emailing you expired threads as we come across them in our searches?

That would help, but you don't need to email. Just click the Report Post button (the triangle with the exclaimation mark in it) and put your reason as "expired deal" or something similar. We'll get the report.

Thanks, Seajay!

[Sally888]

I concur, I waded into this section a while ago and didnt want to move anything because I swear 1000 of them were expired and thats a lot to move lol!

[ilovemykids]

I know... I can't tell you how many I've moved today.
I deleted 10 pages of stuff that was dated. That took no time at all!!

Now I'm going from the last page in moving things to expired. Checking each link... lol

[ilovemykids]

This is taken from the SITE OVER VIEW - Here you'll find various site information post in the Site Related section.
However with all the reposting currently going on I thought it'd be useful to have it's own separate sticky thread to be viewed by everyone. Also some things have been added to the information. Please take a moment to read...

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please do a search before posting a new offer to see if it has already been posted. We all miss things that have been posted from time to time and repost, but the more reposts there are the more work it is for the mods to keep this area tidy.

Also, please use the search feature at the top of the page rather than simply the 'search this forum' function as this will check the entire site as opposed to just the one section.

Search tips:

• Try a couple of searches using different terms if you don't find anything the first time.

• Search using only one or two key words. Too many words will just turn up more posts than you can look through or maybe nothing at all as sometimes it is just too much info for the search engine.

• Also search out the main piece of the URL. An example would be out of the following link I'd search out the highlighted section, not the whole link......

• Often it is easier to find by searching for the freebie offered or contest prize or catch-phrase rather than the name of the company or contest name.

• It is best to search the entire forum, rather than just one subsection.

• Keep current with threads! Almost half of the reposts are posted earlier in the same section, only one or two days before for the most part.

• When titling your thread please use the full month name instead of the sort form. Example: [August instead of Aug] and [September instead of Sept]

If you do a search for something and you find the offer has been posted before, but maybe needs updating, just make a reply in that thread and it will bring it back to the top of the forum. Please do this instead of reposting the offer...thanks!


If a post has been moved to the expired section or to a different section it is because a mod did a search and found the same contest or freebie in previous posts or because it is better suited to one of the other sections.



A quote from another poster for some of the reasons REPOSTS are so annoying...

I know some days it seems like maybe we are a little anal about repost, but there really is a reason for this. A lot of us enter about 50 - 60 contests a day so it is very hard to remember if we have entered a contest or not. Most of us have figured out some sort of a system to help us remember if we have entered or not and one of the ways is that if a contest is single entry we will make sure that we post a thank you to the contest poster.

Not only does it give the poster a little recognition but it also helps us to remember that we have already entered.

A large percentage of single entry contests will disqualify you for entering more than once, so by double posting a contest there is a very big chance that people will be disqualified.

PLEASE do a SEARCH before posting a contest. Not only are you making more work for the mods who are already very busy with other things besides trying to keep this board neat & orderly but you are risking having some of us disqualified for double entering.

[ilovemykids]

I'm seeing more and more full dates through out the sections.
I can not express enough how happy I am when I see a full date like "August" and not "Aug" (as an example).
I really thank everyone for their help with this!!

[Kitty77]

ILMK & Scooter & Sally: Thanks for all the hard work!

[Scooter]

I'm seeing more and more full dates through out the sections.
I can not express enough how happy I am when I see a full date like "August" and not "Aug" (as an example).
I really thank everyone for their help with this!!

I think I missed something here... but why not "Aug."? There's limited space for a post title, so I abbreviate like that regularly... sometimes there's no other way to include all the basic info in the title.

???

[Scooter]

ILMK & Scooter & Sally: Thanks for all the hard work!

And BTW, you're very welcome!

[ilovemykids]

I think I missed something here... but why not "Aug."? There's limited space for a post title, so I abbreviate like that regularly... sometimes there's no other way to include all the basic info in the title.

???

Correct. However when it's time to clean out a forum... which is every day. lol... as a mod we search various ways to get the outdated out of the way. The main way to search is by date. You can not search out three letter words as vbulletin will not search that small of a word. So full month instead of abbreviated is way better when posting a deal/coupon/contest and the rare time a freebie has a date. This is of course just a suggestion on how a member can be very helpful to the moderation team. A member wouldn't be in "trouble" if they did post "Aug" instead of "August"... it's not a rule. Just a suggestion.

[jenna321]

I've been doing that as of reading this post! Doing my part to help out. Thank you

[ilovemykids]

Jenna you rock!