Bug Activity contest Edit issue

[galerio]

After I have created a contest with, for example, 3 awards, when I click on Edit I can see only two fields to set the awards. Here are screenshots:

 

[galerio]

Updated to 2.1.7 and the issue still remain.
I noted this (in order to reproduce the issue):
- start a contest
- while the contest is started, it assigns (in control panel) one prize (of 3).
- Edit the contest and you can only see two fields for prizes (for 1# and 2# prize).

If the system has assigned 2 prizes (of 3), then when you edit you can only see 1 field (for first prize only).

 

[Ozzy47]

Updated to 2.1.7 and the issue still remain.
I noted this (in order to reproduce the issue):
- start a contest
- while the contest is started, it assigns (in control panel) one prize (of 3).
- Edit the contest and you can only see two fields for prizes (for 1# and 2# prize).

If the system has assigned 2 prizes (of 3), then when you edit you can only see 1 field (for first prize only).

That happens because once the contest has been started, and the criteria has been met, and a award is issued, that award can no longer be edited, only leaving the unassigned awards to be edited

 

[galerio]

But the contest isn't ended, it is still running, so why to assign an award when the game is open?

 

[Ozzy47]

The award is assigned as soon as the criteria is met, it does not assign the award at the end of the contest.

The reason for it doing that is because if you have 3 awards, and 50 users reach the criteria by the end of the contest, the system would not know who to assign the awards to

 

[galerio]

If this is true, then this product doesn't worth a buck.

If target is reached by 50 users and I assign only 3 prize, I want that the user with most points collected at the end of contest is the first and so on. Not "the firsts who reach the target are the winners". This has no sense for me! There's no reason to have an end time for contest if the contest is concluded just when the users has reached the target points.

If I want to have a contest without any target point, what can I do?

I'd never have bought this product if this is the situation. I'm really frustrated.

 

[Ozzy47]

I will have to turn this over to Fillip H. for that answer, he should be able to answer that for you.

 

[Fillip H.]

What Ozzy said is correct, and the contests currently work in a "first to reach the target" system.

We have plans of adding additional contest types in the future

I'm sorry you feel the entire product is useless because of this feature confusion, but please have patience until we can update the product with additional contest types.

There's no timeframe on when that might be, @Cosmic handles the schedules but even the schedules he is able to give are very tentative


That being said, I will update the contest display to show the prizes already handed out
This display won't update for old contests, but it will for any new contests in the future.

 

[galerio]

I have bought it just to make contests. Nothing on information page was explained about it when I made the purchase. You must specify how your contest function works, if you want to be honest with your customers. I bought a life time license, but I never thought to wait many months before to use the product for what I need. I have switched from phpbb to vbulletin just to be able to make contests with your plugin.

Really sad. Really, really sad.

 

[Cosmic]

I have bought it just to make contests. Nothing on information page was explained about it when I made the purchase. You must specify how your contest function works, if you want to be honest with your customers. I bought a life time license, but I never thought to wait many months before to use the product for what I need. I have switched from phpbb to vbulletin just to be able to make contests with your plugin.

Really sad. Really, really sad.

It's not possible for us to go over the features not possible in our mods - or even to list every single feature that is, the list would end up several pages long. =(

We always recommend trying the Lite version first and asking about any features not in there to avoid any misunderstandings.

It's a feature we will look to add as soon as time allows though.

Cosmic

 

[galerio]

Thanks, it's something not so difficult to implement, just take a snapshot of the points all users have at the start and then do a basic subtraction with the snapshot of the points at the end. Just a x - y = points collected from start to end.

I hope you have time to work on it.

 

[Cosmic]

Thanks, it's something not so difficult to implement, just take a snapshot of the points all users have at the start and then do a basic subtraction with the snapshot of the points at the end. Just a x - y = points collected from start to end.

I hope you have time to work on it.

Seems simple in theory, but having to add an entire new type of contest from menus to calculations to display to award to criteria etc actually makes it a couple of days work - it's something i'll look to get done as soon as some free time comes up though =)

Cosmic

 

[konakid]

I think I may have to agree with "gelerio" here - and as it relates to my recent new topic regarding contests. I did many hours of research reviewing this product and vbExperience before buying a lifetime license. I test drove vbExperience, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. So I test drove your Lite version and asked a few questions, and read the entire vbulletin.org product topic.

But when I read that contests were possible, I assumed a contest meant a winner and a prize - a contest for determining the most active user during a certain length of time, and a prize for that person. What good is a contest that could produce no winners or 100 winners? I could go broke offering a T-shirt as a prize based only on a certain level of activity. I could have 1000 people as "winners" instead of a first, second, and third prize as most contests are configured. But not being able to see the scoring during or after the contest defeats the whole purpose of the contest (encouraging participation), if no one ever knows what the score really was.

So I think you can count me as another disappointed Admin who thought he was going to be running contests to increase participation. Is there no way to determine who is the most active user in a given week, or length of time?

I think you can include me as someone who feels a little mislead. I guess this is why its better when a full featured demo is offered with a few restrictions or time limit, rather than having to pay full price to really experience if the software does what you think it says it does.

 

[galerio]

I think they should uptade the description on the product and write it more more more more accurately. Or they must give us a way to try their plugins before to buy...

 

[Fillip H.]

But when I read that contests were possible, I assumed a contest meant a winner and a prize - a contest for determining the most active user during a certain length of time, and a prize for that person. What good is a contest that could produce no winners or 100 winners? I could go broke offering a T-shirt as a prize based only on a certain level of activity. I could have 1000 people as "winners" instead of a first, second, and third prize as most contests are configured. But not being able to see the scoring during or after the contest defeats the whole purpose of the contest (encouraging participation), if no one ever knows what the score really was.

There's absolutely a score list after the contest.

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.

So I think you can count me as another disappointed Admin who thought he was going to be running contests to increase participation. Is there no way to determine who is the most active user in a given week, or length of time?

At this point in time, the contests work like a race. First (, second, third, fourth...) past the goal wins.

I think you can include me as someone who feels a little mislead. I guess this is why its better when a full featured demo is offered with a few restrictions or time limit, rather than having to pay full price to really experience if the software does what you think it says it does.

Full demos are difficult to create because all protection we place on it can be cracked - we'd essentially be helping out the piracy scene. In either case, this is why we have the Pre-Sales Questions forums


Like we've stated repeatedly, we will be improving the contests feature in a future version. We have read all your feedback and will address it all.

While I understand that because you spent money on the product you feel like it should work to your specifications / expectations ASAP, please also remember that so does every one of our other customers. They believe that their favourite mod should be updated next, and cloning technology hasn't advanced far enough that I'm able to update all products simultaneously

 

[konakid]

Fillip H.,

I am only trying to point out what your product and policy looks like from the point of view of a consumer who tried as hard as they could to evaluate and research the product before purchase, and that the result was that it is impossible to do so. That would seem to me to represent a problem that you would wish to solve somehow. I tried to find out if there was an option to purchase the 'smaller' package first, and if that was then upgradeable if I was satisfied. But that wasn't made clear in the documentation. I asked the question, and was told I would have to wait for an answer. I had a promotion I was putting together, so I took my chances and purchased the lifetime, only to find the contests I wished to run, I could not.

I understand the piracy issue. But you should also understand that I will be very hesitant in the future to buy any more software that I can not first test the features I am buying it for. I can't imagine anyone buying Adobe CS5 without the ability to try out all aspects of it first. If other developers can do it, perhaps you can figure out a way as well.

 

[Fillip H.]

I am only trying to point out what your product and policy looks like from the point of view of a consumer who tried as hard as they could to evaluate and research the product before purchase, and that the result was that it is impossible to do so.

It's very possible, we have our Pre-Sales forum where you can ask questions about the exact workings of our mod. If you posted a thread there and the answer mislead you, could you please link me to it? If you were mislead into thinking the feature worked like you assumed by any of our staff members, that would make you eligible for a refund

Looking at your post history, I see you found the Pre-Sales forum and asked a question there, but I'm unable to find any posts in that thread asking for clarification on the contests feature. If you posted the question on another account or if I missed it, please feel free to link me to it

I understand the piracy issue. But you should also understand that I will be very hesitant in the future to buy any more software that I can not first test the features I am buying it for. I can't imagine anyone buying Adobe CS5 without the ability to try out all aspects of it first. If other developers can do it, perhaps you can figure out a way as well.

There is absolutely a way you can try it out, we link to it in our navbar. If you click the "Demo Site" button, it will take you to our demo site which has Pro versions of all our mods installed, and the login info provided on the site will allow you to look at all the administrative features of all our modifications

I disagree with your Adobe CS5 analogy because unlike .exe files, PHP files are not compiled. They're what is called "visible source" - in other words, if you right click Dreamweaver.exe and open it in Notepad, you'll see a bunch of gibberish and symbols. If you open vbactivity.php in Notepad, you'll see the full code. It is impossible to encrypt or protect PHP files in such a way that a time trial would not essentially assist pirates in gaining access to our products - even RPG Inferno v3, which was considered to be uncrackable back in the day - has been cracked and is now freely available for anyone who knows how to use Google.

With that in mind, offering a Demo Site and a Pre-Sales forum where people can clear up any ambiguity, I'm not entirely sure what else we can do to be honest

 

[konakid]

I appreciate the time you are taking on this and I apologize for taking it from you. I can tell you guys are trying to put together a solid company, and believe me I know it is not easy. I don't pretend to know as much as you regarding the differences between .exe and .php and how to protect against piracy, and I don't want to appear as if I think you guys are doing a bad job. To the contrary, I could tell you were trying your best to do a great job, and one of the reasons I went with a lifetime. Here is the question I asked on vBulletin that I interpreted to verify the feature I was looking for.

I was unaware of the Demo you referred to, and I am still unclear if that would have allowed me to determine that the feature I wanted was not really available. If so, then I partially share in the miscommunication. Please understand that I spent about 10 hours reading all the info I could stand evaluating your software and the vbexperience. After a while, a person can't log in to yet another forum and continue to read about issues that have nothing to do with the info I was seeking. That is why I asked this question, and apparently I misunderstood what was meant. I don't think that I was intentionally misled.


http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?p=2233938


#629
15 Aug 2011, 14:12
dypsisdean
Member

Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 20
Design: Green Hornet,Wide
Sorry if already asked. But the answer would only be a quick yes or no.

Is there a way to set a start date for a contest? For example, I would like to run a contest that would reward a user a prize for the most points after one month from the start of the contest, then two months, then three months.

#630
15 Aug 2011, 22:41

DragonByte Tech
Coder

Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Scotland
Real name: Fillip & Cosmic
Posts: 2,781
Design: White Pages,Fixed
Contests are a Pro-only feature, and they do have a start and end date


Fillip

I took that to mean a yes to my question. But now upon reading it appears as more of an incomplete answer. But at any rate, as it is now, I have already introduced my members to the software, with some fanfare and a banner notice. You can see the notice I posted on my website. (I won't post the URL here) So pulling it out now would be confusing. However, I may consider it if given the opportunity. What I would like to receive is an honest answer, as best as possible, as to if the features we have been discussing (especially the feature I asked about before, during, and after the installation) will be forthcoming in the future. If you wish to answer me via PM, it may be better to take this discussion there.

So, as stated on numerous occasions, what I really wished to do was to run contests from date "A" to date "B" and award merchandise from my online store to the person with the most points when the contest ends. My thinking was that after members understood the point system, and when they would be alerted that a contest was running, I would imagine it would be like a "race" to see who could acquire the most points within the given time - thus greatly increasing the interest and amount of content during that timeframe.

 

[Fillip H.]

Yeah it was a bit too short of an answer, apologies for that. We're not used to getting pre-sales questions on vBulletin.org - most of the people who ask those type of questions simply didn't bother reading the feature list That's clearly not the case here and I apologise for that.

We will indeed be creating alternative contest methods ("most points" is definitely coming, being able to make only certain points types count is another idea we're toying with but I'm unsure how feasible it'll be) in a future version. We don't have or release deadlines for software we're not currently working on a new version for, so I'm sadly unable to promise you a set date for when this feature will be available

 

[galerio]

if you don't publish in detail all the features or not provide a demo, then you're cheating all the possible buyers because without having a detailed report of how the contest works, no one can ask specific questions and could not even read the support forum of pro version where buyers can get a real idea of ​​what are going to buy. What do you say seems to be excuses to continue to sell a product without disclosing the real capabilities that are unfortunately much less than other similar, and free, products.
I'm sorry, but for my first contest I have used a SQL shell to obtain every day the user's points and MS Excel where to write them and find the winner. And now for my second contest I have exlcluded at all the point system because the plugin is useless. So I can't be satisfied.

To buy a plugin and to wait years before to see the features I'd like, it is not what I'm used and intend to do.

Now you will answer with "there is the pre-sale forum". And I say: why don't you use the answer of the pre-sale forum (and the other forums like this) to write a detailed description of your products? This is the first thing a serious company does. But if you don't do it, what I should think is that you are hoping that people like me will buy the products without making the right answer! Don't you think?