How do you stay encouraged on SQUADHELP?

[Commulinks]

@AlwriteyThen It is and I know that SH has heard about this issue many times and has taken some action on it in general as far as how they handle it. I know you don't, and I don't, want to adopt that method and there a good reasons not to do that. You are very successful here, I know! So you are definitely doing something right!

[Commulinks]

Also, there are some extremely successful creatives here who have never sent even one message to a CH. I should have also said that because I do not want anyone to think that I think this is rampant.

[RachelSH]

In response to the question about whether or not the stats visible on creatives profiles affects how the CH determines a winner. SquadHelp is a platform that is built on the pillar of transparency, it thrives on the honesty and openness of all who participate. We believe that it is important to show as much information as we can without disclosing the actual or any private submissions from the creatives. However, we do not believe that many CH open every contestants page before rating / choosing a name. The CH’s ultimate goal is to find a name or logo, they are going through plenty of submissions in search for what will work best for them. They are here to find the right name, not the right creatives.

We understand and appreciate your concern for your fellow creatives. We believe the success of SH is a result of the equal and fair platform we have designed. SH closely monitors all activity to ensure our policies are followed by both creatives and CH. We believe information such as stats and badges make us a transparent platform and we intend to keep that available for everyone to see.

SquadHelp is a supportive and encouraging community of users! Our policy does not allow talking about other creatives in a way that suggests that person is getting an unfair advantage by sending PM. If the creative has won “x” amount of contests it is because they have submitted names/logos that have worked for the CH and not because they sent PM. As mentioned earlier, we continue to monitor PM being sent on our platform to ensure our policies are being followed.

I hope this has helped answer any concerns about this topic! @AlwriteyThen @rareworthy @Chasity2ku

[Anjy]

Oh No!!! I just checked three- all of them PM around 60!!!!

I was wondering why I am not able to connect to the CH point/requirement.

Now I know - because I always try to grab info from brief only.

[rareworthy]

@Anjy @AlwriteyThen @Commulinks Seems we've all been noticing that. I have been here since June and only sent one. I feel out of the loop a bit now. I don't send any because the discussions we've had before as well as to the rules of SH being that you shouldn't use messages to gain advantage and I honestly can hardly think of a way (except in the case of my one, or as thank yous or whatnot) that a PM to a CH about anything, even your own entry in some cases wouldn't give you an unfair advantage. With the ones I have noticed @Anjy, they seem to be ones that never leave comments on the actual contest either. I don't know. @RachelSH thank you for addressing this but I still am not encouraged by this. I know the 'monitoring' is just random and for all we know it only does one PM at random so it's hard to tell what all of these messages could be about and if they would lead to unfair advantage. As far as stats are concerned, I can still see it being used against people (even if it is rarely doesn't make it right) and yes transparency is important but only if the things that are transparent are accurate portrayals of information and easily understood in cases where it can be used against anyone and when it comes to stats -- neither is the case.

Edit to add: If transparency is something that is so important, there are other ways, as have been discussed in many occasions as to the stats on profile thing, that this information could be truncated and still remain transparent or if not that then making stats more accurate? I don't know. But just because it may not seem as being used often, you can't guarantee that it is not used and on top of that not used in an unfair, biased, uneducated way because those stats do not even represent our skill, knowledge, ability, etc. They represent how judgmental of a process naming can be, how other CHs can rate in an array of different ways,and just how much of our schedule we can or cant give up to this. In no other way are they complete portrayals of ability when we are going against 20-30 if not more creatives each and every contest and not all CHs know how to rate/give feedback and understand descriptive briefing and all the other things you can impose here. The starts are not correlations to ability and if transparency is a need then this FACT needs to be transparent as well.

[Chasity2ku]

The CHs have an option to only allow creatives who have won a contest to enter their contest. Regardless of how long they've been a member, regardless of how many contests they've entered, regardless of their potential to produce a winning name.

That's just to enter the contest...

But go ahead...tell me again how the CH doesn't care about how many contests we've won...lol 😉

Just sayin...

[auntshommy]

Rachel: Thank you so much for being on top of everything. I see no need to mention names. Why doesn't Squadhelp develop an internal generic alert to notify the staff every time a creative has registered, for example, an additional 10 PMs? I have a few PMs, too (just a few lately,) and like Commulinks, they were all created to say thank you.

[LauraE]

I think that is a good idea @auntshommy. I hope @RachelSH and her team will consider it..

[Commulinks]

I think the actions that SH has already taken on PM is great and if you believe that there has not been any abuse of it then that is awesome. Like other creatives, I wonder what people have to talk about so much with CHs, but it is true that names are winning for a reason.

[lushell]

Excellent Suggestion! : )

[Dan]

Hello everyone,

Over the last several weeks, we have begun to monitor majority of private messages including the entry comments which do not appear in stats. This is no longer a random audit but we are investing time and resources to ensure no one is taking advantage of the platform. When we find such a behavior, we take immediate action.

As stated previously, we are not going to remove private comment feature because it will also require us to remove entry comment feature. We believe the steps we have in place are sufficient to ensure creatives are not taking advantage of these features.

I would also like to reiterate @RachelSH's previous comments. Calling out specific creatives and implying that they have won multiple contests by misusing private messaging is a direct violation of our forum posting policy. If someone is winning contests, it is because their names are being appreciated by the contest holders not because they are playing unfairly. Please be mindful in posting such comments because they can be hurtful to those creatives who are working hard and playing fairly. Rest assured, if anyone is found to be taking unfair advantage by breaking our rules, they will no longer be allowed on this platform.

[woods30]

just to play devils advocate. let's say a person has entered 1000 contests, and has sent 50 messages in total. In this equation let's guesstimate and say 2 messages each were sent per contact.

So that is only 25 contests out of 1000 where contact was made.

That means only 2.5% of the time they contacted the CH.

When you look at it like that, it doesn't seem excessive to me. And especially not if SH has been monitoring contact to make sure everything is on the up and up.

[LauraE]

@woods30

The number of PM are recalibrated, I can't remember which, every week or month.

[Anjy]

That same number I have just two. ..vs 62
My two...was for winning name...thanking CH

I add entry related notes/explanation with entries.

If someone won...20 contest...so may..20 out of 62 be just thank yous...left over 42..?

@Dan, I did not/ will not mention or offense any creative.
Just curious. ...wondering what should I PM to CH to get noticed ?

If those PMs are/were not beneficial to creative, what type of PM that would be?

Ex...Hello..it is Monday..morning...weather is 55 and suuny. How may I help you?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[seezall]

I still wanna know what is being sent via a pm that can't be done via entry comments? I just struggle with it unless initiated by the CH and in my few years here I have only had a handful of CHs send me a pm, Seems like those with high PM counts get the wins so there must be something I am missing

[seezall]

We were writing at the same time even asking about weather is trying to stand out

[woods30]

Is it really true the messages get calibrated? I can't wrap my head around what that means.

In my head it still makes sense that the person with 1000 entries, contacted 25 CH's (50 messages) = contact made 2.5% of the time.

I don't understand how a calibration could somehow change my example.

Full disclosure: I'm not completely daft but I am new here and also not the greatest at math lol.

[jackieheraty]

PM's are based on the last 6 months, if that helps. SO it changes every month, to the "current 6 month period". Except people here less than 6 - then it is what it is.

[woods30]

Good to know. Based on this new info I will gladly stand by my estimation. bc it seems those in question are new. less than 6 months here.

Even if they sent a message to 50 CH's, that is only 5% of the time. I don't think it's anything to worry about. If the feature was being abused they'd get banned.

[ArtsfarmStudio]

Hi Anjy,
What we're supposed to be doing is asking questions that are relevant to understanding the CH's needs, and only in the public message area of contests. This is so everyone else sees it, and sees the reply from the CH. Example: If the brief is very vague, and doesn't explain something, we can ask the CH to clarify. Sometimes, if they're asking for a 5 letter domain, and someone asks if they would raise it to 7, 8, etc. that's ok too. Things like that, but only in the public area (under the 'messages' tab in the main contest page). Saying 'thank you ' privately for a win is ok, and also if the CH comments on one of your entries. SH monitors the messages to prevent any kind of excessive PMs, and ones that try to get 'inside information' without anyone else knowing about it. Hope that makes sense.