New Early Access Feature Added!

lol I really wish my comment would have appeared before Dans. I never saw it while I was typing.

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the easy access feature make it really hard for creatives who are really trying to improve their ratings. I’ve already tried to submitt three entries into a contest that were already submitted this morning

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More recently, I typically don’t have an opportunity to enter contests on the first day they are posted. In rare instances when I get free time, I get to participate on the day they open, but for the most part, I sort contests by what is ending first and submit an entry typically with less than a day left in the contest. While I miss several contests and some of my entries are never seen, I still do pretty well with wins. I don’t think that the 3-hour wait should inhibit your creativity at all. I do run into names already being submitted, but I guess it wasn’t that unique if another creative thought of the very same name.

I think using the points to get in early is a great idea! My rating slipped under 80% at one point in time. It didn’t mean I was a bad namer. It just meant that I was missing the mark with contest holders for a while.

I still think that limiting entries for everyone to just 5 on the first day is a good idea. That will give the contest holder time to evaluate the smaller list of names, rate them, and then give us more direction on what they want. I’ve seen some contestants give 20-30 names in one contest. I think the contest holder needs to give us more direction before we can plug in 20+ names. Entering 5 names give creatives the opportunity to submit a straight forward name, a mashup name, a made up name, an off the wall name, and their “signature” name first and see how the contest holder responds.

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I totally agree with the 5 points per creative solution. It just seems fair and solves the issues for the ch being overwhelmed. It would seem that they are informed about how these contests work and could work out their own strategies of going thru entries. Especially if they can halt the contest to “catch up” on ratings, etc. This is a competitive contest for all and it really feels like it should stay on a level playing field.

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i like this xD, cause i really did see one of them who won hundreds and really good, but at the moment have percentile less than 80% :(, i do think that they be like “michael schumacher or valentino rossi version of SH” lol.

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Right?! :smile: There’s a lot of competition 'round heah

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wow you guys have said it all…i believe majority of us here prefer the entries being limited to 5 per creatives in the first 4 to 6 hours of a contest, this will not only help the CH to think through the entries better but also help us creatives think much more creatively before giving an entry. i believe through this means also new creatives will learn to discover themselves easily and rapidly…instead of putting them on hold for hours…but since @Dan already added that creatives with less than 80% will be allowed to use their points. i guess its a WIN WIN.

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This is one of the worst changes ever made.

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Agree…worst change ever!!

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The problem stems from the very root, which is the % rating. Many may disagree, but I think this is useless. On any given day, ANY individual has the potential to submit a winning entry. It doesn’t matter if that person is a newbie or an experienced participant. It also doesn’t matter how many entries that individual has submitted - I have won contests in which I submitted ONE entry, and others where I have submitted MANY entries. I now find myself getting discouraged, and not even wanting to participate in contests that I am “shut out” of due to my current low rating. Imagine how a newbie would feel! They will probably say, heck with this BS, and would be turned off by the whole concept. I know this is true, since several relatives have recently signed up and told me that is why they abandoned trying. It just isn’t conducive to creativity.

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I agree totally with the early limitations for EVERYONE! I also think EVERYONE should be able to submit early entries!

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Point One : I bypass anything that says I am not eligible, whether it means by use of my points for entry or not. Point Two : I COULD potentially flood a CH with multiple entries at anytime in the contest, not just at the beginning so a restraint at the beginning on behalf of a creative is unnecessary. Point Three : If the restraint is on behalf of the CH (allowing time for study and/or options for more feedback), ALL creatives should be treated equally. Creative minds, whether in toddler stages or as a seasoned professional, can pull a winning name at any time. Point Four : I am still indecisive about the creative’s percentages, I don’t take stock in the numbers but then again, I am not a CH. The numbers seem to be a lure for lemmings … follow the pack and pick the high score … something that I never do. Maybe we need to find a different type of drum for those who choose a different type of march.

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Here’s another question for @Dan…Do points contribute to the ratings? If so, wouldn’t using points to enter an early contest result in the percentage scores going down, which would in turn require more points to enter additional contests due to the low percentage? Not sure if I’m making any sense.

Points don’t affect percentile rating in any way. All they are useful for (At the moment) is to enter early access contests.

Points are used to determine how many submissions you can enter in a contest. Also you used to be able to highlight BEST ENTRIES in abandoned contests and I believe you still can. This costs points. So I still wonder, do points affect percentages? @Dan

Points are not linked to Percentile Score

Points are calculated independently, using points for early contest access will not have any impact on your percentile score. Currently you can use points for two things:

  1. Early access to contest

  2. Highlighting best entries

If you have earned enough points, creatives have the ability to add comments in contest pages. In the future, we will be announcing additional ways to use your points on our platform!

@LisaMac

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@RachelSH I think using 25points for an early entry is quite a lot! Even if you have thousands of points, you can burn through them faster than you can ever imagine. Especially when you’re on an idea roll and the CH isn’t feeling the vibe. About two weeks ago, I had over 18k points, as I write this piece, it’s down to 9k. Now, the thing is this, it took me months to rack up those points and now I can’t even submit entries on a whim anymore cos I don’t want my points to be further decimated. I have won quite a number of contests where my whimmy entry wins so I actually know what I’m saying. I have this feeling that Squadhelp will end up at the receiving end of this cos potential creatives will boycott this site like crazy!!! And it doesn’t make sense when the same creatives with the same ol ideas win every time with no opportunity for newbies to bring fresh ideas and thinking to the site. What if I’m down to a thousand points? I’ll eventually get bored and just walk away right? Is that supposed to be the idea behind it? Infact, mathematically speaking, it doesn’t make any sense to use 25points in order to get 20points for a like especially when there are no guarantees that you’ll eventually win. Except of cos you get a LOVE, you make 5points profit.:blush:. I feel like what I’ve built over the past few months is crumbling like a sack of potatoes right now. I think the points used for early access should be reduced down to 15, that way we can build it up back again if our entries are LIKED or LOVED! Peace!

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I totally agree with you and have voiced the same opinion. At one time I was boasting about this sight to all my friends. Now, I am rapidly losing interest because of the early access feature

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Promann, I have just over 95,000 points and unless I think of something so obviously fitting that it just can’t wait, have no intention of using points for early access contests. Just on principle.

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5 points for entering new contest, 20 points for a like. You break even :slight_smile: