Has Anyone Else Had This Happen?

I’m hoping someone can help me understand why this might have happened. I had 6 entries into a tagline contest. All 6 were high rate and 2 shortlisted. It was my first top trending contest. For a few days after the contest ended it seemed the CH’s shortlist was finalized, number of shortlisted and creatives that submitted them were same. Yesterday my activity feed showed that both my entries were removed from the shortlist. I checked the contest and saw a winner was selected as well. What I didn’t understand is my entries are the only ones removed from the shortlist prior to winner selection. I’m just looking for some insight as to why only mine were removed and right around the time they selected a winner. The other 6 creatives still show as shortlisted, which is why I’m so confused about this situation.

I’m not looking for an exact reason and I know that CH’s remove shortlisted entries or change ratings sometimes without any apparent rhyme or reason. I’m just perplexed and felt singled out by the situation. I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this or if they’ve seen it before? Is this a common occurrence? Is there generally a reason something like this happens that I could try to avoid in the future? I just can’t wrap my head around it…

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They might have narrowed down their shortlist for audience testing before they made their choice. This could be due to a limit of 6 for audience testing or just wanted to see the six that they were really interested in.
A friendly word of advice…just keep it moving…you’ll drive yourself insane trying to figure out a CH’s reason behind a move. They are so many reasons this could happen. Dont take it personally, because its not. Its just business as usual.

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DBedio, yes this type of thing has happened to me many times. However, sometimes the opposite happens where I have won a contest that my submissions were only marked on the right track while there were several loved and shortlisted names. I even had one contest where my names were the only ones liked at all, and then for some reason the CH blocked me from being allowed to further submit names to the contest. That was very odd. Being that you mentioned that six names were left, I agree with LisaMac… You can only have six names in market testing, so once those six were determined, they may have taken yours off the shortlist. Also, you have to remember a lot of times there are more than one person involved in selecting the name, so whoever may have shortlisted your name at first may have had altering opinions from others for various reasons. Also sometimes someone runs a contest on behalf of the actual CH. Then when the business owner or whomever the decision maker is steps in, they may have a different vision. It could also be that they ran a trademark search, and your names were already trademarked. There are many reasons contest holders change their minds and even completely change course. Just keep moving on. Your creativity and persistence will pay off.

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I’m really trying to not let it bother me. They just seemed really interested in my submissions. They wanted more from me and then high rated all of them. It was looking great and highest top trending for my first time even trending. It just seemed odd to be completely dropped. I really need a win. Money is tight, I’m sure many people know the feeling. I love it here, but I think I’m going to have to cut back the time and effort I put in here until my finances are a little better. I don’t enjoy the other work options as much, but time is money and I can’t afford to put so much in here. :disappointed_relieved:

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You made the right decision. Many of us use the Squadhelp as a side job. And there are fantastic cases here. Once a contest holder loved my entry in a $500 contest, and at the same time, another creative offered this name in a $100 contest,. And he won. The domain was busy. I could no longer offer it in other contests. Therefore, miracles do happen. Get used and do not relax: 0)

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I’m not sure what’s your SH stats, background, financial needs, etc. but with one notable exception, none seems to me to be able to make good money from participating into these contests. Usually, participating into any kind of contests (logo, writing, naming, graphics, etc.), no matter what platforms you use, does not bring enough money for a decent living(off course, decent living means something different from person to person, depending on many factors - place of residence being a major one).

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Might be related . Can anyone confirm if CH’s have access to the ‘Forum’ I think one time I had a few likes etc and then everything turned to ‘No thanks’ suddenly. The only thing I could tie it to at the time, is that I mentioned the contest in the forum and might have said something the contest holder didn’t like. I can’t remember what it was but it wasn’t bad, but remember re-reading it and it could have been construed in a bad way by the CH. Probably not in this case but ‘Can CH’s read the forum chat?’

Yes CH’s have access to the forum, thats why the forum has strict rules about what you can and cannot say here.

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I wasn’t knowing this that forums are open to buyers as well. SH should give buyers their own forum. Things might get tricky if things are mixed like this.

You’re not the first to say this or recommend this over the years. There would be many reasons for this that could be beneficial. However, it’s not very easy to do because creatives have become CHs and CHs have become creatives. So there are some that have been both and therefore placing them on one category or the other for a specific forum would be difficult.

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My situation is complex and too much to get into. I do online work because other factors keep me from working a traditional job. I work a couple different freelance jobs to bring something in when I can and because not working at all would drive me crazy. I just joined this platform recently and as with everything else I do online for a little income, I don’t expect to make a full-time living off it. I really enjoy it here and the contest rewards are enough to make it worth it for me if I would win a contest here and there. I haven’t been here long so I’m sure a win will come and probably more often with a little more experience. But for right now I’ve been putting a lot more time in here than I can afford with no guarantee It’ll pay off, so for now my time would be better spent doing less enjoyable work that is guaranteed to bring me in something.

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