About BOTD Entries

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MsTri
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About BOTD Entries

Post by MsTri »

Two things:

One, I think we should have some way of quickly addressing mistakes made insofar as our BotD entries. For instance, if we DID Tweet a BotD but get disqualified because the moderator couldn't find it, we should be able to upload a screenshot of the tweet or something, since moderators can and DO make errors.

Two - and this is the biggest thing - if we DO get disqualified, perhaps we shouldn't get reset all the way to "0". How about just losing either one entry (for the one that was disqualified) or, at worst, the whole days' worth of entries (which can be anywhere between 1 and 7)? It takes about a month to get 200 entries, so to lose them ALL seems pretty unfair, and makes it difficult to want to recommend the site to others. Also, if an entry is disqualified for the First Ten reviews, it doesn't reset to "0", it just removes that one entry; doing the same for BotD would not only be fair, but also add balance across the board for the many activities here.
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CommMayo
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Post by CommMayo »

I agree with this 100%. A few weeks ago I stopped doing the BOTD stuff for a while because I was so disgusted with losing everything just because a moderator didn’t like my Facebook comment or couldn’t find the tweet.
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Alice Heritage
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Post by Alice Heritage »

Agreed. It seems disproportionate to lose maybe hundreds of entries because of a single disqualified one.
This post was brought to you by the word "specifically".
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Post by bookowlie »

I didn't even realize your entries get set back to 0 if one gets disqualified. I agree it's disproportionate, but I assume it's done this way to be a stronger deterrent than just getting set back one day's entries.
"The best way out is always through" - Robert Frost
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Post by BookishCreature »

I agree that it would be nice to be able to appeal disqualifications. I actually just had to get in touch with the mods because my comments on LinkedIn were being disqualified. For some reason, the mod(s) couldn't see them. Still not sure why that happened and it seems to be fixed now, but it was a little disheartening.
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Post by gali »

BookishCreature wrote: 23 Jan 2018, 17:38 I agree that it would be nice to be able to appeal disqualifications. I actually just had to get in touch with the mods because my comments on LinkedIn were being disqualified. For some reason, the mod(s) couldn't see them. Still not sure why that happened and it seems to be fixed now, but it was a little disheartening.
They couldn't be seen because of the private setting, and I believe I helped you with that.
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Post by BookishCreature »

gali wrote: 24 Jan 2018, 00:05
BookishCreature wrote: 23 Jan 2018, 17:38 I agree that it would be nice to be able to appeal disqualifications. I actually just had to get in touch with the mods because my comments on LinkedIn were being disqualified. For some reason, the mod(s) couldn't see them. Still not sure why that happened and it seems to be fixed now, but it was a little disheartening.
They couldn't be seen because of the private setting, and I believe I helped you with that.
You did, and I appreciate that!
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Post by Lulwa »

I feel the same way. Iv been coming daily since about 5 months. And got disqualified with over 300 carryovers. I usualy have only 2 carryovers. But since im like 10 participants away from winning..!i decided to write a short 2 line review in which i got disqualified for as a vague review.. il be discontinuing with this site.
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Post by MsTri »

Thanks for the support, everyone! I just hope the 'Powers That Be' agree and implement such a change.

@bookowlie, while I agree about the deterrent aspect, some entries get disqualified just because a moderator didn't feel it was "unique" enough or whatever; why should something so obviously subjective have such a big impact? Perhaps there should also be guidelines here; as a reviewer, my reviews, author blurbs, and First Ten entries all specify a length that they must be, be it words or sentences, so adding such a requirement for the review, facebook, and linkedin entries - for instance, "must be three sentences, all mentioning something specific about the book and/or review" - would, again, keep things balanced and uniform on the site.
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Post by gali »

MsTri wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 03:44 Thanks for the support, everyone! I just hope the 'Powers That Be' agree and implement such a change.

@bookowlie, while I agree about the deterrent aspect, some entries get disqualified just because a moderator didn't feel it was "unique" enough or whatever; why should something so obviously subjective have such a big impact? Perhaps there should also be guidelines here; as a reviewer, my reviews, author blurbs, and First Ten entries all specify a length that they must be, be it words or sentences, so adding such a requirement for the review, facebook, and linkedin entries - for instance, "must be three sentences, all mentioning something specific about the book and/or review" - would, again, keep things balanced and uniform on the site.
The Giveaway page does specify that the comments should be unique to the book/review, depending on where the comments are posted.
Your comment must be meaningful and demonstrate you actually read the review. Otherwise, you will be disqualified.
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Post by Alice Heritage »

So, I just had an entry disqualified because a Pinterest entry was not found. I have edited the social media address ... but must stress that it had been correct the day before and apparently, weirdly, the day after. So it seems that the correct address I had entered on the website lapsed into an incorrect address temporarily through no action or omission of my own. How can the disqualification have "deterrent" value in the face of some glitch I still don't understand?

I don't care that much about raffle entries but am still at a stage where the social media sharing points make a difference. I am of course happy to support authors through social media sharing. But the situation here is one where the author "adored" my comment on Facebook, and that same comment is "disqualified" in connection with a problem with Pinterest not caused by me? This does not seem proportionate. Thank you for ensuring fairness in this matter!
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Post by MsTri »

gali wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 04:29
MsTri wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 03:44 Thanks for the support, everyone! I just hope the 'Powers That Be' agree and implement such a change.

@bookowlie, while I agree about the deterrent aspect, some entries get disqualified just because a moderator didn't feel it was "unique" enough or whatever; why should something so obviously subjective have such a big impact? Perhaps there should also be guidelines here; as a reviewer, my reviews, author blurbs, and First Ten entries all specify a length that they must be, be it words or sentences, so adding such a requirement for the review, facebook, and linkedin entries - for instance, "must be three sentences, all mentioning something specific about the book and/or review" - would, again, keep things balanced and uniform on the site.
The Giveaway page does specify that the comments should be unique to the book/review, depending on where the comments are posted.
Your comment must be meaningful and demonstrate you actually read the review. Otherwise, you will be disqualified.
And still, some have been disqualified because even though they've fulfilled those "requirements", the comment was too brief. I still think specifics work best, especially if such an inordinate reprimand will occur if the requirements aren't fulfilled. And again, there's a lot that's left up to the moderator's subjective judgement. Why should somebody lose 300 or more entries that took over a month to accumulate because a mod is being overly stringent?
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Post by Alimc1030 »

I have been doing the book of the day for months now, I haven't changed anything in my settings and it has just been recent that they started disqualifying my entries. Do they ever explain as to why they are disqualified?
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Post by gali »

Alimc1030 wrote: 04 Feb 2018, 17:28 I have been doing the book of the day for months now, I haven't changed anything in my settings and it has just been recent that they started disqualifying my entries. Do they ever explain as to why they are disqualified?
You should have got an email stating the reasons.
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Post by Alimc1030 »

gali wrote: 05 Feb 2018, 00:26
Alimc1030 wrote: 04 Feb 2018, 17:28 I have been doing the book of the day for months now, I haven't changed anything in my settings and it has just been recent that they started disqualifying my entries. Do they ever explain as to why they are disqualified?
You should have got an email stating the reasons.
I saw that after I posted. I have been disqualified twice and have only received an email for the most recent one. It looks like my link for Pinterest was broke and I have fixed it but I don't understand what could have changed in all of that time for my link to have become broken.
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