Elemental Army Updates

from Elemental Forums

Since the launch of the Elemental Army promotion we have seen great participation.  Although the overwhelming majority of participants have been submitting valid links for their participation, there have also been some trying to game the system.  

With that we have made some changes (thanks to kestral2040) for the dev work).  These include updates so it is easier to see who is submitting duplicate links and such, among other admin-side improvements.

We are also changing the way Digg submissions are being handled.  From this point on points for Digging an article will only be rewarded for Digg links that have been submitted and placed in an article/news by an admin.  For instance, an admin would make a posting with a Digg link that would be used for Digging if need be.

Thanks for your participation so far, and have fun!

 

Update:

We are going to sticky and use this thread to post all updates going forward so it is easy to reference.

 

June 10th update:

  • New admin auditing tools
  • Improvements to leaders tabs
  • Top quests tab now features highest scoring individual submission

 

elemental
23,063 views 49 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks ID for the update and that is good news!

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I knew I should have gamed those digg thingies.X(

 

:P

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Digg links that have been submitted and placed in an article/news by an admin
End of quote

I will admit, I never used Digg until this competition.  What exactly does this mean?

 

Meaning the first person to link an article and "digg it" is the only person who can get credit?

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting zampolit, reply 3

Digg links that have been submitted and placed in an article/news by an admin


I will admit, I never used Digg until this competition.  What exactly does this mean?

 

Meaning the first person to link an article and "digg it" is the only person who can get credit?
End of zampolit's quote

Neither had I, but now I'm glad I found out about it. My understanding is that an Admin (ie, someone who works for Stardock) has to find the article and post it on digg, and then anyone can digg it and get points. But previously, anyone could post an article to digg and digg it, which meant some more obscure articles came up, etc.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kyogre12, reply 4



Quoting zampolit,
reply 3

Digg links that have been submitted and placed in an article/news by an admin


I will admit, I never used Digg until this competition.  What exactly does this mean?

 

Meaning the first person to link an article and "digg it" is the only person who can get credit?



Neither had I, but now I'm glad I found out about it. My understanding is that an Admin (ie, someone who works for Stardock) has to find the article and post it on digg, and then anyone can digg it and get points. But previously, anyone could post an article to digg and digg it, which meant some more obscure articles came up, etc.
End of kyogre12's quote

Sounds like someone needs to start a "to digg or not to digg" thread that lists all post jun/9th digg articles that are quest worthy. :)

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Generally speaking it means that if you see a story on digg and you digg it, you'll only get points if Island Dog or someone else from Stardock posted it (it'll usually be him, though).

We understand that there are people who have honestly submitted stories about elemental to digg (and appreciate it) but this is the simplest rule to go by to prevent people from submitting lots of dupes then all digging each other's dupes too.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kryo, reply 6
Generally speaking it means that if you see a story on digg and you digg it, you'll only get points if Island Dog or someone else from Stardock posted it (it'll usually be him, though).

We understand that there are people who have honestly submitted stories about elemental to digg (and appreciate it) but this is the simplest rule to go by to prevent people from submitting lots of dupes then all digging each other's dupes too.
End of kryo's quote

 

Are changes going to be retroactively made to some of the previous digg submission points?

 

I saw digg submissions were allowed in multiples, so I went to digg, sorted by newest, and dugg a string of them.

 

I'm asking because none of mine were duped, but all but one was denied. Of those denied, most if not all were the same articles that other users received points for.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

We've gone through the top users and those who've posted more today, and will check back on more as the admin tools are further developed over the next few days and the process for doing so is simplified.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

As an addition since it has come up several times, please do not try to get points for wishlists on both EBGames.com and Gamestop.com. Both sites are the same company and share the same database, so you will only get credit for one or the other.

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kryo, reply 9
As an addition since it has come up several times, please do not try to get points for wishlists on both EBGames.com and Gamestop.com. Both sites are the same company and share the same database, so you will only get credit for one or the other.
End of kryo's quote

 

ROFL, ok I'm guilty. I didn't know they were the same. But I was viewing unacom's quests...saw ebgames as one of his points, so did it myself. I'm going to guess we're all guilty on that one!

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting zampolit, reply 10

Quoting kryo, reply 9As an addition since it has come up several times, please do not try to get points for wishlists on both EBGames.com and Gamestop.com. Both sites are the same company and share the same database, so you will only get credit for one or the other.

 

ROFL, ok I'm guilty. I didn't know they were the same. But I was viewing unacom's quests...saw ebgames as one of his points, so did it myself. I'm going to guess we're all guilty on that one!
End of zampolit's quote

 

i did the same. sorry for any repeat submissions; i'm just trying to make sure i've got everything covered.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting weez2mo, reply 11



Quoting zampolit,
reply 10

Quoting kryo, reply 9As an addition since it has come up several times, please do not try to get points for wishlists on both EBGames.com and Gamestop.com. Both sites are the same company and share the same database, so you will only get credit for one or the other.

 

ROFL, ok I'm guilty. I didn't know they were the same. But I was viewing unacom's quests...saw ebgames as one of his points, so did it myself. I'm going to guess we're all guilty on that one!


 

i did the same. sorry for any repeat submissions; i'm just trying to make sure i've got everything covered.
End of weez2mo's quote

Me three:P I hate that they bother to keep two websites that are the same except in title. Just have one redirect to the other or something, that seems easier...

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

I must say, we have such a honorable and honest group of players! (Well, after we are told "no!" to at least...)

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kryo, reply 9
As an addition since it has come up several times, please do not try to get points for wishlists on both EBGames.com and Gamestop.com. Both sites are the same company and share the same database, so you will only get credit for one or the other.
End of kryo's quote

So you'll continue getting points for posting on multiple wishlists?  I kinda figured you'd only allow one site per person since you can game the system by just going to as many wishlists as possible and adding Elemental.

Later,
LAR 

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting larrypeters, reply 14

Quoting kryo, reply 9As an addition since it has come up several times, please do not try to get points for wishlists on both EBGames.com and Gamestop.com. Both sites are the same company and share the same database, so you will only get credit for one or the other.
So you'll continue getting points for posting on multiple wishlists?  I kinda figured you'd only allow one site per person since you can game the system by just going to as many wishlists as possible and adding Elemental.

Later,
LAR 
End of larrypeters's quote

Exposure, Exposure, Exposure is the name of the game.  Rule of thumb, if it helps increase exposure, they'll probably give you credit, if it doesn't and is just jumping through a loophole as many times as possible, they probably won't.

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm going to point out, that you also need to update and change the rules again then because when we HAVE submitted reward requests, for posts by Island Dog, they've been rejected as well. Which is not cool.

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kryo, reply 9
As an addition since it has come up several times, please do not try to get points for wishlists on both EBGames.com and Gamestop.com. Both sites are the same company and share the same database, so you will only get credit for one or the other.
End of kryo's quote

I saw Pakal_Votan was awarded points for both, so I thought it was ok. It did seem a bit odd that there was a single account for both sites.

Also, will the diggs made by Island Dog be posted somewhere around here? Or do we F5 the Digg.com search for latest Elemental posts?

Reply #18 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm going to point out, that you also need to update and change the rules again then because when we HAVE submitted reward requests, for posts by Island Dog, they've been rejected as well. Which is not cool.
End of quote

You were most likely trying to get credit for ancient posts which have no realistic chance of benefiting from being dugg (and would be kinda pointless even if they did make it to front page since they're outdated info). As I've noted in a number of digg rejection notices, they need to be recent.

Reply #19 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kryo, reply 18

I'm going to point out, that you also need to update and change the rules again then because when we HAVE submitted reward requests, for posts by Island Dog, they've been rejected as well. Which is not cool.

You were most likely trying to get credit for ancient posts which have no realistic chance of benefiting from being dugg (and would be kinda pointless even if they did make it to front page since they're outdated info). As I've noted in a number of digg rejection notices, they need to be recent.
End of kryo's quote

I did Digg his most recent ones. Here in June, and they were rejected. And the rules aren't updated to reflect it. So it comes across as arbitrary. I was looking at it as RAW (Rules as Written.) Because the actual rules, not just what's here in the forums, don't state anything about a timeline. And as far as reasonable expectation, people participating in a contest will look to the official rules for their guidelines.

If you know what I'm trying to get across. It just seemed to be not cool that even recent diggs get no credit. When again nothing in the rules mention anything about a timeline, or your intention for that which is recent.

 

 

Reply #20 from Elemental Forums Top

How do we know what digg articles are submitted by Island Dog? On the Digg site, I didn't notice any articles submitted with that name.

Reply #21 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting damonlundy, reply 20
How do we know what digg articles are submitted by Island Dog? On the Digg site, I didn't notice any articles submitted with that name.
End of damonlundy's quote

You can do a search for elemental, and find him as a poster, and then view his history for elemental posts by him. Which is what I did. (Mind you both Digg Articles that he posted that I dugg were rejected.) Mind you again no mention of a time line involved.

That said I'm obviously not trying to game the system, otherwise I would be reporting each of these threads that I've been heavily participating regarding the contest.

I'm just wanting credit for following their rules. It's the Stardock way, they make a mistake and fix it. They don't go after us, because of an oversight on their part. So that being said, I'm also wanting them to fix it so that others don't experience what I have. In this case. Because, as I hope you know by my passion on this, though it comes across on the negative to a side, is because I do care. I've been waiting for this game patiently for 4 years, ever since Brad first mentioned it in a Gal Civ 2 blog.

Reply #22 from Elemental Forums Top

How do we know what digg articles are submitted by Island Dog? On the Digg site, I didn't notice any articles submitted with that name.
End of quote

http://digg.com/users/IslandDog

 

I did Digg his most recent ones. Here in June, and they were rejected. And the rules aren't updated to reflect it.
End of quote

I just went through your previous submissions (the admin tools were just now updated to permit that) and it does appear that a couple from the past week or so were accidentally rejected. I'm going to assume that ID cleared the massive overnight queue before he had his coffee and I got in. :) I've corrected them accordingly.

Make sure when submitting diggs that you link the /who page that shows who dugg the article, rather than the main article page itself.

Reply #23 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kryo, reply 22

How do we know what digg articles are submitted by Island Dog? On the Digg site, I didn't notice any articles submitted with that name.

http://digg.com/users/IslandDog

 


I did Digg his most recent ones. Here in June, and they were rejected. And the rules aren't updated to reflect it.

I just went through your previous submissions (the admin tools were just now updated to permit that) and it does appear that a couple from the past week or so were accidentally rejected. I'm going to assume that ID cleared the massive overnight queue before he had his coffee and I got in. I've corrected them accordingly.

Make sure when submitting diggs that you link the /who page that shows who dugg the article, rather than the main article page itself.
End of kryo's quote

 

Thank you Kryo. As I've said elsewhere, this company is just outstanding.

Reply #24 from Elemental Forums Top

June 10 update posted.

 

Gorstagg - Kryo was right, it was my mistake that some legit ones were deleted and he kindly took care of it.

Reply #25 from Elemental Forums Top

Worth noting that things that are old and dugg will not get points as the way Digg works its only relevant for articles that are new (its kind of like a 'news' site so no one will ever see anything older unless digging through archives).

 

Also we will try and go through and double check old wishlists if there are errors.  If you notice something feel free to mention it and we can fix it.  

Plus the how to play scoring rules are updated as we change stuff, its probably just cached in your browser :)