The general contest settings provides the core contest settings for your published contest. This is generally the first place you start when setting up the rules for your contest.
To get to the contest settings, select the contest icon and select “Manage” for the contest you want to configure.
Once in the contest area select the settings tab.
The General contest settings is selected by default and is the first item in the menu tab on the left.
The General settings are described below:
Contest Name
The contest name is the identifier for the contest. This is a title meta tag and is used to also help search engines.
Description
This is the description for the contest. It is used as a description meta tag and will help with search engines
Contest Gallery Image
The contest gallery image is the thumbnail used if the contest gallery is enabled. The contest gallery is displayed if the global site pages is enabled. The global site pages provide a landing site for all contests that may be running on your ContestPad solution.
Status
This is the status of the contest. It can contain 3 statuses:
Published : The contest is active and can be accessed from portal site. (note it can be locked down using passwords and site under construction).
Offline : This can be used to when first drafting up your contest. Offline contests will not be accessible from the contest portal however they can be previewed from the dashboard.
Closed : The contest is closed and while it can still be accessible from the public portal, contests that are closed cannot have actions such as entry submissions or voting.
Allow new users to register for this contest
This setting defines whether this contest will allow users to register for the contest. This could involve creating a new account or if a user is already logged in whether they can just register to perform actions on the contest.
Select groups that registered users are added to when they register
This is the group that users who successfully register are added to. This group can then be used to determine the access level that a user is granted for the contest
Who can see the contest?
This is used to restrict who can see the contest from the public portal. You can select groups that are either core created groups or groups that have been created by administrators.
If the “everyone” group is selected the published contest micro-site will be accessible to all public users. If the “members” group or the group(s) you have applied to new registered users is selected only registered users in those groups will have access to the contest micro-site.
The contest-site will request login credentials to access the contest. Any other groups can be added to access contest and only users in those groups will be able to access the site (using their login credentials).
Who’s allowed to enter the contest?
This is used to restrict who can enter a submission to the contest. If the “everyone” group is selected all public users will be able to upload a submission to the contest. If the “members” group or the group(s) you have applied to new registered users is selected then only registered users in those groups will be able to submit entries to the contest. The contest will request login credentials before entrants will be allowed to upload their entry to the contest.
Any other groups can be added to upload entries to the contest and only users in those groups will be able to upload entries to the contest (using their login credentials).
Moderation
Entry
Comment
User
There are three options for moderation:
Entry – If entry moderation is turned on then any entry that is uploaded to the contest will be sent to a moderation queue for approval. Only once an entry is approved will the entry be set to published and accessible in the entry gallery (assuming the gallery is enabled).
Comment – If comment moderation is turned on all comments made will be sent to the comment moderation queue under the Comments tab. Only once the comment is moderated and accepted will it be viewable from the entry page
User – If user moderation is enabled whenever a user registers to access the contest or submit an entry, the user will be placed into the moderation queue under the “User” section in the left hand tab.
Upload start
This specifies the date and time that the contest will start allowing entries to be uploaded. This date and time is based on the timezone selected in the site settings area. Note that the area where a user uploads their entries in the contest micro-site will not be visible until this date and time is reached.
Upload ends
This specifies the date and time that the contest will allow entries to be uploaded until. This date and time is based on the timezone selected in the site settings area. Note that the area where a user uploads their entries in the contest micro-site will not be visible after this date and time is reached.
Limit entries per contestant
This limits the number of entries that each contestant can submit to the contest. When a contest is restricted to registered users this will be limited to their account. If the contest is open to everyone the entrant will be identified with their email address.
Posting comments
This allows comments to be posted against entries. Any comments posted will also be sent to the comments moderation area.
Show entries
This settings determines whether the entry gallery is displayed in the home page.
Show Gallery Menu
This determines whether the menu item to display the gallery page is displayed.
Entries hidden message
This area allows for the entry and formatting of a message in place of the gallery area when the entry gallery is turned off. This only takes effect if the “Show entries” setting is turned off.
Administration email address
This is the emails address used to alert one or more administrators that an entry has been received (assuming the notification is turned on) and also when registrations are awaiting moderation.
Facebook Sharing
The facebook sharing area allows for standard messages to be set when users share entries using the Facebook sharing option on the entry.
Twitter Sharing
The Twitter sharing area allows for standard messages to be set when users share entries using the Twitter sharing option on the entry.