Needed to vent my opinion but I am seeing a heap of trivial insignificant/unimportant and pretty bad deals appearing in recent months. IS this because people are just vying to get their name up in lights for having a heap of posts on specials?
I am not meaning to start a flame war of any kind, just want some other opinions, it is very possible it is just me, I may be aged and not with it any longer and it may take a lot more to excite me these days.
There are many deals that come and go, only a few gets voted up
If it gets voted, then people are happy with it, so it could be significant for them :)
People out there may not have the "ozbargain" blood that some of us have, a 10-20% off could be great to them, while most of us are waiting for a 50% off :D
Xception
10-20% off… a special
40-50% off … a bargain?
Yeah the section that shows all the newly added items on the right. If you are after a good bargain you have to be fast so you have to read those listed on the right, just takes a lot of trawling through trash days on end at times, I guess there is no better way to do it, well there might be a better way but I am not sure what it is.
I think it's just the volume of submissions going up. Perhaps you could ask the devs if they could extend the technology used in the newsletter filtering to generate a new deals list where uninteresting categories would not be presented to you. I know I would uncheck some categories.
If you go to the deals page and click settings you can block lots of stuff.
You can also set the Minimum Votes. Increasing the threshold will hide less interesting deals.
You can also block deals by the store. E.G. Don't have an iPhone, you can block the iTunes store. Don't like a particular person's deals? You can block deals from them. You can do this from any itunes deal page and click Hide from Listing.
Lots of options.
Thanks for that I was unaware of this, still not perfect and may cause missing some deals but should be able to filter some things at least.
Could this be extended with categories? Newsletter filtering already has categories.
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/3664?page=3#comment-1389780
Sure, I can suggest it. The only issue is that people tend to categorize things incorrectly often. Even this very post was put into the wrong forum before I moved it ;).
Thanks. Maybe if implemented and used there will be incentive to categorise correctly so that deals reach their audience.
Could this be extended with categories? Newsletter filtering already has categories.
As of this morning, you can select categories for your the front page and new deals page.
Go to 'My Accounts' -> 'Settings', then click on the 'deals' subtab.
In the 'general' section, you can click on the 'Deals For Selected Categories' radio button and select categories you want to view.
The front page algorithm can get a deal voted up with less than 15 votes, if they are given swiftly, so you would almost never miss a great deal if you get the twitter feed and act as soon as it hits the front.
If you want to get deals that are in such low volume that they sell out before getting 15 votes you just have to sort through every post shrug.
For me, I have found gems of deals with 3 or 4 votes because it was just what I was after but not of general interest, so I am happy to look at 100 posts a day.
I am seeing a heap of trivial insignificant/unimportant and pretty bad deals appearing in recent months.
Are you perhaps suggesting we should all stick with your 'never post a deal despite leeching others for 18 months, then complain about the quality' policy?
I knew something like this had to come along, thank you for being constructive and non abusive.
Contributing is not just about finding sales but the narrow minded may think that.
Sure, but complaining about the quality when you can't do better is a bit entitled.
Contributing is not just about finding sales
I'd suggest that, without any bargains to consider (good, bad or trivial insignificant/unimportant)…. Ozbargain would cease to exist
I am seeing less bargains that interest me, things like grocery bargains etc but I accept that this is my personal taste and that others might have totally different interests.
ozbargain isnt some kind of targeted advertising service to you.
i dont have a cat so i could care less about free cat food but i do like them being posted
i like the responses, i like the whimsy, i like cat owners getting free cat food, cat owners getting a lift in their day is cool by me
what kind of miserable selfish person expects a free site to cater to their exact taste of what constitutes a 'bargain'?
this country is really full of whingers
wow there are some angry people around. Cannot even raise a point without getting reemed, make a comment and be prepared to be hung out to dry. I am not the whinger here and it was never raised as a whinge, try rereading my post, it has a question mark, not a statement and I qualified it very clearly for those that want to read it with maybe it is just me and clearly it is based on the intelligent well thought out reply.
I never asked for it to be specific to me and a good suggestion was made that everyone be able to set their own preferences, that was helpful and why not? why not have everyone tailor what they see for them and not just be spammed with 95% of what they don't want to see.
Maybe you are unemployed? have heaps of time to refresh 1000 times a day and read every item up for sale? Maybe you are single? again situational.
Anyway I am done with this thread, can't be bothered trying to have a conversation with anyone here except the first couple of posts.
The site can go on just as it is and fill up with even more crap YOU don't want until one day you decide YOU want a filter and then YOU can raise it and I will come back and NOT blast you for being selfish or a moron or any of the other insults that I know you can fling my way and NOT to my face, the internet is a convenient hiding place for everyone.
Oh and as for the negatives pfft they mean nothing, give me a 100 for all I care it is just the internet after all and not be all and end all. Actually it is a compliment, means I got some attention.
it has a question mark, not a statement
hmm…
I am seeing a heap of trivial insignificant/unimportant and pretty bad deals appearing in recent months
is a statement of your opinion, that some would disagree with, making your 'question' irrelevant.
As has been mentioned before, the thing that annoys many members is people complaining about deal quality, having never posted a deal. I'm fine with folk who've posted a few deals having a moan…. but for an 18 month leecher to come on and accuse others of posting deals for anything other than the good of the community is irksome.
Having said that, I note your "I am not meaning to start a flame war of any kind", which may, or may not point to the reasoning behind your posting.
You just destroyed any goodwill I had towards your original post. I was willing to accept that you wanted preferences, which is a reasonable thing to ask for, but you came back to pour more petrol on the flames by imputing motives to Tony. You stirred things up in the beginning with the rhetorical question suggesting that posters are glory seekers. And now that I read it more closely, the word "vent" and others are revealing. All that was unnecessary. Asking for preferences was reasonable. You should have just sat on your hands once you typed that in.
yes it is full of whingers …isn't it
Is whinging about whingers also whinging? in which case take it easy on yourself
I get the '1st world problem' sentiment of this post but possibly a little harsh. I thought the question from the OP was whether folks had found any change in the general types of bargains appearing on the boards. I assume we all come here looking for different types of 'stuff' going cheap. Sometimes there will be a run of 'stuff' that better suits some members over others. The fact that some people arent currently digging the recent offerings doesnt make them 'whingers'. Surely we can each expres an opinion on a posting that asks a question?
I thought the question from the OP was whether folks had found any change in the general types of bargains appearing on the boards.
No… the question was asking if we thought that people were posting for reasons other than giving back to the community.
IS this because people are just vying to get their name up in lights for having a heap of posts on specials?
@tonyjzx
Thank you for knowing how to spell whingers correctly.
Elsewhere on this site someone wrote wingers.
Oh, how I laughed!
I don't know about you but when I post deals I'm not looking to be the most upvoted deal on the front page because I understand that not everything appeals to everyone. However, it will appeal to some people who use the site, same way some of these 'trivial' deals appeal to me. And if they aren't deals we have a fairly effective system for screening them out, via people negging the deals.
This site is based upon sharing deals, and if you don't post them because they won't be the most popular deal then this site starts to stop being effective.
As to processing new deals I have Ozbargain's new deals page on my rss feeder, and as something pops up that looks interesting I will click it and see whether it is a bargain and vote accordingly. With that approach you lose some and you win some.
I don't actually see what the problem is that you are having, you seem to want every deal to be an amazing deal.
While we are on trivial specials, how would you like it if every Kindle free books deal is posted in a single thread rather than each book deal or a set of books posted independently. Eastern culture started it and since then there are have been a few more people.
While I appreciate the effort just hate the fact that so often free books are three out of 10 deals on the front page.
I am aware that I can block it out but just wondering if it would be better to organise that category of deals a certain way in a single thread ?
While we are on trivial specials,
They do seem to be very popular…
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/kindle+ebook
No doubt they are popular just questioning if they could be better organized.
For exp in the case of Dominos coupons, the Whirlpool thread is so much better and efficient to see the currently open deals.
YES, YES and YES!
I know this will get the fur up but do we really need two posts about an LCD door viewer? A post summarising a grocery catalogue and then seperate posts about items in the same catalogue? Multiple posts in various forms about cheap PS3/Wii/XBox 360 games in Dick Smith?
Why is it OK to make a post listing 10 items as a "deal", and then creating another deal about one of the same items?
Sadly I think the community is getting used to the overload, and is voting them up because that all there is.
I want my ozbargain back - not ozIamgoingtoupvoteyoubecauseyourpostisfunny or ozyoutriedreallyhardhaveapositive
Personally I really could not care if the mods allow the site to go in this direction. Its up to them, and I guess its good for their numbers.
But even if people do not complain, they will notice and visit less often. And sadly there is always a competitior lurking.
Any really good deals that come up will no doubt find themselves buried under the weight of 4th place ribbons, "free" glucose meters, grocery catalogues and the like.
I am sorry that I can't get excited when someone finds a markdown grocery item at their local coles and posts it.
Consequently ozbargain really does not excite me these days.
And the one and only deal I managed to find I thought was worth posting, still active for over a month has faded from knowledge. Faring no little better in positive votes than some free ebooks.
And no I am not mad about that btw, just a little sad that people can't necessarily benefit from it like they should have.
I am just asking for less clutter.
Similar topic from nearly four years ago…
Natt, the deal you referred to (the one you posted). If that was the Jetstar deal, then 100+ ups and 6000+ clicks doesn't seem faded, buried or forgotten. If I need to buy something out of the ordinary, I search on OzB first.
Not Google, nor eBay.
That's how I bought a great toaster last week, and a nebuliser earlier this week.
But I do have a suggestion for the site.
When a new deal is being posted, an automated check could be run to ensure fewer dupes. If members searched first it wouldn't be a problem.
So what I propose is force a "search" by having just the title field available. Once the title is entered, some tricky arguments would come into play. If there's a match, don't deny the process, but bring up the active deals the system thinks might match.
If they still post it despite the prompt, we don the cleats and get stuck in ;P
When a new deal is being posted, an automated check could be run to ensure fewer dupes.
This already occurs. The system checks both the title and URL. We still get duplicates but not as many when the system wasn't in place. Don't think it's just the new users, it's sometimes the long time users as well!
Cheers Neil. I've only posted one deal, and forgot what happened!
I also didn't think to do a dry-run to see its behaviour last night.
Yes there was a similar topic four years ago, which is why I only posted to a pre-exisiting thread. I really don't think my little voice will have any effect.
Interestingly the "deals" I was mentioning are well entrenched now. And no the sky did not fall in, but they did change the site. And this might as well.
You made a good point about the "search" function to dig up info. I hope others use it as well :O Its going to be the only way to get to the good stuff soon I suspect.
Personally I really could not care if the mods allow the site to go in this direction. Its up to them, and I guess its good for their numbers.
We don't work on KPIs (thankfully!). It's not up to us. We consult with the community to find the best solutions. Sometimes the majority decision doesn't make the minority happy.
I know this will get the fur up but do we really need two posts about an LCD door viewer? A post summarising a grocery catalogue and then seperate posts about items in the same catalogue? Multiple posts in various forms about cheap PS3/Wii/XBox 360 games in Dick Smith?
Why is it OK to make a post listing 10 items as a "deal", and then creating another deal about one of the same items?
Duplicate discussion 1 and Grocery duplicate discussion 2. This was discussed.
If these posts bother you then perhaps we can impliment a checkbox on deals that mods can tick to indicate an individual product deal is duplicating a long list of items deal.
Everyone has different preferences on what deals they like. Offering more filtering is one way to customize seeing the deals you like.
neil
I really appreciate your response, but I think the issue is far more significant then saying more filtering will fix it.
There is a real skill in moderating, that I freely admit to not having (encouraging participation, while still maintaining site standards).
But all I am asking is that you take a hard look at what's getting posted recently and be a bit "tougher".
I love this site, but just smack my head on the keyboard when I see this http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/103326
Why was it not moved to the forum to allow people to share the love, but not stuff up the rating for other genuine deals.
Please don't let this happen, pretty please :(
take a hard look at what's getting posted recently and be a bit "tougher"
It sounds like you are unaware of the reality of how much material there is on a social site of which OzBargain is one that makes attention to each and every item impractical.
The only answer is more automation and more crowdsourced solutions. Some of these are already in place, e.g. thresholds, voting, personal blacklists, reporting, volunteer moderators. More could be done in the way of filters.
But all I am asking is that you take a hard look at what's getting posted recently and be a bit "tougher".
Whether or not something is a bargain or not is not up to the moderators. It's up to the community.
Why was it not moved to the forum to allow people to share the love, but not stuff up the rating for other genuine deals.
Why should it be? What do you mean by stuffing up the rating for other deals?
Happy to take on suggestions. They just need to uniformly applied to all deals.
It should be moved because it's not a bargain, its a post that's been artifically "inflated" because its really funny. And it is by the way.
By "stuffing up" I mean having that "deal" as one of the "top in the last seven days" etc would mean another is displaced wouldn't it (or am I missing something).
So a genuine bargain might not get as much visibility as it actually deserves.
And it is a little insulting to the people who are genuinely trying to find something to post, even the ones I think are "trivial" deserve better.
Anyway my voice is just one, bring on ozgivethemostpositivestothebestjokeoftheday.com.au but I will miss ozbargain.
The jokes better be funny!
not just bargains, but ozbargains :)
bargains - like beauty - are in the eye of the beholder
I guess this would be like 9gag where you have the "hot" front page, then the "trending" and the "vote" page. I guess the latter is comparable to the "new deals" page we currently have. I think for you, a trending page would be ideal when the more trivial deals won't show up and for the more adventurous there's always the new deals page. But I guess at this time the volume of deals per day doesn't seem like an urgent need for a mid tier page.
Maybe deals should be capped? On the front page there is a deal with 26 positive votes, and only 20 items to be in stock when released. I know people like a bargain, but most are going to miss out (taking into account non members/other hamming the store site etc)
TLDR all the comments. But I too feel that the site is being overwhelmed with daily crappy COD type deals, daily free apps, daily free ebooks? Seriously? How much time do you expect me to spend on OZB while I'm at work! If people wanted these, then sign up directly or download the free app/ebook finders yourselves. Don't get me started on the guys who post obvious genuine mistakes stores have made and ask people to try and pricematch.
But I appreciate the comments from Neil that you can filter these kinds of "deals", which I didn't know you could do. So thanks OP, I learnt something!
I agree, there are way too many ebook deals polluting the front page, I cant see how ebooks can be a deal anyway, they should be free all the time.
I agreed with you t_c and OP
Front page is flooded with free ebook deals. enough is enough.
I came here to post this exact comment today. OZB has been struggling with deals lately. Lots of "free samples" which sign you up to spam mail, and catalog specials which are already mentioned in the weekly dealatron thing.
Also not sure if custom PC builds are really a deal?
Maybe you can share with us more of your ideal deals :)
Ones that I didn't list.
A separate category just for headphones and phone apps would cut out most of the "fluff" from the mainstream.
….. and iphone cases…
Why does it matter? Are we talking about the new deals section or the front page? Surely the more deals coming in through new deals the better, if you are talking about the quality of deals that make the front page that might make more sense.