Changes to Guidelines for Amazon (Region Specific) Posts

hamza23 on 31/12/2014 - 15:48
Last edited 31/12/2014 - 15:57
Changes to guidelines for Amazon posts 31 Dec 2014

After discussion amongst moderators and community feedback, we will no longer be allowing separate posts for the same item(s) (such as Android Apps or eBooks) at different (country/region) Amazon stores.

For example if a post is made 'Free 'ABC' Android App @ Amazon AU' then a 'Free 'ABC Android App @ Amazon US' posted the next day will now be removed a duplicate. This ruling applies to all country/region specific Amazon posts. We would encourage deal posters to post both US and AU links in their deal posts when possible (or update the US link at a later date when it becomes available).

This changes comes after an increasing amount of reports and direct feedback from members in regards to the issue. Last night this post received some 10 reports alone.

We do recognise that different users have different needs and will still encourage separate links for different country app stores, however not as separate posts. We understand, as always, that not everyone may necessarily agree with this decision but hope you can understand the reasoning behind it. We also have plans to implement a separate store domain for Amazon App posts, so users will be able to block Amazon App posts but still see regular Amazon shopping deals.

Whilst we are not always able to reply every comment individually in a timely manner, we are listening to ALL feedback received and acting accordingly. We encourage the continued use of the site discussion forum to make such suggestions (as opposed to within deal posts)

Thanks for reading

Extra information for those who are unfamiliar with how Amazon works

For those who are unfamiliar with Amazon country settings or need assistance in the matter, I suggest you view a recent post from the Amazon AU rep such as this one for more information. A short summary is below:

To shop Amazon.com.au change your ‘1-Click address’ to your Australian address. Go into 'Manage Your Content and Devices' and then into 'Settings'. Check that the ‘Country Settings’ say Australia. Click 'Change' to check your address is in Australia. Above your address, it will state: ‘You are currently linked to shop on Amazon.com.au.’ If it says ‘You are currently linked to shop on Amazon.com’, then click the related link to select Amazon.com.au.

You do not need to create a new account and you can continue to shop for physical goods at Amazon.com. You can always change back to Amazon.com for digital products at any time.

Site Discussion

Comments

  • bxpressiv on 31/12/2014 - 16:17
    +3

    A good decision late but a good decision none the less.

  • payton on 31/12/2014 - 16:53
    +3

    Some ozbargainer have been unscrupulous and undermined others that competed with them for the prize .. thru fake "cheaper at place X" comments, duplicating amazon deals, plagiarising et al. Hope you're looking into this as well when deciding on who deserves the ozB annual/monthly prize.

    • sparkles on 31/12/2014 - 17:42
      +6

      Have to agree, since the start of the prizes there to seems to be a flood of virtual free crap on this site. The actual bargains for real stuff are getting harder and harder to find.

      • spackbace on 31/12/2014 - 22:28
        +3

        And starting to see deal spam in general, that have obviously been plagiarised.

        True colours always come out when money is in play!

        And cheers to the mods for the decision. As to that post in question, should this revised rule maybe be retrospective to that 'deal'?

        • CarnivalMonkey on 31/12/2014 - 23:13
          +1

          but I ate all my popcorn :(

        • Moderatorneil on 01/01/2015 - 00:37

          (Response to above comments, not aimed at any of you)

          No, the guideline is not retrospective.

          I'm fairly confident that people post on here not for the money but for the love of the bargain. The money is pretty small for the amount of time spent posting the deals. Better off working at Subway.

          Also, OzBargain did have a weekly prize for the best deals for a number of years. I won twice and certainly didn't post the deal for the money.

          Free virtual crap, deal spam due to prizes? Sorry to be harsh in my words but that's a pile of shit.

          Perhaps in 2015, we can be a bit more thankful for the hard work and effort of the members instead of criticizing them.

        • payton on 18/01/2015 - 19:08

          @neil:
          Its common knowledge that power corrupts. Popularity can affect individuals the same way, unfortunately.
          People who share deals are appreciated, its the predatory tactics and inflated egos that were being criticised.

      • scotty on 01/01/2015 - 23:31

        Monetary incentive certainly brings out the bad side of some of people, although I do not agree that the "virtual free crap" was the result of monthly / annual cash award. I presume that you are talking about free eBooks and Udemy free courses — you see them on the front page because people actually vote them up.

        On the other hand a much bigger "monetary incentive" that we opened up in recent years would have been allowing referral links and user-referral system. Some here might have earned hundreds of referral credits from signing up their fellow community members. We have also seen quite a lot of dodgies going on — ghost accounts with different referral IDs, rotating referral IDs when one reaches the cap, flooding the site with referral deals (until we implemented referral post limit), etc.

  • BarginHunter on 31/12/2014 - 18:16
    +2

    I'm glad that common sense has finally prevailed.

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