On the whole, I've found some reasonable deals through OzBargains, but - from today - I'm going to start scrutinizing the "deals" here a bit more closely, before going to the vendor's shop (or site) to check out the offer.
That's because - until today - I believed that each member's vote on a deal (even a Negative one) would "stick" - ie, stay with a deal; surprisingly, this isn't how OzBargain works.
Imagine my surprise when I noticed that a Negative vote, which I cast, had "disappeared" - apparently after only 9 (in fact, possibly fewer than 9) others took exception with my brief comment on the (proposed) Deal, namely "WD TV Live" for $99.
The price of the deal was OfficeWorks' regular price, and - according to their staff - had been so for a while already, when the deal appeared, & I said as much in my comment (in fewer words):
"Two OfficeWorks' staff told me this is the NORMAL price for this puppy.
A lot to pay for a tiny box… & NOT a particularly good Deal."
Right or wrong, that's my opinion. Not racist nor politically incorrect. Not lengthy or cryptic.
Just "disappointing" to the vendor, and - clearly - out of sync with others who thought differently about this deal.
Now, the fact that a Negative vote had disappeared (been "revoked" by 9 or fewer dissenting opinions) was not easy to see, when reading the "WD TV Live" deal page; you had to hover over the (by then Zero) Negative vote count to get any hint as to what had happened (but no clear idea as to how many dissenters was enough to "revoke" a Negative vote).
(We do not know if site visitors - other than the one who cast a Negative vote - would be told about that one or more Negative votes had been cast, but later "revoked" or why.)
I'm just surprised that OzBargain would want to pander to vendors, by removing genuinely-cast votes, that represent a user's opinion about a product or deal, no matter how many others disagreed.
Imagine if the Electoral Commission could "revoke" your vote, eg, whenever you voted for a new political party or candidate (eg, Nick Xenophon's "No Pokies" party, back when it was "just a sparkle in Nick's eye" ;-)
People would scream "anti-democratic" (as I have suggested in my choise of title, above).
It seems to me that a vendor looking for free (& risk-free) advertising on OB could have staff (or, in the case of a family business, friends or family members) revoke any number of Negative votes, ie, by voting down any "disappointing" comments on their Deal.
If it takes so few (9 showing when I looked) to "revoke" a disappointing vote, it would be just as easy for a sole-trader to set up 8 bogus OB account (in addition to 1 genuine account), to "protect" a lousy deal from "bad press," ie, by revoking any negative votes.
(So far, the comments seem to have stuck, but I recell seeing other comments, that were nearly transparent, making them hard to read; I don't know it they could disappear completely, eg, if many people disagreed with them.)
From now on, I - for one - will begin to discount the value & accuracy of OzBargains' Deal vote-counts.
For me, the only justification for "revoking" a vote - whether Positive or Negative - is when it was a vote by someone (eg, vendor's employee) paid to cast it OR by someone who'd voted before, on the same deal.
(A check of IP-addresses would be needed to police this, but that may not be 100% foolproof.)
I support reporting all votes (without revoking "unpopular" ones) accurately; let the actual numbers of Positive & Negative numbers of votes "cancel" each other out, as they may, but show accurate totals of each.
If OzBargain (or its vendors) don't think Aussies are capable of doing the arithmetic involving Negative vote-counts, a 3rd value could be reported: a sum of the Positive & Negative votes. ;-)
Mod — Moved to Announcement/Feedback forums.
The facts:
Here's the link to your vote/comment in the WD thread,
And the voting guidelines explaining associated negative vote revocation feature.
11 negative votes, 2 positive votes.
The breakdown:
Members since 2010: 4
Members since 2009: 4
Members since 2008: 3
NONE are reps. Most are long standing members with multiple submitted posts and comments. We diligently look for sockpuppeting all the time and I can assure you that any ghost/employee accounts are dealt with swiftly.
Every member had the ability to see who voted down a comment at one time but it was causing retaliatory voting and fights within threads. If you suspect something is suspicious use the REPORT button and the mods will investigate.