Comments / Feedback / Suggestions Thread 2020

scotty on 02/01/2020 - 19:27
Last edited 03/01/2020 - 13:26 by 1 other user

New year, new suggestion thread. Yes I know there are still many pending "unresolved" from last year's suggestion thread, but please use this thread in 2020 to post your suggestions for new features, bug report, feedbacks etc. Please refrain from creating new posts for feature requests / bug reports — they will be merged back here. Also, please check this wiki page as your suggestion may already have been mentioned.

The majority of things you see, as well as policies on OzBargain were implemented based on user feedback. Please see the Site & Guideline Updates Announcement Thread to keep up to date with the changes/features that we implement as they are added.

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closed Comments

    • Moderatorhamza23 on 18/06/2020 - 12:16

      This will be changed in the auto suggest in the next update, thanks.

      Example

      • spackbace on 18/06/2020 - 12:29

        Thanks!

        • Moderatorscrimshaw on 19/06/2020 - 12:01

          Change has been rolled out this morning.
          changelog:
          * Title suggestion to support currency before $ (A$, NZ$, S$ and US$) (scotty)

  • SummerZero on 08/04/2020 - 18:01

    can we tag items in short supply due to covid but make the front page despite not being a bargain price? e.g. toilet paper, cleaning products, pasta etc. they're flooding the front page lately, i dont think that many people will benefit by seeing soap at the regular price on the front page.

    • spackbace on 08/04/2020 - 18:31
      +1

      they're flooding the front page lately

      If they're on the front page, then people want them. If they're on "New Deals", then so be it

  • Quantumcat on 11/04/2020 - 12:59

    Negative vote remains despite comment being unpublished - bug?

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/530109/votes

    • Moderatorneil on 11/04/2020 - 13:28

      Comment was removed due to a false accusation rather than an invalid negative vote. Only removing for invalid negative vote removes the vote automatically. The vote is now revoked.

  • Dream-cast on 16/04/2020 - 20:04

    Clicking on a deal in the Live list takes me to the last comment instead of the top of the page. Whats the purpose of this change? Can I turn it off?

    • Moderatorscotty on 16/04/2020 - 21:48

      You must have clicked on a comment on the live page rather than a deal.

      • Dream-cast on 16/04/2020 - 22:01

        Thanks. Never noticed this for some reason.

  • sss333 on 17/04/2020 - 09:25

    Another OzBargain twitter account from new forum posts and/or hot discussions.

  • Chuppa on 19/04/2020 - 01:47

    An additional tick box option of Title Only on the search page would be great - especially when trying to type in the option on mobile.

  • tomwood on 19/04/2020 - 02:32

    I'd like to request the ability to subscribe/receive alerts for new deals linked to a product.
    For example - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/ipad-pro-10-5

    I know I could search for 'Ipad Pro 10.5' and create an alert but that includes results in the comments as well, many which aren't that relevant.

    There's many products I'd like to subscribe to if this was possible.

    There's been a couple of threads about it before:
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/300859
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/346080
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/457418

    Thanks

    • spackbace on 19/04/2020 - 20:20
      +1

      There's been a couple of threads about it before

      Yes, yes there has 😂

  • Eyetie on 21/04/2020 - 22:36

    It would be nice to be able to reply with Gifs? To add to the laughs in some ozbargainers' responses.

  • spackbace on 22/04/2020 - 18:06

    Can I suggest a limitation on username length if the site can't show the full name?

    Vote count here shows "lactose_the_int…", and when commenting, same thing

    Seems redundant ;)

    • Moderatorscotty on 22/04/2020 - 20:32

      We only show the first 20 characters of username, and in the case when it's more than 20, we show the first 15 characters followed by ...

      Yup, there's limitation on the username length, which is 20. However that limitation (+ many other username limits) only got introduced in 2015. Some of the users created earlier got long names. I just did a query and currently there are 267 users with username longer than 20 characters, longest being this guy.

      Maybe we'll gradually force those older accounts to change their usernames.

  • 87percent on 27/04/2020 - 09:43

    when you're in the penalty box, and you get a PM, does the person sending the message get any notification?

    • Moderatorscotty on 27/04/2020 - 09:44

      You still get notifications when you are in Penalty Box, including PMs.

      • 87percent on 27/04/2020 - 10:56

        No, does the SENDER of the PM get any notification? Like an automated message saying “this member is in the penalty box and can’t reply to pm”

        • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 27/04/2020 - 10:56

          Like an automated message saying “this member is in the penalty box and can’t reply to pm”

          Nope.

        • robinCTS on 27/04/2020 - 11:28
          +1

          Plus, there's no essential need for any such notification. AFAIK, everywhere that you can click "Start a Conversation" there is a line stating that the user is in the penalty box.

          You just need to remember to check that every time before sending a PM. (Sure, it might be nice to have that feature as a backup, but you can always check this afterwards if you send a PM without checking and don't receive a timely reply.)

      • bluesky on 27/04/2020 - 14:30
        +1

        On a related subject, if you have communicated with a person via PM before, but that person no longer accepts PM (as in you cannot start a conversation with the person anymore). The system still allows you to add a message on a past PM thread. If you do, does the person receive a notification and can the person access the new message that is on a past PM thread? Thanks.

  • Ghost47 on 27/04/2020 - 13:09
    +3

    Instead of merging all the COVID-19 threads into one mega thread (where IMO the comments become very messy), what's the chance of just having a temporary coronavirus forum where the threads can stay as they are?

    I think it's quite hard to follow all the different posts when they're in the one thread.

  • g12345567 on 28/04/2020 - 13:55

    How come when I do a deal it doesn't show up in the search results? EG This Deal

    • Moderatorscotty on 28/04/2020 - 14:10

      Due to the database node outage last night, some pages didn't get indexed properly. It will be fixed after the migration tomorrow.

  • spackbace on 28/04/2020 - 19:08
    +1

    Just something I've noticed, I reported a couple of overpriced sanitiser deals in reference to this post, and reported them as spam. The replies I got were the usual "we don't remove bad deals, if you don't like it then neg vote it" etc (paraphrasing).

    Are all mods aware of the stance of overpriced sanitiser/masks? Just seems like some might have missed the memo.

    This one was an example. At time of posting, the sanitiser was $48/L, which definitely should count as profiteering…

    • Moderatorneil on 05/05/2020 - 21:06

      All moderators are aware of the stance however see the following:

      Please note that this only applies to rep posts, however posts for stores that lack business details will be removed as always regardless of the poster. Moderators are not experts in any field and decisions to remove will only be made where it's clear and obvious, otherwise the community will decide.

      Dettol is $60/L and received 98 votes. $52/l 16 votes. In any case, sanitiser prices seem to have stabilised now.

      • elcheapo on 03/06/2020 - 21:09
        +1

        just a suggestion, can we put a temporary ban on L-Plate users trying to dump/offload hand-sanitiser to Ozbargain? It's becoming too frequent now since price is stabilised and these sellers trying very hard to dump their worthless sanitisers now.

        • Moderatorneil on 10/06/2020 - 13:19

          We've only received 1 hand sanitiser deal in the past week so maybe not an issue anymore.

          • [Deactivated] on 25/08/2020 - 15:26

            @neil: Coming back to this, can we get a temporary ban on L-plate and P-plate users dumping poor or undefined quality masks onto OzBargain? It's becoming a several times a day occurrence and I'm genuinely wanting to visit OZB less due to every third post being some no-name masks from some no-name store no-one's heard of with obstinate reps that have a go at anyone questioning their rubbish deal.

            I mean it's either that or a way to filter out subcats we don't want (like, ya know, Surgical Masks).

  • 87percent on 29/04/2020 - 16:26
    +1

    How come earlier today, my phone (iPhone 11), ozbargain was in dark mode on my phone.. but now it’s back to normal

    • Moderatorscotty on 29/04/2020 - 18:24

      Initially OzBargain detects whether the device ID using a dark theme and will turn on Dark Mode automatically. However that surprised quite a few people do I reverted back to manually turn on the dark mode.

  • AdrianR on 30/04/2020 - 01:25

    Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but my search alert doesn't seem to work:

    Query Created Last Alert
    option:freebie cat:gaming 26/04/2020 - 11:36 Never

    • Moderatorscotty on 30/04/2020 - 04:53

      Your search has two filters but no keyword.

  • neonlight on 01/05/2020 - 10:24

    Hi Scotty,

    For the reminder feature please include time/date, a lot of deals have time difference it saves a lot of time for people to check back in their own timezone rather than going to the deal and say not on yet.

    Same day but different times, at the moment only date can be set to reminder

    Especially for deals originated from overseas, has time difference

    • Moderatorscotty on 01/05/2020 - 11:15

      Currently we are only sending out the reminder once a day so we can't really let users "fine tune" on the time that reminders are triggered.

      • neonlight on 01/05/2020 - 11:26

        Once a day is fine we just need to set it to fire a particular time on the day or is this a global setting?

        • Moderatorscotty on 01/05/2020 - 11:40

          What I meant by "once a day" is that we only do it once a day for all users on OzBargain.

          • g12345567 on 09/06/2020 - 08:16

            @scotty: Still rather annoying not being able to set a reminder for time of day. Not every deal starts at exactly midnight on a particular date.

            EG:This deal doesn't start till 5pm and I'm already been notified up to 15 hours earlier.

            Another idea would be to also display new deals that have been posted to start at a later date and time at the top of the new deals list when they go live. As if they were just posted as a new deal.

  • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 01/05/2020 - 10:56

    I think the Mother’s Day page needs updating.

  • taron on 01/05/2020 - 18:40
    +1

    Suggest to improve Reminder feature: Remind at the time when the deal is started, not when the day is started.

  • brandogs on 02/05/2020 - 22:56
    +1

    Suggestion:

    Having the ability to change the default thumbnail of a deal while still maintaining the original link to the deal.

    Users tend to vote or click on a post more when there is an eye catching thumbnail compared to when the thumbnail is just a blank square. Here are a couple of recent examples:

    Free Deus Ex Go with thumbnail (350 votes, 6000 clicks)
    Free Deus Ex Go without thumbnail (140 votes, 2500 clicks)

    Free Delivery Hungry Jack's with thumbnail (95 votes, 850 clicks)
    Free Delivery Hungry Jack's without thumbnail(22 votes, 185 clicks)

    • Moderatorscrimshaw on 05/05/2020 - 12:16

      Thumbnails are taken automatically but in cases where it fails moderators will need to manually upload a snapshot or ask the system to retry.

      • Taegukgi on 06/06/2020 - 19:52

        HUKD allows images to be manually updated by the OP.

  • 00 on 08/05/2020 - 09:26

    Move deal voting buttons away from far right of screen.

    On iOS with Safari the page scroll bar is in front of the voting bars.
    So you can’t vote unless you scroll the page up/down, to ensure the scroll bar control is out of the way.

    • Moderatorscotty on 08/05/2020 - 10:53

      Voting buttons for deals have always been on the far left of the page, right under the profile image of the poster. It should be the same on Safari on iOS. Or do you mean something else?

      • 00 on 10/05/2020 - 22:30

        I stand corrected.

        I meant when voting +/- on comments in a thread.

        There is a little down arrow to press on, on the very right side of the screen and comment. In safari on the current ios and on an iphone11 the scroll bar in the browser is too close to the OzB downarrow.

        So when I try to tap the down arrow, I actually tap the scroll bar.
        The work around is to scroll the page so the comment is above or below the scrollbar control.

  • ozbargainer666 on 16/05/2020 - 09:48

    I'm concerned about privacy & the referral system. because some websites reveal the full name of the referrer.
    I can't think of any off the top of my head.

    • Moderatorscotty on 16/05/2020 - 10:38

      That's one of the reasons we have not added some website's referral into our system, or set them to be "PM only" rather than spewing out random referral coupons / links.

  • Taegukgi on 20/05/2020 - 09:19

    There are a couple of excellent features on HUKD that should be considered for Ozbargain -
    1) once a deal is posted, there is a delete button for a short period for the poster to delete the deal. After this period has lapsed, the delete button disappears.
    2) the poster is notified when their deal is reported as expired. They can then expire the deal themselves hence saving mods heaps of time.

    The deal posting is also much more easier with text formatting similar to using Microsoft Office.

    • Taegukgi on 06/06/2020 - 18:21
      +1

      Hi mods
      Looks like this has been implemented? I had a couple of notifications when a deal was reported as expired.

      2) the poster is notified when their deal is reported as expired. They can then expire the deal themselves hence saving mods heaps of time.

      • Moderatorhamza23 on 06/06/2020 - 18:25

        Yes sorry that was rolled out a couple of days ago. For those interested, it looks like this.

        For 1) It's likely to be implemented in the near future. It's on the do list, assuming there are no obstacles.

        Thanks for the suggestions.

        • Taegukgi on 16/06/2020 - 13:54

          Great to see the unpublish function. How long is it available for before it disappears?

          • Moderatorhamza23 on 16/06/2020 - 14:12

            @Taegukgi: 10 minutes or when the first comment is made (whichever occurs first).

            • Taegukgi on 16/06/2020 - 14:53

              @hamza23: Will a bread crumb be left on the page for self unpublished deals?

              • Moderatorscotty on 16/06/2020 - 16:09

                @Taegukgi: Yes, similar to self-unpublished comments, it would leave a stub with unpublishing reason being "Requested by OP".

        • Taegukgi on 18/07/2020 - 09:47
          +1

          Just another suggestion. When the OP expires the deal, should the report be removed? This would save the mods having to view the report.

          • Moderatorscotty on 19/07/2020 - 08:05

            @Taegukgi: Reports can only be marked as resolved by moderators from mod's reports page. Viewing the report does not take much time, but it's better for mods to know that reports can only be resolved in one place.

  • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 21/05/2020 - 11:35
    +1

    Add Location to Deal Posts

    I think we should have a section on deal posts to add the location of the deal (or choose: Online — if the deal is only Available online and if a deal is available at Harvey Norman for example at all stores the store tag could group together all the locations and automatically show your closest store — maybe?) wether this should be just the city or the exact location I’m not too sure but I think it would be handy in the future especially with the OzBargain App.

    • Moderatorneil on 22/05/2020 - 10:31

      This has been on the pipeline for a while and has been discussed many times. Location tags are already there, e.g. Flinders Street Station which has a lat/lon attached to it. Implementation is the tricky part but would be quite cool to have bargains near me shown.

      • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 22/05/2020 - 15:09

        Oh I didn’t realise there was a Flinders St tag, like you said implantation is pretty tricky, I think the best way to do it is to add a seperate compulsory field rather than a tag since most users don’t bother to add tags to their posts.

  • itsfree on 27/05/2020 - 10:31
    Merged from Bug: Updated Deal Website Doesn't Trigger Store Subscription Email

    I noticed that if a deal has its URL updated, the updated URL doesn't trigger a Store Subscription email notification.

    For example, I'm subscribed to Menulog. Yesterday's deal was initially posted with the URL domain of "ESL.gg". When scrimshaw updated the URL to Menulog.com.au, I didn't receive a New Deal email regarding it.

    • Moderatormoocher on 27/05/2020 - 12:33

      Hi itsfree, new deals trigger subscription notifications 10 minutes after the deal is posted, and never on updates. Unfortunately this means that if the deal link wasn't corrected within 10 minutes, the subscription for the store for which the deal was supposed to be associated with won't be triggered.

      We currently don't have a way of getting around this, sorry.

      • itsfree on 27/05/2020 - 12:49

        Thank you for your reply. Perhaps this could be considered as a future improvement then: if a mod updates a deal URL, the email notification system is pinged again.

  • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 03/06/2020 - 00:35
    +1

    Just a heads up you might want to add that OzBargain now has an app on this page (User FAQ), also under “How do I remove my comment?” it should also include that you can do it yourself provided no one has replied and the comment is less than 60 minutes old.

    • Moderatorneil on 15/06/2020 - 10:25

      Thanks. That has been updated.

  • Taegukgi on 06/06/2020 - 10:26

    Whenever a duplicate post is removed, a link is left on the duplicate to the original post. Is it possible to bring the original post up to the place of the duplicate instead? I think this is useful when some deals are duplicated multiple times e.g. the GTA V game through Epic games.

  • Zachary on 06/06/2020 - 19:03

    Is there a way to search through just your own comments or and deals you posted, historically for a phrase or word or anything at all? So I don't have to stroll through everyone else's comments just to get to mine which may very well be at the end of the search result or anywhere else inbetween but I wouldn't know until I thoroughly go through the search results….?

    • Moderatorscotty on 06/06/2020 - 19:36

      You cannot search just your comments. However you can just search through the deals you have posted, including all the comments, by adding user:145544 to your search query. 145544 is your user ID.

      • CVonC on 07/06/2020 - 01:03

        would it be feasible to search just your comments though?

        • Moderatorscotty on 07/06/2020 - 05:11

          That would not be possible.

          • CVonC on 07/06/2020 - 10:45

            @scotty: what about just listing all your previous comments? like when you go to your profile page and it shows your previous activities. The comments tab makes you click on the number before you can see your comment pop up.

      • Zachary on 07/06/2020 - 10:48

        Works great on your own posts but doesn't seem to include comments from posts of other users….wanted to go back looking for something I posted a few years ago that I had posted on another person's post…

        So why can't we search through our own comments? Is it just too much work to get it working or not enough interest to bother…?

        • Moderatorscotty on 07/06/2020 - 14:46

          The main issue is that search is indexed against the post, not comments. Therefore it only gives back the node IDs from a given query, thus it is not possible to search only the comments you have posted.

          Indexing each individual comment would mean the indices would be larger than comments themselves, thus making it not possible at the moment.

        • itsfree on 12/06/2020 - 16:40
          +1

          You could try using this Google search

          • CVonC on 12/06/2020 - 22:18

            @itsfree: Nice. Any way to sort in chronological order lol?

            • itsfree on 12/06/2020 - 22:26
              +1

              @CVonC: Unfortunately, Google removed that feature a while ago – the closest thing would be to use the custom date range tool

              • CVonC on 12/06/2020 - 22:31
                +1

                @itsfree: Damn never knew they even had a sort.. would've been very handy all these years!

  • Taegukgi on 08/06/2020 - 08:20

    Another feature from HUKD which would be very useful. Whenever a new deal is available, a banner would display above the current highest deal to show there are new deals available. This would stop a lot of unnecessary refreshing of Ozbargain when there are no new deals available.

    • Moderatorscotty on 08/06/2020 - 10:41

      People aren't using Live?

  • itsfree on 12/06/2020 - 16:37
    +1

    Is it technically possible to prevent referring websites to track that a clicked referral URL has originated from OzBargain (e.g.)?

    I have lost a lucrative referral code that was apparently used 9 times here, and I'm guessing they figured it out based on the referrer header.

    • Moderatorscotty on 12/06/2020 - 17:09

      Yes we have ways to suppress referrer header that the mods can turn on/off per referral settings. You can request it to be turned on in the Referral forum post.

  • Birdbrain on 14/06/2020 - 00:55

    Is there any future for expanding categories or splitting the ones already existing?

    For example, as a currently expecting ozbargainer I'm subscribed to the 'Toys & Kids' category however I'm not interested in the Lego/pencils/games that are mostly posted, only the kids and baby stuff.

    • Moderatorneil on 17/06/2020 - 13:54

      Might be better using title filters to exclude the things you have listed. See here.

      • Birdbrain on 18/06/2020 - 00:31

        Thanks, will definitely make use of this, but I'm assuming there's nothing like that for subscription site or email notifications? I don't want to hide the deals completely, just not get notified for the Toys part of Toys & Kids.

        • Moderatorneil on 26/06/2020 - 14:31

          You can search for a keyword and then exclude keywords you don't want in a category. e.g. You want Star Wars, in Kids & Toys category, but don't want LEGO.

          https://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/star%20wars%2C%20-L…

          or query: Star Wars, -LEGO, Category: Toys & Kids

          But you need to search for a keyword. Can't just be notified for everything posted in Toys & Kids except for LEGO. Might be easier to do a bunch of alerts you are interested in within Kids & Toys.

          • nappies
          • booster seat
          • pram
          • baby
  • AncientWisdom on 16/06/2020 - 16:47

    Personalise front page setting > don't show expired deals option. Does not seem to save for me…

  • Munnday on 17/06/2020 - 15:07

    Hey Scotty

    Any chance of take a look at using a script like quicklink / instant.page for external deal links across the site for logged in users?

    Quicklink: Faster subsequent page-loads by prefetching in-viewport links during idle time
    instage.page: instant.page uses just-in-time preloading — it preloads a page right before a user clicks on it.

    should give users a slightly faster advantage in accessing time limited deals.

    • Moderatorscotty on 17/06/2020 - 17:03

      Wouldn't that use more data, just to save a few seconds on navigating to external pages, which users might/might not actually go to?

      • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 17/06/2020 - 18:15

        It could be an opt-in service via user settings?

      • Munnday on 17/06/2020 - 21:15

        With instant.page atleast, it starts the preload upon hover alternativly can be configured to start preload on mouse down.

  • g12345567 on 19/06/2020 - 08:25

    Would it be possible to add feature to move and display new deals that have been posted to start at a later date and time at the top of the new deals list when they go live. As if they were just posted as a new deal.

    From what I can tell. These deals don't show at all when displaying new deals even though they have just gone live. Would be ideal for those who missed the post or didn't set a reminder.

    • Moderatorscotty on 19/06/2020 - 08:40

      For good deals with sufficient votes, moderators will schedule them for front page highlighting. I guess we could automate some of that when posted upcoming deals meet certain criteria.

      The reason we don't bump previously posted deals starting soon is to discourage people from gaming the system by posting future deals, as they would always have 2 chances to get on the front/new deals page.

      • g12345567 on 19/06/2020 - 08:59

        Ok. I see an option to display deals starting soon. What about an option to display all the starting soon deals that have gone live in the order they go live. As I see it. Once a deal goes live, if it's not highlighted on the front page then its lost amongst all the other deals as if it actually started the day it was posted. Not the actual start date and time the deals goes live. Which in my opinion is more relevant.

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