[Major Suggestion / Feature] - "Regular / Consistent Deals Page"

Forgot69 on 03/01/2012 - 15:20
Last edited 03/01/2012 - 15:43 by 1 other user

Hey OB team!

I was thinking there are a lot of constant deals and regular deals that come up like RedRoom, Oovie, Optus YesTickets, GetJar Android Apps & Amazon FAOTD. It would be a FANTASTIC to have an almost separate wiki like section of the website that these "regular deals" could be posted, modified and updated.

This would:

• save on the monthly/daily new posting of Oovie, RedRoom codes & Amazon FAOTD
• highlight some of the amazing deals like Optus YesTickets that would otherwise get little to no attention because they would be a dupe if re-posted as a new deal
• prevent these great deals similarly getting buried in the forums

If it were also made into a wiki style (any registered member can edit posts/pages) then it could be easily updated rather then just 1 user (and mods) controlling the OP. Popular deals could even have a sticky on the front page when the related deal code is updated automagically? Maybe users could even subscribe to pages to get notification on updates?

Clearly there's a bit of work on this. Is it feasible? Is it even wanted? Vote! :)

Off-topic: Thank you for this awesome site and the time and energy being put into it already!

Poll Options

• 8
  Useful feature, I'd use it daily.
• 1
  Okay feature, I might use it.
• 0
  Pointless feature, why waste time.

• 

  scotty on 03/01/2012 - 15:55

  Updating deals on wiki — still "too much work" from what I have seen. We already have deals and forums section (and sometimes people do post in the wrong section). I think adding the concept of "adding new deals into wiki" would just add way too much confusion.

  For people coming/sharing on OzBargain, I would much prefer people just click on the "Submit" button and fill out the form, for whatever bargains, deals or coupons they want to share. Wiki is good for writing guide or other static stuff, but I don't think it is that suitable for organising deals, unfortunately.

  Now to address the issues here, I don't think the problem is in "where do I post this deal", but rather, how OzBargain should present all the deals submitted by its members so

  • Daily/weekly/monthly recurring deals don't flood the main view
  • Some good deals should get highlighted — which I believe they already do, as deals with more votes will float to front page and shown on the sidebar on some pages.
  • Deals shouldn't buried in the forum — they were posted in the wrong section in the first place. Currently we don't have tools to convert a forum topic to a deal, but it's something we can work on.
  • Deal notifications based on keywords or tags — you can already subscribe to tag's RSS feed, but we will be working on more email notification features this year.
• 

  Forgot69 on 03/01/2012 - 18:16

  Okay, I went digging a little more around the dusty basement of OzBargain. I honestly didn't even realise the Wiki page already existed. The wiki is already being shoveled full with some good deals and long running specials!

  You're 100% right scotty. It's an issue how how to handle the wealth of submissions and present it cleanly and more importantly, informatively so the best deals that are relevant to the individual user aren't missed.

  I honestly think a well maintained wiki that was made more relevant (eg. front page stickie system and update notifications for users) could be a fantastic source of bargains and info.

  I don't think it too much to ask someone posting to think "Is this deal re-occurring OR a 1 off?" 1 off deals get submitted as per normal, the system for that is already awesome and full featured BUT if it was a "reoccurring" deal (let's use Oovie as an example) it could be submitted slightly differently (I'm thinking via a "Reoccurring" check box on the submissions page) and linked in with the existing Oovie wiki article with existing details like common links Find an Oovie and guides to Free Wednesday Registration all ready to roll rather then users having to construct a brand new OP each time. Then the submitting user would just have to enter in the updated monthly code. This makes even more sense with complicated deals like the Amazon FAOTD in which a detailed guide is necessary.

  I don't suppose anyone would mind if I attack the Wiki and do a bit of a clean up? With a tidy Wiki maybe someone could see the potential. Might there be a willing Mod I could work with on this?

  • 

    scotty on 03/01/2012 - 21:00

    Feel free to take a page and claim ownership, if you would like to get part of bargain-space organised :)

    The issue with wiki is just the amount of work involved. Moreover when the owner of the page moves on, it can get stale pretty soon. Ultimately we would like to develop a way to algorithmically display deals catered for each individual, so people just have to submit and we'll work out how to organise them.

    It might come, one day :) Meanwhile, feel free to take a page from wiki.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 03/01/2012 - 21:54

  I think one issue is the lack of visibility of the wiki.

  One way is to have a "wiki" deal featured on the front page somehow, or maybe even the 5 top wiki posts, which might also require some voting system or like button, so that people are somehow drawn to this feature rather than one by one they discover this great facility.. Hey many dont even realise there is a forum section.

• 

  neil on 04/01/2012 - 20:51

  Forgot69,

  I see you are working on http://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/entertainment:oovie. Looks good.

  I've been playing around with the group buy wiki page using rss feeds via Yahoo pipes to extract certain info. I was thinking perhaps you could setup a one off email or use your own email address subscribed to the free oovie code, run an ifft task to turn your email (via gmail) into an RSS feed. Then use the RSS syntax via the wiki display to output the code automatically into code section. Then you don't need to update the oovie code..unless they change the formatting of the email. Hope that makes sense.

  Doesn't solve the visibility issue but at least it will be updated often.