Comments / Feedback / Suggestions Thread 2024/2025

scotty on 04/01/2024 - 12:17
Last edited 08/01/2025 - 16:27 by 1 other user

New year — new feedback post. Please use this post to submit feedback and request features. Again, no guarantee that requests will be responded to or implemented, and often feature requests can take months to be pushed out, when there are other issues blocking them.

Similar posts in the past: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018.

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.

Site Discussion

Comments

  • Cronium on 06/01/2024 - 13:49
    +4

    Make DDR5 (and probably DDR4) a subscribable tag. RAM as a category doesn't really cut it as most users would probably be looking for specific types of RAM.

    • Moderatorscrimshaw on 07/01/2024 - 12:29

      You can create search alerts as a work around. For example if you were specifically after DDR5 CL40 try this as a search alert.

  • cobknob on 06/01/2024 - 16:59
    +1

    Do posts under deals get posted to main page by some algorithm or by a mod? If by a mod can we please see the time difference from when the post was attached to main page from deals. I'd like to get a general metric-like idea how quick OOS appears for items from the time they get moved to main page, when I randomly check site for deals etc :)

    • smigglejiggle on 06/01/2024 - 21:36

      It's triggered by amounts of votes.

      • cobknob on 07/01/2024 - 02:21
        +1

        No it's not. Rice had 20+, on main page. Maxwell cr2032 battery's had 37+, and not on main page. Unless mods remove deals regularly on main page.

        • morse on 07/01/2024 - 08:45
          +1

          It’s how many votes within a time period. Not sure of the formula but say 20votes in 10mins vs 2hrs. Worth noting that deals posted at 3-4am often don’t make the front page as not many people online to vote for them. So maybe formula should also reflect votes as percentage of people online at time as well.

        • Moderatorscrimshaw on 07/01/2024 - 12:31

          If a deal gains votes rapidly the system takes that into account and will push it on the front page. This means a deal can have <30 votes but still hit FP. Explained here.

          https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/help:faq_merchants?&#i_ve_…

          let v = positive votes - negative votes (total number of votes). let m = minimum votes (default=30)

          A deal will be on the front page if

          • v >= m, or

          • v >= m /2 + (current time - deal posting time) / rate

          Currently rate is that for every 30 minutes, new deals need one more vote above m /2 to be on the front page. Due to the way rounding works, a deal needs

          • Only 16 votes to be on the front page within the first 30 minutes

          • 17 votes if it has been posted for more than 30 minutes but less than an hour

          • 18 votes if more than an hour but less than 1 1/2 hours

          • 19 votes if …

          m would be different if you have changed your front page minimum votes, but basically that's how it works behind the scene to bring recently posted deals to the front page even when it does not have enough votes.

  • peterw1 on 06/01/2024 - 23:06
    +1

    As many of us travel overseas, could you keep a regular heading for duty free shopping. It can be used to compare prices prior to or during travel. ie price of JW black in singapore/malaysia etc and in what quantity ie how many ml bottle. Just like keeping a page for pizza coupons, this page could be updated regularly for popular items and travellers could post prices for less popular items if requests and time permits.

  • ShortyX on 07/01/2024 - 01:06
    +1

    Can we please help our old friend -> ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    His right foreman is missing sometimes… ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    🙃

    ShortyX on 07/01/2024 - 01:06 (Collapsed - Offtopic. Show)
    • pegaxs on 07/01/2024 - 09:31

      No! (╯°□°)╯︵ \

      • Chandler on 08/01/2024 - 13:03

        Yes! / ノ( ゜-゜ノ)

    • whyisave on 07/01/2024 - 22:30

      Asking for all the right improvements :-)

  • morse on 07/01/2024 - 06:57
    +1

    I’ve suggested this before but since you’re asking - location based categories. Eg Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle etc. I’m thinking primarily for dining, accommodation and entertainment deals that are specific to that location. Or an ability to subscribe to tags with mandatory tagging for location based deals. I tried subscribing to ‘QLD’ and ‘Good Coast’ for email alerts and it isn’t specific enough. Ideally you’d click on say ‘Melbourne’ and it would up with all the deal specific to Melbourne, like pub meal deals, happy hours, discount movie tickets or whatever. I see this being helpful if you lived in or were travelling to that destination. Id imagine a lot of these deals would be long running

    • Moderatorneil on 07/01/2024 - 13:44

      You can see all QLD related deals via a search alert

      [QLD]

      Search shows deals with [QLD] in title only.

      QLD Dining

      Search shows deals with [QLD] in title only and in Dining & Takeaway category.

      • wisdomtooth on 07/01/2024 - 13:55

        Could we go one step more granular? Deals in the Gold Coast don't typically interest people in the Sunshine Coast (and vice-versa), or the same between NSW Central Coast and Wollongong, for instances.

        • Moderatorneil on 07/01/2024 - 17:14

          Geotagging has been on the to-do list for about 12 or so years. We have geotags/location tags which we pretty much only use for travel, specifically airfare deals. You can see an example that is currently on the front page.

          China Southern: Tokyo return from Melbourne $562, Sydney $584 via Guangzhou (2x 23kg Bags) @ IWantThatFlight

          You'll see Tokyo is tagged and has it's lat/long set in our system (35.6806213, 139.7562315). It has a related tag of Japan. Japan has a related tag of Asia. So when someone tags Tokyo in a deal, then it will show Tokyo, Japan, and Asia in the tags.

          Best practice would be to have every deal posted geotagged (e.g. exact lat/long of place, e.g. JB, Queen St, Brisbane) but how? Users struggle to get even the very basics of deals written, so I don't think we can rely on users to geographically tag their deals. Then it would fall to staff which would be more manual work. Also we'd need to think about how we can tag multiple places.

          Perhaps we can tag deals with the suburb (e.g. Brisbane) the deal is in to create some kind of hyperlocalization deals? So then the Queensland tag would be more accurate.

          • wisdomtooth on 07/01/2024 - 22:21

            @neil: That'd be ideal, and I did suggest something like that last year, but at this point, I think all that's being suggested here is to move only one step further in the localisation from states to metro areas. By your description of the flight deal, it sounds like you've already got a solution for that; perhaps now it's just a matter of populating the tag table with Australia's metro areas, linking them to their states of course, just as Tokyo is linked to Japan, and Japan to Asia.

        • Clear on 07/01/2024 - 22:56
          +1

          If we're going to be that pedantic how about we start tagging the states properly first? Why are there no state tags on Aldi, Costco or 7/11? All 3 aren't nationwide yet.

      • morse on 07/01/2024 - 19:50

        Thanks @neil whilst I love ozb and this is great it doesn’t quite meet what I’d like, albeit I can get this from other sources combined. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about https://www.theurbanlist.com/goldcoast/a-list/best-cheap-foo…

        If each one of these was listed as a long running deal and users could click on Gold Coast that would be great. Also remembering that this list is not exhaustive and there’s a lot more that doesn’t get posted on OzB for GC and a lot of other locations.

        I have a range of websites and businesses I check regularly but don’t post here because most of the time it’s too niche. Having said that there are endless posts about people wanting to find out about what to do on the Gold Coast and what the good deals are. I imagine that the same for many locations.

        • Moderatorneil on 08/01/2024 - 18:37

          Off the top of my head, possibly a Wiki page (like Birthday Freebies) or a forum post like [QLD] Tightarse Dining Options in Gold Coast?

          • morse on 08/01/2024 - 19:33

            @neil: Yes, something like that but not necessarily just QLD/Gold Coast, other cities and and towns too. And maybe ‘dining/entertainment’. If started I promise to put in a bunch of GC stuff. I think it would be well received. Thanks for considering.

  • stratbargain on 07/01/2024 - 07:34
    +2

    Can you make dark mode part of the user preferences so it persists between browsers, sessions etc?

  • khomeini on 07/01/2024 - 09:52
    +1

    1. Built-in MS Paint app
      When creating a post, a built-in MS Paint (or general paint) app that allows for drawing of situational circumstances which explains it clearly to the masses.

    2. If bargains are purchased to show how many have purchased it (eg. verified by uploaded receipt not visible to us).
      a. Gives everyone a clear idea on actual purchases rather than only vote stats.
      b. Also gives OzB the ability to show to seller/company that OzB is a great collective to offer discounts & other incentives.

    3. Review of the product (carrying on from point 3) from actual buyers

    4. Photos/vids grouped together in one section so we can see them all rather than going to each post. Also ability to upload (I know this will chew up more unnecessary storage space though)
      This will allow all media for a post to be together (still showing at each comment location but nice to see it all together too)

    Understand that some of these would be very hard to implement but just my feedback.
    Appreciate all your efforts over the years Scotty!

    • whyisave on 08/01/2024 - 17:39

      If bargains are purchased to show how many have purchased it

      That's too much asking OzB to keep an inventory of how many people are buying things across thousands of different retailers ?

      If a retailer wanted, they could ask for the URL referrer to see how much traffic originated from OzB.

      Then, each retailer can run their own metrics to gauge user engagement and sales.

      • wisdomtooth on 17/01/2024 - 19:13

        Not to mention the "Built-in MS Paint app" 😄

  • Bargain2020 on 07/01/2024 - 15:08

    Have another option in Classifieds besides “Found” when item needs to be delisted. For example “Withdrawn”. Or “Cancelled”.

    • Moderatorneil on 07/01/2024 - 18:30

      To users looking at wanted or those posting wanted classifieds, what's the point of listing 3 different reasons for a classified being no longer available? If anything a word that covers all 3 situations may be better? Maybe just expired?

      • mapax on 07/01/2024 - 18:58

        no longer available

        a word that covers all 3 situations

        NLA

        • Bargain2020 on 07/01/2024 - 23:38

          My main concern was more of a transparency one. I was not happy to mark the item as being “Found” when it was not.

          • Moderatorhamza23 on 08/01/2024 - 10:46

            @Bargain2020: If you backdate the expiry field in the listing, it will show as 'expired' instead of 'found'. That is how mods do it. You will need to write the previous date in the expiry date field manually, eg '2024-01-05'.

            I think we could make that an alternate option to select by clicking the red tag which says 'found' or 'sold' and giving the option to changing it to 'expired'. Similar to how we have expired and out of stock for deal posts. We'll look into it.

  • Embaloo on 07/01/2024 - 16:12

    An option for removing or collapsing one or more front page forum topics from the front page so that the next most popular ones pop up?

    I like reading the front page forums but would prefer a higher frequency of rotation.

  • Nistrod on 08/01/2024 - 10:42
    +1

    I usually read the daily newsletter on an 8-inch tablet. In portrait mode, deals and comments have a narrow column of text and the Top Deals/New Forum Topics panel on the right and a large right hand margin. Mobile mode removes the right-hand panel and takes up the whole screen width, making it much more readable.
    Is there a way to force the email to display in mobile mode? Ideally, permanently on that device.

    • CodeXD on 08/01/2024 - 10:51
      +1

      On ozb page footer there is a mobile site option. Not sure if it persists for the device since I've never used it before

      Mobile SIte

      • whyisave on 08/01/2024 - 17:42
        +1

        I never saw that "Mobile Site" option before.

        Then, with excitement, I clicked on it (on a desktop PC),
        and it messed up the layout …

        … until I saw the bottom, it said "Full Site",
        and I had the desktop glory all over again :-D

      • Nistrod on 09/01/2024 - 11:30

        Thanks, but this just takes you to the OzBargain front page. It doesn't help with the formatting of the current entry.

        • CodeXD on 09/01/2024 - 11:55

          Ah I see, I just re-read your comment and you're asking about forcing your email application to mobile mode rather than ozbargain.

        • Moderatorneil on 09/01/2024 - 12:40

          What app are you opening your email with?

          • Nistrod on 10/01/2024 - 08:38

            @neil: Android GMail. But its an HTML email, and works fine on a real mobile, so the adaptive formatting needs to be set to mobile for the tablet.

  • Gdsamp on 09/01/2024 - 11:18
    +1

    allow voting on deals that have been reposted to front page (even if older than 30 days)

  • Fysh on 10/01/2024 - 00:39

    Anyone else having clouflare secure connection prompts they cant clear.

    Did some testing and it appears to be mobile browsers in desktop mode. Fix is to use site in mobile mode but eh i have 20/20 vision and a s24 screen haha.

    Samsung s24ultra
    Chrome
    Samsung browser
    VPN also tried with no luck.

    • kerfuffle on 10/01/2024 - 08:26
      +2

      Probably because you're using a phone that hasn't officially been released yet.

      • Fysh on 10/01/2024 - 08:28

        Hahaha I'd been checking out s24 vids at the time. Meant to say s23u

        • whyisave on 10/01/2024 - 15:48
          +1

          You had already conditioned your mind, that the S24 was yours already.

          Manifest, and ye shall receive !

    • sween64 on 10/01/2024 - 08:58
      +1

      I’ve had a lot of Cloudflare checks loading OzBargain recently (last week or two) but that’s been on a desktop using a desktop browser.

      Win 10 PC
      Edge
      Superloop

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 10/01/2024 - 14:37
    +2

    Can something be done about multiple occurrences of sockpuppet repeatedly offending?

    I don’t think delisting a post, and giving a week or two penalty box is really enough for repeat offenders.

    • scotty on 10/01/2024 - 14:52

      You might want to do a poll with Bikies as one of the choices.

      • Jimothy Wongingtons on 10/01/2024 - 15:13

        Informal poll topic:

        What should be done with repeat sockpuppet offenders for the same merchant, especially for those posts that are just advertising spam:

        *Bikies
        *Perma Ban on posting further deals for merchant/shop for those clearly gaming the system, or at the very least, long term bans
        *Nothing more - the current system of short term bans is sufficient

    • Moderatorhamza23 on 10/01/2024 - 15:12

      multiple occurrences of sockpuppet

      Third offence is already a permanent ban.

      • Jimothy Wongingtons on 10/01/2024 - 15:14

        Thanks, is that a ban for the main rep account, the sockpuppet account, or the store itself?

        Eg, main rep account has multi performance based bans, but then makes a new fresh account (or even gets an old aged account with basically no activity) - then sockpuppets.
        Is 3 strikes calculated on the store?

        • Moderatorhamza23 on 10/01/2024 - 15:17

          Both the sockpuppet account and the store.

          If 3 different users sockpuppeted for the same store once each, their accounts would each only get temporary bans, but the store ban would be permanent.

          So you can't get around the store ban, by getting different people to post or similar.

  • zzyss on 10/01/2024 - 15:06

    FWIW I'm seeing issues with some "new comments" links.

    E.g. on my profile "Comments" page, I'll have a "New" lozenge next to a thread, which hover says links to:
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/139622/new

    But when I click it, it redirects to:
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/139622?page=51#comment-148…

    EDIT: on further investigation, there seems to be some kind of counting error, because the last page of the thread is marked as "51" in the on-screen pagination, but the link in URL is https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/139622?page=50

    And this is a 404. It seems not to like the query string param "page" specifically.

    This is only happening sporadically though. Could it be related to the DDoS somehow?

    • scotty on 10/01/2024 - 15:08
      +1

      It's something to do with the page number calculation — known issue but I'm yet to get around it.

      • zzyss on 10/01/2024 - 15:10

        Yeah it's an off-by-1 error somewhere. I just noticed that page 1 is <no query string>, page 2 is page=1, etc.

  • spackbace on 10/01/2024 - 15:46
    +2

    I think it's time to reassess the voting limits for performance-based store bans, given the ever-growing popularity of this site and the votes that deals now get, I'm sure most would agree that a +1 vote average can be pretty easy to obtain for the most mediocre stores

    2018 request
    2019 request
    2020 request
    2023 request

    What would be the % of membership increase since 2018? I'm guessing pretty substantial, which should warrant this being changed

    • scotty on 10/01/2024 - 15:50
      +1

      We actually have less new users every year since 2020. Substantially less new deals since 2021 as well due to Amazon AU posting rule changes.

      • WatchNerd on 10/01/2024 - 16:12

        Is it that big a deal to raise it though? It's been +1 for a long time & given the overall increase in membership it seems like a good idea.

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 10/01/2024 - 17:06
      +2

      This is a good point and I reckon at least make it +3, considering you could literally post the worst deal in the history of deals and still get AT LEAST one automatic upvote from one of the usual suspects. In most cases many non-deals and oz-advertising posts somehow still get 2-3 auto upvotes anyway, even if the deal has neg votes with members with bad experience with the stores/reps….

      • Moderatorhamza23 on 11/01/2024 - 07:38

        If you read the guidelines, you will see that is already covered:

        Sep 2020: The algorithm may now exclude excessive voters from the performance ban calculation.

        In 2019 we also changed the time between posts from 30 days to 60 days, to capture more stores for performance bans:

        The 2 latest rep posts (excluding those posted before the last performance ban) are 60 days or less apart

        Both these changes lead to a fair increase in performance based bans given out.

  • jetblack on 12/01/2024 - 16:02

    It's annoying that you can't cancel upvote/downvotes.

    • mapax on 12/01/2024 - 16:14
      +2

      You can. Click on the votes tab under the comment, it will show your vote and there will be a red circle with a neg in it, click that and the vote will be revoked.

      • jetblack on 12/01/2024 - 18:31
        +1

        Oh OK. Yeah weird UX but good to know, thanks

    • CodeXD on 12/01/2024 - 16:25
      +1

      You can revoke your upvote/downvote

      for example https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/823163/votes

      • sween64 on 14/01/2024 - 08:05
        +1

        But you can’t change your vote…

        • wisdomtooth on 17/01/2024 - 19:08

          Yeah, that's annoying. And unnecessarily complicated.

  • Flying Ace on 14/01/2024 - 11:34

    I've just come from this deal: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/826037

    And I wanted to subscribe so I could be notified when the OP posts a new top level comment saying they are back in stock. Could this be an option in the Subscribe area, to be alerted when the creator of the deal posts a new top level comment?

  • whyisave on 15/01/2024 - 22:59

    Is there a way in Markdown to create 'underline' text ?

    Basically, my request is to have more text formatting options
    than just italic, bold, strikethrough

    • wisdomtooth on 17/01/2024 - 19:07

      You missed…

      Headline

      But yeah, there's no underline in the character set.

    • Moderatorneil on 17/01/2024 - 20:20

      Is there a way in Markdown to create 'underline' text ?

      No.

      See Commenting and Deal Formatting which is part of the Help located at the footer of OzBargain

  • Butterfly Gocha on 16/01/2024 - 17:50

    Hi Team

    Not sure if its been asked before but is there an ability to have the OP highlighted if they reply in the comments section of a deal that they post?
    Sometimes going through the discussion, it seems like theres someone talking to the OP or someone else replying on behalf of the OP, but it would be good if they can be shown in the thread?

    thank you

    • spackbace on 16/01/2024 - 19:29
      +1

      They're highlighted by a grey border, kinda obvious :)

      • Butterfly Gocha on 16/01/2024 - 21:21

        Welp. Didn't notice the subtle difference. Must be my astigmatism.

        Thanks

  • Captain Yobbo on 22/01/2024 - 09:51
    -1

    I'd like to see a ban on second hand furniture (usually ex-office stock) being posted under the guise of it being a "bargain", an entirely subjective claim given there's no way to assess the quality or compare to other items, it's essentially a niche offering. There's plenty of other avenues ie Gumtree, Facebook MP, eBay etc to dispose of these items, and as they are almost always rep/associated posts, it strongly suggests the site is being leveraged for advertising purposes and not to post a proper bargain.

    • CodeXD on 22/01/2024 - 09:57

      I would disagree that secondhand furniture is a niche offering. Companies are allowing wfh and people without the necessary equipment will need supplies. Where better than to get cheap ex-office stock that are upwards of $1.5k brand new at a fraction of the price.

      I also disagree with the other avenues especially gumtree and Facebook marketplace. I'm sick of scrolling through businesses who try to capitalise on those platforms when I am looking for consumer-to-consumer items.

      • WatchNerd on 22/01/2024 - 10:02
        +2

        I'm sick of scrolling through businesses who try to capitalise on those platforms when I am looking for consumer-to-consumer items.

        You do realise OzB is a community website for sharing bargains?

        • CodeXD on 22/01/2024 - 11:04

          That sentence was purely about gumtree and facebook marketplace. I go to gumtree and facebook marketplace to buy/sell to/from consumers not from businesses.

          I have no issues with businesses/reps on ozbargain and have scored great deals from them.

          I see businesses posting in gumtree/fb marketplace like if they posted in ozbargain classified section, it is not meant for businesses to post things in.

      • Captain Yobbo on 22/01/2024 - 10:02

        It's a very narrow market, but I take your point about WFH & access to cheap furniture, but that doesn't negate the fact that these posts don't appear as bargains or deals, merely as advertising (hence they are 99.9% rep/employee posts). That's regrettable your UE on other platforms hasn't been ideal but I don't see how that justifies businesses trying to capitalise on this platform, which is for bargains, not as a clearing house for their products.

  • LG-13 on 25/01/2024 - 15:31

    Hi, the cashback button in deals, is only showing cashback from cash rewards. It no longer shows the cashback rates for other sites like shopback, top cashback, etc. something broken?

    • scotty on 25/01/2024 - 15:41
      +2

      Yes, ShopBack feed is broken which we are working with ShopBack to bring it back. TopCashback changed their page format so without logging in we are not able to scrape the cashback rates, and the API they provided are useless.

  • Buyer0fBargains on 26/01/2024 - 19:00

    I don't know if it's a bug or a permanent change, but can I ask if we can get Shopback and TopCashback added back into the store pages? It was so helpful to be able to see the cashback amounts for a store across all the three sites in one handy spot. It was also my main reason for using the OzBargain browser extension.

    • Moderatorhamza23 on 26/01/2024 - 19:00

      Please see above.

      • Buyer0fBargains on 27/01/2024 - 08:56

        Whoops. I thought I was at the end of the thread before commenting. Sucks about TopCashback - maybe their rep should be more active and share their rates.
        Hope ShopBack fixed their thing.

  • Ghost47 on 31/01/2024 - 21:12
    +1

    Regarding the Christmas donations, I've just checked the charities that have received donations the past few years and some of them have received donations every year the past few years. E.g. Cancer Council, Lifeline, BeyondBlue and RSPCA have received donations every year the past four years.

    I have nothing against these charities but would it be worthwhile vetoing charities that have received a donation from receiving a donation the next one or even two years? It seems a bit unfair to me that some charities can keep getting voted for over and over whilst other charities that are also valuable to the community get no donation.

    It also makes me wonder how many people just vote for a charity that they're familiar with or have heard of, whereas other lesser-known charities (e.g. Save the Bees) gets missed or ignored completely that also do valuable work for the community. It could also be argued that donations to smaller charities could go much further than the larger charities which funnel a lot of donations to admin costs and salaries.

    • scotty on 31/01/2024 - 21:52

      Maybe a poll before Xmas & EoFY on which charities should be excluded? Then those will be taken down from the list during the actual charity poll?

      • Ghost47 on 31/01/2024 - 21:56

        Hmm possibly. I was thinking it would be easier to simply exclude the ones that had received donations already (e.g. list them in the OP and say they're ineligible), but if you poll people that would give people more of a say, although you'd double up on polling.

  • FezMonkey on 02/02/2024 - 14:43
    +1

    The polls should at the very least have a total at the bottom and a percentage next to each response. it's too hard to get a read of the results currently.
    Maybe there could even be a pie chart to click to open. But at least the total and percentage figures.

  • narcoleptic-haze on 03/02/2024 - 13:57

    I'm getting fed up with having the site block me when using on mobile. Can't you add a 2fa extra click or something to filter out the bots?

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