[New Feature] Hiding Targeted Deals

neil on 20/09/2016 - 16:39
Last edited 20/09/2016 - 17:16

As technology evolves, retailers are able to market their offers to specific target customers. Instead of offering a deal to everyone, a business can now offer a deal to those that most benefit the company. They don't have to worry about offers being forwarded to others or shared on social media. Good for them, disappointing for bargain hunters, and increasingly frustrating for moderators.

Our policy before this week was to unpublish any deals that were targeted deals. See some examples in the help page. The biggest culpret to the targeted deals lately is American Express. A recent example is AmEx Offers: Ingogo: Spend $10 or More 3 Times, Get $15 Credit | Targeted: Woolworths, Harvey Norman [AmEx Issued Cards]. Ingogo is available to everyone whereas Woolworths & Harvey Norman are targeted to some members. Or this one posted in the forums, [Targeted Offer] eBay $20 off When You Spend $50 with APP. Long story short, it is a frustrating situation for all involved.

What's New?

  • Targeted deals will now be marked as TARGETED

targeteddeal

  • By default, targeted deals will be show to everyone.

How to Hide Deals

  • To hide targeted offers from the front page and new deals page, click the hide button on any deals page. Then click Hide Targeted deals.

hidedeals

This is a work in progress and while we have some basic guidelines in place, e.g. if the deal is only available to 1 person or say a few, OR different offers based on usage/spend history that can only be activated via a specific invitation then it may still be unpublished. We will play it by ear until we get a general consensus of what works the best. We always appreciate feedback so please let us know.

TL;DR: You will be shown targeted deals by default but you can block them.
Reminder: You can already block deals by a user, store and NSFW posts.

EDIT: You can also block targeted deals via My Account - Edit - General.

Site Discussion

Comments

  • Clear on 20/09/2016 - 16:46

    I suppose NSFW will mean condom deals and not actual adult website deals?

    • Moderatorneil on 20/09/2016 - 16:52

      NSFW Deals

      Adult products (Lingerie, Prophylactics are permitted, Toys and Pornography are not permitted) are banned.

      NSFW Tagged Deals:

      Might contain nudity
Might contain other pictures with excessive amount of flesh
Might contain material that the moderators think would would embarrass you if you open the link at work

      By default, NSFW deals will not be shown on

      OzBargain front page
New deals page
Category deals page

      On other pages, an overlay will be shown on top of the image to mark the deal as “NSFW”.

      So no a condom deal wouldn't be NSFW unless it contained the above.

  • paaj on 20/09/2016 - 16:48
    +2

    I think marking them as Targeted is better than deleting - personally, I only go in and check Amex offers after I see them on this site. If they're target, tough bikkies. If not, i'll consider using the offer.

  • spackbace on 20/09/2016 - 17:06

    Yeah it's a good idea, eBay/Scoopon/COTD etc are a couple of ones I can think of where people suddenly discover the code works, but didn't get the email

    Neil, is there a way us PU's can tag it as Targeted, or is that a Mod only thing?

  • [Deactivated] on 20/09/2016 - 17:42

    Wondering how long until this was released on here, saw it done to my post on ChoiceCheapies.

    If a deal is targeted then everybody oncluded in the deal would get an email about, so what's the point in having them up on here anyway?

    • spackbace on 20/09/2016 - 18:06
      +2

      everybody oncluded in the deal would get an email about

      People have a tendency to bin the emails, whilst keeping the account. If the emails are auto-filtered, they wouldn't know

      • Clear on 20/09/2016 - 18:41

        People have a tendency to bin the emails, whilst keeping the account. If the emails are auto-filtered, they wouldn't know

        ^ This. My OzB folder is bad enough with 200+ emails every week.

    • neil on 20/09/2016 - 18:25
      +2

      As paaj said, he checks the AmEx deals here and then logs into his account to see if they apply to him. I never or intermittently get emails for these AmEx offers so OzBargain is really the only way to get notified.

    • tassieeagle on 20/09/2016 - 18:58

      Some deals go straight to spam folder which I never check. Ozbargain gets checked every 30 minutes

  • avgbowlofpho on 20/09/2016 - 18:52

    Thanks neil!, people gave me shit about this when I made a massive thread about moving targeted offers

  • spal on 20/09/2016 - 19:36
    +1

    I don't generally look at targeted offers, unless they are posted here too. That way I know that the offer is a bargain. Also read comments to look out for any issues or tips.

  • NiteMice on 29/09/2016 - 13:10

    Does that mean that deals for members-only things like PS+ or Costco would be tagged in this way too?

    • Moderatorneil on 29/09/2016 - 13:12

      That's not a targeted deal. Also you can block stores (and users' posts) using the hide link as well.

  • INFIDEL on 29/09/2016 - 16:34

    Thanks Neil.
    Should avoid the frustrating unpublishing of a Woolies deal like EDR FREE BEER several times over a week, even though anyone without an EDR card (using temporary card) & access to a BWS store could score FREE BEER 🍺🍺

    You finally allowed deal to be published on last day, just as it expired😢 (I didn't know how to correct the false impression it was a targeted deal.) Now that won't be a problem.

    Such a waste of (full strength) FREE BEER🍺😀

  • forumninja on 04/10/2016 - 13:26

    Can we have a way for members to mark a deal as targeted when posting?

    • Moderatorneil on 04/10/2016 - 13:32

      For the time being, just hit the report link below the deal. What happens usually is we put it in our mod chat and we all test it to see what we each get.

      • Make it so on 24/11/2016 - 13:59

        Could powerusers have the ability to mark deals as targeted? I wanted to mark my own deal as such yesterday :)

        • Moderatorneil on 24/11/2016 - 15:51

          We'll discuss and get back to you.

        • Moderatorneil on 28/11/2016 - 23:55

          I think at this point we'd prefer to keep the targeted flag as a moderation function. It's only one click to report the deal and we are happy to assess each deal. Some targeted deals get quite complicated and sometimes require a bit of discussion and testing, not something an individual PU may be able to do.

        • Make it so on 29/11/2016 - 00:25

          @neil: No problem, thanks for looking into it.

  • shapers on 28/06/2017 - 18:46

    Edit: Nevermind found the answer

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