Hi, I have two points:
People should be unable to upvote a deal if the are in the referral system - People are upvoting deals or posting deals based on generous referrals. This is an abuse of this site and promotes average deals with referrrals.
Combination posts - eg. posting a phone and a USB cable. People upvote deal because the USB cable is cheap, but inadvertantly promote the phone. Solution: Each item in combination posts should be upvoteable.
Don't see point 1 as much of a problem, but as above, could only give random referrals maybe? Seems like a chunk of effort and coding for solving something that's maybe not that big an issue.
I see the problem with point 2, but it's going to get really confusing or crowded when it comes to things like Colesworth specials. Perhaps limit it to 1 item per post in everything other than grocery?
those are both excellent points, especially when Gearbest used to completely change their titles.
Store reps cannot replace their deal title to a different product (it is misleading because users already voted on the original title), such behaviour should simply be reported and the title would be reverted. Store reps can add extra products to their title, but as an addition not a replacement. We've already spoken to that rep and if you spot it happening just report it so we can fix, we don't need a solution for that.
1) For posting deals, our referral system already only shows the random referral links by default. This only changes if the deal receives 25 votes or more, at that stage the OP's referral link is also shown in addition to the random referral link (as a reward to the OP for posting a front page deal). See here for more information. There is therefore no incentive to post an average deal, because it has to hit 25 votes before the OP's referral link is shown (until then it's random only).
As for voting, there is little data to suggest that users are + voting deals because they are in the referral system, beyond the odd vote on (usually) lesser referral programs. For example there are over 2000 referrals in the Uber system but recent Uber deals have received as few as 6, 7 or 8 votes in total (including the OP's) and there is nothing to suggest even the majority of those 6-8 votes are referral related votes.
2) A good idea (to associate votes with particular products within the deal), however it's definitely not possible with our current deal submission format (freehand title where products, prices etc. aren't dedicated fields). Maybe it would be possible when we redesign the deal submission form, we'll keep it in mind for then.
Appreciate the feedback.
Nice response - clarifies things well
Yep, thanks for the informative reply
Interesting points and they should be considered
No sure how much an issue the first point is. Another solution or alternatively an additional limit, is that the only referral is that which is randomly generated rather than the current poster and random referral links being shown.
as for point 2, the way you put it, that is definitely gaming the system