I've created this thread for general day-to-day comments/feedback/suggestions, because I think it's better then having to make a new thread every time you have got something little to ask/say.
Comments / Feedback / Suggestions Thread
JeffreyM on 18/03/2008 - 16:30
closed Comments
It is actually a delayed error message when you tried to vote on one on the deal. It was caused by a "racing condition", and happened when you click on voting the same deal too many times. We usually handle this gracefully, telling you that you have already voted. However the server has been annoyingly slow over the last couple of days, so… Well it is a bit difficult to explain.
The server speed has gotten a bit annoying so I might be looking for a new hosting provider after Easter if the situation has not improved. Meanwhile, sorry but please be patient :)
Why can't OZB use Ajax, as and when bargains come in the thing is updated, many of us just leave the site open in a tab and at times forget to even click refresh….
@Elijah — just in case you haven't noticed, OzBargain actually uses Ajax in quite a few places. What you are referring to is having OzBargain doing the refresh for you. It can be done either by (1) polling, which is just causing unnecessary load on our servers, or (2) comet-style push, which we might get around to that one day. Obviously there's software stack/architecture issues that we need to resolve.
yea I've noticed the use of Ajax in a few places, Ajax's server load can be limited in a few ways, but you do know what I mean like FB's activity feed, we obviously won't have bargains posted by the second but would definitely give OZB a new 2012 style boost…, something to ponder I guess until the next idea pops up… lol ;)
Couple times I can't access the site, 500 - Internal Server Error, now I know the problem.
Can I make a suggestion that each deal should also show how man times its been viewed, like a page counter.
Any chance of preventing people from flooding the Live Action page by voting on deals that have expired. I can't believe how many votes elcheapo has posted next to their name.
Perhaps it's a bug in the system or something since the time of the postings are all the same.Maybe old deals should just be un-votable as voting them becomes a bit meaningless.
Due to the obvious 'unrest' within the community with regards to negative votes. Perhaps some rules on voting negatively need to be in place. E.g. In order to post a negative vote the poster must:
- State a valid reason
- Refer to a bargain (include the link) which is listed if they’re stating a better deal is out there
- Refrain from using sarcasm
- State facts not opinions
Perhaps the number of negative votes they have cast that week could be included also.
Just my thoughts to make the community a happier, friendlier place.
some merit to point 4 - although maybe it should be a ratio of negative/positive votes. But it probably needs some discussion to make sure there aren't any "negative" impacts.
Maybe a negative vote also detracts from any eligible deal you might have posted - that is if you are really concerned then vote negative. If you don't want that impact then notify a mod about the issue so they can evaluate the "scam/spam" and modify the post. BUT this does need thought and discussion first.
Point 3 is very hard to police - maybe a guide to how to post might be better to point out how politeness is more effective etc
Point 2 again maybe better under a guide as how do you determine a comment includes a better deal and require this - manually checking comments is a little hit and miss and hard to police
Point 1. An on going issue but what is "valid" for one person is not always valid for another.
I think the issue with positive and negative votes is also related to the awards. Frankly I am not as concerned about these since I dont qualify for a reward (as a mod).
Although I do suspect some don't vote because if a deal gets more than their vote they could be voting themselves out of a prize.
Where is my thread?
I remember i started a new thread, but cannot find it now?Where is it,please?Please post your deals with the Submit link at the top.
Due to your origin IP (which is outside this country), mods will pay more attention to what you are posting.
i like the new + and - images
Scotty, I notice many changes to this site and mostly you are updating about this on Feature/Request as someone asked for it or as a result of some request. (Like mark all read, login boxes at every page, votes for comments also, negative voted comments are hidden by default). But it is very difficult to keep track of what changed and how to use them. Can you update this info on a fixed thread (some thread like site updates)?.
The reason I was looking for such info is, is there any option to list all comments even if got negatives?.
Currently if a comment has excessive number of negative votes (-2 currently), it hides with a stub that lets you show all the posts. All its descendent comments will also be hidden, and you have to click on "Show" to actually show them.
Maybe a button to say "Show all comments?"
i think voting on comments does not help this site, on the contrary; what do you think a person feels about this site and its members if his/her constructive comment gets a certain number of negative invisible votes? this happens very often and it's very annoying.
"Show All Comments" kind of option is good. Because going one by one to "show" is bit of pain.
But, In some cases, the votes on comments is good. Specially on deals page where comments are exceptionally high, this system can help to filter out unnecessary and abusive comments as a time saver.
what do you think a person feels about this site and its members if his/her constructive comment gets a certain number of negative invisible votes…
OzBargain is indeed structured in the way that is mostly community moderated — we do not have anyone working full time on this site, nor have a big team of moderators. Everyone has a vote, and "being constructive" is highly subjective.
I do agree that this model does not work in all cases, and I am still working on fine-tuning this thing.
i dont mind having a profile option to specify minimum number of votes before something is hidden
but i would prefer a "dont hide comments" checkbox alsoIt's there now (a checkbox just before first comment). It applies to an account-wide setting so once you tick "Show hidden comments", it remains ticked when you go to different pages.
Is there an Ozbargins site update page (like a version update page)? If not I think it would be useful to be aware of/understand changes implemented. Thanks.
For new features/new changes I will be posting them on this forum.
It's just that it has been mostly small scale tuning rather than larger changes over the last 6 months (very busy at work this year). I will try to keep everyone updated and transparent when feature/algorithm changes.
Hi, would it be useful to make the links to deals/websites open in a new window/tab or pop up? I hate having to loose the ozbargin page everytime I click on a link. I know I could just open in new tab but i forget most times. would be interested to see what others think. Thanks
Try middle click…
Alternatively, there's an option in your preference page that makes deals to open in new window, i.e. It has already been requested and implemented.
Thanks Scotty, although I only log in to vote this will help.
Hey Scotty,
With which company is ozbargin hosted?
You can find out the hosting and software I use on OzBargain's credit page.
Currently OzBargain is hosted at Linode in Fremont California.
Oops I missed the existance of this thread - so I'll post the topic in here
feel free to delete the new topic I started (I can't delete it)
Its a sign that ozbargain is getting really popular, as the number of posts increase (particularly from reps).
But one of the things I have noticed is that there is an increase in
1) deals that are getting a lot of negatives
2) deals that are misleadingand even more worrying deals that are actually deceptive where the seller has done something dodgy.
What do others think about this, should ozbargain intervene, should they let the community moderate itself, should it be handled on a a case by case basis, or should they impose bans.
Over time there has been some pretty good success stories, I remember when COTD used to be a real bugbear for most ozbargainers. It still seems to raise the hackles in a few, but overall they have really seemed to respond to the feedback they have been getting.
But how do you deal with businesses that post regularly but still only manage less than an average vote of 1 (given that there own vote counts), or even score negative
And as for the out and out dodgy ones, I do wonder if Ozbargain owners are compromised because of them. Maybe they should just be removed?
Sockpuppeting is a bit easy to prove methinks?
Oh about the puppeting, thanks for the superior investigative work ;P
(personal opinion: this seems like a pretty good topic, so it'd be good if it were in a seperate thread)
i agree, theres alot more bait/advert/spam posts up these days
my suggestion is to add some sort of "history" graph beside the "store profile" box which shows the average popularity over time for the store (since theres a bit of space there).
what it display could be improvised, but i think it'd easily give a quick indication on how dodgy the site/store is.better yet, also combine into that graph the history of the user's post (popularity over time) to see how dodgy the user is as well =p
i like the new styling done on the store profile on bargain pages
looks better!edit
actually its the styling on the fieldsetsToo bad Internet Explorer does not support CSS3-extensions for the rounded edges. Well. Too bad there are people that are still using Internet Explorer.
I'm wondering if there is an info page showing what the icons next to peoples names mean in Ozbargain? rg. REP, P (in red), P (in green), etc. Some might be obvious (to some forum users) but others aren't.
I had a look through the wiki and forums but couldn't find anything. Thanks.
Have a read through the following Forum thread DreamDude.
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/13661
This will explain some of the background around Scotty's implementation of the "P Plate" system plus other features in June of this year.Live Long and Prosper,
Jean-Luc.
\_/7Thanks. This would be useful content for the wiki for the benefit of others. Great to see new features implemented. Cheers.
I'm not familiar with how the site works, but I want to subscribe to a search (e.g. iTunes) not an existing thread and receive an email when new bargains are posted that match my search criteria.
Is this possible?
If not, please consider it as a request.Thanks,
AndrewCurrently we do not provide RSS feed on searches. Yes I will put that as a feature request.
nice highlighting of the price in post titles
No problem. Price is usually the only thing we care about so I found making them distinct helps me to actually spend less time on this site :)
I'm guessing that a comma "," is treated as a delimiter in the parsing Scotty???
E.G. $2,050.00 in http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/17436Live Long and Prosper,
Jean-Luc.
\_/7Fixed.
Not sure if this is the appropriate place, if not I apologise in advance. Anyway, is there a way to check how many votes to your name you have for the last week, month, lifetime etc? Thanks
Is there a way to check how many votes to your name you have for the last week, month, lifetime etc?
Yes,, click on your name at your comment post to see your User Profile, then click on your avatar to see your User Account, then click on Voted deals for a list of all your votes.
\_/7yeah, profile/comments page
but thats a bit confusing.and i dont think it shows you how many people voted/neg ur comment
but thats a bit confusing
Ha indeed. The user experience here does need a bit of work.
What I wanted to implement is a Facebook-wall like stream showing what you have done and what someone has done to your posts/comments in a reverse chronological order. The implementation has been in my head for at least the last 6 months but I just cannot find a chance to get it done…
sounds good!
Is there a way to undo a vote on a comment (as opposed to a vote on a deal)?
I did a search and checked here and it doesn't seem to be covered: http://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/help:voting_guidelines. Thanks.
Hi. Sorry currently there is no way to revoke a vote on the comment.
Here are some suggestions that come to mind which I haven't fully thought through or censored.
I couldn't post deals for 24 hours after entering all that data. A more prominent warning would be nice - I'm sure usability studies show that even though it's in red - it's on the right hand side and normal font so easily ignored. (Feedback?). Are there user solutions - Lazarus firefox extension perhaps?
An option to only search wiki in advanced search option.
More links to the glossary for what the icons mean and tooltip/hover titles over the icon (use title or alt attribute). I remember reading it a while back but despite searching for a while could not find it again. I even used google.
As per topic to moderator allow allow new users to edit comments or give more warning. I still want exceptions to the 5 day posting but I haven't fully developed arguments.
Option to get daily summaries of subscribed threads. Getting every new update can get quite spammy or is there an rss option I'm missing?
UserVoice or GetSatisfaction or Google Moderator or Vox Pop (open source) idea/suggestion feedback organiser perhaps or a document to show how to use forums to do similar things (+vote etc?) These services provide voting services for each idea and you can bubble the best to the top.
More privacy - option to not show online/offline. Hide certain deals submitted etc.
Allow to view source code of posts to allow easy coping of hyperlinks or greasemonkey script to do the same.
Show when posts are edited after the fact like most other forums - date and time of last edit plus number of edits perhaps?
Have google ad planner link by default to Australia instead of USA.
Last but not least rewards for unsolicited suggestions ;)
I highly disagree with the removal of 5 postings a day limit.
Some people will post crap purely to be in the running for the monthly prize.There is an RSS option. See the little RSS icon in your browser address bar
It'll link you to http://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/feedRegarding privacy issues, why would you hide "certain deals" ?
Can we have the email subscription feature changed to operate how most forums operate?
ie. you only receive an email notification when a thread/bargain is updated. No more emails are sent until the user next visits the thread/bargain.
I posted a single comment in the Logitechshop deal and I got all the comments pushed to my mobile. I know I can unsubscribe, but this feature would be handy.
If you change it, please make it optional
I like the way it is =)
I can't find it, but has anyone suggested that people should register to get the final link to a product?
Just like forums with download links that are hidden and require you to reply to get the link.
But in this incase, you just need press the [+] Reputation (+1) button to make the deal appear, and obviously if they don't like it they can simply revoke the +1 as normal.
Most people wouldn't +1 unless they desperately want to see the deal anyway, as seen on OzBargain with the low amounts of +1's. I know there are some deals with hundreds of +1's but, some deals deserve more than what they get ie. like 1000 +1's. An example is the Mother's Day Free Mug, thousands of clicks but only hundreds of reps (and that hundred was hard to get, some only get 20 when they deserve hundreds), by adding a simple registration page to enforce registrations, we can show the real stats (or close to it) of how many people appreciate it. Nonetheless there will be an improvement even if people are still unthankful.
Some just click and go, and I like how you've always made this site free, but free registration won't hurt? If you really want to get that free mug, you're going to have to simply register and click [+] to get it.. simple as that, shows gratitude to the OP.
And if they were really scared of losing their "reputation" on here then they could simply revoke after they +1'd .. but most people wouldn't bother, and they would only revoke if it seriously didn't benefit them. but usually it does, and 1000's of people are leaching off the best deals without showing any appreciation to the OP or OzB.
Or if you don't like that idea, just make it so they have to register to see a deal, then decide if they want to rep or not.
This is by far the best bargain site, most other sites can't keep up (outdated) or have poor posts. Also this site has independent organisations signing their reps here to give us exclusive bargains with ozbargain coupons, that is a big up!
Other sites simply index bargains found from either here or another site. You got people coming in from all ways to show their website, I see bright vision for this website, but you need to make those thousand of unappreciative people show some Simply & Free gratitude by a click of a button.
Once they've registered, it only comes down a to a +1 green button, plus another example is a screen protector, maybe 2000 coupons, 1700 are already taken by the general public.. only about 300 of us actually get the coupon, of which only 100-300 people put a +1.
I think GoodBargain was the example, and they post directly here, sometimes through a rep, can't let it be leached to other sites (and although I know you can't stop this once they find out the link) but by encouraging everyone to click +1 in some way, surely we can at least a few hundred +1's for each bargain.
Obviously it has been like this for a while, and ever since negative votes have been more strict, OzB has improved drastically. Introducing this wouldn't be a big issue imo. It probably comes to OzB's registered user's attention when they come just 40mins or 2 hours late to a deal to find that the deal has sold out by a few thousand freebies, knowing that only 20-50 people have +1, whilst there are thousands of clicks through the public.
What do you guys think? If you were to take this strategic idea into consideration, I think you could ask the registered user's opinions on the matter, alot would agree with me. After all, what reason Would they have for not agreeing with me, given that they're already registered?
While I love to have more people registering here and contributing their valuable knowledge to the community, I still want to make the site useful to those who decide to stay anonymous — either they are too busy or too lazy to sign up, or do not wish to participate.
There are more member-related features planned — things that make bargain hunting fun :)
Awesome, I can't wait to see :)
Thank you for removing the Who's Online section. That was a good idea.
One reason we did it was because some usernames are just, hmm, inappropriate. Now it also saves me a few computing cycle for not displaying it.
Perhaps auto deleting a bargain by the original poster when they edit their link in the post to a certain link (like deleteme.com, dupe.oz, or something to that effect)
Saves a mod time from going through and removing it, but also helps poster remove without assistance.or on the flipside you could allow users to
unpublishdeals
once unpublished (intentionally or accidentally), they cannot access it again without moderator helpChanging the URL (or at least the domain part) is disabled after 15 minutes.
As of allowing unpublish, I think in some sense it makes some posters, especially those "store reps", less responsible in what they post.
Was there an option which was removed that showed lines next to replies so you can see who is replying to who?
Or was this just all in my mind? @_@Probably some other forums (Slashdot?). A good suggestion regardless.
couldn't see this suggested anywhere..
I was thinking a short mandatory course with a 5qn test at end for 1st time posters..
It feels like the percentage of spam/dupes/rubbish seems to have shot up a little lately..
I can't work our if these ppl are ignorant/lazy or are trying to abuse the system..
He it was the former them a very short mandatory course might help things along?Another stupid idea: How about having a 'watch list'?
That way we can personally filter out the uninteresting bargains and more importantly make sure that we don't forget about something if we don't receive it (I would've forgotten about a keyboard had I not seen a comment on the live action page, lol).
Something from left field: Remove the negative vote option on comments. It will deter "hit and run" neg votes without any explanation/justification (and remove the ill will created) and may help create/maintain a more positive forum environment. Offensive comments can still be reported to mods otherwise people can just enter a response to a "bad" post and others can show their support of that response with a + vote. I think it would allow people to express their feelings on posts but with the clarity/explanations needed and reduce bewilderment and some causes of anger.
Not sure if posted, but could we have some faint lines (grey lines) or something which show the tree-structure of :
replies to Comments
so someone posts a comment to a deal, and several people reply to that comment or even other replies which makes it a bit messy. it is easy for me to see, but i've noticed for alot of people, they end up replying to the wrong replies… or take things the wrong way.
let me know if you need a screenshot of what i mean
Yup I think I know what you meant. Having guided grey lines so comments from the same nested level are aligned. I've filed that as a TODO item.
sweet thanks :) i'm sure it'll be for the better, more formal/organised kind of display, and easier to follow conversations/arguments/responses.
Just looked at the Consolidated Rules page in the wiki (in progress) looks good so far :) Perhaps once its finished you could implement it into the new user's little tour thingy, particularly for its guidelines for negging.
How about an option to receive an email if someone "replies" to your comment? (not replacing "Subscribe", just in addition to)
I find that I am getting tons of emails from subscribing to posts but in reality all I want is to be notified when someone replies to my comment.
Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but to help first posters and reduce reminders from users, maybe there should be a small checkbox for the 5 Title guidelines (product model, price, shipping etc) that they must tick to submit. Im guessing that most newbies ignore that small 'Title guidelines' link. After the first post, this can be disabled, unless they're repeated offenders.
There's a great big wiki page dedicated to wiki syntax which is really useful, but maybe somebody could put the syntax for these sort of posts? (I understand that there's links to it as you post, but those pages don't have an orange colour scheme :P but seriously, I would find it more useful if somebody took the info from both pages, stuck it into a wiki page and then nicely formatted it to be more readable.)
I hate WYSIWYG editor that spills out wiki syntax :)
Actually I am not sure whether there's TinyMCE plugin for Dokuwiki (the wiki backend that I am using here on OzBargain). The closest would be FCKeditor integration, like this one here although it hasn't been updated for a year and requires CPAN dependency (wtf I am using PHP here?!)
Ah yeah FCKEditor is the other one, couldn't remember the name of it.
Damn that link isnt loading. TPG has not been kind to me this week.
When someone registers from an overseas IP, what checks or stops are in place?
I ask this as we seem to see a lot of spammers selling fake crap and there is a good chance they are overseas.
Maybe they should all be subject to their deals needing to be checked by a mod or admin prior to being visible. Sure there is a possible delay. Once they prove themselves a couple times they can free-post.
Just a thought (if it hasn't already been suggested which I'm sure it has somewhere)
i know there would be a plethora of things that annoy you guys from users here but this is just rude
Posters please NOTE.
THIS IS A BARGAIN SITE. REPEAT BARGAIN SITE.
USE your brains. If you are trying to sell something at 5/10% off go somewhere else.
All you will do is get replies that ridicule you and your post.
Again use your brains - look at ebay, see what like items sell for. Then come here and list below that. Why would any self respecting bargain hunter pay more than they could buy elsewhere.
Stupid posts, by people who dont do a reality check are just going to be deleted, if you are new here you will probably find your account banned as well.
Read the first post by Scotty for the etiquette required to post here
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/6102<
seriously guys, its just disappointing and insulting
I actually agree, the amount of 5%-10% deals that are littering the site are pretty off-putting.
It's not much of a saving unless you're spending more than $1000i dont disagree, but the phrasing is the issue to me
Hmmm, 5% to 10% cheaper than any other price around makes for the cheapest price around… Surely that must make a bargain?
If having come up with the best price around and then shared it with the OB community, hasn't that got to be a good thing?
Sure, we all see lots of stuff listed that is to us very ho-hum, but, to the person who's on the hunt for said item it's saved them missing out on a best-buy.
IMHO anyway :)Oh, and rudeness is never part of the OB spirit…
Live Long and Bargain,
Jean-Luc.~~
\_/7
This is only for the selling forum, where people are selling unwanted goods. Its based on the reactions to most posts by people who are looking for a free ebay type listing.
Frankly pointing it out in blunt terms has meant a reduction in useless posts, where as the etiquette requests where never read. Also mods had to clean up very abusive comments by members who were defending or attacking their posts, because no one understood that 5% of an itunes card wasn't seen as a bargain deal when buying from an unknown source etc.
Its not for the regular posts of deals in the main area, where votes indicate the popularity
look at ebay, see what like items sell for.
There are a good many people who do not like/trust ebay……
Whilst it should be considered in any bargain formulation…… I personally would not think it to be a reliable benchmark.
Far better using static ice, shopbot, etc"A thread to which you have subscribed has been updated."
It would be nice to have some more details on what changed (ie. subject or description, etc)
I quite resent the "Commenting closed for this thread" message. Sometimes freebies take more than 2 months to arrive and when it actually does (or doesn't) I think people want to share their experiences about it. I've missed quite a number of freebies and when I remember I can't post there anymore.
Likewise with "Voting not allowed on deals posted more than 60 days ago".Lets have a vote: if a group buying deal posted but less than 10% away from it being active, it is allowed. any group deal posted that are more than 10% away being active, should be banned?
Banned may be a bit harsh. Hidden/closed may be more appropriate.
or more than 5 report spam, deal will be deleted automatically? should be easy for mods? its matter of programming
hmm, not sure.
if a rival company/organisation were to create 5 accounts they could easily get any deals automatically removed.there's no substitute to having a trusted (human) mod to verify the deal before it is removed.
Hey as a small suggestion, could the rss feed for the site get more than 10 items in it? When I used to check the site only in the afternoon I know I missed a few deals, given those 10 items could be completely replaced in an hour sometimes.
Seems like a simple solution, thanks for reading :)
Negging a comment should be followed with the relative info.
I feel that too many lazy users (or friends of friends) just click on the neg and run away (or stay in hiding) without giving any explanation or contribution to the discussion, isn't this one of the main purpose for a forum?
isn't this one of the main purpose for a forum?
Yes it is.
Its one as mods we need to be more diligent on, and we also need assistance through members reporting this. Members can also vote down a negative vote which will remove it however this needs more member action than the one a mod takes.
I feel like there's too much emphasis on "upping" and there's too much looking down upon negging compared to when I first joined.
Now negs without reason are crap, that I understand. But if I feel like some deal is crap and neg it, a bunch of fanatics will argue it and the vote will get revoked.
It hasn't happened to me, but I've seen it happen a few times.
For example:
- User Bob takes a look at "Yawn 10 % off Apple Macs at Dick Smith Again"
- Realises that 10% isn't much, negs it and states "only save $20 on the laptop, still overpriced"
- Fanboys of Dick smith or apple will reply in a fury and demand the neg be revoked
- Either Bob or mods revoke the negThat is what really happens (in my opinion), I really like the idea of voting and I seem not seeing this idea in any other forums around so big claps for the manager.
But I feel like fanbois or friends or even employees (add some fake accounts?) exploit the rules to make a deal looks as they like.
You can guess the result will be biased and not really related to the real product value.
@ozpete, I understand and I guess this forums (like others) don't have enough mods although the support and feedback are "always" promptly offered.
That's what has happened to me, I negged a deal by supporting it with an explanation.
My post was negged so much that my negative vote vanished.
It is ok because these are the rules, but my feeling is that "lazy" fanbois (I would say employees) just clicked on the neg tab and that was all, no explanation was required.Yeah, it's a shame but I get the deal when competition signs up with fake accounts to neg deals or sock puppeting.
Props to the mods for finding out that kinda stuff, I wouldn't know where to begin on that front.
@twig
competition signs up with fake accounts to neg deals or sock puppeting
Yes if you suspect it's the case, report it. Actually, if most people feel suspicion over a negative vote, the neg would be revoked with comment votes.
@dealhunt
My post was negged so much that my negative vote vanished
It's a juggle between democracy (the majority wins) and having individual voice heard. Yes, people usually complain when MY voice get silenced, because it's ME verses the fanbois. But I think I rather get one report from you than getting multiple reports from the fans why your vote is not justified.
Anyway. The majority wins for now, but if you think it's not justified you can still report the case.
No I'm not going to report, it doesn't make sense now, I just wanted to say what I feel it happens….
Something went on with a thread on the forum - Scotty can you have a look at this picture?