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
I suppose there would have to be a guidelines as to how connected a person a person needs to be in order to have to tick a box… but "affiliate" / "associate" come to mind as options
though neither have a good abbreviated tag that would fit well… hmmm - will have to think
its probably too confusing to have different coloured "rep" tags that represent different levels of connection/affiliation.perhaps some generic tag that implies a degress of connection (though "con" doesnt sound so nice)
ummmm - i will have to have a think about this one…
I think for now,
- For the Store Representatives, we will link them with the store so on the store pages (/deals/<domain name>) their user names will be listed as the "store reps". Also under their user profile pages, there will also be a list of stores they are representing.
- For people working in retail of big store chains, we won't link their account with the store, but they still need to click on the checkbox to declare themselves. They might also put declaration inside the deal/comment content "I work in the retail store of SupaBigRetail in Coogee, NSW" for example.
fair call.
I agree a good post should make it clear what their role is.
eg http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/74082 - very clear he works there but is not representing the company. (though he never actually said it explicitly)how does this run with the posting guidelines… (ie a certain number of posts per day/week)
have any of the "real" reps been complaining that their posting abilities are being interfered with by virtue of how other "affiliates" are posting?
and similarly - have ozbargain members who have declared themselves as reps by virtue of employment been bothered that they are limited in their posting?how does this run with the posting guidelines
Store Rep posting limit still applies here. We didn't really have "rep" reps complaining here, probably because
- Complains mainly come from small online shops from posting worthless "deals" — those shops that don't have retail employees.
- Large retailers with employees usually don't often bother to have their "online social media relation team" coming here to post deals so it's not really affecting them.
Anyway. We'll see how it goes with our current setup.
Lately, I've seen an influx of reps posting shit namely advertising.
Can a system be introduced where deals posted by reps need to be approved by mods before appearing on the deals page?
Or you can
- Go to New Deals Page
- Click on Preference
- Make sure "Do not show deals posted by Store Representatives on New Deals listing" is checked
No more Store Rep deals! If they are "good enough", i.e. getting votes, they'll still come up to the front page.
OzBargain mods don't usually moderate whether a deal is decent or not.
Section on the side "Most Requested Deals"
The top 10 most requested deals on the site for the week (1 week flow through of data counted).
Example:
I want to look for a new camera this week.
Text Entry box on side. I start typing "Camer-"…
Option pops up as I type & shows "Cameras" and "Camera Accessories"
I select "Cameras"
I click "Vote"
I am shown the top 10 most requested.
"Cameras" Is number 1.
Manager for a camera house business in Sydney thinks "hmm…cameras are popular this week, i should have a sale!"Win & Win
Searching needs to be fixed, by automaticaly ticking "hide expired deals" and "sort by posting date". That is the logical way most people want their results.
It is a waste of five clicks because everytime I do a search, I then have to go into advanced search and select those two options.
Maybe the owner of the website wants to see expired deals, but 95% of people just want to see available deals in chronological order.
AHHHHH so THAT's why it's so hard to find deals that I just saw a few days ago! I always thought the search feature was weird. At least now I know ticking those two boxes would make it work the way I expect a search feature to work. :)
I agree wholeheartedly, completely, absolutely and most definitely!
Recently there has been alot of free samples being posted, many repeats and many that have been ongoing for a long time. Free samples are not really deals so do you think these should be put on another page or in forums only?
Free samples fall under freebies.
We generally remove duplicates. That said if it hasn't been posted in a while then it's fine.
Can you give examples of these repeat deals?
Remove the "last>>" button beside "1 2 3 next>".
Nobody wants to be taken to deals posted in 2008. Or change to "last week>>"
Hi I mainly use OB via my phone wondering if you could have a "new deals" button directly on your banner as every time i open the site i have to click 3 times to get the newest deal to refresh. eg. banner button> deals>new deals
Quick question - when did these badges on profiles start appearing? Love the idea, very similar to the Stack Exchange type of sites :) Is there anywhere where we can see all the available badges and what needs to be done to achieve them?
Here is the announcement from June.
Badge page. To see your badges, you can see them if you click through to My Account
Cheers for that, totally wasn't aware of the feature until today when I clicked on a user pic. Looking forward to seeing more badges implemented in the future :)
Could you add an option to change the order which your posted deals are displayed? It would be cool if you could see your posts ordered from most popular to least popular, most comments, most click through etc.
Search should by default sort by posting date (most recent first) and hide expired deals. It's quite annoying searching for a previous post and having results from 2010 come up, then having to click on Advanced Search, tick the two boxes for sorting and hiding expired, and click search again.
Should be able to change a revoked vote. E.g. If user +'s a deal and then finds out the T&C is misleading, they should be able to revoke their + and vote again (either + or -). Same with comment votes as sometimes people accidentally click the wrong button.
I strongly support your point 1.
Really liking the new internal and external URL colours… great idea.
My eyes burn from all the Orange Avatars!!!
Just a suggestion- probably a pretty stupid one at that- maybe we could have some sort of store rating and display that whenever there's a deal from that store? This would be especially useful with some of the online stores that at first look shady but are actually great to deal with and, conversely, things like the Prestos Pizza scam, to avoid people's details getting stolen.
I believe something like that is in the pipeline. Basically, some data presented which states if the site is safe or not. Site ratings as in good or bad experiences is another thing on the to-do list. There are a few issues around that though.
Specifically with the Presto's Pizza scam, we have banned that site. If a site is dodgy, report it and we will investigate and if found to be a problem, we will ban it. As an interesting stat, we currently have 537 domains banned.
Can you we also have an alternative search function that allows us to sort deals in descending order, by number of votes. For example, I'm looking to buy a lawnmover from Amazon.co.uk at the moment, and I want to look back at popular deals that have been posted here in the last few years to get an indication of both pricing, and OzBargain feedback, and I don't want to have to sort through the unpopular deals.
Just an idea. Cheers
Could we please have a link to the published deal when a deal is not published as dupe.
I'm sometime browsing the New Deals pages and see something that interests me that been unpublished as dupe and it's a little annoying you have to manually search through to find the original non dupe deal to view it. This is especially true when the original deal contains multiple products and the one its a dupe of isn't in the title.
Thanks for thinking about this :)
We almost always do. At least 9 out of 10 times. Got an example?
The word "duplicate" is usually a link to the original deal, is it possible that you've never hovered the mouse over and noticed?
Mods - with the new internal / external linking display method, it may help if links in the reason for deletion were highlighted. At present, you wouldn't know unless you mouse over it as there's nothing at all about the links that makes it obvious there's something to click.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if there's quite a number of people that don't realise there are links to original deals or posting rules etc in the reason for deletion note.
Would it be a good idea to have a 'Recreation' section? I noticed today when the BCF rep posted a deal for a tow tube that it was under Sports and Fitness.
There would be a lot of things that could go in this section. eg- picnic rugs, hammocks, esky etc. Maybe recreation and outdoors is what im thinking.
Anywho, just thought I would through that idea into the mix in case anybody likes it.
It's never easy to categorize things.
Recreation can be any activity considered to be leisurely both outdoors or indoors from reading to playing sports. Not sure if that's the most clear word.
I'd consider a tow tube to be sport. Not sure where a picnic rug, hammock and esky could be classified. Outdoors I suppose?
Amazon considers a hammock, a picnic rug and a cooler in Sports & Outdoors.
So maybe changing Sports and Fitness to Sports and Outdoors?
Yep, that change would make sense to me.
To me, recreation would mostly be associated with an outdoors activity. I think the few indoor recreation categories are covered by existing categories. So expanding sports and fitness to sports and outdoors would make sense to me. And sports mostly implies fitness.
Although as you said, categorization isnt easy, since many people define things in different ways, so everything I said above could look like complete dribble to somebody else.
Alright, the change has been rolled out. Thanks for the feedback scienceman.
I just accidentally positively voted a deal instead of negativing it. I was then in the annoying position of only being able to revoke my vote without recasting it. This happened mostly because I was a bit of a spastic with my mouse, but I imagine this is a much bigger problem with people accessing the site from the small screens of phones/tablets etc. I think it would be good if there was a short period where you could correct a vote (one way or the other) in the case of such an error. The period would only have to be very short (in the realm of 60 seconds).
Keep up the good work, guys :)
I'd like to suggest that small avatars are added to the comments on the mobile site. I have just noticed that they appear in an appropriate size when a comment is unpublished but otherwise they are not seen.
Here is a good example of what I'm talking about: http://imgur.com/m8fVV
Maybe they should not appear at all — gravatar is definitely not the fastest thing around especially over 3G :)
The reason they still appear on the mobile site is because the same script is used for both mobile and desktop sites. I shall get that fixed…
Love the site. Addicted to it every day.
However, Looking at front page, I'm wondering why EXPIRED and OutOfStock are still in top 10.
These should sink to the bottom. Perhaps just above the Yesterday break. Just clutter at this point.EXPIRED and OUT OF STOCK deals are show because
- People still want to discuss them
- People still want to know what they have missed out :)
However if you do not like expired deals on the front page,
- Go to New Deals page
- Click on "settings" below the "New Deals, Coupons, Vouchers and Freebies" heading
- Under "Front Page", tick "Do not show expired deals"
- "Save Preference"
No more expired deals on the front page!
Hi, I'm not sure what sort of answer I am after here. But maybe mods know. After seeing how popular mi goreng noodles and dominos pizza deals are. Then how popular other deals, on the expensive end of things, like kitchen aid mixers, $1000 computer chairs, iPads etc rate high too.
I guess is there a chance there could be a survey on what people earn, annominus of course. It's interesting, and seen commented on posts, peoples definitions of bargain hunters. The real tight asses with barely a cent to their name, the average joe like me, and the top end.
I hope that makes sense. :)
Ad Planner used to have more extensive statistics including salaries. From July, 50% of OzBargain users had a salary higher than 100K.
You can certainly create a forum post with a poll which is anonymous but who knows if people will answer truthfully.
Is there a way to view all the latest forum topics that have new posts? Kind of like an aggregate of all the categories for the lazy :)
Could there be a minimum comment count before you can post?
e.g. you have to have 5 comments before you can post a deal.
this may cut down on the "hey guys, just got this email" deals from people who joined that day.
this has probably already been suggested.
There is a 24 hour ban on new users before they can post. I suspect if we say "you need 5 comments", they will just post 5 junk comments. It reminds me of a few forums I've signed up for in the past where you need to post in an "Introduce Yourself" forum before getting access to the rest of the site. The forum just becomes a useless string of 1 post threads.
I guess you are getting at new users not knowing how to post properly or what to post. We've put up guidelines, rules and tips but I guess the big question is how can a new user learn quickly how to post properly. We've put in tips and warnings to help but the OzBargain crowd does demand a lot (price in title, location in title, including shipping price, no rrp, not to mention if it's a rep making sure the site can handle traffic, having enough quantity etc.).
Moderators and power users fix loads of deals every day but maybe there is a more intuitive way of helping new users? A video? or as you say some set of things they need to do before posting? That said, there are many times 1st posters post excellent deals so we don't want to put off anyone posting.
Suggestion: A simple 'hide' button on the main listing for deals that a user might not wish to see (either not interested or simply cannot partake in deals, or if the deal is expired, etc). I know we can hide listings from certain stores or users, but sometimes that store might have relevant deals and I only want to hide one of them.
Would be a nice little feature if possible <3
Of course, affiliates which help drive the site might not be able to be hidden or something, or whatever, I don't know.
There is a hide option for Front Page deal. Go here and hit settings.
You have the following 3 options:
- Do not show highlighted deals
- Do not show deals that have not started yet
- Do not show expired deals
either not interested or simply cannot partake in deals
So a button that hides 1 deal at a time? Any examples online?
Of course, affiliates which help drive the site might not be able to be hidden or something,
None of the deals posted here are paid for. All deals/stores/users are treated the same. There are Google Ads at various places around the site which you can also hide in your account settings.
So a button that hides 1 deal at a time? Any examples online?
Uh, the only example I can think of is reddit.com, when you are logged in (no email required if you want to test it), the 'hide' button under each post. The button hides that particular submission and puts it on a hidden list for your user (reddit.com/user/username/hidden).It's by no means a massively important suggestion, I was just wondering if maybe it was possible here on OzB, as I find it quite useful when browsing reddit.
Ah OK. Gotcha. Never noticed that on reddit. I try avoiding reddit as I end up spending too long reading the comments.
We all try to avoid it.
"Try" being the key word, as it never seems to work.
Just a query on the font size…maybe be it could be taken down a half or full font size?
I dunno if anyone cares, but in the thread update emails that are sent out, the OzBargain header logo points to {http:/www.ozbargain.com.au so clicking on it doesn't do anything.
Thanks for the report. Will get it fixed :)
damn, that was a quick reply! Thanks scotty and other OZB staff!
Hi guys,
Any possibility on making it safer to vote correctly on comments while on a tiny touch screen. the + - are to close together and on more than one occasion i have inadvertently negd comments while going for the +
Someone else mentioned it here about unnegging
www.ozbargain.com.au/node/55307#comment-1163307
but if thats too much effort maybe add a y/n so you can get a second chance
I think i have made mistakes on voting but saved by needing to comment before accepting a neg
cheers,Just worked out how to remove a neg on comment. Unfortunately cant pos the comment now… Doh!
I'd like to suggest that the automatic title suggestion function be updated to include putting the dollar sign in front of the number when the user puts it after.
I've noticed when editing these sort of titles that it doesn't suggest it.
While I'm on the topic of prices in titles can there be a guideline that states that all prices are assumed to be Australian dollars unless otherwise stated. I don't think it's necessary to have AUD put into a title.
putting the dollar sign in front of the number when the user puts it after.
That's now fixed.
I don't think it's necessary to have AUD put into a title
Yes AUD is implied — except in the situation where adding AUD explicitly is making clarification. For example showing both currencies in the title.
Blue Widget USD $50 +Shipping from Amazon (AUD $70 Delivered to NSW)
Hi, I wanted to do a search for TV deals, and the site requires a minimum of 3 letters for a search. For your consideration.
Thanks for that
How about some kind of different rep tag. Like, one coloured one for people actually representing the company, and another for people who simply work there, but don't necessarily represent the company officially (and cannot post the company's opinions/etc)?
In regards to situations like this: http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/89417#comment-1178245
Interesting idea. Yeah it becomes a bit complicated as affiliated people include family, friends, contractors, employees etc. If you work for a company and you don't want the rep tag then you shouldn't comment or vote for the deal.
If you work for a company and you don't want the rep tag then you shouldn't comment or vote for the deal.
While I see your point, sometimes someone could have a valuable input of some description, or maybe they just want to comment on it. I don't think they should be limited from participating just because they work there as an employee.
I'm just saying maybe a checkbox of something like "I work for _____" and then a second box saying "I represent _____" maybe? I don't know, maybe someone can improve on this idea.
@brezzo — internally we do have some distinction between "official" and "unofficial" representatives.
Official ones are listed on store's page on OzBargain, and also have store(s) listed on his/her account. Unofficial ones are the ones that need to click on "I am Store Representative" to post a deal, or click on "I am associated with …" to post a comment (as official reps would have those checked automatically).
While we might be able to show different icon/tag for them, the automated rules should stay the same (for example store rep posting limits).
While we might be able to show different icon/tag for them, the automated rules should stay the same (for example store rep posting limits).
I think this would work just fine. The actual reps are distinguished by a different colour to those just affiliated with the store. No need to change the rules just makes it easier to know if they can answer quiestions as a representative of the company or not.
This page should be updated now that a strikethrough can be put thought a word.
Are there certain wiki pages that can't be edited?
That's been updated.
Help pages are viewable by all, editable by moderators.
All other pages are editable and viewable to all.
Hello again,
Not sure if it's meant to be like this, but after revoking a vote (eg. misclick - instead of +), we are unable to re-vote on a comment or deal. I think we should be able to change our votes, at least within the editing time threshold in case of misclicks.
This also seems to happen a lot on mobile/tablet devices and gets quite frustrating.
Thanks :)
Hey, just wondering if I'm able to subscribe to a tag? I like to subscribe to the "free shipping" tag. TIA
And the "freebie" tag. Or can this be made a category?
Subscription module at OzBargain is going through an overhaul at the moment to speed things up — sending all these emails actually slow down the posting/commenting at lot.
For now I will recommend you to use RSS to email tools to send you an email whenever there's a new item in the feed. Subscription on tags aren't very useful anyway as people don't usually tag properly.
As of Freebie - same. Use RSS to email for note.
Does anyone else want an option to disable seeing the number of votes on a comment when they're logged in?
I hate how I'm unable to see comments which are negged out just because it goes against other peoples' opinions even though it was a useful comment.You can't disable seeing the number of votes; but if you tick the "Show Hidden" box at the bottom of any post you will see all the comments that are below viewing threshold. This box stays ticked when you move between pages.
Is that what you mean?
What a a a said :)
Comments gaining too many neg votes are usually considered not useful by the community. It's not shown by default but can be enabled (just make sure "Show Hidden" is checked).
Sorry I worded it wrong. Yeah I know you can still see it, except it's all grayed.
But I'd rather still see every comment as equal and not have to see what others thought of it.
Just a question (not worth making a thread about) if you revoke your vote on a comment (when you accidentally hit that neg on your phone) can others see that you revoked your vote on the comment?
No. Revoked comment votes are invisible (even to the mods).
An idea is to have unlimited scrolling for bargains and forums, like once we get to bottom of a page the next page's bargains/forums load automatically. Another idea I would like to have is to have an option to sort comments by newest first.
Is there any way to view only new posts?
I get new posts flagged, and link to the first one, but them must scroll down and load page to find the rest.I know that a certain number of negs will get rid of a deal but could we get a "Kill Deal" button?
Eg. people have been posting DSE deals for small time items that have postage of equal value. problem these "people" don't even look at alternate channels of supply, e.g. ebay, for a less expensive item.
ADSL splitter deal - http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/91622
$10 (including postage) in the deal.
from ebay $$3.65 for Oz stock posted.ridiculous. the deal is nearly 3 times the price of an alternative product.
it's a waste of time for people to read the deal.
surely there should be a way to kill these pointless deals rather than have them wasting peoples time reading them and spending valuable time sneering, searching ebay, writing insulting comment and then having to post a post in website feeedback.
"people"
Yep, right next to the "people" who abuse puppies.
wasting peoples time reading them
You know there is a front page that doesn't get this problem right?
writing insulting comment
Because that is always the best way to improve behaviour.
Hey, i'm Dan.
Stumbled across this excellent initiative today and basically thought it can't hurt to share it around, i'd assume that donations made could potentially be tax deductible however i'm not sure whether this type of thing is appropriate for the function of this site; but there's no harm in spreading the word at least!
http://www.homepageforthehomeless.org/
Have a look for yourself and make your own mind up but i think there could be opportunity here for a few different sites like this one to
A. get some free publicity/marketing and
B. get some good PR.This is effectively the extent of my knowledge about the project.
I apologise if someone else has posted about this previously, i did a forum search that didn't turn up much..
Thanks for your time,
Happy bargaining!
Suddenly the line spacing is different and awful. Is it just me?
I believe the line spacing in the CSS was tweaked earlier in the week (Tuesday). I thought it actually looks better. Well, guess it's a preference thing.
Well, I much preferred it the way it was. But I'm just one user so maybe everybody else likes it <shrugs>
Just noticed an error in a store page.
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/1stchoice.com.au
Should be 1st Choice Liquor not Liquid
Ha. I think 1st Choice Liquid more accurately describes them.
I've fixed those both up. Usually either the reps or Scott adds that info in.
I'm going to call it First Choice Liquid in future.
Ha. Thanks. I'm wondering if Scott is putting in Easter eggs. ;)
Should run a competition ;)
You can pretty much tell which site updates were done past mid-night…
Just a quick suggestion not sure how feasible it is, but I would love a way to be able to keep track of bargains posted to the site that I have taken advantage of.
For example someone posts a deal for a torch and I purchase the torch, it would be good if there was some way to make note that you have taken advantage of this deal.
Maybe something as simple as a check box on the deal page and then a page on your profile that shows a list of the deals.
You can use the Add to folders link and make a folder for all the deals you have taken advantage of.
See here
That's awesome! I never noticed the feature before. Didn't realize there was an Add Reminder feature too.
Oh, cool I didn't even know about this. Thanks will try it out.
Just a quick, barely important observation: internal links in messages show up a plain-old-boring blue, not orange. Oversight, or design?
That's an oversight…
Pretty sure this would've been mentioned in the past, but has OzB ever thought of restricting bargains to be viewed by members only?
I.e. Guests can see titles of bargains but not go into the actual bargain page? I know some bargains you will be able to see in the title and not worry about having to go into the actual bargains page. But more so for bargains that contain a promo code or a specific link that needs to be followed?
Good suggestion dr_rusko. I believe we had discussion on this but couldn't settle on what to call someone associated with a store in a non-official capacity. Associated people could be friends, family, contractor etc.
Any suggestions of what we could tag these people?