Comments / Feedback / Suggestions Thread 2019

Continued from the same feedback thread of 2018. This post will be used for general feedback in 2019. Please make any suggestions for new features, bugs, things you'd like to see changed or anything else. Please check this wiki page as your suggestion may already have been mentioned.

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.

closed Comments

  • +2

    I love you scotty!

  • In live view it would be great to list the classified's type (wanted or selling)

    At present if the post doesn't include WTB/WTS in the subject you have to go into the post to identify.

  • +1

    Ban eBay 20% off scams/adverts.

    • +2

      That you j4ck?

      • +3

        I'll never let go, Rose.

  • +2

    I wonder if the OP from the below thread will offer anything;
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/431493

  • Keep being great

  • -4

    Remove negative votes - just judge a bargain based on positive votes and comments.

    • +2

      How would we hide crappy deals from being viewable on the new deals page?

      • +1

        Minimum up vote to qualify as a new deal

        • +2

          If that were the case, how would a deal achieve the positive vote threshold to be visible in the first place? The current system is that a deal is visible on the new deals page unless it accrues too many negative votes.

          • @ascorbic: Deal visible for 3 hours with zero votes and is removed if no votes are received in that time. Probation period.

            (Would need to be during reasonable Australian based “awake” hours.)

            • +2

              @swapsey: What about deals that are time sensitive? There was a deal on free delivery on Krispy Kremes the other day and it was posted ~90 minutes before the deal expired. There would be many other examples like this which a 'probation period' impractical.

              • @IceCreamBandit: If the deal was posted within 90 minutes of expiry then it qualifies for probation period - in other words it is live for those 90 minutes regardless of whether someone upvotes it or not. Probation means the deal is live regardless of any upvotes. It is like giving it a chance to get votes. Chances are it will get upvotes. My hypthesis is that there will be very few deals posted that won't get an upvote withing 30 minutes anyway. You could make it 60 minutes probation or 90 minutes or whatever. Probation could be monitored especially in the first days of removing negative votes so that you adjust the probation period to maximise success.

                The whole idea is to actively remove toxic mindset of users. People should be trying to succeed deals not fail them.

  • +6

    Ability to vote on the OP of forum topics/threads.

  • +2

    Make bargains great again

  • -3

    Bring back unlimited neg voting on deals and restrict positive votes instead. Positive votes are sus and people making them should provide a reason and whether or not they are some way associated with or get a kickback from the store selling the product.

  • +1

    Terrible ads. When logged out, some ads even cover the menu UI meaning that I can't actually use the site.

    https://imgur.com/a/lJByJXU

    Happens on multiple devices on multiple networks.

    • +2

      That doesn't look normal, though you are right - i don't remember there being so many ads on the front page.

    • +1

      I would be very surprised (and disappointed) if that was due to ozbargain

      • +1

        Seems to only be on here.
        Doesn't come up anywhere else.

      • I blame Google…

    • +1

      Why would you log out?

      • Happens even when I'm logged in..

        Originally thought it was just when I was logged out. Even happens on this page as I type lmfao

        • Run malwarebytes

          • @nocure: I don't get them on any other site.
            Seems to be over multiple devices on the same mobile network (Spark NZ).

            Even sites that have Google Ads don't get ads like this.

    • Interesting. First of all, I have not seen anything like this in my experience, and I would have reported the offending ads to the advertising network if I come across one. I am just looking at the prebid stats for this page and the CPM for our forum pages is so low they can only come from Google. I do not think Google serve this kind of ads.

      I'll keep an eye on it.

      • Got this happening on my iphone also.
        https://imgur.com/BOwa9AB

        • +1

          I just got the same uniqlo ad as you repeatedly on my iPhone and came here to say the same thing.

          It’s really big and makes it hard to read and navigate.

      • Anyone notice this is getting worse? I just had a Braintree ad take over literally the entire browser window. Easy enough to scroll through it but wow; annoying.

        Edit: this is what it looks like https://imgur.com/a/dichmPY

  • +3

    raise the amount of negs i can give each day, theres so many idiots out there and it makes me sad when i run out

    • -2

      I have never run out of negs before. You need not be sad just ‘cos you cannot neg those you think deserve them. Chances are they already struggle with higher levels of depression, stress, anxiety, and insecurity. E.g Correlate these people to their comments, and it is clear many of them have low life, relationship or job satisfaction. Generally-speaking, life has a way of keeping score.

    • +3

      At least it seems like the upvote limit has been removed or raised, haven't got the message that I hit the 24 hour limit in a while.

      • +2

        I was going to say the exact same thing

      • The rule limiting voting hasn't changed. From the User FAQ:

        OzBargain limits voting on deals to 1/3 of deals posted in 72 hours. So if 300 deals are posted in 72 hours, the maximum number of deals you can vote on is 100.

        Thus the voting limit is not fixed, but varies according to the number of deals posted.

        What has changed is that the total number of deals posted has increased. If your rate of voting hasn't changed, then you are less likely to hit the higher threshold generated by the increased posting rate.

        • I was talking about the comment upvoting limit that was introduced and now removed.

          • +1

            @sss333: Oh. Sorry about that. Now that you mention it, I vaguely recall reading that somewhere.

  • +3

    when someone tries to create a forum post which includes the words "is" and "scam" can we add a popup which just says "yes, it is a scam". would save so many stupid posts

    also, when someone creates a post with "car accident" in the title, it won't let them post without uploading a ms paint diagram?

    • +3

      I know that there are plans to automate comments. Soon you won't have to actually put in your comments, the system will identify the topic and place comments in automatically. Eg "Coke & Hookers" "Do you like nuggets". This will be a big time saver for members.

      However, the system was stumped on "property manager wears undies on his head or something".

  • For deals reported as duplicate could we please have a link to the original deal within the duplicate message?

    Many times I find myself interested in a deal only to be hit with a duplicate message and then not being able to find the original post.

    ignore this my idiot ass didnt see you can click the duplicate word to go to original post. would be nice if it were marked a bit clearer

  • Just a question actually - why cant you see how many comments a classified post has had (inc new ones)? Thanks :)

  • It seems like the site has an issue with deal posts that aren't bargains yet it's still valuable to know. The best example of this is eBay XX% OFF posts but there are a fair number of XX% OFF at STORE posts.

    So I was thinking perhaps there should be a seperate category for XX% OFF posts and it's shown as a list on the side under the New Deals section. This way it won't be in the top voted deals but it's there to remind people still.

  • Is there a possibility of implementing a positive/negative trading experience in the classifieds that's publicly listed against a user's profile?

    To assist with trustworthiness of buying from fellow OzBargainers?

    EDIT: I just saw a 'User Reputation System' is listed in the Wiki request section, I guess this would be like that but only for trading experiences.

    • +1

      Maybe in the pipeline

      Scotty wrote on 02/01/2019 - 12:22

      Classified needs a bit of work this year. Trade reviews / ratings might be coming.

  • Alert exclusions, or at least allowing excluding 'contests' from deal alerts.

    • Search alerts search through all new posts, including deals, competitions and forum posts. To limit the search to just deals, add type:ozbdeal to the search query and create an alert with that.

  • Is there any chance that for deals which are "out of stock", the strikethrough for the coupon field could be omitted? Because it implies the coupon is no longer valid. Example.

    At the moment, "out of stock" and "expired" are treated equally it seems.

  • Any chance of providing a https://keepa.com link as well as keeping https://camelcamelcamel.com for Amazon AU posts? camelcamelcamel.com has been down for over a week.

    I believe the format is:
    Amazon AU: https://keepa.com/#!product/13-[ASIN]
    Amazon US: https://keepa.com/#!product/1-[ASIN]

  • +1

    Bargain Investing (just for fun)
    Since there are some impressive stats coming out I thought I would suggest another way we can reward people for participating and improving quality.

    When you vote on a deal, you are also 'investing' in that deal and if the deal takes off, the earlier you invested the more you 'profit'.

    Every month you get a dividend payment of 10 “jacks” into your investment account, simply for being a member. Every time you vote on a deal you invest a jack into that deal. How many votes the deal gets after you vote (and invest), determines how many jacks you make. Once a deal reaches certain milestones, e.g. 20, 50, 100 votes etc, the votes received earn you less jacks.

    This encourages people to browse the “Deals” section to look for new deals. It rewards members for recognising a good deal early and voting on it.

    This does not in any way affect the voting or front page algorithm or current workings of OzBargain, it is an side add-on that could even be opt in/out or stats are viewed in a separate area so that people who don’t care are completely unaffected.
    Running out of jacks for the month does not affect the strength of your vote or your ability to vote in the usual sense of voting on deals.
    Having millions of jacks does not make your vote any more influential. Jacks are wiped at the end of the year and are worth nothing in the real world.

    I posted this already in the 2018 thread but it got closed almost immediately after I posted it (I posted in 2019). A working example of this concept can be found here.

    • There is already too much "blind" voting on here, we don't need to reward them.

      • What do you mean by blind voting?

        • "wow, 10& off XYZ store" upvote.

          30 seconds later.."this deal is crap, look at the exclusions, and the price jacking..remove upvote? meh, too much work"

          • @altomic: Not sure how my idea is related to this. It actually would motivate against this behaviour.

  • Is there any way to view the deals on ozbargain excluding out-of-stock/expired/future deals? The front page right now has six exp/oos/future deals - I'd like the option to see only "available" deals.

    • You can go to your settings page, and under "edit" -> "deals" and inside the "Front Page" box, make sure

      • Do not show deals that have not started yet
      • Do not show expired deals

      are checked.

      • Thanks!

  • Just wanted to update this conversation about adjusting rep posting limits.

    We haven't moved the vote average but instead of looking at the last 2 rep posts for 30 days, we are now looking at 60 days. This will probably give a better picture of how rep posts are doing. Based on some initial testing this puts performance bans on a few more stores.

    • +2

      I still personally feel that vote average of +1 or +2 is very achievable, given the people who blindly up-vote as they don't like seeing a zero score. It's not a true reflection of the deal quality.

      • +2

        *blindly up-votes Spackbace.

    • Gees I'm going to have to work harder now :( Though hopefully it'll cut down the spam ;)

  • we can block individual users deal posts.

    Is there a way to block individual users forums posts?

    • You can block comments from a user but not forum posts.

      • Could that be set up? Blocking a users deals posts & comments & forum posts?

        • Could? I think so. The requests have to be scheduled and managed so it won't happen immediately. Maybe sometime this quarter?

          • @scotty: That would be awesome. Thanks Scotty.

            • @altomic: Just FYI, this was added March 1.

  • Can we please get the Camels back?

    • We'll put both Camelx3 and Keepa on Amazon deals in the next rollout.

      • Thanks

  • +2

    Can we make the "wanted" and "selling" in classified different coloured? They are both blue and it makes it harder to distinguish between one another.

  • Ability to see replies (and the new replies indicator) when viewing the Classifieds section.

  • Anyone experiencing issues with reminders in the last week? I have set 7-8 reminders daily but on the next day only 3 show up. This has been happening each day for a week.

  • Is there a reason why the OPs name is not shown on unpublished deals?

  • Are we able to have a 'Meh' vote button?

    More specifically, a method to provide a way to contribute feedback on deals that wouldn't or can't otherwise utilise negative feedback.

    There are some deals that are legitimate, according to OzB rules etc, but prior experience shows that it's not a particularly good bargain. Things like photos of the Aldi catalogue, or the Bing Lee 12% off some things. Yes, I know it's legit, but nothing special.

    Ideally a grey (or perhaps a brown?) colour would seem ideal, and wedge the button right between the +ve and -ve buttons. Obviously a daily limit would be ideal too so users can't just troll all posts, and nothing has to actually be actioned with the new data metric if not required - but it provides a simple method of feedback. You could make commenting mandatory like with the existing negs as well.

    Thoughts?

    • +3

      Meh…

    • +1

      More specifically, a method to provide a way to contribute feedback on deals that wouldn't or can't otherwise utilise negative feedback.

      It's called not voting :) Hard enough as it is getting people to vote so we don't need something else to clutter.

    • Yes as clear said,

      Positive vote: Like the deal
      Negative vote: Issue with deal, cheaper elsewehere, etc.
      No vote: Meh, not interested, different state, etc.

      Explained in our voting guidelines

      • I had no idea there was an entire chart involved! There you go then.

  • I'm aware that there is an option to block seeing posts from certain users but is it possible to work the other way i.e. block users from seeing my posts?

    • Not possible sorry, that would be restricting users from being able to access OzBargain completely by hiding certain deals. This would also lead to users making ghost accounts so that they have can see the deals previously hidden to them.

  • Just wondering if there is an OzBargain AFL tipping competition this year? Apologies if the page is up and I've missed it.

  • Not sure what's possible in terms of what platform this site is based on - but a feature I'd REALLY love to see is a night mode! (black background, white text, etc)

    Been loving it on Reddit - and would be cool to see something similar on OzB.

    Thanks for a wonderful site.

  • Option to disable expired deals on tag and category pages
    I.e
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/cat/electrical-electronics
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/uhd-tv

    Show a tick box to disable expired deals on that page.

    Option to subscribe to tag and category pages.

  • When doing a site search for "Apple", these 2 stores come up:
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/apple.com
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/itunes.apple.com/id284417…

    However, the store titles are "Apple" and "apple". Is it worth changing the name of 1 or both to suit the actual store? "Apple iTunes" for the 2nd one maybe?

    • I have changed the store name for the 2nd one. It should be updated for the quick search in the next hour.

  • +3

    I posted in the $1.40 Cheeseburger + veganburgar deal but I probably should have posted here.

    Is it possible to add a tag to menu hacks so we can identify them before actually clicking into them? Just so it differentiates the offical offerings from vendors and menu hacks.
    It seems there are a lot of people against these kinds of deals but as I said in the previous post, if they weren't classified as deals the mods would mark/remove them. This could possibly be a middle ground.

    Let me know what everyone thinks?

    • +1

      Agree, tag would be useful. Thanks for the idea

    • +1

      This is exactly what I was thinking about last night. It would be amazing if this was the case. Would've posted it if I remembered in the morning.

      That way the people who don't care less (like me) don't have to deal with all this but the people who do (memers?) can still have their deal.

  • Damn if the big Optus mobile pop-ups that hijack the entire browser keep appearing everytime I'm on this site I'll be installing adblocks on my mobile

    • See here It appears to be a dodgy ad, we've reported it to the ad networks.

      You can however block ads entirely by going to:

      Go to My Account - Edit - Banner ads: - No Ads

  • Ability to filter out facebook only competitions aka competitions hosted on facebook (not competitions with facebook entry options as some have other entry options from other social media and other methods)

    I pretty much use all forms of social media except facebook when entering competitions.. mainly because I don't want to spam my family and "friends"

    There is ability to filter out like/comment/etc/etc but that includes competitions with entry via twitter and instagram which I do use

    So I guess just more filter options for competitions regarding what social media you will be using

  • 3rd party posting & store rep posting

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/450841 - Store rep
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/450843 - 3rd Party post

    Posted 9mins apart from each other. Should the rules maybe only limit 1/24hrs, regardless of store rep or 3rd party post? Or is this currently a grey area in the posting rules?

    The posting limit is calculated using a rolling window down to the precision of seconds. For example if a representative posted at 4:45PM yesterday, they will not be able to post again until 4:45PM today (assuming the 1 per 24 hours limit applies).

    • This was talked about in the referral discussion thread:

      OK, but I've noticed a Cashrewards deal posted by Tightarse and he is marked as a rep.

      That's right. Cashrewards is a unique situation in that it offers deals and also can be a supplementary bonus (cashback) to deals. So if the deal itself is a cashback, then the deal is linked directly to Cashrewards, and rep posting limits apply. If the deal is for another site, like Lenovo, and there also happens to be a cashback mentioned in the description, then it is marked as a referral.

      However, there are a handful of users who both use rep limits plus 3rd party limits. CashRewards was the only one at the time and now ShopBack fits into that category. However, there is also Beatthatflight who is a rep for their own site and also is a 3rd party site. These are independent limits. It's not a grey area but there are a few users who will fall into both of these categories. Fortunately, all of them post popular deals so not an issue I think we need to worry about atm, as that is the main reason of having these limitations.

  • Being able to view deals by state/territory and being able to set it as a preference in Settings.

    This means when posting a deal, the OP would tick whichever states/territory are applicable.

    [] ALL [] NSW [] VIC [] ACT [] QLD [] SA [] WA [] NT [] TAS

    • Not exactly what you have asked for, but see the new front page algorithm to for state filtering on the front page.

      You could set NSW to maximum priority so those deals appear higher on your front page and set all other states to the lowest priority to hide the completely (or lower priority to de-prioritise them but not hide all together). You can do the same with stores or particular categories, to hide them, or give them higher priority (basically have a front page that is more personalised to your tastes and/or location).

      Click on 'new' on the OzBargain home page https://www.ozbargain.com.au/ then go my account > settings > edit > deals to customise the 'Front Page (New)' settings.

  • +2

    I see the new +vote icons on right hand side of the desktop page. They look ok, though the numbers are too small - at 1440p for me at least (have to zoom page to 150% to read them). I reckon 20-30% larger would be better.

    Also I assume the colored lines are for active/expired, but what are the ones with no line at all?

    • I thought they were read/unread thread indicators (in the forums anyway)

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