[AMA] I founded OzBargain 13 years ago. Ask me (almost) anything, again

scotty on 25/11/2019 - 19:14

Hi everyone. I am scotty, and I created a website 13 years ago called "OzBargain" — surprisingly that it is still around today. I actually did an AMA 4.5 years ago, and I've been getting PMs asking for another one. So here we go. Ask me (almost) anything, again.

Rules:

  • Ask questions in the top-level comments. I might miss your questions if they are posted as replies to other comments.
  • Vote up good questions and vote down bad ones.
  • I'll try to keep the AMA open until Wednesday (27 Nov 2019).

Also some notes:

  • Good idea to check my previous AMA. Your questions might have already been answered there. For example, I'm still driving that old Kia 7-seater.
  • Bad commenters will get kicked out from the thread. I'm the admin on this site, after all.
  • Don't ask moderation related questions regarding to your account/store. Use TWAM instead.
  • Don't request features or send feature-related feedbacks. Use this thread instead.
  • Don't expect me to answer all questions. I reserve the right to refuse answer some questions without giving explanation.

Fire away the questions! I'm getting off for dinners for now and will be back in 1/2 hour to answer the questions. Just in case someone asks "what are you having for dinner?" The answer would be: wife's cooking (rice + tofu with pork fillings + vegs).

Introduce Yourself

closed Comments

  • Lizard Spock on 25/11/2019 - 23:32

    Do you or have you watched Silicon Valley (the tv series), and if you have watched it, has there every been any relatable moments to any of the characters in that show?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 09:51
      +1

      Sorry never watched it. I don't really watch TV series :P I don't have Foxtel either as it appears to be the only streaming option in Australia.

  • khell on 25/11/2019 - 23:48
    +3

    How do you feel about opening up a third-party API so we the community can develop a mobile app? I'd be keen to do it if there were one.

    Or you could make one for us 😁🙏

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 09:57
      +2

      What sort of API would you like? What functionalities do you want OzBargain to provide? If you are looking at getting lists of deals, you can already extract out a lot of info from the RSS. However if you are looking at performing operations such as posting deals, comments, etc. Then there's quite a bit of work on our end.

      • khell on 26/11/2019 - 17:43
        +1

        looking at performing operations such as posting deals, comments, etc

        Yep, this is the sort of thing I'm hoping for. An app could always crawl the site and simulate all of this but it would just be too slow to run on client devices and be too prone to breaking. A fleshed out API would also be a good foundation for any potential rewrites you may end up doing in the future, even iterative ones 😄

        The biggest 'killer' feature I'd want out of an app is push notifications for search alerts, so I don't miss out on short-lived deals, like 7/11 fuel alerts. PWAs and browser notifications can sort of solve this particular problem - if you forget about iOS users.

        • murkywater on 26/11/2019 - 19:16

          You can do the push notifications using RSS + Pushbullet fairly easily.

      • leiiv on 27/11/2019 - 21:57

        How about something that can enable notification when a certain deal is up voted in an alarming rate (ie it gets a lot of votes within a very short time)?

  • Nillionaire on 26/11/2019 - 01:46
    -2

    Hey Scotty, how are ya?

  • Master Bates on 26/11/2019 - 03:38
    +3

    Hi Scotty! A few questions:

    Does OzBargain’s foremost Troll (JV) bring you happiness in the way that they engage with the community or give you many a sleepless night? Have you ever met JV and are they secretly on the payroll?

    Do you think the greed of Broden (and others like them) can ever be stopped from ruining deals like this for the vast majority? Obviously they break the OzB code of ethics, but is there any solution to the problem?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 10:25
      +7

      jv

      I've never met him/her and he/she is not on payroll. Maybe some of you guys should get him/her to do an AMA? Or maybe jv is an it as rumours are saying jv is a bot.

      broden

      First of all, I do think that it is a problem. It's like people doing scalper tickets, it's ethically wrong, and it's also affecting this community. Sorry I don't know any good solution, but:

      • Merchants should at least have good fraud detection, matching people's email address, credit card number, delivery address, etc, to prevent individuals creating multiple accounts to take advantage of introductory offer. They need to at least have that in the terms & conditions.

      • Merchants might also want to limit the number of orders per individual.

      However I can also understand that at the end of the day they just want to offload stocks, regardless whether it's broden or a genuine customers who bought them. As of for us on OzBargain, we might want to pick out such behaviour and shame them. I certainly do not want to give out a message that it's an acceptable behaviour to buy more to resell, at the expense of other community members.

      The other solution would be drying up the market. Why do some people go to private sellers on eBay to buy items that some else brodened? Maybe they need to know about OzBargain and the actual price of these items. If people stop buying resold items from those private sellers on eBay, then maybe there won't be as much incentive for broden?

      • CandyMan on 26/11/2019 - 10:56
        +4

        Or maybe jv is an it as rumours are saying jv is a clown

  • yjun355 on 26/11/2019 - 06:02

    Hi Scotty.

    I noticed you mention about generating revenue from third party ads.

    I was wondering if you could give some advice.

    I have a not for profit fundraising platform similar to GoFundMe and everydayhero. We are small and only use for corporate events so far.

    Our goal was to make fundraising free as most performs charge upto 5% as fees.

    As alternate business model would you be able to give more advice on these ads platform. The Google one doesn't really work as you earn negligible income.

    Some advice would be great.

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 10:35
      +3

      In the mid noughties, you just slap on AdSense code in your HTML and you'll see money coming in. These days running an ad-supported business is much harder. Basically you need volume to be on better seller-side platform. Otherwise to get a high CPM you pretty much has to go directly to advertisers and negotiate deals, which is time consuming.

      I think it's best to talk to some agency to optimise your inventory. Publift is doing all the work for us, and they might give some advice even if you don't take them onboard.

      • yjun355 on 26/11/2019 - 12:50

        Thanks a lot.

  • tyc00n on 26/11/2019 - 06:32
    -2

    how many of these questions do you think are from people directly employed by the ATO? vs typical stickybeaks and chinese clone houses? :)

  • darkchoc on 26/11/2019 - 07:26

    How much screen time do you have on a typical day?
    What about your kids?
    Did running your own business man you get to spend more good quality time together as a family?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 10:38
      +3

      do you have?

      Too much.

      your kids?

      Way too much.

      good quality time together as a family?

      I would like to. My teenage kids however prefer to do their own things.

  • uk3000 on 26/11/2019 - 07:31

    Does OzBargain have a physical office space for live meetings etc? Or is everything conducted remotely?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 10:43
      +3

      We don't have an office. All our team meetings are done via Google Hangouts Meet & Slack during the day. I go to other people's offices or cafe for business meetings. Having an office not only limit where you work but also the time you work. Some of the mods might take long lunch break, but still looking through the issues at 12AM. It's a 24/7 website after all. While we can't take 24/7 coverage, we do need to do a bit more than 9-5.

  • CookieCounter on 26/11/2019 - 07:58
    +5

    Sorry more a statement but thank you for creating Ozbargain!!!!! 👍

  • Skramit on 26/11/2019 - 08:11

    What is your current work PC specs/details for running OzB. Also have you got a photo of the home office where you make the magic happen?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 10:52
      +2

      I don't run OzB on my PC :) I have ~6 VPS at BinaryLane to run OzBargain — front end nginx, PHP in FastCGI, Python app servers, sphinx search, MySQL master + slave, Redis, memcached cluster, etc.

      As of my current work PC setup

      • Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (gen 1). i5 + GTX 1050ti, 16GB / 512GB
      • LG 34UM88C (34" QHD) + Dell Ultrasharp 1905FP (19" 1280x1024)
      • Some Chinese branded mechanical keyboard & wireless mouse.

      Photo — maybe later.

      • Skramit on 26/11/2019 - 11:27

        I don't run OzB on my PC :) I have ~6 VPS at BinaryLane to run OzBargain

        I meant "administer" Ozbargain hehe.

        The Lenovo X1 is a very nice laptop! Pricey but worth it IMO. Anything you don't like about it?

        • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 11:54
          +1

          Definitely the best laptop I have used so far. I just wish it has the 7-row ThinkPad keyboard from my old T410 :)

          • uk3000 on 26/11/2019 - 12:06

            @scotty: On that laptop, are you using Windows as your main OS for development? Or if Linux, what flavor?

            • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 12:14
              +1

              @uk3000: Windows. Linux inside a VM as well as WSL. Currently Debian 9, and the first project for 2020 would be migrating the entire stack to Debian 10.

              • uk3000 on 26/11/2019 - 12:20
                +1

                @scotty: 👍
                I find WSL + VSCode a very productive combo, especially with WSL2, having switched to Windows Insider builds just for that.

                • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 12:30
                  +3

                  @uk3000: I'm an old fart that can only code in vi/vim. Need to pick up all those new techs.

                  • polarq on 27/11/2019 - 20:58
                    +1

                    @scotty: I always respect people coding exclusively on vim. salute. :)

      • Bunnyburger on 26/11/2019 - 14:48

        Do you worry about physical keyloggers on your Chinese keyboard? Unless it's Taiwanese

  • Orgazmo on 26/11/2019 - 08:24

    Hi Scotty,

    If you were recruiting, what makes a person stand out to be hired? Can you share why you hired a particular individual(s)?

    • Skramit on 26/11/2019 - 08:26
      +2

      I assuming because neil walked on the moon first?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 10:54
      +1

      I won't share specific details. However if you have ever been in the penalty box on OzBargain, then the chance of getting hired would be slim. We do look for people with no past issues.

      • spackbace on 26/11/2019 - 14:41
        +3

        Drat :P

      • [Deactivated] on 26/11/2019 - 19:22
        -1

        Slightly off-topic.. how do you find out if someone has been in the penalty box? Have I been in the penalty box before?

  • smartazz104 on 26/11/2019 - 08:43
    -1

    Best deal you ever got through this site?

  • uk3000 on 26/11/2019 - 08:45

    Do you think your personal time that you normally spend on hunting for a bargain, and then on actually obtaining it (getting discounted gift cards, going through cashback sites, looking for extra coupons etc) is worth the monetary value of the gain?

    Would you rather spend those 30 mins reading a book or playing a board game with the kids?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 11:00
      +1

      I'm probably in the category of lazy ozbargainer, and won't make the jump if hurdle is too high. Yes I simply don't have enough time. However I do really respect those who are willing to go through great length to obtain a bargain.

  • frostman on 26/11/2019 - 09:11
    +1

    Why don't you enable the option of users to delete their threads/posts after X time?

    • Master Bates on 26/11/2019 - 12:19
      +2

      What did you share that you now want to cover up?

  • PurchaseAnxiety on 26/11/2019 - 09:15

    How much time does running Ozbargain consume? Is it a full time job? Or are there days when you can get up, do a bit of admin, and be done for the day within a couple of hours?

    Why do you think Ozbargain is so addictive?

    Get any good special buys at Aldi recently?

    • roddo on 26/11/2019 - 10:25

      You're a legend Scotty! I'm also curious about how many hours you'd spend a week running ozb

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 12:12
      +4

      Is it a full time job?

      I am surprised that some people are still thinking OzBargain as my side hustle. I have been working full time on OzBargain since 2011, and it's more than just doing a few hours of admin. If I can finish all the admins I'll move onto my long list of todos. Probably won't be able to get any development done in November & December because of the amount of traffic & related support issues, however I would like to get back to do some coding in Jan/Feb.

      Why do you think Ozbargain is so addictive?

      Why are you guys addicted to OzBargain? That's a serious question. I am just making OzBargain the way I would want to use it.

      good special buys at Aldi recently?

      Not really. One recent phenomenon is that the local Aldi actually has left-over Special Buys after a week! Usually that place is swamped on Wednesday mornings. Maybe the economy is just not that healthy.

      • Andard on 26/11/2019 - 16:55
        +7

        Why are you guys addicted to OzBargain?

        two reasons, firstly because the bargains are genuine - if there's some scam/business-pushed-psudo-deal it's downvoted or called out in the comments.

        secondly the comments section - the mods here are more relaxed than WP (we can shitpost with each other) and it's not a mostly american site like Reddit so topics are local and relevant. The comment layout and voting system is really solid and good, and people on here are friggen hilarious.

        Yeah so thanks from me.

        • starbearer on 27/11/2019 - 00:36
          +1

          Couldn't have put this better myself

  • Munki on 26/11/2019 - 09:16
    +4

    How often do you have to beam Kirk up?

  • railspider on 26/11/2019 - 10:07

    Do you have any idea about the demographics of Ozbargain users?
    Based on the more popular forum threads, it feels like this site leans Male and Asian, maybe a little conservative politically.

    • ilikeradiohead on 26/11/2019 - 12:09

      I believe this may have been asked in the last AMA. Or maybe just another thread. From what I remember, they collected some demographic info at one point (but I think manually rather than scraped) but now don't really. Curios to know if it's changed.

      • ThithLord on 26/11/2019 - 13:21

        I believe this may have been asked in the last AMA. Or maybe just another thread.

        But that AMA was yonks ago - cultural shifts are happening all the time

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 14:07

      demographics of Ozbargain users?

      No idea. We don't take surveys, and we did not ask for that sort of information when people sign up. Only reps have to declare themselves, and for the rest — hopefully they are all keen bargain hunters.

      Based on the more popular forum threads, it feels like this site leans Male and Asian, maybe a little conservative politically.

      That would be a fair analysis. From the meetup photos in major cities you'll think OzBargain users are predominately Asian male.

      We do however have a Facebook Page with 40k+ fans. Facebook does take more data on demographics, and it says our FB fans are 60% male 40% female, and definitely much more diversified than "Asian male".

  • SupeNintendoChalmers on 26/11/2019 - 10:34
    +1

    Hi Scotty,

    1. Do you believe that OB is a conduit or enabler of conspicuous consumption?
    2. If so, how does this fit in with your worldview (social\spiritual etc)?
    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 11:20
      +4

      Do you believe that OB is a conduit or enabler of conspicuous consumption?

      Yes I think it does amplifies consumerism for some people.

      If so, how does this fit in with your worldview (social\spiritual etc)?

      OzBargain was started believing that sharing the useful information is good, and enabling "conspicuous consumption" was never the intention. Some people have the discipline in limiting their consumption, and some people simply don't — I just won't judge their purchase habits. Some people buy because they are wealthy. Some people buy more than they need right now because they are planning ahead. I do have problem with people buying out the stock to resell, preventing others from getting the same deal (i.e. brodening) but that's just my opinion and I don't think I am able to stop that. Just browsing through the forums and I can spot so many things that don't fit in with my worldview. However I probably will just shake my head and move on. It's a community with all walks of people.

      Here's another view — in this world of over-saturated advertising & consumerism, would there be less conspicuous consumption if OzBargain does not exist in the first place?

      • JetBombat on 26/11/2019 - 12:58
        +1

        in this world of over-saturated advertising & consumerism, would there be less conspicuous consumption if OzBargain does not exist in the first place?

        That's an interesting point and a hard question to answer. Here is an additional throw from me: OZB has a great deal of people's attention and it can be used to also provide an information on community causes worthy of supporting. I know of yearly donations and that's a great idea. With recent and ongoing weather events in Australia though there are so many ways to help our animals, plants and birds that are literally burning alive. I think OZB has a fantastic untapped potential to help or at least direct our attention, to make a world a little bit better offsetting the consumerism. May be as a top voted "community cause worth supporting" of the month similarly to hot forum topics. Wouldn't it be a great deal for us and next generation to support a couple who are rehabilitating koalas in their living room or help to establish a wild koala breeding program just as few examples?

        • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 14:10
          +2

          There are many good causes to support but our fund is limited. We'll do another round of charity donations in mid-December, and will call out for suggestions on the charities to donate to.

          • JetBombat on 26/11/2019 - 20:23

            @scotty: A sincere thank you scotty, I am sure it will be quite appreciated by fellow ozbargainers and those who will receive the help. Perhaps it will be possible to have a "Top Community Initiatives" somewhere on the right down below similar to "New Competitions" are as well with a time that will allow people present the causes and get some help from us, the visitors, without tapping into OZB donation budget.

        • rompastompa on 26/11/2019 - 15:24
          +2

          it can be used to also provide an information on community causes worthy of supporting.

          We currently do that. Look at cage eggs, plastic bags, climate change etc. Whenever there is a post, there is a plethora of information that is passed to the viewers (which can lead to a debate in some instances).

          You can add to this by creating a post (make sure you include a poll, ms paint diagram and clickbait title) and therefore awareness.

  • manshrew on 26/11/2019 - 11:28

    Morning Scotty,

    How many OzB notifications do you get in a day?

  • capslock janitor on 26/11/2019 - 11:41

    What is the reason/s for moving past Dell onto Lenovo laptop now?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 11:52
      +6

      In my old job we use Dell Latitudes. The Lenovo equivalent (ThinkPad T-series) is slightly cheaper. At lower end, I found ThinkPad E/L series much more serviceable than equivalent Dell Inspirons.

      Last week I was choosing my daughter's BYOD for next year, it came down to either Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 and ThinkPad L390 Yoga. The Inspiron is lighter, better looking, smaller foot-print. However it's slightly more expensive and only SOLDERED ON RAM! Blasphemy!! Guess which one I ended up getting.

      • idonotknowwhy on 26/11/2019 - 12:49
        +4

        SOLDERED ON RAM! Blasphemy!!

        Agreed!

      • [Deactivated] on 26/11/2019 - 19:27

        The one that was on special? 🤔

  • ilikeradiohead on 26/11/2019 - 12:20

    Hi Scotty,
    Have you considered changing your business model? I saw that you mentioned the Honey acquisition by Paypal in an earlier post, and as far as I can tell, its revenue model is based on commissions with partner websites (although I think the purchase is more about user data/analytics than its cash flows - also I can't even that they're paying $4bn for it). Likewise, I believe slickdeals also receives revenue in this way, with things like 'featured posts from our partners' that still operate like the usual post, but with commissions going to SD. If you were to go along the slickdeals route, it would essentially move sign up bonuses (or more formalised commissions) from posters/random ozbargain users toward ozbargain itself.

    I know this would be quite a change from how OzB is currently run but it might be something to think about (which I am sure you have).

  • justwii on 26/11/2019 - 12:45
    +1

    Say I am a business owner, if I have a deal, what are the suggested ways to make it well known the fastest? e.g. tweet it, post on FB, post on ozbargain, post on Honey, etc.?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 14:15

      Why don't you do them all? It's free for merchants to post deals on OzBargain (see FAQ for merchants). It's also free to tweet & post on FB although it might cost to gain more exposure. Not sure about Honey.

      However to get more exposure on OzBargain you'll need to get enough votes to get the deal onto the front page. Your deal needs to be something that people want at a great price to get votes.

      • justwii on 26/11/2019 - 14:35

        Rephrasing my question: was there any statistic about the effectiveness of posting a deal on any of the platforms.

    • Andard on 27/11/2019 - 10:03
      +2

      Post it on OzB

      I had an app and I bought ads in Facebook and got shit-all responses. Compelte waste of money.

      I did a free giveaway on OzB and it friggen exploded - best exposure I've ever had for my app. There's not alot of commenters but there's tonnes of lurkers/clickers on here.

  • SolidlyIrresponsible on 26/11/2019 - 13:11

    Hey scotty,

    How many employees does it take to run a website like OZB?
    What is the tech stack looks like?

  • baycie on 26/11/2019 - 13:38

    Hi Scotty, happy 13th OzBargain birthday!

    I have used OzBargain for a long time, I can’t remember how I discovered it, but it was way back at the beginning of the site. Before finding OzB, I use to frequent websites and forums like Pirate Pete’s Aussie Freebies, Whirlpool’s Freebies/deal thread, Buckscoops deals forum and other similar sites to help me find bargains, I am pretty sure I would have come across OzBargain being mentioned on one of those sites. Were you on any of those forums etc? Were you always a bargain hunter? What made you want to share the love of bargains with us all?

    Thanks Baycie.

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 14:26

      Were you on any of those forums etc?
      I have been on Whirlpool for more than 15 years.

      Were you always a bargain hunter?
      It's just a habit that you research the price before buying anything.

      What made you want to share the love of bargains with us all?
      Sharing is caring? When you heard of a good news don't you want to tell that to your friends & family?

  • jee on 26/11/2019 - 13:46

    when people ask me about my hobby, i say i'm a bargain hunter.
    means i spent quite a lot of time on ozbargain.

    i've saved good stuff for my colleagues and friends.

    i don't like the ads.. is there any plans to introduce premium membership so that i can feel good about contributing back.

    Also, i'm happy that i've won some competitions, thanks to gnv. is gnv on your payroll?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 14:33
      +6

      is there any plans to introduce premium membership

      We did plan something :)

      If you don't want ads, and want to contribute something back — just stick around. Post deals, comment on other people's posts. Vote up the deals and competitions you like, etc. Those are good enough contributions.

      As of gnv9 — no she is not on payroll, but definitely someone in the community that needs to be acknowledged.

  • Sharp on 26/11/2019 - 13:57
    -3

    How old are you, any kids? Are they ozbargain members?
    Are you mostly in the office during business hours or working from home/remotely?
    Do you track users' individual time spent on ozbargain?
    Do you talk about bargains/users comments at home?
    From your meet-ups or other data, are the majority of Ozbargain members below 30 yo Asian males?

  • t_c on 26/11/2019 - 14:09
    +1

    When is ozbargain going serverless?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 14:49
      +3

      I thought it's just a gimmick to increase AWS' revenue? Doing the entire OzBargain in serverless would quickly render myself walletless.

      However we do quite a few micro-services and do inter-server communication using RabbitMQ.

  • HardlyCharly on 26/11/2019 - 14:19
    -3

    Who was the original target audience when creating OzBargain? Was it people who actually had some need of good deals, or just anyone who had a desire to not pay RRP for anything? I'm interested to know as the majority of users now appear to be old rich out of touch white men.

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 14:52

      The original users of OzBargain are the ones who want to share deals. It was created because people have been sending me deals to be posted on my old blog. I got fed up, created a community site and asked them to post those deals themselves.

      majority of users now appear to be old rich out of touch white men

      What?! Someone else in this thread said that the majority appears to be Asian male. Now I am confused.

  • Pegadeals on 26/11/2019 - 14:22
    +1

    Do you personally know any famous ozbargainers in real life like for example, tightarse and dealbot

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 15:02
      +3

      I've met TA a few times. I have not yet met dealbot though.

      • Banana on 26/11/2019 - 23:53
        +2

        Do you know any famous people who are also using Ozbargain? Chris Hemsworth, are you out there?

  • Timtamdoritos on 26/11/2019 - 14:26
    +1

    Hi Scotty,

    Any memory when infrastructure was not able to handle website traffic ? And do you deploy extra resources for events like black friday and boxing day?

    Thanks

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 15:08
      +2

      Last Black Friday was wild. However database is usually the bottleneck, and to simplify the development we are still doing monolithic design, i.e. it can be difficult to just throw resource at it hoping it to scale.

      However the more memorable would be the very first Click Frenzy. When the clock hits 7PM, their website crashed. Somehow people who anticipated it flooded to OzBargain, and totally saturated the out-bound bandwidth — we were with Crucial.com.au back then and somehow they capped the out-bound at 10Mbps.

  • uk3000 on 26/11/2019 - 14:28
    +1

    What kind of business structure would you recommend for an online startup business, which is not going to be profitable for quite a while? Should it be a Pty Ltd company from the very beginning? Should it be owned by a trust?
    Thanks for all your answers so far, greatly appreciated.

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 15:15
      +1

      Talk to your accountant :)

      I did talk to my accountant, but still got it wrong, because back then when we tried to incorporate (~2010) I didn't think OzBargain would grow to this size so I took the simple option. It ended up being a simple Pty Ltd with me as the sole director & share holder. Profit distribution can be a pain.

      A trading company owned by a trust with a corporate trustee might be a preferred structure? At least distributing the profit within the trust would be easier.

      Talk to your accountant.

      • uk3000 on 26/11/2019 - 15:56
        +1

        Thanks, will do! Although it never hurts to conduct an own investigation in parallel and then compare it to what the accountant says :)

  • serpserpserp on 26/11/2019 - 14:37

    Has anyone offered to buy the site off you in the past 3 years? If it was a reasonable offer, what was the ballpark? Do you plan to eventually sell this website?

    Another topic: if there was an Australian website you felt you could revitalize into something better, which one would you love to take over? (example: For me it is beanhunter)

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 15:39
      +1

      Has anyone offered to buy the site off you in the past 3 years?

      No one :( Sorry I won't reveal the ballpark figure. Online media acquisitions aren't doing too well these days, but I still see average of around 10x EBITDA (based on Global strategic online media buyer index compiled by Right Click Partners). Maybe that's the ballpark figure?

      I don't see myself running this website forever as I would be retiring one day.

      which one would you love to take over?

      Beancounter is interesting. However I am not that much into coffee to appreciate it. I would definitely be looking at a niche that I also enjoy myself. Maybe CoolRunning?

  • thisusernameistaken on 26/11/2019 - 14:50

    What is your most down voted comment or deal? Why are down voted comments not able to be viewed while logged out?

  • timps on 26/11/2019 - 14:56
    +1

    Hey Scotty,

    Are there any plans for rules or changes to disallow unethical or downright fraudulent deals being posted?

    I've seen deals ranging from the Xbox live on the other day asking people to make fake xbox and discord accounts and then cancel them to stack time, right through to people posting codes from inside chip packets to claim free DVDs that were supposed to be with a purchase.

    Longer term, do you think this kind of thing will continue to be allowed?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 15:50
      +6

      I think people might want to speak out if they think certain practises aren't ethical, even if it's not against the law. However setting the moral compass of a community website can be very tricky. I rather stand up and state my preference, than just ban certain activities outright.

      • timps on 26/11/2019 - 16:04

        Thanks for answering. It really can be tricky to do.
        Sadly no matter how many of us comment or share our opinion it won't change the people posting it.
        The rules don't allow negging unethical ones for being unethical either.

        But I do appreciate the answer. And the site! :)

  • Embaloo on 26/11/2019 - 15:33

    Hi Scotty,

    1. Do you or your family have any pets?

    2. Have you ever hatched sea monkeys? If so how did they go?

    3. Have you ever read or audio-listened to any of the four canonic biblical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John)?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 15:52
      +2

      1. No pets. We do look after other people's pet every now and then.

      2. I think my kids did. Then we went on holidays and not sure what happened afterwards…

      3. Yes, all 4 of them.

      • Embaloo on 26/11/2019 - 15:56

        Ah that's nice, I like pets you can give back.

        Oh dear. Good to keep in mind.

        Cool. Glad.

        Thanks for ozbargain. It makes for good conversation at work :)

  • callmejj11 on 26/11/2019 - 16:24

    any favorite book you recommand reading?
    or any book help you the most?

    thanks

  • [Deactivated] on 26/11/2019 - 16:27

    Hi Scotty,

    Do you scrunch or fold, and being an Ozbargainer do you flip and reuse the other side?

    • scotty on 26/11/2019 - 18:29
      +4

      Fold, but don't reuse.

      • [Deactivated] on 26/11/2019 - 20:02

        Cheers for being down to earth!

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join