Something to consider (Members Only Deals)

• 

  neil on 15/09/2011 - 16:34

  +1

  Interesting idea but not sure how well it will work. I guess Whirlpool sort of does that with it's extra forums you get depending on if you are signed in and your WP karma.

  I was actually going to post a restaurant group buy deal today but deferred as I don't want to have to compete with even more people to get a booking.

• 

  scotty on 15/09/2011 - 17:04

  Yeah I recall seeing similar concerns before.

  Pro:

  • Less competition.
  • Community gets it first.
  • Probably encourages more people to sign into OzBargain.

  Con:

  • Hey where is the sharing spirit? :)
  • Probably encourages more people to sign into OzBargain (server loads, etc)
  • "Public deals" are going to be filled by store-rep deals who wants to get maximum exposure.

  Alternatively there can be a cool off period where community can access those deals within that period, and it would be appear to the public after that period expires. 1/2 hours?

  • 

    zhenjie on 15/09/2011 - 17:19

    I think its a great idea. Exclusivity to members is always a good thing, ala Whirlpool and OCAU.

    On scotty's negatives

    • Sharing spirit is actually encouraged but focused more amongst the users of the site who are actually involved and more likely to contribute
    • More members can't really be a bad thing right :)?
    • Public deals and store reps would really be no different to what it is already?
  • 

    samfisher5986 on 15/09/2011 - 18:33

    Your cons sound like pros to me…

    I like the cooling off period though, for example if it turns out a particular shop has a lot more stock then we thought, it seems fair to allow the public to see it automatically in time.

    But also consider this

    Special Pizzas codes
    Certain freebies
    shop tricks
    Staff friend discounts
    and more…

    All of these have been occasionally wrecked in the past by having it public and having huge amounts of people see the bargain.

    I think a permanent option could be really useful in these circumstances.

  • 

    scotty on 15/09/2011 - 22:24

    +2

    The thing is, on Internet it's hard to have those "members only" offers — the very kind of offer that OzBargainers shun upon. Having those "members only" offers would mean

    • More people logging in instead of browsing. So at the end you still have the same sets of eyes looking at the deals with dramatic increase of server load (it's much faster serving a visitor than a member, from someone who developed OzBargain).
    • All it takes would be one single person to leak the deal to Facebook, Whirlpool, OCAU and other community forums. Members-only no more. Worse, it might also divert the discussion elsewhere.

    Personally I don't really believe in information-hidden-behind-login-page basically.

    • 

      nada on 20/09/2011 - 11:48

      second this.

      all those "login before read" contents on the internet just creates useless traffic and waste people's time and put a higher load on the server so long as you could register at will for free. its meaning less anyway.

      if there's going to be a members-only-deals, and that doesnt mean i endorse this idea, it has to be more than register-login-read-away, sth like linking deals to MoneybackCo accounts etc….but we arent no private tracker are we?

• 

  spal on 15/09/2011 - 18:30

  Yeah a good suggestion. If it keeps coming up may be it is time that it is given a serious consideration.

  I am for it.

  • 

    swings on 16/09/2011 - 09:00

    the cooloff period sounds nice, not sure if half an hour will be enough.

    same the members only,but to make sense,
    should consider member(active in the community)
    someone with X posted messages, or X deals (plenty of forums use this policy),
    if the option is intended to reward the OZbarg active in the community.

• 

  Adamiam on 17/09/2011 - 16:14

  I love the idea of a cool off period. Keeps it public, but not so public that deals are gone from the more active Ozbargain community before they have a chance to look. At the moment, it just feels like such a free for all (not necessarily a bad thing though).

  Obviously it does come with greater server load, the question is whether it could be reasonably handled.

  I think scotty your best point against it was that it might divert discussion elsewhere. Ozbargain isn't just about the bargain - it's about the discussion of the bargain. Knowing if it really is a good deal, if the supplier is legit, other related deals and how to maximize deals are all great elements of Ozbargain we owe to the active deal discussion.