Is it me or do people think there are too many Reps on Ozbargain at the moment?
OzBargain Reps
jez22333 on 10/10/2011 - 16:36
Last edited 10/10/2011 - 17:13 by 1 other user
Last edited 10/10/2011 - 17:13 by 1 other user
Comments
Are you referring to rep posted deals? or reps commenting on deals?
You can filter out posts by reps here (preferences), http://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals
rep posted deals - they just don't seem to post deals that attract enough votes. Shouldn't there be some sort of screening process? Seems to defeat the purpose of this whole website.
Well if you uncheck the box, you won't see the rep deals. Reps who post too many deals garnering negative or no votes will have their site banned. Is there any particular rep posted deals you are referring to?
I am aware of the option to uncheck the box but wasn't aware of the fact if the reps get negative or no votes will have their site banned - good idea. There isn't a particular rep that I'm referring to but just the fact that reps appear to be taking over the website.
Some stats. Manually calculating:
Over the past 24 hours, 52 deals have been posted.
21/52 or 40% of deals posted by reps.
31/52 or 60% of deals posted by users.120 pos votes or 5.7 avg by REPS
634 pos votes or 20.5 avg by usersWe generally temporarily ban when a rep posts 2 or 3 bad posts in a row, pending release another bad deal gets a permanent ban. Perhaps we need to step it up from 0 and below to +1 and below?
Although averages can be skewed by some of the best/viral deals which reps are unlikely to promote here. (Facebook maybe but not here)
Take out Shick and Galaxy freebie and what are the averages then?
One idea I had in mind is to automate that.
OzBargain used to temporarily ban a site/domain if there are too many negative votes over the last x days, but I think we stopped doing that (or made x a very small value) because of issues with it. However I can see how it can be used to automatically throttle postings from bad reps.
For example,
- New reps — clean record. They can post up to 2 deals for the first week.
- Not-so-new reps —
- If vote average of all deals from the last x days is less than y, then domain temporarily banned.
- If vote average of all deals from the last x days is less than z (with z > y), then reduced to maximum 1 deal/week
Maybe something like
- x = 30
- y = 5
- z = 10 (probably a bit too strict)
It would only affect the reps so other users can still post good deals from a particular shop (just in case some big stores like DickSmith got temporarily throttled due to a bad store rep). I know it would tempt the store reps to not declare themselves, but that would be sockpuppeting and get a more severe ban from the mods.
Yes the above makes sense. Mods can "override" a ban if a rep puts a good case for not being on the list, that override being able to "reset" some of the values, so that it is only temporary. Ie so in the future the system can reimpose a ban if the same occurs again. The rep can make further appeals which can be assessed accordingly.
Only issue here is that we tend to leave inappropriate negative votes on the system - those based on personal preferences that could affect a reps ability to post deals.
Eg the iPhone deals where many are some what, passionately against the product. Likewise deals with Vodafone, where it's history will mean it will be a long time before many members will accept its network improvements.
Automation sounds good but agree with Pete, there tends to be a neg mob who just puts a random word or comment as their comments against the negative vote. On the flip side of the automation, it would be great to reward good reps with more postings.
reward good reps with more postings.
3 consecutive deals making to the front page -> 1 extra deal posting the following week + complimentary OzBargain bumper stick that says "Rep of the week"?
the iPhone deals where many are some what, passionately against the product
This one? It probably won't be affected because
- It's not posted by a rep
- There are still many who prefer an iPhone
The proposed automation was mainly trying to reduce those store reps posting their 2 weekly deals that no one cares.
Some changes have just been deployed, so the store rep posting limits have been updated to:
Maximum 2 rep deals per week is the norm, however…
- If the vote average (+ve votes - -ve votes) across the recent rep deals is below 3, domain is temporarily banned, but this only affects rep posts, normal users can still post.
- If the vote average (+ve votes - -ve votes) across the recent rep deals is lower than 8, it is reduced to maximum 1 deal per week.
- If the two most recent rep deals made the front page, the limit is increased to 3 deals per week.
I've noticed it usually happens on Mondays and Thursdays only - highest REP activity.