Meritline 'bargains' are ruining OzB

Lcmdwedge on 20/11/2011 - 13:33

As per title. These so-called bargains, generally for various pieces of MIC junk, are turning OzB from a really great site, into something entirely different. It's just rubbish post after rubbish post. I don't doubt that the posts are useful to some people, but I am suspicious of just where the positive up votes are originating from, general members, or all from one country in particular?

I'm not even sure how to fix the problem… Perhaps only one post from any rep per week?

Mertitline stuff is no different to the thousands of low unit price junk vendors on eBay. OzBargain used to be so much better than this.

Sorry about the rant. Your thoughts?

Wedge

General Discussion

Comments

  • A Banana4scale on 20/11/2011 - 13:46

    Some things are cheaper than DX/FP other bulk chinese sites. A lot of the times its useless stuff but there are bound to be a few gems somewhere/sometime. IIRC the cree flashlight/laser deal was pretty good and cree is supposedly one of the best manufacturers in the Industry

  • issh on 20/11/2011 - 14:04
    +1

    I am fine with it
    From the other Meritline Deals, you can definitely say it is cheap

    You can check who voted on the deal by clicking 'vote' directly under the title

    Example
    Votes for Laptop Sleeve

  • toomuchdogfur on 20/11/2011 - 15:32

    I reckon I'm one of the biggest advocates of a free and open community moderating system, but even I'm starting to tire a bit of seeing Meritline deals on the list every single day. But they do look like decent deals.

    So is this the curse of having too many good deals I guess?

  • Ughhh on 20/11/2011 - 15:42
    +4

    Im fine with it too, imo, having something posted is better than nothing. Just cause its on the front page, doesnt mean you need to click it, nor does it mean you should buy it.
    I never knew about DX and Meritline till I came across OzB and Im glad their deals are posted- even if some of the stuff arent of my interest.

  • aldog on 20/11/2011 - 15:48
    +4

    Where do you draw the line? For example, people might also find the Coles/Woolies bargains each week are getting too much also. Or the amount of controversy incurred whenever Logitech Shop post a bargain as they seem to be regular posters.

    On the other hand, I'm awaiting Meritline to post some more of the toothpaste squeezers and US to AU adapters again, as I always seem to miss out on them both! :)

  • andy19363 on 20/11/2011 - 16:38
    +5

    Tis far better to have too many bargains than not enough…..

    me…… if I see something I'm not looking for/interested in….. I just don't click on it.

    I don't click on logitechshop ads now, as I don't need anything from them. I bought a duet in the last 'sale' a couple of weeks ago

  • infinity89 on 20/11/2011 - 17:16

    Same, i'd rather more deals than none. Some of the meritline deals are useful. But i get your point about the number of posts. At times there seems to be too much advertising on OzBargain. I would like to have more posts per page though, so I don't have to keep clicking on next page though :)

  • swimmingtoad on 20/11/2011 - 17:46

    Agree with most here, Have no problem with it at all. They normally get a bunch of votes, which indicates people like them.

  • Lenneth on 20/11/2011 - 20:21

    I'm the opposite. I always miss out on their deals and some of them look pretty decent.

  • StewBalls on 21/11/2011 - 00:11
    +2

    Well Wedge, I kind of feel the same way about the plethora of iOS & Android app posts, but I keep that sentiment to myself as they seem popular with other people. Like Andy says above, if it's not of interest to me I simply don't click on it!

    Take home message: different strokes for different folks! ;)

    • A Banana4scale on 21/11/2011 - 00:20
      +1

      different strokes for different folks!

      I like that message, I can see it apply to different phases of life

  • retiredfeline on 21/11/2011 - 00:13
    +2

    Meh, I like the Meritline deals. There are lots of deals of no interest to me but I just skip them. You just need to learn to skim. :P

  • blitz on 21/11/2011 - 00:56
    +6

    I feel the multitude of CD Key posts is more annoying and far more damaging to OzB.

  • Cheeper on 21/11/2011 - 01:33
    +1

    I luv meritline. Have received some very useful stuff at a bargain price.

    There are a lot of things on OZB that are no use to me also but I don't complain about it.

    Everyone to their own.

  • [Deactivated] on 21/11/2011 - 06:29
    +1

    Just a point with meritline, if you are so excited about their deals, which are sometimes quite good, you can subscribe to their newsletter and find out faster than those being posted here.

  • cmdwedge on 21/11/2011 - 11:05
    +2

    As expected, some people find merit (!) in keeping Meritline deals. I wonder if the site admins could come up with a way for a user to filter out certain posts, perhaps by username, by website name, or even category (no iOS posts, no CD key posts, etc). That would trim the site down to just being useful stuff.

    I'd filter out the bulk Chinese discount sites, others would filter out CD key or App posts, and all would be right in the world.

    :)

    • scotty on 21/11/2011 - 11:29
      +1

      I wonder if the site admins could come up with a way for a user to filter out certain posts…

      Yup. Sorry I think it has been a long promised feature to filter out deals by merchants. Maybe I'll get that done this week.

  • llama on 21/11/2011 - 22:09

    I like the Meritline deals, I buy a bit of the junk from there, but they are too expensive for most of their normal-priced stuff

    BING! - oh, a new Meritline email just arrived… just gunno go and order up before all you cheapskates find out about what's on special today ROFL

    EDIT… OH POO - it was an order confirmation email

    Anyway, here is the URL for the new deals…

    http://www.meritline.com/dailydeals.aspx

  • scotty on 22/11/2011 - 23:42
    +7

    Okay. Here's a solution for those who do not want Meritline.com on their front page/new deals listings:

    • Go to any meritline.com deal. For example this one.
    • Click on "Hide from Listing" (amongst the other links under the deal)
    • Click on "Hide deals from store Meritline"

    That's it! No more Meritline deals on the front page deals/new deals page!

    The same process can be used to hide deals from other stores as well as users. For example if you really don't want to see iOS apps/games, go to an iOS game deal page and then hide that store's deals. You can also manage your "Block" list by

    • Go to new deals page
    • Click on "Preference"
    • Go to "Blocked List" tab
    • Remove the stores or users that you no longer wish to hide from deal listing pages.

    There is currently a limit of up to 100 stores/users blocked per user.

    • c64 on 23/11/2011 - 01:16

      nice! thanks!

      may i add another suggestion: in the preferences, a list of checkboxes for each of the predefined categories (eg, gaming) so people can filter out the categories they are not interested in.

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