Deals on Front Page

ShortyX on 30/05/2012 - 16:39

Hey guys

When deals hit 15 votes, they used to appear on the front page but it seems they don't anymore for me. I vaguely recall a settiing for this but can't find where it is.

Site Discussion

Comments

  • moocher on 30/05/2012 - 16:54

    Hi, the default setting for minimum votes to make front page was changed from 15 to 20 last week. You can still change your own setting back to 15 if you'd like to. Go to the deals page and click on Preference, then move the slider to the number you want.

  • scotty on 01/06/2012 - 23:41

    There have been some changes to the front page listing algorithm this week. I will use this comment to keep people updated.

    Default Minimum Votes Raised from 15 to 20

    The default minimum votes is the main mechanism we use to manipulate the "freshness" of the front page. Personally I would like to keep the front page listing the popular deals from the last 2 days. So too low the minimum vote — too many deals from each day. Too high the minimum votes — listing gets stale as there will be hot deals from 3-4 days ago.

    I think OzBargain has reached a stage where 20 votes is a good default minimum for the front page. Of course if you have an account you can change your own front page minimum. Most people stay on default though, and visitors will also use the default setting.

    Hot Deals Can Reach Front Page without Reaching Minimum Votes

    Another issue I am trying to solve is, I want to bring deals that gain enough momentum, i.e. getting many votes within a short period of time, to rise to the front page even when it has not yet reached the minimum votes (20). Because of the number of deals getting posted everyday, some of really good deals got pushed to page 2 of "New Deals" page within 2-3 hours without gaining sufficient votes. When you are on the 2nd page of "New Deals", you are not likely to be graced by many users so they might never reach front page…

    So we are now using a simple algorithm to determine whether a deal will be on the front page.

    let v = positive votes - negative votes (total number of votes).
    let m = minimum votes (default=20)

    A deal will be on the front page if

    • v >= m, or
    • v >= m/2 + (current time - deal posting time) / rate

    Currently rate is that for every 30 minutes, new deals need one more vote above m/2 to be on the front page. Due to the way rounding works, a deal needs

    • Only 11 votes to be on the front page within the first 30 minutes
    • 12 votes if it has been posted for more than 30 minutes but less than an hour
    • 13 votes if more than an hour but less than 1 1/2 hours
    • 14 votes if …

    m would be different if you have changed your front page minimum votes, but basically that's how it works behind the scene to bring recently posted deals to the front page even when it does not have enough votes.

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