Can the deal posts that get tagged as such be moved to a forum post, rather than just being outright deleted?
I'm sure many of us seasoned bargain hunters will go the extra mile and use a forwarder if the deal is good enough.
Not available to Australia
stumo on 25/07/2012 - 22:30
Comments
Yeah but we're in Australia, so if someone thinks it's a good enough deal to post it here, then it could be a go-er. As opposed to any run of the mill US only deals.
I mean if it's an obvious mistake in that the poster hasn't mentioned forwarding then by all means delete it. But in other cases I think it's best if the community can decide, in the forums if not in the normal way.
Take my old nook color deal post as an example, that was quite popular (as far as my deal posts go lol), but nowadays it would just be instantly deleted.
Looks like that one got past the keeper ;)
Most of the deals that are not available to Australia are new posters not reading shipping instructions. Meritline deals are a big culprit. The issue is we don't know what the final price will be with shipping. If someone posts, for example, a quick quote from Priceusa where we know exactly (or close) what the final price will be, then that would be good as a deal. The other issue is some companies block freight forwarding address (e.g. Apple). It gets complicated. That's for deals though.
Happy to trial out moving deals not available to Australia to forums. Let me discuss with other moderators.
I totally agree with this as I have a US postal address so if its good enuff I often buy US deals!
Would a special forum be better that way its not lost in general discussion
Yes and if we could keep the deal headline in with the main deals, but just greyed out with a link to the forum post, I think that would be good. Like how dupe posts get linked to the original.
That will require additional programming to have them both in deals and forums.
In a moderator point of view, having a separate forum for Freight Forwarding deals would be easiest.
In a users point of view, having a separate forum adds another forum that may be quite empty.Perhaps we can trial it out, moving those deals to General Discussion. If we get a lot, then a new forum may apply. We need to figure out an easy way to tag the posts as [Freight Forwarding] or something.
Yes for now we can move them to the forums.
However with forums you don't get voting and other goodies related to being a "deal" (reminder, add to folder, etc).
Maybe we'll need to set a flag that a deal is "not available to Australia" so people can opt-out/opt-in to see those deals? Again, a bit off planning + programming is needed although not too much trouble.
My 2c or maybe more appropriately - 2 Kopeks
If in the forums, is this a big deal - eg Voting up etc, as the voting was a way to sort the main page deals, self moderate etc.
leaving them on the front page with so many deals being posted can clutter the page, and this is Ozbargain. Namely Oz deals.
Whereas the astute bargain hunter will read the forums, they are used to finding ways around systems. They will also bookmatk these pages for visits etc
If the "demand" is high, they will let us know about the limits of the system and you can program around these at that time.
An advantage of the forums is that freight forwarding advice, etc can be stickied, so it stays on top. Also we can notate the forum with other advice. eg use 28degrees card for better rates, banned items like Lasers etc
Yeah I agree. Seasoned bargain hunters don't really need votes etc. They can smell 1 millilitre of bargain from over a mile away. I think a forum post would be fine, may as well trial it like that and see how it goes.
Seasoned bargain hunters don't really need votes etc
Don't want to turn OzBargain into an exclusive club… Votes are there as signal for both the bargain hunters and OzBargain itself when we use that value to calculate various other things.
Not to mention other deals-only features like Reminder, Folder, etc. For OzBargain we can also use the data to do accounting for store rep posting limits, vote average for stores, etc.
I am really speaking from a data collector's point of view. A deal is a deal, and a forum topic is for discussions. "Cluttering the page" is the problem on how we view the data, and I believe solving the problem is designing a better view, NOT putting the same things into different baskets.
Other advice like FX-fee free credit cards, forwarding services, etc can be shown when we know the deal is not available in AU, so not a big issue.
I am just stating out the ultimate goal I am trying to achieve, and that requires "work" (design & implementations). Yes meanwhile it can go to the forums, but I am hoping to do it properly later on.
Yes meanwhile it can go to the forums, but I am hoping to do it properly later on.
Totally agree, the only difference in views here as you say, is what we can do now and what you can do in the future.
And yes a good point you raise is, we are assuming as of now that people want Local bargains, when having the others that can be voted on will tell us accurately what their wishes are
I reckon we should also add auto matically to the post in BIG red unmissible letters "not available to australian address US address only"
Just so it absolutly obvious.
IMO, it seems unnecessary but I'm interested to hear opinions. I mean there are a few US based bargain sites posting loads more bargains than OzBargain that are available to the US only.