New Feature: Power Users - Collaborative Deal Editing

We have just rolled out a new feature which upgrades some users to Power Users. Queue 3rd person conversation with myself:

What can Power Users do?

Power users can edit deals.

  • Change the title.
  • Change the description.
  • Adjust the expiration date.
  • Change the category.
  • Add or remove tags.

Why is this useful?

  • Users can add additional deals from the store to the deal.
  • Deals that need updating such as the current Android deal running for 5 days can be updated to include new titles.
  • Deals that are missing the price or other important information can be edited quickly by users.
  • Instead of relying on the OP or a moderator to make changes, the community can make each deal better.

Has something similar been done before?

  • Yes, not at OzBargain but at the popular US deal site, Slickdeals. See the Android deal on their site.

  • They show the original post and a wiki section that's editable by it's members. Our system will differ with the original post being edited instead of a separate wiki section.

Won't it get vandalised?

  • At the moment, power users are being hand selected by moderators. All revisions on the deal are accessible by everyone. If there is an issue with an edit anyone can report that issue to a moderator using the report button.

What guidelines should power users follow?

It's quite simple:

  • Please edit the description or title in order to make the deal clearer for the community.
  • Feel free to add other deals from the store to the deal.
  • Do not vandalise the deal.
  • Please follow the Commenting Guidelines.
  • If the deal should be removed or the link changed, please use the report button.

So are these moderators?

  • No. These are not moderators. While some of the duties of a moderator are editing deals, power users do not have the ability to remove deals, comments or ban users and domains. These should be left to moderators who have the investigative and reporting tools available to them.

  • The moderation team gets over 1000 reports per month. This means that there is not always a moderator to fix deals. It's hoped with community editing powers, this will assist in making the site run smoother.

How are power users selected?

  • As a start, power users are being hand selected by moderators. Criteria for picking power users are subjective at the moment but we looked at a number of factors including those who reported issues with low or no reported issues against them, and are contributing members of the community. At this point we have only selected 15 23 (12/7/19) users but we intend to add more.

Is this feature set in stone?

  • No, and we want feedback. At this point, this feature is in beta. Our hope is that it works the way it is intended but like many things, issues arise. Please give us feedback about anything regarding this new feature.

Further reference

Comments

  • sounds good. I would like to volunteer myself as a power user.

    • I second this, and am interested in volunteering myself. (Though I understand it would be impractical to take any Tom, Dick or Harry that asks, hence defeating the purpose, but there's little harm in asking :-)

    • +2

      I can already see some issues with some people upset with having their posts changed and edited — is there some way to differentiate between a moderator edit and a Pow User edit?

      • Damn you, I was just about to post an 'Unlimited Power' meme, and you edited your comment :-(
        All my Markdown syntax research was in vain (on a separate note: y u no HTML, OzBargain!?)

      • Good point.

        Well, there are 7 moderators on OzBargain. If you look at the revisions, it will show the user next to the revision. So if you click the user, it will say what the role is.

        I can tell you from experience of editing deals, 99% of the deals we edit are edited because of lack of information. Price being #1 and #2 incoherent titles. We rarely edit descriptions (other than logging what we changed) but occasionally we add other items that we see in the thread. I can't recall of anyone complaining about editing their deal.

        You can have a look at this deal. neiltest is a power user. Do you think we need something on the revisions page that designates what their role is or would just clicking their name suffice?

        Feel free to ask to volunteer. We just need to run it by all the moderators before approving.

      • I don't think there's big distinction between a moderator edit and a power user edit, unless the edit is related to moderation, i.e. banning users/domains, unpublishing, etc.

        I found most of time I edited deals to make the title more relevant, add more information to the deal, put some frequently asked questions into the deal content itself, etc. I mean those edits can also be done by the community members who have been with us for a while and are keen to "fix up" some of the deals posted by P-plated bargain hunters out there. We are getting a lot of reports on how deals have expired, how title is missing price and delivery, etc. Power users can easily fix them up while they spend their time on OzBargain, and leave moderators more time to "moderate".

        I think some bound to be upset about people editing out their stuff. Power users suppose to use their editing power to clarify the deals, rather than pushing their own opinion or agenda. So if you are not happy about the edits, you can

        1. Report "bad edits", just like how you can report deals and comments. Go to the Revisions page and click on the Report icon. Moderators can take away Power User privilege if there are too many reports against his/her edits.
        2. Edit the content back yourself :) It's like wiki after all.
        • Thanks for the useful background info and guidance!

  • I would also like to volunteer. I'm more than happy to give back to the community where possible. Just wish I came across a few more deals to give back also!

  • +2

    I have discovered much to my amazement this morning that I'm a Power User. Initially I thought something had broken site-wide and that all users were able to edit posts, so I posted to TWAM and was directed here.

    I've often thought it'd be nice to be able to make minor changes to deals - fix up spelling, clarify titles, add detail, expire deals etc so that's good to be able to make these changes now without going through the report system.

    I do have some questions / suggestions:

    Do we memorialise our changes at all or is the revision system going to be used for that? Mods add things like Mod - added expiry, should we add anything?

    Could we see reports and act on ones within the scope of our abilities? Would help lighten the load for the mods even further.

    Who are the other power users, is there or will there be a list we can view?

    I think there might be situations where we may need to use the report button more than once, could this be implemented? Previously when I've needed to do this but couldn't, I report a post from the deal and note in the report I couldn't use the deal report button again.

    • Do we memorialise our changes at all

      I'd do it if people have made a comment about it. If you're one of the first viewers than imo leave it.

    • Also don't forget to use the Node Revisions page. For example for this thread, click on "Revisions" next to edit:

      http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/80857/revisions

      It can help you to compare revisions and see who has edited what, and figure out whether someone has done a dodgy edit :) This is available to all users.

      Could we see reports and act on ones within the scope of our abilities?

      This is currently not possible, because Reports do contain some info that are probably mods-only. However it's a good idea and we'll see whether we can re-engineer the reports so power users can see some of them.

      Who are the other power users, is there or will there be a list we can view?

      Again, the power user listing page is currently only available to moderators. This list would probably fluctuate a lot — power users might be added/removed on weekly basis and we probably won't announce all the changes.

      I think there might be situations where we may need to use the report button more than once, could this be implemented?

      If something that needs to be reported multiple times —> try TWAM :)

  • I just tried to update a Kogan deal and got a message telling me that posting Kogan deals was banned due to continuous reposting of the Note II deal.

    Is there any way the system could allow an existing deal to be updated when such a ban is in place?

    • Ah, whoops, thanks for the reminder. I've unbanned Kogan in the meantime.

      • Thanks, would still be good if posts were editable if a temp ban like this one is in place :)

        A couple of points on why this ban was necessary - three dupes in a relatively short time. Although the 1st "dupe" was actually $20 cheaper than the previous deal from the day before, all that was needed there was a quick price update rather than a new post. I believe that that poster would have still posted the dupe even if the price had not changed.

        I've often wondered how people miss the fact some of these deals are already posted. I've done some searches using the standard search box in the upper right, some interesting findings.

        Searching on "kogan note 2", I get 5 results before I see the post I'm actually looking for. 1st is a forum topic about a recall, next 4 are expired kogan deals, 6th result is the one I'm looking for.

        Searching on "kogan note ii", there's 2 expired deals and then the relevant post.

        As most people would typically use this simple and quick search, could results be prioritized a little differently so that the most relevant results are shown first? Not sure where forum posts should land, but surely active and current deals should appear before the expired ones?

        Just trying to work out why might help stop these multi dupe posts. I don't know if people simply aren't searching to begin with or if when they do search, what they are looking for is too far down the list so they don't see it.

        Another idea - when submitting a post, once the URL is pasted and the site "knows" the vendor, could the poster be asked or even forced to do a check on previous posts for that vendor before being able to submit, in this case - http://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/kogan.com

        I know that the site shows previous deals and asks if what you're submitting might be a dupe, but that doesn't seem to be doing it for whatever reason.

        • …when submitting a post, once the URL is pasted and the site "knows" the vendor, could the poster be asked or even forced to do a check on previous posts for that vendor before being able to submit…

          Actually that's what we do. We do some full-text matching after

          • Title has been entered
          • URL has been entered

          To show the list of deals that are possible dupes. I think people just ignore them.

  • Can we have a list of power users?

  • -2

    I would love to volunteer myself.

  • -1

    I pledge to use my new powers for good.

    • No offence but I do not recognise you at all.

      Changed your username lately? Is that even possible?

      • +1

        I used to be pretty active. 2010 in particular. Guess I was given the status due to the amount of reports I have made (I enjoy hunting down the odd sockpuppet). Quite surprised I was the first to hit 25.

  • With the new lightning bolt beside "My Account" to indicate power user status, I no longer see the little email icon when I have a new message.

    Also, the wiki info that the Power User link under My Account links to says that Power Users have the ability to edit forum posts - this does not appear to be the case.

    Power Users are members on OzBargain with extra capabilities to update deals and forum posts.

    • Thanks, I'll look into the icon issue.

      Power Users are members on OzBargain with extra capabilities to update deals and forum posts.

      It's currently only for deal posts, I've updated the wiki page to reflect that. Sorry about the confusion.

    • icon issue should be fixed now.

      • It certainly is.

  • http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/80938#comment-1050135

    Power users might be able to un-expire deal by clicking on the red "EXPIRED" and then select Remove Expiry.

    Indeed we can, thanks Scotty.

  • I put my hand up if you think you need anymore power users… I'm on here a fair bit and like to think i have a pretty good track record

  • Wouldn't mind contributing either

  • Good idea.
    Often wonder how the hell so few mods get around to attending to all of the reports.

  • Is it possible to make it so that we can use the whole format when editing deals

    i.e. Adding coupon codes

    • -1

      The coupon codes would be useful. In deals like this one I added the free shipping code to the text but could not put it in the coupon code (neil later fixed this).

      • Also, changing the URL may also help

        • Changing URL is a bit more complicated (esp if the domain changes) as there are other moderation checks to do - e.g. has user/store exceeded posting limits. The calculations can only be seen by moderators.

          coupon codes is a possibility.

    • After discussion, we'll allow power users to edit coupon codes and freebie checkbox. Will update this thread once the new code has been rolled out.

    • You should be able to edit coupon code and freebie checkbox now.

  • Wow, 1000 reports per month. Ozbargain must get massive traffic each month

    • +4

      when a single post on OzBargain has the potentional to take down websites. You know there's traffic ;)

  • +1

    It's been just over 2 weeks now since this feature was introduced, just wondering if there has been a noticeable drop in the amount of reports?

    • Reports are one of the things we have been trying to tackle lately. On one hand, we want users to utilize the report button as much as possible. On the other hand, too many reports may signify there are issues we need to tackle to reduce the reports.

      So an easy example was duplicate comments. By pressing the submit button twice accidentally, it would submit the comment twice. This was fixed at the end of August. So it's tracking down issues like these and fixing them in conjunction with implementing new features like power users. Other issues such as referral changes may affect the reports again. So it's hard to say what impact power users have on report numbers. I've certainly seen power users edit lots of things so that's a good sign.

      That said:
      The highest ever was August.

      2012    8   1199
      2012    9   919
      2012    10  620
      

      So if the trend continues October is estimated to receive 920 reports which is a good sign.

      EDIT:

      Sold out

      2012    8   60
      2012    9   38
      2012    10  16
      

      Expired

      2012    8   96
      2012    9   77
      2012    10  67
      
  • OK, looking at the editing logs, the power users have been doing a great job. In fact, it's better than great. Guess we didn't realize how pedantic some people are and have been correcting all kinds of things. Anything that improves the clarity or quality of a deal only helps the community get better.

    Quick stats:
    So currently there are 18 power users.
    In the past 24 hours mods have edited deals 12 times, power users 26.

    There are however 4 minor issues that have been flagged. These aren't aimed at anyone in particular.

    Users irked by power users editing their deal

    There have been 2 separate cases involving 2 different power users, editing the deal incorrectly confusing the users following the deal and making the OP angry. Please make sure you are editing the deal correctly especially when it comes to the price. Everyone makes mistakes but be mindful of correcting deals from long time members. It's really the noobs and the reps who need the most help. If there are issues with other users, please let us know.

    Moderation notes or policy notes

    Please leave enforcing the guidelines to the moderators. I noticed a couple of deals stating something along the lines of this deal is against policy. It doesn't make much sense so it's best to just report the issue and we will remove the deal.

    Editing tags

    These are the tagging guidelines. Generally we don't want to have more than 5 tags especially if it is only one product. Now if it's a deal with multiple products then more tags may be relevant. You also may see the tags change as we have a tagging system that we constantly edit to make the tags into products/brands etc.

    E.G. Product page Samsung Galaxy Nexus

    By choosing this tag, it automatically adds Android and Samsung in the tags if they are not there.

    Memorializing changes in description

    Mods have long had a habit of writing Mod: or Mod - to indicate an edit. Now with the edited by at the top of the deal, we have stepped back from doing those unless it is a serious issue we need to highlight. Simple title/description edits won't have anything. Power users shouldn't need to put Power user edit.

    Again, it's looking good from our perspective. Any feedback?

    • Might want to create a wiki page for that? :)

      • Alternatively, it can be added on to here
        Which I think has been done from the edit history

  • @Neil / Scotty

    Is there a reason why we aren't allowed to edit links? I've seen 3 deals today posted to Home Pages with direct links in description but we cannot access this feature to edit this.

    :)

    • +1

      Moocher answered this above for issh a short while ago.

      There have definitely been times where I wish I could change the URL as well, but I just drop a report with why I think it needs changing and the URL I think it should be changed to.

      • Yeah we are still experimenting with the feature and tried to be a bit limiting at the start. That doesn't mean that we won't open up more fields to more people later on — just need to build the confidence that people don't abuse it first :)

  • +2

    Hey Mods and new Power Users. Great to see this new feature working so well and reducing the workload. I'd also love to put my hand up for helping out and giving back a bit. I generally try to "table all the things" and make myself useful. God knows there's been a few dodgey titles and posts floating around just waiting to be cleaned up by responsible people.
    By the looks of it the Power User quota is fairly full but I'd love to help out in the future if needed?
    Oh also, and I've have my OzBargin hazing run-in with 'jv' and generally kept my cool if that stands to my credit? ;)

    • +3

      If nothing else I'll nominate you for Power Linker. :)

      • +1

        I agree. Forgot69 is a great member.

    • +1

      After seeing all that I'll agree and nominate Forgot69 to be power user… Just my 2 cents.

      • Cheers gents! :)
        (At least I presume you're gents?)

  • Are mods paid? I'm sure this site makes a lot of money from all the advertising. Sure hope they'd be rewarded somehow

  • Something I've noticed - changes that I have NOT made being attributed to me. Here's an example -

    http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/84535/revisions

    The only alteration I made to that post was to change a word in the title from "Memory" to "Storage" as I thought "Memory" was misleading. I think the only other I change I may be responsible for was the capitalisation of CatchOfTheDay which would have occurred when I said yes to what the site suggested.

    Now I look at the post again, notice someone has bullet pointed up all the details, and according to the revision it was me when I can absolutely without question guarantee it wasn't.

    I thought I had noticed this a few other times, changes I was pretty sure I had not made showing as being made by me but I wasn't 100% sure, now I am.

    I did consider making similar changes to what have actually been made, but wanted to leave it for a short time to see if the OP would tidy it up. I generally don't like to jump on posts too quickly unless there's a major issue, would prefer the OP make some sort of effort rather than copy/paste and run away which is the usual MO.

    My question - is it a great idea to have changes that Power Users have NOT made attributed to them?

    What do other PU's think about this?

    • If the same user edits the same node within 10 minutes, then no new revision is supposed to be saved, but the latest edit is added on to the previous revision (to prevent data bloat). But in your case, it sounds like it wasn't the same user. I'll check the code and get back to you.

      • As this was a 1st time poster, I don't think they would have known how to bold and bullet point. Not impossible, but more likely not.

        The other thing that points to it not being the OP was the removal of one of the tags, you'd think they they wouldn't add them only to remove them in an edit, doesn't make sense. I didn't touch the tags in my edit, just the title.

        • Moderators are able to do a 'quick edit' of the tags without even going into the edit form, and that does not save a new revision either. However, the content/description should not changed for quick edits.

        • Ok, mystery solved. Admins can also edit nodes without creating a new revision. In this case, it was Scotty.

          If you see any other mysterious edits, it's probably an admin, not the OP.

        • So it just attributes the changes to to whomever made the last edit?

        • That's right.

      • This also seems to impose a 10 minute limit before power users can edit a deal -
        Is the 10 minute limit still a requirement?
        I find myself waiting ~10mins now to correct some deals/deal titles. Example: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/202115/revisions (JSQUARED ended up beating me to this one) :)

        • Yes the 10 minute editing 'lock' is still a separate requirement, it came back in April 2014 after this discussion.

          However the 10 minute 'lock' only applies to regular posters. For L Plater, P Plater and store reps you can edit their deals immediately, see here

  • As of today, tags have been introduced to forum posts, and power users can now edit posts (title, description, forum, tags).

    There probably won't be a big need for power users to edit forum posts (compared to deal posts), but the capability is there. Please avoid moving posts between forums unless it is obviously in the wrong place, and leave it to the moderators if you're not sure. As for tags, we only need to tag a forum post if it is associated with a product, like this one. Putting in the one product tag "Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1" is sufficient to generate the other related tags.

    We're really appreciative of the wonderful effort that power users have put in to help us with deal posts so far, thank you!

  • When I mark an item expired it is changed straight away, but when I mark an item sold out it still needs to go for the mods. perhaps sold out can also be allowed for power users as it is essentially the same net result.

    • Click on the EXPIRED next to the deal title, it will pop up a selection:

      • Mark as Expired
      • Mark as Out of Stock
      • Remove Expiry

      Click on the second one to set it to Out of Stock. Works for Power Users too.

      • Cool, thats new. I didn't want to mark it expired, so didn't try.

        Thanks.

  • Thanks, didn't know power users even existed.

  • I'd just like to point out that I'm not a power user.

  • Hello Mods
    Looks like you have a long list of volunteers. If you are still looking for more power users, it would be my pleasure to be able contribute to the OB community.

    • I've put this up for discussion with the other mods

      • Thank you.

  • I've just become a power user and I'm wondering if this is a permanent position or is it just for a certain amount of time?

    btw thank you mods for making me a power user! :)

    • Can't guarantee that it's permanent - moderators might take away the privilege if we think that your edits are inappropriate.

      Anyway. Use your power appropriately :)

  • Power Users, you get first dibs at RSVPing for the Melbourne Meetup. Check the Power Users forum. We'll be opening it to all members shortly.

  • -2

    Id like to put my hand for a power user if need arises

    • +1

      ^ I think this man deserves to be a power user

      • Was given the privilege, then revoked due to abuse.

  • I would like to nominate myself for a power user at this point in time. Please let me know if there is room for me. As I seem to spend considerable amount of time on this website, (forums and deals inclusive)I thought it would be good idea to contribute even more.

  • Are power users allowed to edit forum posts? I recently had a power user edit the title of my forum post. I thought that forum posts were pretty much free reign as long as rules were not broken.

    • Are power users allowed to edit forum posts?

      Yes, forums & deals. Anywhere the title, tags or post can be made more clear.

      Having a look at your post and the reports of trolling, it seems there were a few who thought the title was provocative.

      Original: [Deal] Become a female and get a job at ANZ bank to get $500 free (was 23% off)
      Revised: ANZ to Pay Extra $500 in Super to Female Staff

      I guess the power user thought the second title was a clearer title. Given the reports, a moderator may have made similar changes if the power user hadn't changed the title.

      • Deals I can understand as they should be as objective as possible.
        Surely forum posts, where the subjective views of the user are being expressed, should be immune from that sort of censorship and moderation. If you insist on changing someone's creative works (I know I'm stretching it there!) you might want to consider marking it clearer than just the revision link. I think it's unreasonable to expect all readers of the forum to compare revisions to figure out what the OP of a post originally tried to say.
        I'm not saying anyone should be allowed to break the rules but if someone doesn't understand or agree with a forum post, isn't that what the comment section is for?

      • I am the power user that edited the title.

        cymon sent me a message asking why I had edited the post.

        My response was "The title was updated to ensure that it was clear, concise and informative.
        Post was also moved from Financial to Work & Education forum."

        I believe my amendment achieved that.
        cymon doesn't agree with my actions.

        I didn't see why the word "deal" or "23% off" needed to be included.
        The title is really just the Op's second paragraph.

        Simply make sure you are a female, apply and secure a job at ANZ and you can get $500 per year contributed to your superannuation, for doing nothing!

        Only the title was amended.
        OP's creative work in the text remained unchanged.

  • Is there a way to notify 15 power users instead of wasting time of moderators with the report button for title description edits? Ideally certain reports should show up as notifications for power users?

    I guess they subscribe to this thread?

    • No, please use report and use it as many times as you need.

    • Power Users are volunteers, mods are paid ;) we will see what needs fixing and do it out of love (and ocd!) of the site. No need for us to see the reports

      • OK I didn't realize all mods were paid. Are they all full time as well?

        • There are 6 staff members including Scotty the owner, we are a mix of full time and part time. FAQ here.

      • +1

        I love you too Spackbace.

  • Interested in becoming a power user

  • +3

    My New Year's resolution is to become a power user.

    I think I have a good chance, will probably receive a PM advising me of my promotion soon.

    • +3

      Power user of what? Puns? Eneloops?

      • +3

        This is why you'll never be a power user, too confrontational and judgemental.

        I hope you've learnt something from this experience.

  • +2

    neiltest is a power user.

    This is just blatant nepotism.

  • +2

    So Broden isn't a power user? :(
    Reported…

  • +2

    These retired mods haven't been checking Ozb. Why did they leave?
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/user/8156 &
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/user/699

    • Usually not having the time to commit vs other members who have more time to dedicate. However, Pauly just disappeared one day and has never logged in again and hasn't been contactable. :(

      • +2

        Pauly just disappeared one day and has never logged in again

        Just guessing here, but he's from WA so it could be the time zone difference.

      • +1

        Hope pauly is fine!, maybe Ozb should aquire more contact details for new mods so losing them is unlikely.

        • Yeah hope so too. Well, all moderators are employees so should be OK now.

  • +5

    A big thank you to Power Users who made 9,625 edits in 2017.

  • +1

    Is there any list of power users?

    • Sorry the current list of power users is not available publicly.

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