Comments / Feedback / Suggestions Thread 2024/2025

scotty on 04/01/2024 - 12:17
Last edited 08/01/2025 - 16:27 by 1 other user

New year — new feedback post. Please use this post to submit feedback and request features. Again, no guarantee that requests will be responded to or implemented, and often feature requests can take months to be pushed out, when there are other issues blocking them.

Similar posts in the past: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018.

The majority of things you see, as well as policies on OzBargain, were implemented based on user feedback. Please see the Site & Guideline Updates Announcement Thread to keep up to date with the changes/features that we implement as they are added.

Site Discussion

Comments

  • AdrianR on 25/06/2024 - 03:38

    Can an option for exact match/whole word search be added?
    Searching for a term with an 's' on the end finds results for words without it, e.g. "tests" finds matches with "test*". The problem I'm having is with searching for "UPS" which then gets every result with the word "up" in it, which is basically every post.

  • relentless on 29/06/2024 - 13:57

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/852625

    This deal for a graphics card comes up under a search for credit card.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/credit%20card?page=…

    • nocure on 29/06/2024 - 14:12
      +1

      Yes, because it's in the title… "Credit Card"
      has its own Tag for search purposes

    • Moderatorscotty on 29/06/2024 - 14:15

      That deal has "credit card" in the title. If you want deals that are specifically about credit cards, you can use the credit card tag.

  • miicah on 09/07/2024 - 10:42

    Is there a reason that once a vote has been cast on a comment, it's "stuck"?

    For example

    • Upvote a comment after reading the first line
    • Read the rest of the comment and realise it's bad
    • Now I can only downvote, or leave my upvote

    I should be able to click on the up/downvote arrow again and remove my vote completely.

    • CodeXD on 09/07/2024 - 10:45

      Now I can only downvote, or leave my upvote

      This is actually to retract your vote, not to downvote. You'll see the same if you downvote a comment, and then click 'votes'

      • miicah on 09/07/2024 - 11:52

        Oh wow I see it now. Is there a reason it's hidden in that "votes" button instead of just being able to click the plus button again?

        • Moderatorscotty on 09/07/2024 - 12:49

          There's a distinction between revoking a vote and cancelling your vote. If we let users click on the vote again to "cancel" it, people are expecting to be able to click again to vote — or press the votes multiple times to quickly alternate between +ve and -ve votes. However the voting system is designed to allow someone to revoke their vote but not be able to vote again for that deal/comment. So the revoke button was hidden somewhere else that's relatively harder to access. Voting triggers certain mechanics in the backend and we do not want the behaviour that people can keep on changing votes.

          In your case, maybe you should only vote after reading the entire comment, rather than after reading the first line.

  • trixieb on 09/07/2024 - 14:12

    @scotty Is it possible to subscribe to a particular topic/company in the forums? I can't find this function. I don't usually read the forums but use the search function if I want to look up. Thanks.

    • Moderatorscotty on 09/07/2024 - 14:14

      You can only subscribe to a particular forum, but not topic or company. When people post forum topics they don't usually link them with companies, and those links are usually only established hours later when moderators or power users review those posts.

      • trixieb on 09/07/2024 - 14:18

        Thanks

    • Gervais fanboy on 20/07/2024 - 02:01

      You should create a poll and post it.

      Bet you that most users would prefer what we have got, what’s the point in sheepishly following everyone else..

    • Moderatorneil on 20/07/2024 - 21:59

      make them look more like something from the Internet of 2024 as opposed to 2004

      Do you have an example of a forum site that you think looks better and specifically what things make it better?

      • pegaxs on 20/07/2024 - 23:06
        +2

        My guess… “Whingepool” or that gawd awful Bulletin Board that every “*random car make/model*forum.com” has… (vBulletin or some such variant).

        • The Camera Man on 21/07/2024 - 00:25
          -3

          whirlpool is a surprisingly good forum format.

          • Moderatorneil on 21/07/2024 - 09:55

            @The Camera Man: So Whirlpool is your example of something from the Internet of 2024?

            • kerfuffle on 21/07/2024 - 10:42
              +8

              @neil: I wish I could upvote this comment

          • payton on 28/10/2024 - 16:12

            @The Camera Man: are you for real? It is utterly shit, too much whitespace on either side (poor use of screen real estate for conveying the most important thing - text, what people actually wrote) and other UI elements there adding to the issue.

      • CodeXD on 21/07/2024 - 10:01
        +1

        My vote is to remain how it is, the current format works for what it is. Whirlpool format does not bring any additional value or benefits.

  • LeifAlbor on 22/07/2024 - 12:31
    -2

    Just putting the idea out there - and no idea if this has been submitted in past years - but would it be worth considering locking expired/out-of-stock deals from further up/down votes?
    It stikes me this could be a simple way of making sure that expired deals don't continue to get higher exposure than current deals.

    • HamBoi69 on 22/07/2024 - 12:33
      +2

      It stikes me this could be a simple way of making sure that expired deals don't continue to get higher exposure than current deals.

      Why? People vote on OOS deals that may be a good they might've missed out on, or vote after the deal gets honoured, shipped etc.

      Also, what's wrong with high exposure?

      • LeifAlbor on 22/07/2024 - 12:46

        Why? People vote on OOS deals that may be a good they might've missed out on

        The whole point of OzBargain is to share deals with each other so that we can all benefit from a cheaper price, is it not?
        If it's expired/out of stock, then effectively - it's no longer a deal (other than in a historic context) - and its ranking compared to active deals is of no further benefit.

        or vote after the deal gets honoured, shipped etc.

        If the deal is honoured, then it's no longer expired/out of stock. Shouldn't it be be reported as In Stock/Available Again, so a moderator can flag it as active…? In this scenario, the deal would then be eligable to be voted on again.

        • CodeXD on 22/07/2024 - 12:59

          If the deal is honoured, then it's no longer expired/out of stock.

          It is in the context of people who buy first and then figure things out later. This can include what the item is or if the seller is dodgy. If something is marked as expired and then a day later everyone gets an email saying they will not be receiving the item from the store nor a refund, then that 100% warrants a neg vote.

          • HamBoi69 on 22/07/2024 - 13:40

            @CodeXD: Or if a freebie/price error gets honoured

    • Moderatorscotty on 22/07/2024 - 12:59

      People can continue to vote on the expired deals. However they aren't usually shown/featured on the home page so they don't really get "higher exposure".

      If you see expired deals on the home page, then you might have "Do not show expired deals" unchecked in the deals settings page, which is not the default.

  • nocure on 28/07/2024 - 12:25

    Is it possible to save competition filters for future searches?

    • Moderatorscotty on 28/07/2024 - 12:26

      Try your browser's built-in bookmark…

  • nocure on 25/09/2024 - 17:58

    "Hide deals from store…." Not working

  • sween64 on 27/09/2024 - 10:57

    Received a “Store Fan” badge which I believe is orange. The notification has it appearing next to a black badge.

    • Moderatorhamza23 on 04/10/2024 - 15:46

      The badge image is actually a font and that text is unstyled, so it will always be black. Maybe something we can code in the future but for now they will always be black.

      • sween64 on 04/10/2024 - 16:35

        No worries, thanks for the reply.

  • whyisave on 02/10/2024 - 09:31

    OzB Admin,

    The URL here (with a .INT TLD)
    did not get parsed to 'become' a clickable link.

    • Moderatorscotty on 02/10/2024 - 09:35

      The issue is really with the round brackets in the URL path. If the URL parsing is not working, wrap the URL in angle brackets / greater/less than signs, and that will always convert to a link. For example

      <https://www.ozbargain.com.au/>

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/

      • whyisave on 02/10/2024 - 09:36

        That's great information :-)

  • CodeXD on 02/10/2024 - 09:46
    +2

    The template to merge low stock into forum is very mod centric and not user friendly.

    The heading 'Merge from xxx" goes to the deal link which is not accessible to users, only mods. I understand why this is needed for them but as a user, I always click on that first, which will take me to "Deal Unpublished by Moderator".

    Can I recommend linking the title to the 'go to deal' page and then under it you can have a merge from link.

    Example

    Dell 32" G3223Q 4K UHD Gaming Monitor $499 Delivered @ Dell Outlet(dell.com)

    Merge from deal

    • zzyss on 02/10/2024 - 13:34
      +1

      I must admit I do the same, and agree with this suggestion.

    • Moderatorhamza23 on 03/10/2024 - 10:55

      Thanks. After discussion, we will switch them around as suggested in the near future.

      • Moderatorhamza23 on 20/12/2024 - 06:46

        This was done last week.

  • Gervais fanboy on 03/10/2024 - 00:26

    Hi, I am looking to find the post that deals with referral suggestions etc
    Can someone help?

    • HamBoi69 on 03/10/2024 - 06:31
      +1

      Here you go, before you get some sarcastic comment telling you to find it yourself because it really isn’t hard and almost as if it’s pinned to the “Site Discussion” forum topic page: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/139622

      • Gervais fanboy on 03/10/2024 - 10:54
        +1

        before you get some sarcastic comment telling you to find it yourself because it really isn’t hard

        lol, thanks heaps mate.

  • Commonwealth Pig on 05/10/2024 - 15:51

    The option to sort comments by votes or by date. Particularly on reposts from years ago where the top comment may no longer be relevant, can't be voted on etc.

  • downforce on 17/10/2024 - 11:42

    Question more than anything.

    I use RSS a lot to filter & notify me of deals on certain product types. Coming up to Xmas, my list of items is expanding and recently I've been getting rate limited, to the point it can be >12hrs out of date.

    Had a quick search and couldn't find anything, but wondering what the limits are around RSS so I can make sure I fall within the specs?

    Thanks.

  • payton on 28/10/2024 - 16:08

    Is it possible for users to have their search options set as a default in their control panel, eg sort by Post Date, in deal/forums only and so on

  • thydzik on 30/10/2024 - 13:54
    +1

    "The body of your deal exceeds the maximum of 50000 characters." can we add how many characters the body length is to the message.

  • silverx on 08/11/2024 - 07:44

    Hi not sure if its been asked before, but are we able to manually switch to mobile view layout ? It would help someone who use phone like z fold and access the site using the big screen. At the moment it kind of mess up the layout

    • Moderatorhamza23 on 08/11/2024 - 07:48

      There's a 'Mobile Site' link at the bottom/footer of the site.

      Direct link

      • silverx on 09/11/2024 - 00:27

        Ah perfect 👌

  • sween64 on 14/11/2024 - 18:17

    Trying to set up a search alert for “100%”, mostly for the 100% cashback deals, yay free stuff. Unfortunately doesn’t seem to work. Returns anything with 100. I’m guessing something to do with html. Any fix?

    • Moderatorscotty on 14/11/2024 - 18:23

      I will take a look when I get a chance tomorrow, but my guess (without looking at the code) is the search backend does not tokenise the percentage symbol properly.

      • sween64 on 14/11/2024 - 18:26

        No worries, thanks for looking in to it. I’ve set up a search for “100 cashback” but of course it still returns some results for “$100”.

        • CodeXD on 14/11/2024 - 18:30

          what about "100%" "cashback"

          • sween64 on 14/11/2024 - 21:11

            @CodeXD: It’s the % that doesn’t register. I don’t think quotes make any difference for searches on OzB.

      • sween64 on 26/11/2024 - 17:23

        Did you get a chance to look at this?

        • Moderatorscotty on 26/11/2024 - 17:56

          I had a look and we did pass in the % symbol correctly to the search backend (Manticore) so the token "100%" is not being indexed properly. No, I don't have time figuring it out at the moment.

          • sween64 on 26/11/2024 - 18:39

            @scotty: Not a problem. Definitely not a high priority. Thanks for investigating.

  • Clear on 16/11/2024 - 15:01

    When posting on the mobile site and pasting the clipboard into the deal description I lose the ability to scroll. I must save as a draft for it refresh and allow me to scroll again.

    It could be an Android device specific issue.

  • BargainsGrabber on 17/11/2024 - 13:48

    Hi Scott and team

    With the increased amounts of CPAP deals being removed recently, and I noticed that the posters bypassed the store ban (ie “This store is currently BANNED from store representative posts.“) by not marking themselves as “Associated” and later on they checked the associated box. This allows the store reps to bypass this restriction on OzBargain.

    This is a smart way and current loophole and was wondering if this feedback has been provided before and whether is there a resolution to prevent this going forward

    • Moderatorscotty on 17/11/2024 - 14:15

      Once someone marked as associated with that store, they can't do the same trick again because they'll be marked as associated automatically the next time after pasting in the URL. Circumvention of bans might also result someone / some stores getting banned permanently — so do report those.

  • FrankAbagnaleJr on 17/11/2024 - 21:42
    +1

    Competition Filter request - ability to exclude stores / promoters, perhaps based on title keywords.

    Example I won't enter the girl.com.au or female.com.au competitions that get uploaded in bulk so it would be a better UX for me to have these excluded as an option rather than marking all as individually seen to clear my not entered lists.

    • Moderatorscotty on 17/11/2024 - 22:19

      Example I won't enter the girl.com.au or female.com.au

      1. Go to a girl.com.au competition, for example this one here.
      2. Click on "Hide" (under Bookmark & Reminder)
      3. Click on checkbox "Hide competitions from store Girl Magazine"
      • FrankAbagnaleJr on 17/11/2024 - 22:32

        doh, so obvious. My bad, thanks Scotty!

  • CodeXD on 26/11/2024 - 17:02
    +2

    When viewing comments spread across several pages, is it possible to include the top comment (and relevant replies) if reply is on a new page.

    For example I'm following the costco 12 days of summer deal and get a notification that there is new comment. This comment.

    It is a reply to another comment, but there is absolutely 0 context without going to previous page to see what they are replying to, and then going back to that comment to piece it all together. If the top level comment can start on page 2, then there is whole chain on a single page. I understand this isn't always possible - especially if a top comment has 100 replies and thus does not fit on a a single page, but for smaller chains it should be possible?

    This doesn't happen a lot, but has happened enough times to be a slight pain.

    • Moderatorscotty on 26/11/2024 - 18:22

      For threaded comments, the tricky bit is calculating the page number for a specific comment. It's easier when each page is fixed at 100 comments However if each page has different number of comments, then the function "give me the page number from a given comment ID" can get complicated (unless page number is precalculated and added to each comment in the database, and lots of recalculation is needed when comments are added to earlier threads).

      And alternative is a conversation view for that particular comment — a single page just displaying that one too level comment + all replies. There won't be pagination in that case.

  • iLOLZ on 29/11/2024 - 00:43
    -1
    Merged from Dark Mode Please

    devs please I need darkmode. My eyes can not handle ozbargain at night!

  • shaneb on 30/11/2024 - 22:53

    I'm finding that I'm receiving notifications (on the site) for deal subscriptions that I've unsubscribed from. Is there somewhere else that this subscription could be? If I click on the unsubscribe link for the item in an old e-mail it returns error 403 Forbidden. The subscription word is 'airtag' if it helps.

  • payton on 06/12/2024 - 23:35
    -1

    In the Classifieds, Is there a way to search (and get an alert) for a particular type of ads .. just for Wanted, or Selling for example

    • Moderatorneil on 09/12/2024 - 18:28

      I don't think you can filter by wanted or selling but you can set an alert for just the classifieds. e.g. IKEA in classifieds

  • WookieMonster on 14/12/2024 - 13:13
    +2

    Hey folks, what are your thoughts about adding a start date / open date field to competition posts to allow someone to post a competition that opens in the future? I would foresee this being similar to how deal posts currently can have a start date added to it for deals that start in the future.

    For example, this competition was posted earlier today, but OP had to mark it as Closed, because the competition does not actually open until 01 January 2025 at 0001 AEDT. I went in to edit the deal, but I could not see a start date / open date field.

    • shaneb on 14/12/2024 - 13:16

      Yeah, would be handy sometimes. :)

    • Moderatorhamza23 on 20/12/2024 - 06:49

      We generally don't allow competitions that haven't started.

      Competitions Posting Guidelines

      Do not post competitions that have not yet started - these will be removed. The only exception to this is 'in person events' that require notice, they can be posted in advance, but no longer than 24 hours from when the event starts.

      The idea is that people generally just want to enter competitions 1 after the other, there is little incentive to set a reminder and then come back and enter it when it opens.

      • shaneb on 20/12/2024 - 07:56

        The way I could see it working is one of two ways. Either have the comp stay as a draft until comp start date and automatically posted then, or allow the user to 'unpublish' a comp back to a draft if they realise the comp isn't open yet. Unfortunately sometimes marketing people jump the gun a little and post comps early. Start date is not one that always stands out to me when wading through long terms and conditions, so if you post it early, there's not much you can do.

  • wisdomtooth on 28/12/2024 - 15:15

    Expired deals have a related deals box; it'd be great to have that in live deals too, including expired related deals, to compare the current offer against past ones. I sometimes do that manually, like here and here. It'd also help users identify duplicate posts.

    • spackbace on 28/12/2024 - 15:41

      Most would just click the product tag

      Side note, next time maybe combine posts? Both for Amazon, both for Instant Pot products, neither one on the front page, posted within 30mins of each other

      • wisdomtooth on 28/12/2024 - 15:57

        Yeah, saves that trouble. A snapshot of the last 5 related deals would give a glimpse into whether it's a good deal or not (or whether it's a duplicate).

        On the side note… Isn't that like saying an iPhone deal and a MacBook deal on Amazon should be combined bc they're both Apple products? They're different products; one has an air fryer, the other one doesn't. If it were different sizes of the same model, like different RAM for the same phone, I'd see your point.

        • wisdomtooth on 29/12/2024 - 09:34

          Not to mention having different expiries…

  • wisdomtooth on 14/01/2025 - 06:48

    Can we follow people? I'd like to create alerts for all deals posted by specific people (e.g. @Clear).

    • Moderatorneil on 14/01/2025 - 06:54

      Clear, then hit subscribe.

    • CodeXD on 14/01/2025 - 08:29

      Lol welcome to ozbargain

    • Clear on 28/01/2025 - 22:01
      +1

      😘😘

  • wisdomtooth on 14/01/2025 - 06:53
    -4

    So… 2025. Is it still too early for us to have options for sorting comments?

    • wisdomtooth on 15/01/2025 - 10:23

      So… 4 negs thus far, not one reply. Anyone care to elaborate why that's a bad idea?

      • Moderatorhamza23 on 15/01/2025 - 10:39

        I think it's a good idea and has been on our radar for a while, it is just a big job. So not just oldest to newest which is our default/only option, but also newest to oldest, most voted to least voted etc.

        Note that we do have options to 'Show Most Voted comments' as well as navigating to specific type of users comments (Original Poster, Store Reps, Yours, Moderators etc.) in the … menu at the bottom of the page. Which does provide a partial alternative to sorting.

        • wisdomtooth on 16/01/2025 - 17:36

          Yes, I use the Show Most Voted comments often, but it's pretty cumbersome.

          Thanks for the support. I had no idea it'd be that hard, given how prevalent it is in discussion forums.

          If/when you're up for it, please also consider including a hot option — the most recently replied to threads — and a least/most controversial option (ranked by abs(upvotes-downvotes)/(upvotes+downvotes)). But, if that's just complicating it, please don't let that slow you down.

  • wisdomtooth on 15/01/2025 - 06:52

    Is there, or could there be, an option to exclude read posts and comments from the notifications? I'm often stuck with the comment notification counter showing I have unread comments, but they don't show in the drop down bc they're older than the last 8. I then have to chase them up among all notifications. It'd be so much neater if the drop down actually reflected the counter.

    • CodeXD on 15/01/2025 - 07:58

      I open the 8 notifications in new tab, and then go back to the notification bell to see the older notifications

    • Moderatorhamza23 on 15/01/2025 - 10:14

      Edit > Account > Notifications

      Show unread notifications only
      [ ] Show only unread notifications in the notification drop-down menu.

      Is that what you were after?

  • ronnknee on 15/01/2025 - 10:46

    More branch levels for comments for better readability. Currently at 4 before they turn into @username and stay at the 4th level which can be hard to follow.

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