Hot Deals. Should it be it's own section instead of one thread?

WRX/Z28 · Jul 13, 2011

A couple other forums I belong to have a hot deals section of the forum. This way you can post deals as individual threads and people can discuss them without burying the deals previously posted.

Good idea? What do you guys think?

WRX/Z28 · Jul 13, 2011

If you choose "not a new section", please leave a suggestion.

Jeeper · Jul 13, 2011

I am against putting it in it's own section. I like the fact that it's in Gen Tool as that is what I bookmark. My only suggestion is every once in a while, close it out and start a new one.

filtered · Jul 13, 2011

Would be nice if it had it's own section. Then I could look at the deals that interest me without having to wade through the HF ****. Plus then I only have to look at the first post and can skip all the general chit chat that comes afterwards.

Altec · Jul 13, 2011

Sounds decent. Being able to have threads for specific stores, or specific kind of savings could be nice. Like, I love clearances...

Joe B. · Jul 13, 2011

It seems to work fine now. Most of the time it only gets a few posts a day. It only picks up when there is a great deal.

Borrego · Jul 13, 2011

I think the idea is worth further scrutiny. Maybe update it or close it out monthly. No need to reinvent the wheel here.

pj_rage · Jul 13, 2011

I personally follow the thread and like it just as is. It's easy to follow every single deal.

I get why it bothers some people that there is discussion within the thread, but I actually like it a lot, getting further details and experience, but all in the one place. Works for me :shrug:

Weps · Jul 13, 2011

One thread. One place to check. High quality deals. I think that's why it's been so effective. Start adding separate threads and subsections and it will be an annoying mess in short order.

At times though, I've thought a parallel deals discussion thread would be nice. If a person has had a good or bad experience with an item, or questions on application, it may influence someone about to purchase.

Joe B. · Jul 13, 2011

Before that thread, people just posted deals as new threads. The single thread did clean stuff up and made it easier to find the deals if that is all you wanted to see. It also kept the clutter off the rest of this board.

ChrisF250 · Jul 14, 2011

Absolutely, It would be easier to see what items were deals instead of having to go to last page and go backwards

WRX/Z28 · Jul 14, 2011

I guess imagine it working like this: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/hot-deals/

Obviously the subject matter would be different.

uneasysunday · Jul 14, 2011

I follow this thread and like it as a thread, hate the chit chat that clogs it up. Also hate looking for it when its not on the first page. I vote for just a plain sticky on the thread so we dont have to make an effort to check it... :thumbup:

Danglerb · Jul 14, 2011

Why not try both and see what works?

Make a Hot Deals section, maybe with a sticky linked to it at least for the start, but also leave the old thread as is and see what people do.

I like the idea of each deal as its own thread, so when something like the files goes wild, and I already have my files I can skip it. Deals I have an interest in can be freely fattened up with more detail without concern for clogging up the main deals thread. When a deal goes dead, the original poster can change the thread title showing it, instead of people having to dig through the whole thread looking for more details on something specific. Forum searches by title keyword will actually be useful.

People with no interest in the topic can skip it, and new deals have less of a chance in being buried.

srode · Jul 14, 2011

New section or sticky it to the top of this section - It's one of the topics I subscribe to so I don't lose track of what the deals are - The deals probably don't last much more than a week so I like to check it daily.

Interex · Aug 17, 2011

BUMP!

Looking at the poll, I believe the users have spoken.

Admins - Can we give this a try?

Ford12508 · Aug 17, 2011

Interex said:
BUMP!

Looking at the poll, I believe the users have spoken.

Admins - Can we give this a try?

I voted yes simply because the Hot Deal thread is filled with **** that no one cares about. Its mostly people either commenting on products or discussing other things.

Vinny · Aug 17, 2011

I'd like it to be it's own forum, so I can open it once every morning, scroll through the topics to see if anything catches my eye, and come back the next day. Just make sure the topic names are short and to the point. Ie. "Craftsman metric ratchet set on sale" or something.

pj_rage · Aug 17, 2011

I think we had voted on this a little while back.

Personally, I don't think there are enough total deals to warrant its own forum. It would be more work overall to monitor it (for me anyway).

Wrenches of Death · Aug 17, 2011

How about leaving it where it is but restarting the thread each month along the lines of something like "September Hot Deals" and archiving the past month to a separate section?

The current thread size is very unwieldy.

thanks!

WoD

scott4 · Aug 17, 2011

I want one thread, one stop shopping to click the links.
I can't keep up with a bunch of separate threads.

I have the hot deals open thread, hit refresh, and I'm done.

Interex · Aug 17, 2011

Ford12508 said:
I voted yes simply because the Hot Deal thread is filled with **** that no one cares about. Its mostly people either commenting on products or discussing other things.

Agreed, that's why this thread was created originally. Seems like we go through a rash of irrelevant or product specific posts from time to time.

The deals forums (like slickdeals.net) have this setup and it works very well. As soon as a deal is dead, the thread titles are normally updated to reflect it. Additionally, users also take advantage of rating the threads based on how good the deal is.

The way we currently have it setup makes it difficult to figure out if a deal is still on or to provide feedback on the product. Threads for each deal would alleviate all of these issues.

fr0mastaj · Aug 17, 2011

I was going to post the same as Interex...

This formula works very well for slickdeals.net, dont see why it wouldnt here. I always get excited to see new deals posted in the HOT DEAL thread...but the majority of the time it is a discussion rather than deal lately.

Vinny · Aug 17, 2011

And another thing is that I'm not looking for everything. I'm not a collector, just occasionally need a tool I don't have. It'd be easy for for me to scroll through some topic heads looking for what I need instead of a big thread that's just full of what I don't need plus added discussion.

Ford12508 · Aug 17, 2011

Right now all the recent posts are of jacks and stands because someone asked. It is just bulging with ****. I don't care if so and so needs a jack and stands, he can make a thread or do a little searching. The thread is supposed to have deals, not who has the cheapest chinese **** because he is away from home.

WRX/Z28 · Aug 17, 2011

It would just be way easier to sort through if it had it's own section, and individual threads for deals. Then you guys with the minority vote against it could just refresh that section and see anything added deal wise, and skip the chatter about the previously posted deals.

Come on Mod's/Admin! This would definately be beneficial, and it seems most of the forum agree's.

slipjointed · Aug 17, 2011

This would be WAY beneficial.

Right now you have to wade through pages and pages of ****, sometimes having to do detective work just to find a link that was left out of a quote of a post that happened five pages back, behind three pages of non-deal discussion. :lol_hitti

With a single sub-forum, when you click on the deal, you're taken directly to the deal link, and everyone can go off topic and discuss the deal to their heart's content without effecting the usability of the section, and the accessibility and visibility of the other deals.

Most forums I've seen make the deals section a sub-forum of the marketplace/classifieds, and it almost always is a very popular sub-forum.

Stuey · Aug 18, 2011

Anyone who wants to create their own deal thread is already free to do so.

WRX/Z28 · Aug 18, 2011

Stuey said:
Anyone who wants to create their own deal thread is already free to do so.

I can see that going over well. Clog the tool forum with deals threads? No thanks, I'd rather not get shot... :bigun2:

slipjointed · Aug 18, 2011

Stuey said:
Anyone who wants to create their own deal thread is already free to do so.

I don't think anyone contested that.

The reason that there's currently a dedicated thread, is so that the general forum doesn't get clogged up with tool deals, and so that deals don't get buried without being seen.

Having a dedicated thread has its advantages, but it also has some very clear disadvantages.

I can't think of a single disadvantage caused by having a dedicated hot deals subforum in the Garage Sale subcategory. In fact, just about every forum on the internet that has a classifieds section does it this way, because it works, and really well at that. :thumbup:

Stuey · Aug 18, 2011

slipjointed said:
I don't think anyone contested that.

The reason that there's currently a dedicated thread, is so that the general forum doesn't get clogged up with tool deals, and so that deals don't get buried without being seen.

Having a dedicated thread has its advantages, but it also has some very clear disadvantages.

I can't think of a single disadvantage caused by having a dedicated hot deals subforum in the Garage Sale subcategory. In fact, just about every forum on the internet that has a classifieds section does it this way, because it works, and really well at that.

The reason there's a dedicated deal thread is because I started it. Saving the forum from being clogged with tool deals was not a concern at the time.

My reasons to start the deal thread were to 1) consolidate my own deal posts back when I posted a lot of deal finds, and 2) make it easier for members to quickly parse current deals.

Opening the last page or two of the deal thread allows for quick scanning.

Yes, a deals section can be beneficial, but on many forums the separate section is often largely ignored.

The admins did not see it necessary to sticky the deal thread. I doubt they'll give deals their own section.

WRX/Z28 · Oct 12, 2011

Bump. Anyone else wanna chime in?

jim2664258 · Oct 12, 2011

It's pretty obvious most want it, and it's also pretty obvious they're not going to do it. It would be nice to at least be told why they can't/won't do it.

Interex · Oct 12, 2011

I've PMed the site administrator, Ryan, to chime in on this thread.

Ryan · Oct 12, 2011

I'm fine with it... I just worry about people abusing it with spam, affiliate links, etc... The affiliate thing really annoys me as those folks tend to post with a bias - ya know?

Interex · Oct 12, 2011

Ryan said:
I'm fine with it... I just worry about people abusing it with spam, affiliate links, etc... The affiliate thing really annoys me as those folks tend to post with a bias - ya know?

I hear ya on that. I believe that a combination of clear rules and a self-policed forum (using thread ratings and the 'report post' feature) would help to minimize those types of threads.

toolmaker1 · Oct 12, 2011

Ryan said:
I'm fine with it... I just worry about people abusing it with spam, affiliate links, etc... The affiliate thing really annoys me as those folks tend to post with a bias - ya know?

How would it be any different with its own section as opposed to just one thread? Spam is spam I don't see how there would be more if it was in it's own section??

jim2664258 · Oct 12, 2011

toolmaker1 said:
How would it be any different with its own section as opposed to just one thread? Spam is spam I don't see how there would be more if it was in it's own section??

Agree with this.

And I am gonna go out on a limb to say that this proposed new subforum would be among the most self-policed in all the world lol.

54FordPanel · Oct 12, 2011

I like it how it is. I just go to "new posts" everyday or "last read post" and pick up the thread where I left off.

I think the "chit-chat" is helpful as far as how people are ordering stuff, or like on the Lowes deals, how to by-pass/outwit the bizarre ordering system.

Whoops! I'm chitchatting!

Stuey · Oct 12, 2011

Maybe a standard format would help for easier scanning.

Tool | Model # | Retailer | Price (or sale price/reg. price)

e.g.

Gearwrench ratcheting screwdriver set | 44013 | Sears | $20

But then frequency might go down. Some people like to post links to sale items and nothing else, others like to write essays.

I have my options set to 40 posts per page, so it doesn't bother me to see discussion.

A few times people talking about a deal has swayed me for or against a purchase, and checking one thread is easier than checking multiples.

Even with separate thread share and share discussion threads, there will likely be considerable cross-over, which might further complicate things.

A lot of the people who complain about chit-chat are the ones that don't contribute, they only take advantage of others' deal sharing.

Hot Deals. Should it be it's own section instead of one thread?

Should there be a seperate hot deals section near the classifieds?

Yes!

No!

Something should be done, but maybe not a new section.

Yes, but not near the classifieds.

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