The policy for whether or not a deal appears in hot deals or deal discussion seems to me to be somewhat arbitrary, and I thought it might be useful to start a post to see what others think. I would have liked to have also posted this in hot deals, where I think it would get more attention, but I realize that's not going to happen. So here goes.
According to current fw policy, deals which are by invitation only (email or snail mail) belong in hot deals. But not always!!! Depending upon the scope of the savings or the amount of green an invitation-only offer receives, mods can allow invitation-only deals to remain in hot deals. Considering that many of us come to fw for looking for savings of various degrees, this practice seems pretty arbitrary to me. It annoys me that the policy allows a subjective determination of which deals are worthwhile enough to be placed in hot deals, versus being placed in deal discussion.
Compared to hot deals, very few people visit deal discussion. I would wager very few people who visit hot deals know that some deals are posted here in deal discussion. Certainly the forum title does not indicate that.
Moreover, by posting invitation-only deals in hot deals, it alerts people to CHECK THEIR EMAILS for what otherwise may be assumed to be junk mail. And, some invitation-only deals simply require you to register for emails, after which you also receive an invitation. Without a "heads up" from hot deals, most fw viewers miss out on that chance.
Rather than leaving the choice of which invitation-only posts are "good enough" to be left in hot deals, to the mods, I think fw needs to make a policy change. Personally, I think invitation-only emails should remain in hot deals, where they will be seen by people LOOKING FOR DEALS. Failing that, the policy of moving invitation-only deals should be extended to include ALL DEALS, not just those determined - by the mods - to be of small value. It makes the mods job easier, and helps users know where to search for those deals.
Of course, fw could start a new forum for invitation-only deals, but that just muddles the search process, IMO (in this case, I'm not talking about referrals which benefit an individual, but invitations sent form a company/business like paypal, Staples, etc.).
I am NOT coming down on the mods - they're just following what seems to be a rather ambiguous policy. I am suggesting that perhaps fw needs to change that policy, or modify it to be conclusive. Heck, maybe they could ask users what they think, like they did with the idea of a referral forum.
In any case, deal discussion is a weird place for these posts to end up, IMO. The title of the forum doesn't reflect that any actual deals are posted here - just a discussion of ongoing or past deals.
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maxfleischer said:I would have liked to have also posted this in hot deals, where I think it would get more attention, ...
Compared to hot deals, very few people visit deal discussion. ....If people don't want to take the time to initially scan FW to see what gets posted where, that is their "problem". Maybe we should start posting everything in Hot Deals so people don't have to bother looking elsewhere?
There are alot of "deals" in Finance and (occasionally) in Travel that never make it to Hot Deals. People need to take the initiative to see what's out there.
P.S. I agree that there needs to be consistency as to where a specific type of deal "lives".
-Firstly, Fatwallet isn't a democracy - they make up their rules, and if we want to use the site, we follow the rules. Sometimes the users' opinions are taken into account, sometimes they are not. That is annoying to me as well, since I think I have some good ideas and I can see ways that it would be better organized (for the benefit of ALL concerned), but if they have other ideas, that is obviously their prerogative.
-The current forum allocation system *sometimes* is arbitrary, and I've had some perfectly relevant threads about offers and deals and coupons that were available to all (they weren't even invitation-only) banished to Deal Discussion as well. The moderators also have different approaches amongst themselves and make different decisions on the same types of matters.
-I would say that about half of the invitation-only deals that I have tried on the off chance that I might get them, even when I had not received an invitation the "normal" way, I actually got! That has taught me to always try, because maybe they might work for me.
-If they think that invitation-only deals only strictly are offered to the people who have received an invitation, they are incorrect. There are all kinds of reasons that you might not receive an invitation, even when the company thinks you qualify for it. Spam filters, junk mail bans, misplaced mail, unopened mail or email, clicking the box not to contact you with offers when you signed up with the company, etc.
-Travel Discussion currently is having its "deals" taken away from it and put into Hot Deals, which has riled some of the few users left of the travel forum.
-Sometimes deals really do fall between 2 or more topics. In Travel, we have asked if they could at least post the deal in 2 forums simultaneously. It seemed that they have agreed to do this (at least regarding Travel Deals and Hot Deals postings) but I don't know if that has actually been occurring. If it is occuring and is workable, I would suggest they do that for Finance deals.
-The name of Deal Discussion doesn't really describe how the site uses this forum or how users use this forum. A few months ago, they tried to change the name of this forum to "consumer research" or something, but that caused an outcry (it was a step away from an accurate description, rather than a step towards) and they reversed it. A more appropriate name might help in the interim.
-MORE EXPLICIT DIRECTIONS for the users of Fat Wallet about where to find what kinds of information would alleviate some of the confusion. The thing is, making a site visit easy for users and INTUITIVE for users helps the experience of everyone involved. When users keep saying that it isn't intuitive, that isn't grumpiness, it's an attempt to be helpful.
-Maybe to solve part of the problem, there could be a huge, catch-all Deals list, that has ALL deals, every deal -- the weird kind of twilight zone deals that they don't think are good enough for Hot Deals and so they put in Deal Discussion instead, the Hot Deals, the Travel deals, the Finance deals, the grocery store deals, whatever. Then, they could sort them into the best smaller category as they see fit (in other words, one of the individual forums). This might take some of the "act fast and get a $1.99 Barney sippy cup on Amazon" sort of "Hot Deal" (that always leaves me scratching my head) away from Hot Deals, so that HOT Deals could be even more impactful as a separate forum. (Currently I don't even read Hot Deals because it's exhausting to skim hundreds of headings to find one that might be of interest to open and read.)
Or, if their argument now (after the decision to take Travel deals from Travel) is that "hot deals" IS that catch-all deals list where they want to consolidate all deals, and they are saying that to find travel deals you just have to use the drop down list on the left hand side and select to look at only travel-designated Hot deals, then why not have a category in Hot deals called "by invitation" deals and give them their own drop-down box? And have a category called "lukewarm deals" or whatever for the other deals they currently exile to "deal discussion".
Message edited by: NantucketSunrise on 2009-11-04 15:07:30 CST
Maybe there should be stickies in the hot deals thread to let people know where these other deals are located. I've been on here for a lot of years, and I'm still confused by where some deals are located. I come here to look for deals, not to poke around this often confusing site to see where the mods might have decided to place certain deals. Sometimes, a mod will leave a thread where it is - even a blatant double post by a single user - just because he/she thinks it needs to be seen in both forums for best exposure. I feel the same way about these other deals. If I see a travel deal listed in hot deals, or an invitation-only deal posted in hot deals, ths assumption is, that's where you should search for these deals, especially if you're relatively new to the forum. If fw wants to attract new users, these sorts of inconsistencies aren't helping, IMO.
NoMoneyInMyWallet said:maxfleischer said:I would have liked to have also posted this in hot deals, where I think it would get more attention, ...
Compared to hot deals, very few people visit deal discussion. ....If people don't want to take the time to initially scan FW to see what gets posted where, that is their "problem". Maybe we should start posting everything in Hot Deals so people don't have to bother looking elsewhere?
There are alot of "deals" in Finance and (occasionally) in Travel that never make it to Hot Deals. People need to take the initiative to see what's out there.
P.S. I agree that there needs to be consistency as to where a specific type of deal "lives".
Yes, it's the arbitrary nature of where a deal belongs that is irksome.
As for travel and finance, I look there when I'm looking for a specific type of deal - i.e., related to travel or finance. I EXPECT to find them there, because that's what they're about. This is different. The email invite offers from businesses like paypal, etc., is related to a specific deal - if it's for finance, it should go in finance; if for a travel deal, put it in travel; otherwise, IMO, it belongs in hot deals - or in some category other than deal discussion, which seems like it's intended for discussion fo deals, rather than posting current offers.
I also think - because hd DOES get more visitors than the other forums - that if fw is going to keep posting these deals in deal discussion, it'd be nice to have a sticky that is clearly labeled, indicating that there are other deals to be found in other forums, with a brief rundown of what's where.
Also IMO, it's this kind of confusion that's causing members to "take the initiative" to see what SD and other deal sites have to offer.
I agree that deals that require emails probably are easiest to put in Hot Deals, with one limitation. If a deal requires that you have gotten an email to participate, the title of the deal must start with the word "Email."
jolma said:I agree that deals that require emails probably are easiest to put in Hot Deals, with one limitation. If a deal requires that you have gotten an email to participate, the title of the deal must start with the word "Email."
I like that idea, but perhaps something more specific such as "BIO" (by invitation only) or EIO (email invitees only) since a lot of deals received by via emails are not exclusive/can be shared.
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