Another Idea was to use the fields to auto-populate the title and post, but still leave the title and post field available for edit. So you could still customize your topic however you like, but the fields would be there to give you a basic format/layout.

Dejapooh said:as long as it is optional it might be okay. i dislike a terribly long interrogation though just to post!

Yeah nobody wants a form six miles long just to make a post. Optional and simple would both be critical. Ideally something that'd be convenient/efficient enough that you'd *want* to use it.

So I'm hearing a lot of great features to include, but some concerns that it not get too long or complicated. Nobody wants a form three pages long.

We plan to implement this feature by the end of the quarter and want your feedback before it gets sent off to design.

It sounds like the basic (optional) fields would be:
-manufacturer
-item
-price
-store
-coupon code
-link

Check boxes for:
-price match
-ymmv
-rebate (FAR/MIR)
-B&M

These fields would auto-generate an editable title.

There would be some kind of spell-checker / auto-suggest for stores and manufacturers.

Auto-repost checker...Digg-style? Before you post a new topic, it compares the deal info you entered against existing topics. Lists the top matches for you. If no repost, proceed with posting.

disposable said:...why don't you have an animated demo for how to post?

having a demo would really fix a lot of huge problems here with all the terrible posts.

you could give helpful ideas to those posting, such as rule #1, what is the location? ...

making a link is easy enough for an 8 year old, ONCE THEY KNOW HOW TO DO IT. using the other features should be covered as well.

you have the capability of doing it, and them making sure everyone knows about it, especially new members.

if it were up to me, i would have the tutorial and a TEST AFTERWARD to make sure people know what they are doing. i would even make everyone who has been here take the test before they post anything else.

the bottom line is that we need to vastly improve the quality of the posts, and people will be able to spend less time hassling about finding the details for the bad posts and find other deals.

you might even want to create a tutorial to show people how to FIND DEALS TO POST. it seems that many people have a lot of time on their hands and it would be better to have them posting QUALITY posts...After further review... I STILL like how you're thinking. We're re-writing our Hot Deals FAQ right now, and we can include a Posting Tutorial as you suggested... and maybe get it somewhere more accessible also. While we definitely hear what you're saying about requiring passing a test before posting, we'd rather coach and inform rather than add barriers to posting. I know what you're saying; just hoping for a less restrictive tactic. Once you (y'all) have reviewed the current FAQ, let us know what specifically we can add to promote higher quality posts. There's certainly a lot of room for improvement!

disposable said:if it's so important to people to get credit for their posts, then there should be some sort of reward for those who put up lots of good quality posts. i remember years ago a person known as "jokersmoker" who was absolutely amazing.

maybe we can also have a feature that shows a persons previous posts. they could allow it or not allow it, but then they could "show off" if they wanted to.These are high on our priority list right now. Any specific suggestions are more than welcome.

While not the topic of this thread, incentivizing hot deals posts is a Hot Topic (gotta love that autolinking @@). We're working on a formula to identify our most valuable posters and will begin to reward them in creative ways soon.

Regarding the hot deals posting wizard, we had a decent breakthrough last week in terms of the "posting" page itself. One challenge is to offer a helpful template without forcing it or causing upset to folks who post just fine with the current open option. After all, change is stressful. Design is under the gun on another project but we're still hoping for a mock to get community feedback soon. First shot will be pretty basic, to encourage complete posts and titles, and in a sensible order that'll become familiar. With some fields offering auto-completion, we're hoping for better search-ability also. We'll have to wait and see if repost checking and the like make it into early versions.

jayK said:footn200 said:While not the topic of this thread, incentivizing hot deals posts is a Hot Topic (gotta love that autolinking @@). We're working on a formula to identify our most valuable posters and will begin to reward them in creative ways soon.When putting together an incentivization strategy, don't forget that a lot of the value FW provides lies outside of the HD forum.Point well-taken. I'll PM you for some ideas.