Feedback thread opened for "Megathreads"

witnessmenow

Hi Guys,

A feedback thread has been created to get feedback on the so called "Megathreads" here on Bargain Alerts.

If you have an opinion (for or against) please post in the thread so the mods can try implement a solution that works best for the forum and its users.

Thanks

Davy

Poll Added

uch

Too easy to miss bargains in megathreads

JustMac

I think if this thread was un-stickied or the name changed then it would be more likely to get responses. The sticky thread has been on the forum for over 2 months now and those who browse the forum are extremely unlikely to click on it. Most stickies are ignored.

JustMac

After weeks of talks this poll has been really poorly set-up. At the moment less than half of the people who have responded have answered yes/no to the key question 'yes I like them'/'no I don't like them'. I presume that most people think that you should only select 1 option. I can only guess that the idea was that if you selected the option 'No, I don't like them' then you would then select which of the other options you preferred.

Its a joke. The poll is likely to get an unsatisfactory opinion of what people want. Would it not have made more sense to first ask the simple question 'Do you want superthreads on bargain alerts?' and if people don't want them then follow up with the options of what to replace them with. Something like I had originally asked nearly 3 months ago would have worked fine as a start. (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057565487)

To support my other point above that people wont see this thread: In the poll that I had put up in February there were 100 people who voted in just over 3 hours until it was locked by a mod. This poll has been open for 5 days now and has gotten 38 votes. I guess this post will not get a response by mods.

sunny2004

I'm only seeing this today, and I'm on most days ??

JustMac

sunny2004 wrote: »

I'm only seeing this today, and I'm on most days ??

Maybe thats what the powers that be prefer. I have suggested un-stickying the thread and giving it a better title but what would I know.

thesandeman

Why are 'yes I like the way it is' and 'Some other combination' both the same colour?

johnny_adidas

All options other than the first should begin with 'no....' as that will show the divide between those who think they work at present and those who don't more clearly
(the no I don't like them should then be removed as it's a double up)

Doodah7

I am agnostic on the megathreads.

However the forum would be far more useful if it was more tightly moderated. For example, on the home page currently there are two threads dealing with:

a) with the Revolut debit card which has now run over 2300 posts and which has descended into one giant Q&A/moan about glitches and left the domain of bargain alerts at least 2200 posts ago. In addition just over the fold there is another debit card thread (Number 26) with over a 1000 posts which is in the same orbit as the Revolut one.

b) a Vodafone smartphone thread with over 3000 posts which again has long been a technical discussion.

The first thread should be in one of financial issues forums and the second in the mobile phone forum. Clear out the non-relevant threads and stop having the front page of the Bargain Alerts forum clogged with the same static, irrelevant stuff that a user is faced with every time log in.

jive

The forum has become difficult for people who don't frequently visit it.

At the moment I can see 23 threads on page 1 of BA on my monitor. It breaks down as follows:

6 Stickies [1 of which is an Argos chat thread]
1 expired Argos thread
2 Aldi deals
9 what could be classed as megathreads/duplicates [Virgin cancellations, amazon bargains + an amazon prime thread, booze deals + a cheap pint in D15 thread, revolut mastercard thread, MrPrice thread, Tesco Bargains, Dealz bargains]
5 Actual deal threads [I'm including the vodafone smartphone thread here though which is apparently just a technical discussion at this stage and another thread which should be expired (nike codes)].

What you should be looking at is a snapshot of actual deals, fair enough some of which will be expired and some of which will have extended discussion.

HUKD, while not a forum, takes about 1 minute to gloss over and see all the deals for the day. There's no reason this place can't be the same - it was this way until recently. Create a sub-forum for grocery megathreads in which weekly specials can be posted + discussed; everything else should be a standalone deal which is easily identified by looking at a thread title.

Tight moderation would be required but I think the majority pretty much wants the same thing, grocery shopping megathreads + everything else separate.

Atlantic Dawn

I think around Christmas when the place is awash with bargains the case for having all Tesco, all Argos, All Amazon in one thread each works but for the rest of the year it's better having individual threads for items. It's not much hassle to go back 2 or 3 pages each day to the main BA thread if you want to search everything rather than going through each megathread.

JustMac

Synode wrote: »

Just because you want it changed doesn't mean others do. I'm delighted the Mods don't pander to the wants of a few

Looks like 'the wants of a few' are actually the wants of the majority. I hope that the mods don't 'pander to the wants of a few' by leaving megathreads as they are currently.

maximoose

Amazon thread is a complete mess. Sooner these die the better.

Kat1170

Obviously Megathreads are what the majority of the bargin POSTERS want as the people who actually post bargains keep posting in them, as opposed to the much more vocal ME, ME, ME Brigade who think anything more than 30 seconds of their precious time looking through the BA forum is beneath them.

JustMac

Kat1170 wrote: »

Obviously Megathreads are what the majority of the bargin POSTERS want as the people who actually post bargains keep posting in them, as opposed to the much more vocal ME, ME, ME Brigade who think anything more than 30 seconds of their precious time looking through the BA forum is beneath them.

That argument makes perfect sense. Those people who 'actually post bargains', who are familiar with how the forum works and are used to clicking on 'post reply' button on megathreads to post bargains are less able to find this sticky thread, are less able to vote in the poll and are less likely to comment in this thread?

sunny2004

Personally, Its a case of pandering to the moaning vocal few..
Who really cares if in a megathread someone posts a question about an item ?
Are their lives and time that important that this behaviour upsets them ?

I find the guys who complain in the mentioned threads sad to be honest..
And I for one have learned things from the comments as well as the actual bargains..
They would be happy if the supposed irrelevant comments where related to something they wanted..

DO NOT PANDER TO THE FEW...

JustMac

sunny2004 wrote: »

Personally, Its a case of pandering to the moaning vocal few..
Who really cares if in a megathread someone posts a question about an item ?
Are their lives and time that important that this behaviour upsets them ?

I find the guys who complain in the mentioned threads sad to be honest..
And I for one have learned things from the comments as well as the actual bargains..
They would be happy if the supposed irrelevant comments where related to something they wanted..

DO NOT PANDER TO THE FEW...

I generally don't have a problem with chat in any thread as long as it is related to the title of the thread. In a megathread there can be so many bargains that you can end up with cross conversations and it leads to being difficult to follow unless you go back a few pages. If each bargain has a thread of its own then you can easily choose not to click on it if it doesn't interest you.

maximoose

sunny2004 wrote: »

DO NOT PANDER TO THE FEW...

Well, going by the poll here and the original poll in this thread - you are "the few"

Synode

maximoose wrote: »

Well, going by the poll here and the original poll in this thread - you are "the few"

I just posted in 3 mega threads to inform people of the poll as I only seen it yesterday and completely missed the first one. The number voting for Keep has jumped from 24 to 30 in the space of 20 minutes. A lot of users like myself only go into the Bargains Forum occasionally and mainly use the mega threads.

Corholio

The problem with a lot of the chat in threads is its stuff people can find out without asking in the thread itself, a simple google will find for 90% of things. I'm mixed on it really, I don't mind chat per se of course but at times it's pages and pages of a mini-argument, completely unrelated recommendations as to what a person may be looking for (42" tv when someone put up a link to a 28" etc) or other cross conversations that completely veer off the map of the actual subject.

sunny2004

maximoose wrote: »

Well, going by the poll here and the original poll in this thread - you are "the few"

Clearly maths isn't one of your strong points

In addition, if you think this poll is an indication of the number of people using the bargain alerts section, you are sadly mistaken..

beauf

The only way to improve it is too improve the moderation resources which may not be an option.


If you close them down you'll have to

moderate any off topic conversations
close the thread.
split the thread.

I think the mega threads are useful. I don't see how you'll find loosely related information if it isn't in the mega-thread.

sunny2004

So the nay sayers want

Amazon no chat thread..
Amazon Chat thread...
and any offer you deem needs its own thread..

So you see a bargain, its time sensitive. But need to know something about it quickly..

you have a quick question, so you head off to the amazon CHAT thread, try looking for your product in it, cant find it, then post it and hope you get an answer quickly, after all the people who know the answers, don't need the CHAT thread for this product and are not over there looking, they just bought the item and went about their day.. lol


You can chop up the threads at infinitum if you wish it doesn't make any sense ..

alastair_doom

Synode wrote: »

I just posted in 3 mega threads to inform people of the poll as I only seen it yesterday and completely missed the first one. The number voting for Keep has jumped from 24 to 30 in the space of 20 minutes. A lot of users like myself only go into the Bargains Forum occasionally and mainly use the mega threads.

Hmmm... there has been a big jump in the number supporting the mega threads.. now doubled after just 4 hours, and a smaller increase for the options to get rid of them.


But i think the issue is exactly as you say, people aren't seeing this thread. There was very few votes in the last few days. BUT the people who actually use the megathreads are now more aware than the people who don't use the megathreads.

I think the poll is biased now unless something changes

Iseedeadpixels

No Atari Jaguar option.....shame on you!

On topic I voted yes as I like the discussions on products and sellers etc.

Celtic Tiger

alastair_doom wrote: »

Hmmm... there has been a big jump in the number supporting the mega threads.. now doubled after just 4 hours, and a smaller increase for the options to get rid of them.


But i think the issue is exactly as you say, people aren't seeing this thread. There was very few votes in the last few days. BUT the people who actually use the megathreads are now more aware than the people who don't use the megathreads.

I think the poll is biased now unless something changes

Agreed I'm only after seeing this poll after seeing this thread on the boards main page. Polls been up a week and so few replies. People just automatically ignore stickies so how about unstickying this thread for a couple of days and I bet the discussion / votes will shoot up.

beauf

alastair_doom wrote: »

H... the people who actually use the megathreads are now more aware than the people who don't use the megathreads.

I think the poll is biased now unless something changes

Bias to the people use it most seems ok to me.

I'm not very interested in the mega threads. Most of it is products I have no interest in, or tiny amounts of some very mundane item. If something outstanding turns up, someone normally posts it in its own thread. I'm not really bothered if I miss a bargain. Others seem devastated.

maximoose

sunny2004 wrote: »

Clearly maths isn't one of your strong points

No they're grand, thanks. 77% against in the original poll, granted only 100 votes. If the current poll gets to 250 votes with nothing else but 'keep' votes from now on, it'll still be over 50% against the current set up.

Unstickying is a good idea as I'd imagine this poll has gone fairly unseen, but has been asked for several times at this stage.

I don't really know what the answer is, and obviously it's not a huge issue. Megathreads are fine for the likes of tesco/aldi/booze, but everything outside of groceries - one bargain one thread works best IMO.

sunny2004

maximoose wrote: »

No they're grand, thanks. 77% against in the original poll, granted only 100 votes. If the current poll gets to 250 votes with nothing else but 'keep' votes from now on, it'll still be over 50% against the current set up.

Unstickying is a good idea as I'd imagine this poll has gone fairly unseen, but has been asked for several times at this stage.

I don't really know what the answer is, as said above moderation is probably the key. Megathreads are fine for the likes of tesco/aldi/booze, but everything outside of groceries - one bargain one thread works best IMO.

Glad the maths for the previous poll are so good, not sure of the relevance, guess its a bit like trying to work out the next government based on the previous one

Maybe its a case of, as stated many times here, that at this point not that many have actually voted.. this thread going since the 10th of march,, its got 2 pages of comments..

It will be the few deciding what the many get..

Its also flawed, if you look at the options and read the previous posts..

if you like, you and I can set up our own MEGATHREAD and argue it further

maximoose

I'd probably just miss all your points in the inane "How do I use Parcel motel?" chat

iPhone.

Je suis Boardsie - no to censorship

beauf

sunny2004 wrote: »

... this thread going since the 10th of march,, its got 2 pages of comments.....

This alone should have highlighted an issue with the poll.

Close the poll down once its to start to get lots of posts, is equally flawed.

sunny2004

beauf wrote: »

This alone should have highlighted an issue with the poll.

Close the poll down once its to start to get lots of posts, is equally flawed.

you seemed to have taken one line out of my post and out of context, I never said close the poll down, my concerns with the poll relate to the option, that defragment the results, making it difficult to get what people actually want..
It was highlighted by other if you read the thread through..

JustMac

Celtic Tiger wrote: »

Agreed I'm only after seeing this poll after seeing this thread on the boards main page. Polls been up a week and so few replies. People just automatically ignore stickies so how about unstickying this thread for a couple of days and I bet the discussion / votes will shoot up.

1 week ago today I requested that the Poll thread on BA be 'un-stickied' and the thread title changed to indicate a poll as otherwise people wouldn't see it.

I started the original poll which was closed and we were re-directed to the Feedback forum.

When there was not much discussion on the Feedback forum I asked to open a poll in BA forum. I sent private messages to all the BA mods. It took 32 days to get a reply.

The way I read the poll as it stands is that 202 people have voted and 82 like them so still a healthy majority don't like them and/or want change. This might change and if it does so be it. From the start I have asked that a fair process is used, which has not been the case. The options in poll are unclear.

I suggested that the first poll should be a simple 'Do you like super threads Yes/No' and if the majority didn't want superthreads then they a further poll could have had the replacement options.

I cannot understand the mods failure to interact here. I now notice that people are posting in the Feedback thread and the BA poll sticky. What a mess!

sunny2004

JustMac wrote: »

1 week ago today I requested that the Poll thread on BA be 'un-stickied' and the thread title changed to indicate a poll as otherwise people wouldn't see it.

I started the original poll which was closed and we were re-directed to the Feedback forum.

When there was not much discussion on the Feedback forum I asked to open a poll in BA forum. I sent private messages to all the BA mods. It took 32 days to get a reply.

The way I read the poll as it stands is that 202 people have voted and 82 like them so still a healthy majority don't like them and/or want change. This might change and if it does so be it. From the start I have asked that a fair process is used, which has not been the case. The options in poll are unclear.

I suggested that the first poll should be a simple 'Do you like super threads Yes/No' and if the majority didn't want superthreads then they a further poll could have had the replacement options.

I cannot understand the mods failure to interact here. I now notice that people are posting in the Feedback thread and the BA poll sticky. What a mess!

Very novel way at looking at the numbers haha...
I agree with your other 2 points though..

khamilto

JustMac wrote: »

The way I read the poll as it stands is that 202 people have voted and 82 like them so still a healthy majority don't like them and/or want change. This might change and if it does so be it. From the start I have asked that a fair process is used, which has not been the case. The options in poll are unclear.

As stands,

43% are happy as is.
32% want them gone entirely.

If the 'close the amazon thread / some other combination' results are removed, 50% are happy as is.

Considering people unhappy with something are far more likely to do something about (i.e. vote), that seems like enough of an answer.

Doge

I think the best option is to have a no chat thread with bargains only, AND a discussion thread for the likes of the Amazon and aliexpress bargains threads.

For the more serious bargains they can have their own dedicated thread.

It works very well with the Argos bargains, should be used more globally.

Slutmonkey57b

khamilto wrote: »

As stands,

43% are happy as is.
32% want them gone entirely.

If the 'close the amazon thread / some other combination' results are removed, 50% are happy as is.

Considering people unhappy with something are far more likely to do something about (i.e. vote), that seems like enough of an answer.

Down to 27% want them gone now.

Interesting to see how some people are interpreting the varied "megathreads ok but could be improved" options as "get rid of them" though. :-) The question of why people didn't vote for so long is probably a very simple answer: on the touch site this thread shows as a sticky, not a poll. So people probably just didn't realise it had changed!

beauf

sunny2004 wrote: »

you seemed to have taken one line out of my post and out of context, I never said close the poll down, my concerns with the poll relate to the option, that defragment the results, making it difficult to get what people actually want..
It was highlighted by other if you read the thread through..

And I didn't quote any line saying close it down. I was just agreeing the bit quoted that the poll is flawed.

..then added my own comment that, though flawed it would be mistake to close the poll, because IMO its now getting traffic.

JustMac

khamilto wrote: »

As stands,

43% are happy as is.
32% want them gone entirely.

If the 'close the amazon thread / some other combination' results are removed, 50% are happy as is.

Considering people unhappy with something are far more likely to do something about (i.e. vote), that seems like enough of an answer.

I'm not sure why you would decide to randomly remove 2 the 'close the amazon thread/ some other combination results'?

As it stands 125 out of 278 people 'like the way it is'. The other 153 have not selected that they 'like the way it is' so that means they want change. That might change still but at the moment the majority want some change.

Because I reckon there is still many BA users who have not see this poll I have added a thread on the main forum so that this poll might have more visibility. The poll got a lot more votes yesterday when there were posts in the megathreads themselves about the poll. As there many who hadn't seen it at that stage and there are many others who don't visit the megathreads they deserve to see that the poll is taking place.

khamilto

JustMac wrote: »

I'm not sure why you would decide to randomly remove 2 the 'close the amazon thread/ some other combination results'?

As it stands 125 out of 278 people 'like the way it is'. The other 153 have not selected that they 'like the way it is' so that means they want change. That might change still but at the moment the majority want some change.

Because I reckon there is still many BA users who have not see this poll I have added a thread on the main forum so that this poll might have more visibility. The poll got a lot more votes yesterday when there were posts in the megathreads themselves about the poll. As there many who hadn't seen it at that stage and there are many others who don't visit the megathreads they deserve to see that the poll is taking place.

It isn't random. The 'close amazon only' option supports keeping megathreads as is except with the removal of one. The 'some other combination' could mean anything up to and including keeping as is with a minor change. It's a meaningless option with zero granularity.

cruhoortwunk

Might be worth taking the sticky thread off it for a few days. A lot of people dont see it at the very top.
Even for a few days, have it down in the general bargain alerts area, lots more will spot it

maximoose

Poll is closed now anyway

Just out of curiosity - Voters: 341 - but the votes tally to 389, what's the difference? Guest votes?

Synode

Yeah the %'s add up to 114.07 ??

Quackster

There are two fundamentally different types of mega-thread and that wasn't properly reflected in the poll.

There are the item-specific mega-threads, e.g. booze deals, and then there are the retailer-specific ones.

I think the item-specific ones are great. They make perfect sense.

The retailer-specific ones are more of a mixed bag.

Ones like Halfords work because their product-range is pretty focused. Tesco works for me too, probably because I shop there regularly and they regularly have bargains in items that interest me.

But the likes of Argos and, especially, Amazon are just all over the place and the 1% of bargains I might be interested in get lost in the 99% of irrelevance and I just find them too much of an effort to be trawling though.

Just my few cents worth..!

Skid X

maximoose wrote: »

Poll is closed now anyway

Just out of curiosity - Voters: 341 - but the votes tally to 389, what's the difference? Guest votes?

I think you could vote for more than one option.

The poll was not clear at all, and the title of the thread was never changed to say "Poll Added". A complete mess, in keeping with how this debate has been handled by the mods from the very start.

thesandeman

Skid X wrote: »

I think you could vote for more than one option.

The poll was not clear at all, and the title of the thread was never changed to say "Poll Added". A complete mess, in keeping with how this debate has been handled by the mods from the very start.

Never realised you could vote for more than one option.

Synode

thesandeman wrote: »

Never realised you could vote for more than one option.

I don't think you could

JustMac

cruhoortwunk wrote: »

Might be worth taking the sticky thread off it for a few days. A lot of people dont see it at the very top.
Even for a few days, have it down in the general bargain alerts area, lots more will spot it

This was pointed out to the mods on the day that the poll opened 10 days ago but they chose to ignore the issue.

JustMac

Synode wrote: »

I don't think you could

You could vote for more than 1 option. This was pointed out just over a week ago in a post that I made. I had indicated to the mods that most people would expect the poll to only expect 1 vote. Again, the mods, in their wisdom, chose not to clear this up in either the title or any other way.