Why not limit the number of deals per poster to a time window?
Okay, I've asked this before, but now that things have settled down (sort of), I'm asking again. I see things just get drowned in Fresh because one of the post-a-zillion types is making a run. I don't care how many deals they post, that's not my problem. I can ignore that. What I want to see is a situation where it isn't all just one deal poster for a whole page.
While there's only a few doing it, one can wreck everything. If you have a new visitor to Fresh, it'll run them off. If something cool gets posted, it gets lost in the noise. Even for the determined types like myself, @catbertthegreat, @hobbit and so on, it gets tiring to wade through looking for something special.
How about no more than 5 deals in 30 minutes? It would cut down on staff having to police so hard (yes, indeed, I've seen the uptic, and then watched it drop back down in real time). Gee, that's almost a deal every five minutes. Seriously, even Wootvan's not that crazy, and he's pretty crazy on it.
I like this. As you are well aware, I have been hibernating. How many spammers have there been in the last few weeks? Based on your question, it seems a lot.
Maybe an alternative to posting over the 5 deal per 30 minute limit, have their rep affected. once their rep gets down to lets say 40, then they can't post any deals.
@sgoman5674: Reputation will not stop them. In addition, they may not think of themselves as spammers. I'm thinking of doing a name and shame, here in this thread, but not until tomorrow morning (which gives the Woot Overlords time to discourage such an act).
They are not discouraged by low reputations. What really amazes me is that, for the most part, NONE of the deals they post ever gets any where near Popular. It just clutters.
That is an excellent idea, as I'm starting to miss a lot now unless it hits popular.
@sgoman5674: Here's an example:
http://deals.woot.com/deals/users/wrapables
Now, this person has a Reputation of 91/100, and yet they are unable to vote, have not commented on anything (commenting on your own deal because you forgot to say semething doesn't count in my book), and (with very few exceptions), the highest vote for a deal was two. Here's the most notable exception:
Note that most of the "comments" in these are from the same two people (not referring to the deal above, but others).
This is only one example, and mind you, I do not, at all, object to someone posting exclusively deals from their own site (we have a couple of positive examples I might post tomorrow).
How about a back to back lockout? Basically this would prevent people from posting one thing after another by preventing them from adding a deal when their deal is still at the top of the fresh pile. They would have to wait for someone else to post something before they can post another item. It will suck during slow periods when there isn't a lot of things being posted, for people who post a lot like @wootvan and his stuff is pretty good, but this shouldn't affect most people.
@catbertthegreat: It was an excellent idea the last time I had it, too.
@catbertthegreat: Oh, no. This wouldn't suck for @wootvan at all. I don't think I've ever seen him post two consecutive deals. Even you, when you're answering a challenge, don't manage to get them back to back. It's only the bots that are managing that.
Excellent suggestion. Truly.
@shrdlu: Actually, I hit the site back to back with the bit where I went overboard with the leakfrogs. That was the only time I recall though.
@catbertthegreat: Yeah, and YOU got in trouble for it. I don't see the bots getting in trouble, but then, I don't watch very hard either. Maybe they're getting things deleted right and left.
On a completely unrelated note, the leaderboard broke again. I like staring at my name on there so I look at it more now.
Edit: Is it me or the time or a bug because I've noticed the site is lagging a little.
Edit Edit: It's lagging a lot for me, adding comments, changing pages, viewing deals, etc.
@catbertthegreat: Close the browser. What operating system (I'm guessing windows something or other)? If windows, look at the task manager. Make sure the browser's closed. Make sure you don't have a clever helper in the background, like Adobe Acrobat.
If not windows, I'll wait until you say what it is. No real lag, other than the midnight in TX expected one.
@catbertthegreat: You like staring at your name? That's one of us. Ask more questions. Make more comments. Vote for more stuff. Supplant my name. It would make me happy.
I think a five minute window before someone can post a deal is a good idea Unless they can vote or something. Although I don't mind waiting 3-5 minutes to post another deal if we are playing the challenge game. It can sometimes take me five minutes to find another item too. Besides isn't the point of a challenge for others to also find deals of the same item? Might help with the challenge. Maybe I will get thanked for my effort next time at least.
@shrdlu: I, ahem, voted for this deal actually. I thought it was pretty cool
@sgoman5674: personally I wanted to know if the bowls were made in China but I was too scared to ask. I don't like buying stoneware that is made in China, the lead content is often too high.
Be the post constraint non-consecutive, four per hour, things shrdlu can't comment on, or anything else, I think I, and every other non-serial poster, can live with it.
@sgoman5674: I voted for it myself. I was hoping to provide the point for examination, and also because I note that poster never posts comments (and is unlikely to read them). It was a good example. I will state here, for the record, that if I'd thought the deal was shady, I'd have used someone else. I just think that the poster is oblivious to user comments or opinions, and also to what sells well here.
On the other, other hand, since posting the deal is free, any sales at all are good sales. How many votes you get (if you're selling stuff) is not as much the issue as whether or not you sell stuff. You're going to be selling a lot more if it makes it to popular, but (points to spider monkeys and climbing wall) sometimes it makes it to popular for reasons having nothing to do with potential sales.
@wootvan: Things I can't comment on? You are funny.
I wondered (because I wonder about such things) how many deals I was commenting on as opposed to how many were being made, and it isn't a high percentage. Many of the things I've commented on make it to popular, but not everything that's popular is interesting to me.
Yes, I do comment on a high percentage of questions, but with the high percentage of cluelessness, that's almost a given.
I thought the climbing wall was sort of cool. If I lived on a lake or something I would consider asking the parents for one - I would never buy one.
I'm kinda new here, but I think it would be a good idea to limit that sort of thing. Just for the sake of variety.
@shrdlu: It was ATT Uverse + TX Midnight lag combined, it just only affects me generally on the other woot sites, so it was a little new for me.
@hobbit: I like seeing things like the climbing wall...or the pull my finger pen occasionally. Deals are great...but so is a bit of fun.
@hobbit: I thought it was cool too.
@glindagw: you mean like the woot parking pass?
I think it is a tough call to make, because in limiting the time window to block the spammer-type posters, you also miss out on the people who have limited time to be on the site. Some people may see great deals but save them up and post all at one time when they get some time carved out, rather than doing it sporadically. I think it would block some of the problem children but would affect a lot of others as well.
@hugetractsofland: Name one person who posts deals that are generally seen as good (irrespective of votes, since votes are often time dependant) that posts deals at the high rate you are speaking of. I've been watching this for quite a while, and even the staff (@shrdlu waves at @thefenst and @prettywootprincess) do not post at that rate.
In theory this might limit the good guys. In practice it will not.
I'll post math, and make @hobbit cry, and it'll all be your fault.
;-}
@shrdlu: besides wootiewooterson and wootvan ;-)
@hobbit: Neither of those violate my suggestion. Nice try, cookie.
@hobbit: Yes, although as I commented there...Texas is a bit of a trip. Shirt.Woot headquarters is 15 minutes away with a sushi restaurant on the ground floor. My daughter wants to know if she can visit (she loves woot & sushi...dream combo for her).
Is there anything that we can do now (under the current system) if we see an unreasonable number of posts from a single person? For example, I just counted at least 19 posts within an hour from Poolcenter.
@glindagw: you know it didn't specify on the coupon exactly where this coupon is good for. It is good for free parking at woot inc. All the woot sites, though their names vary, all fall under the the control of woot inc. So this coupon should work at any of the buildings that woot operates out of.
@glindagw: Use tattle. Use it on every single one. That is one of the problem posters I'd been planning on bringing up.
maybe tattle needs a spam option on the pull down?
@hobbit: That's a great idea!
@hobbit: That's a really good idea and would be quick to implement, I doubt it would take long to add another selection in the drop down menu on the tattle page.
Also I'd like to cite @drfaulken in this thread:
http://deals.woot.com/questions/details/7823558e-0ebb-40a9-9dd3-e3a32821e805/what-constitutes-a-deal-spammer#12
"I've been reporting a few deals as spam, and here's my criteria:
1) How long has the poster been around?
2) Are the deals all from the same site?
3) How frequently do the "deals" get posted?
In the case of the guy I just reported, he joined two days ago and has a reputation of 0/0. He posted eight or nine deals from the same site, all within an hour or so of each other.
To me, that's a spammer.
I really wish we had a "spam" option in the tattle drop down, or even a spam button. It takes a lot of time to mark current spam offerings as such."
His rules should constitute how we should use a new spam button.
To woot staff on adding another button:
"Do it! Do it NOW!" -Arnold Schwarzenegger
@catbertthegreat: I think that may have been the first question I asked in ask the wooters ( http://deals.woot.com/questions/details/7823558e-0ebb-40a9-9dd3-e3a32821e805/what-constitutes-a-deal-spammer ). I wasn't sure how fast & loose the rules were and it bothered the heck out of me seeing just one poster and deal website fill up almost an entire page. I didn't want to tattle if it was me who was "doing it wrong."
As long as there's a way to make sure the SPAM button can't be abused and make more work for the staff, I think it's a fabulous idea to implement.
@lavikinga: How about a per user limit of the spam button, say 10 spams a day, or limit use of the button to black/purple triangles, or just certain users in general, like everyone who has posted in this question.
@catbertthegreat: I'd have to respectfully disagree on a limit of the spam button (although I prefer that we just keep using tattle, and not have a separate button, because I KNOW, FOR SURE, that it will be abused ten ways from Sunday).
When I see a page full of posts from a single user, I'm going to invoke Tattle on ALL of them. Not some. ALL. That would not matter to me even if I knew the poster, although if I knew them well enough, they might get a blistering email from me, in addition. Trust me, folks. I can be scary unpleasant, when it's just one on one.
@shrdlu: Ok, can we still have a selection in the tattle drop-down menu, I'm fine about a very visible not being an acceptable choice, but the choice of spam in the tattle drop-down menu would be very nice, it would make flagging faster.
@catbertthegreat: Sir, excellent choice. I would like the drop down menu to have Spam, and also Oops. Every once in a while I Tattle on something because the user forgot to put a price, or they posted it twice in a row (sometimes that's an honest error), and I'll start out the description field with Oops. Actually, when they post twice in a row AND I don't consider it a dupe, but an honest accident, I may Tattle on both, noting that this one is the good one, and that one is probably the mistake.
If you just report stuff as Duplicates, sometimes the wrong one goes. Mind you, there are plenty of idiot Duplicates that are well deserving of deletion, I'm just point this other alternative out.
Oh, and Stupid. I want Stupid on the pull down.
Hopes staff sees this
considers making a new question with the suggestion.
Not to get too technical on all of you, but the tattle option should not have a "Spam" option, it should have a "Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam" option.
@wootvan: you should see the rest of our suggestions, but ignore the discussion on Chinese Opera that happened in the middle - think of it as a commercial - http://deals.woot.com/questions/details/04ce275b-cbee-47f8-99fc-bd6e01e47d5b/suggestion-additions-to-the-tattle-drop-down-menu?sort=newest
There are times that I post 10 deals within about 10 minutes, but I've never gone over that. If I can still do that, or even a couple more, that would be fine by me.
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