Do you know how to get a black triangle?
A Guide to the Black Triangle
These steps should be performed at the same time every day, preferably morning
1) Log out of Woot and then log back in and let your browser save your password. NEVER log out.
2) Go to the Community Deals portion of Deals.
Upvote the first 4 Sponsored Deals and downvote the last one. Use your own discretion here.
Next, click on the Fresh tab and then the Most Votes tab beneath it.
Upvote EVERYTHING up to page 6. Quickly, this should only take a minute.
Next, go to the Top tab and then the Current Rank tab beneath it.
Upvote anything that is not already upvoted up to page 3.
cont.
3) Choose 2 of the Sponsored deals that have the least comments and make a witty/sarcastic/clever comment about the item. A good question about the item will work as well. While you are there upvote all the positive comments by other Woot members. If you can make the FIRST comment on a Sponsored deal and it is clever, prepare for upvotes your way.
DO NOT GET INTO AN ARGUMENT WITH ANYONE
4) Click on the Top tab and then the Current Rank tab and find 2 deals with the least comments. Make a witty/sarcastic/clever comment about the item or a circle jerk comment about a Woot member agreeing with them about something they said. Or you could ask a good question about the item. While you are there upvote all the positive comments by other Woot members. If you can make the FIRST comment on the Popular deal and it is clever, prepare for upvotes your way.
DO NOT GET INTO AN ARGUMENT WITH ANYONE
cont.
5) I don't have a lot of advice on posting deals. BUT, if you want an easy way to get upvotes, post a popular DVD/bluray or video game. These are basically guaranteed upvotes. Don't go overboard.
6) Go to the Ask the Community portion of Deals.
Click on the Fresh tab and then the Most Votes tab beneath it.
Upvote ALL positive questions up to page 6. Quickly, this should only take a minute.
Next, go to the Most Recent tab still under the Fresh tab and upvote ALL question that are asked by a black triangle member and are not a 0 or negative. Only do this for the first page.
7) Ask at least 2 to 3 questions per week. Take time to think about a good question, don't feel rushed. This is very important. Don't ask general questions that every Tom Dick and Harry have asked. And don't complain about your deal being deleted.
cont.
8) Click on the Fresh tab and then the Most Recent tab beneath it. Choose 4 to 5 interesting questions and write a witty response. If you can be the FIRST person to comment and have a clever response, prepare for the upvotes. They just can't help it.
9) As you browse the questions, always upvote the first repsonse if it's a good one and upvote and other good responses.
10) Tattling is the equivalent to "snitches get stitches" in my book. I'm too good for that (profanity).
Welcome to the Black Triangle Club.
The funny thing is that I think you're right. This thread should be locked up and have the key thrown away.
Wait a second! This is how I've been doing things for years!
Wait a minute....didn't he forget the part about : divide by the square root of (Ø¥€ + π) ? Have I been lied to all these years?
Very good @iggz! Clearly a lot of thought went into this explanation. And now could you explain how to get into the top 15? Better yet, how do you get to No.1? @dmaz & I have been doing a samba today at numbers 1 & 2. I have NO clue how or why this is happening.
Oh, and FYI, the famous long-standing ex-no.1 was in the top 15 for a long time. Long after abdicating the no. 1 spot. No deals listed, few comments, no questions asked, etc. None of the activity you mention to get a black triangle.
Ponder. Ah, but then, getting a black triangle & attaining/staying in the top 15 are diffferent aren't they? Or ARE they different?? Same algorithm. ;-)
Oh, to answer your question: Briefly - be active & contribute to the community. Both on the deals side & ATC side.
Or there's the worry free method - do what you feel like and accept whatever rank and color triangle is assigned to you.
@narfcake: And, of course, you are right again. :-D
Whoa! I just did this! I turned black!
@joshobra: No, your still just a little yellow chicken trying to cross the road. And me? I still have egg on my head!
@narfcake: This is my method. No eWorry!
30 hours! What am I to do? That's almost a whole day!
@iggz: How did this happen?! LOL!
It surely took forever to get all those asterisks to work properly and evenly split each post.
@joshobra: I told the secrets. They don't like it when you tell the secrets...
@iggz: thx but i'm more interested in moving the other direction. n e advice?
I thought it was this method to find a black triangle...
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right A B Select Start
@iggz: Weren't you a green triangle recently? I seem to remember you being a color when you resurfaced.
The funny thing is that you're absolutely right. I was astonished not only how easy it was to get a black triangle, but also to maintain a black triangle.
You should have used the "q" tag so we can lock up the secrets for ourselves.
tl;dr be early, be awesome
@shawnmiller: You read it.
@joshobra: That's an old repost from months ago...did you notice the immediate replies from him? He's not banned now, but apparently was then....and he was also proud enough to save it.
No, actually that's from today. It's only over on the other Woot side, not here. Noob.
you forgot the secret handshake
You had me until 'DO NOT GET INTO AN ARGUMENT WITH ANYONE' then I knew you either stole this from someone else or didn't really do it this way.
OK, I'll bite. Let me take these one at a time.
1) Log out of Woot and then log back in and let your browser save your password. NEVER log out.
I could see this having some effect on your reputation: in that if you vote, or add a deal, or comment, or ask a question, or add an answer you need to be logged in. Adding any friction to adding content might mean you're adding slightly less content.
Seems negligible.
2) Go to the Community Deals portion of Deals.
Upvote the first 4 Sponsored Deals and downvote the last one. Use your own discretion here.
Next, click on the Fresh tab and then the Most Votes tab beneath it.
Upvote EVERYTHING up to page 6. Quickly, this should only take a minute.
Next, go to the Top tab and then the Current Rank tab beneath it.
Upvote anything that is not already upvoted up to page 3.
Voting for good sponsored deals certainly will help. Vote early, the earlier the better, but don't vote for a bad sponsored deal that's might end up with negative votes.
I honestly wouldn't blindly vote for entire tabs of fresh or top deals. By casting your vote you're essentially betting that someone is going to come behind you and upvote the same content.
If you change your vote you'll lose any early voter advantage. If you want to play it safe you could wait to see how the voting is trending, but your reputation boost will be lessened the more votes that pour in before your vote.
3) Choose 2 of the Sponsored deals that have the least comments and make a witty/sarcastic/clever comment about the item. A good question about the item will work as well. While you are there upvote all the positive comments by other Woot members. If you can make the FIRST comment on a Sponsored deal and it is clever, prepare for upvotes your way.
Not a bad strategy because sponsored deal detail pages likely get more views on average than a community deal detail page. Your comment has a higher chance of getting viewed and an even better chance if there's very few comments around.
Upvoting the good content added before your content also has a positive effect if others vote after you. But if others end up downvoting after your upvote you'll lose reputation.
4) Click on the Top tab and then the Current Rank tab and find 2 deals with the least comments. Make a witty/sarcastic/clever comment about the item or a circle jerk comment about a Woot member agreeing with them about something they said. Or you could ask a good question about the item. While you are there upvote all the positive comments by other Woot members. If you can make the FIRST comment on the Popular deal and it is clever, prepare for upvotes your way.
Same concept as #3. These deals have more visibility so your comments are likely to be viewed by more members and have more opportunities for upvotes.
I'll probably look into weighting good comments on deals with fewer votes higher than good comments on deals with higher votes to encourage members to interact with more areas of the site if we see this pattern becoming a harmful trend.
5) I don't have a lot of advice on posting deals. BUT, if you want an easy way to get upvotes, post a popular DVD/bluray or video game. These are basically guaranteed upvotes. Don't go overboard.
The single best activity you can do on the site to gain reputation is add good deals. Nothing affects your reputation as much as the deals you've added. I wouldn't recommend even bothering with the above if you're not finding good deals that the community will view, and vote for, and click on, and buy.
We currently group the deals you add into a few groups (deals added this week, this month, this year, all time). The deals you've added most recently count toward your reputation more than the deals you've added long ago. This is also why members remain on the leaderboard even when they aren't participating as often. They've built up the reputation over some time and it's not taken away overnight.
You forgot always upvote staff posts early to maximize the rep gain!
practice, practice, practice...?
6) Go to the Ask the Community portion of Deals.
Click on the Fresh tab and then the Most Votes tab beneath it.
Upvote ALL positive questions up to page 6. Quickly, this should only take a minute.
Next, go to the Most Recent tab still under the Fresh tab and upvote ALL question that are asked by a black triangle member and are not a 0 or negative. Only do this for the first page.
Not a bad strategy to vote for questions asked by a black triangle member. They have a higher percentage chance of asking a high quality question.
Interesting to think about weighting your questions voted on score higher for questions asked by members with lower reputations. It's so easy to build feedback loops in these algorithms where your reputation is calculated off of the reputation of another member and their reputation is calculated based on your reputation. Chicken and the egg.
7) Ask at least 2 to 3 questions per week. Take time to think about a good question, don't feel rushed. This is very important. Don't ask general questions that every Tom Dick and Harry have asked. And don't complain about your deal being deleted.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Actually, maybe I can: Ask a good deal or product related question every day.
What's topical? New iPhone 5 coming out? What are people doing with their old iPhones?
Looking to purchase an ice cream machine? What features should you look for? What brand or model should you get?
Need help with something you've purchased? Maybe someone had a similar problem or can help you troubleshoot.
A good barometer that you're asking a good deal or product related question is the "related deals" module. If that module isn't coming up with deals that are strongly related to the question, there's a good chance it's not a deal or product related question. I bet the related deals for this question are a mess.
8) Click on the Fresh tab and then the Most Recent tab beneath it. Choose 4 to 5 interesting questions and write a witty response. If you can be the FIRST person to comment and have a clever response, prepare for the upvotes. They just can't help it.
The best thing to do here is to find a good deal or product related question and provide a good answer if you have knowledge on the subject. Try to get into that "top answers" section.
9) As you browse the questions, always upvote the first repsonse if it's a good one and upvote and other good responses.
Yes. Vote for good answers. Especially if they are good answers to the original question.
10) Tattling is the equivalent to "snitches get stitches" in my book. I'm too good for that (profanity).
Tattling is the least effective way to gain reputation. You could tattle something like 34 times where each tattle resulted in a moderator action or you could add 1 good deal and get the same reputation boost.
That said, tattling is critical if you want to get onto the leaderboard because you need to participate in all areas of the site to hit the top 15: http://deals.woot.com/leaderboard
My advice: as you're using the site and you happen to come across an expired deal, send us an expired tattle. If it checks out, we'll expire the deal, the site gets better, and you get a tiny reputation bump.
Overall, I think @iggz has outlined an interesting strategy. My hope is the community take away here is not to cargo cult (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult) his formula but instead recognize the pattern to gain reputation on Deals.Woot is all about participating frequently by adding and voting for good content.
@shawnmiller: The single best activity you can do on the site to gain reputation is add good deals. Nothing affects your reputation as much as the deals you've added. I wouldn't recommend even bothering with the above if you're not finding good deals that the community will view, and vote for, and click on, and buy.
I quit adding deals because every one I do gets deleted for no/some obscure reason. My reputation hasn't gone down at all.
@panthiest: Yes, but you added some good ones a few months ago and you've stuck around to vote and ask questions. Makes you an all around good contributor and highly valued.
My guess is your reputation has just about hit a glass ceiling without adding any more deals. You'll probably maintain your current rep if you stick around for about 7 more months and then you'll see a dramatic decrease.
Certainly an interesting edge case I'll likely look into more.
@iggz: You told the secret about 30 times which made work for the mod to delete them. Not nice.
Another idea: What's the best way to insure that @jumbowoot won't give coupons just because you have a black triangle? Hmmmmm. =P
Shawn's on the level with this one.
I was part of the original discussions around the first version of this popularity algorithm - way back before we became part of a much "larger" family -- a change which assigned me other tasks; but I did follow how that formula has evolved over time.
Sometimes new feature would affect the math in ways we could anticipate; but there were always times where a lesson learned would lead to a new version.
Shawn has given out way more info than I would have ever expected. He does outrank me, so I assume he knows what he's doing; but if that post had come from me, I would fear the repercussions!
Keep in mind, that the version in use today was not the first, and most certainly won't be the last. Now that the proverbial "cat's out of the bag"; there's no telling how much of it will change, or how quickly.
@iggz: Dang, iggz! Way too much trouble to go black. Imagine what life would be like if you used your powers as a force for Good. I think I'll just go on jumping in the Deals mud puddles and see what sticks. More fun & a helluva lot easy getting dark that way.
BTW, don't forget your Blackangle dues need to be paid before the end of the month and you're in charge of the cookies for the next meeting out behind the Woot dumpsters.
@kbsig106: SELECT start would be a two player game. We all know woot will decline all your orders if you "cheat" with two people. just do Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start. Single player...
This was an interesting read. Rep also always puzzled me.
One thing I'm utterly horrible at is posting deals. THIS is where I come to find my deals. I don't even really have any other deal sites I use.
It's an odd formula to be sure. If (Deals)Woot does it's job perfectly - people never have to leave. However, for Woot to operate perfectly, people MUST leave so as to find other deals.
So because I'm not a quality Deal sniffer, I rarely have stuff to post. The few things I have posted usually have far less than 10 upvotes.
Yet here I sit as a Black Triangle. Looking at the Q Leaderboards, I've even flirted a couple times with the top 15. Never made it but I think I made it up to 17 once and ~20 many times.
I'm guessing it's because I'm very active in other ways. Point being I guess is that you CAN stay fairly highly ranked without posting deals. I suspect if I could find quality deals I'd easily be Top 15.
I'm so good at this. Wait, no I'm terrible at it. Why do I still have a black triangle? What is this website again? Dammit....INTERCEPDOWN! The ruling on the field stands! Homerun Celtics!
@tygerdave: I never said I do it this way.
@shawnmiller: Wow, thanks for the responses. I'm at work, so I can't reply as detailed as I'd like right now.
One thing to keep in mind is that I never said this will make you #1 or get you into the top 15. I just said that if you follow these steps you WILL get a black triangle.
@pemberducky: Hey cutie.
@thunderthighs: Oh no, heaven forbid a mod do some actual work. You're welcome for keeping your job necessary ;)
@russchott: You sound like a super dork. Or would that be uber dork?
I don't know what's going on but I went from 80 this morning to 90 right now!
First time I hit black. I better never go back.
RIMSHOT
@shawnmiller: Hmm... now I feel like I should keep doing everything but add deals to see what happens out of curiosity.
@panthiest: I haven't added a deal since July 13th
@shawnmiller I see you're making changes ;)
@iggz: The proper term is über-geek.
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