Changes to UK deals - introducing the "Deal Stream"

John

John

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[preview]Posting deals has always been a bit clunky around here. Doing things via the old deal system took forever - you had to fill in a form that took 5 minutes, only to have it turn into a boring link with a rating system no-one ever used. Posting in the forums wasn't much better - with entire threads devoted to a single game, most of the time it wouldn't be worth commenting on. So, we've made some changes to the deal system. It's early days and more changes are coming, but what we have to start off with should make using the deal system a lot more enjoyable for everyone.[/preview]

The first big change is to the way you can submit a deal into the system. Instead of filling out a massive form, everything has been replaced with a single text field.

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Just type your deal in the field and submit!​

The new submission system is pretty smart, it doesn't matter how you input your deal - it'll figure out how to format it and recognize all the key information. Just make sure you include the name of the game, the platform, the price, and the link - along with any info other CAGs will need to get the price. (e.g. coupon codes, specific instructions, etc.) Because deals are now a lot easier to submit, we're moderating all the submissions to cut down on duplicates. As soon as your deal is approved, it'll appear in the deal stream.

The second big change is how the deals are viewed. In the old system, each deal was a bloated table that took up a quarter of the page - it made browsing deals slow, since so much of the page was wasted on blank space and over-sized box art. The new layout has been on a diet, box art will zoom on-click, and unnecessary page elements only appear when you're likely to need them. Click the info button next to a deal's price to launch a price checking window, where you can see all the latest new and used prices for that game - all without leaving the page.

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Extra links only appear when hovering over a deal, and box art can be enlarged with a single click.​

Besides helping out your fellow CAGs, there's a new reason to post deals - a weekly raffle to win the game of your choice up to the value of £50 (subject to availability - we have to be able to buy/pre-order it!). Every time you submit a deal that gets approved and added to the deal stream, you'll earn a raffle ticket. Every Sunday we'll randomly draw a ticket out of all the entries to pick our winner. (Registered users only.)

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There are no limits to the number of tickets you can earn for deal posting.​

So, that's a brief look at the new deal stream system. Stay tuned for more features soon, including a revamp of our front page integration. :)
 
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I think the rules, and the understanding of them, now seems very vague.
It's unclear for the users (at least me) what the limits and regulations are, and when a deal becomes a ticket.

As a user I have no idea when it reaches the limit that makes it popular enough to grant me a ticket.
And is it in a certain time-period the deal has to be popular enough?
Is it static or in comparison to how popular the other deals are at the moment?

I have 3 tickets at the moment, 2 of them are from moderating deals (I think).
The other one must be for one of the 15+ deals I have submitted on the stream. Of which 7 are in the top 10 daily deals at the moment.

Otherwise the way it works now, with user moderation is much better than before.
Some deals might get stuck in limbo.

How should I vote on a deal that has expired but is still in the unmoderated section?
Should I moderate it like: It's nothing special. (A bad deal.) or This deal has been posted before so that it disappears, or just let it be?
 
Some changes will be going up shortly to make it more obvious which deals have earned which tickets. They'll also be awarded on-the-fly, as opposed to how it is now (where I have to run a script to award tickets based on traffic.) The current traffic threshold is a low fixed value. It's just there to make sure people don't get awarded for completely useless deals. :)

We'll also have a new option for moderating expired deals, where you can confirm that the deal is expired. That'll go towards your tickets, and it'll make the deal disappear.
 
Suggestion.... If i am not mistaken, right now the system lets you decide what console you are interested in to only see those deals.

However also in the moderation page. Can something be done so you can still see all moderation-needed items, irrelevant of what console you chose?
 
I have two questions I would like to be discussed:

Should prices that are already in the CAG Database be allowed on the dealstream?
Some seem to think so and I see more and more games that are already known deals in the database show up there.
They see it as a way of showing people a good deal even though it's already known.

I myself am a bit unsure about this, wasn't the whole idea behind the deal stream to find deals not already known?
Or if I find a game that has a good price in the CAG Database, am I free to throw it up on the deal stream to share what I think?
I think that breaks the idea behind the dealstream.

Which is (for me):
1: find new deals
2: search the CAG database and deal stream to see if they are already known.
3: If they are, don't post it.
4: If it's a new deal post it on the deal stream.

-----------------

Regarding general discount codes, should we post them only in the forum?
A problem with that is that there is not much activity in the forum, which means that people might miss it.

Should we post separate titles with the discount codes applicable or do a separate deal for each discount code?
Or not use discount codes at all, only discussing them in the forum?
 
Just because a game is in the CAG database doesn't mean anyone knows about it, though. It's just a tool to help you find deals, once you find them you should still post them in the deal stream.

We're going to be adding discount code functionality soon, but in the meantime you can just post them in the forum. While we don't get a lot of posts in there it still gets a fair amount of traffic, and if it's a good code I'll tweet it via @ukgamedeals.
 
Tickets are awarded based on popularity, and don't get assigned instantly. Give it a day or two.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. Can you please elaborate a little bit more on what terms they are made popular? Do you mean by the number of clicks made?
 
[quote name='JohnWordCena']Thanks for the quick reply. Can you please elaborate a little bit more on what terms they are made popular? Do you mean by the number of clicks made?[/QUOTE]

Yep, the number of unique clicks is one thing (based on IP address).
 
Sorry for asking again, but i don't think the system is working good... or i'm sure... In 3 days i got 52 approved deals, and only 3 tickets (for moderating)... 52 is a huge number not to get a single ticket... it surely can't be that no one clicked on any of those 52 deals....
 
[quote name='JohnWordCena']Sorry for asking again, but i don't think the system is working good... or i'm sure... In 3 days i got 52 approved deals, and only 3 tickets (for moderating)... 52 is a huge number not to get a single ticket... it surely can't be that no one clicked on any of those 52 deals....[/QUOTE]

I count 6 deal based tickets for you at the moment, unfortunately most of the ones you've posted haven't had much traffic. As the week goes on some of them will probably get enough to earn tickets.
 
I think that the system is working fine.

Personally I think there is a lot of non-deals that has been submitted for moderation the last weeks.

I also think there is a risk that people are moderating deals as great or good too often, just to get a moderating ticket.
 
[quote name='John']I count 6 deal based tickets for you at the moment, unfortunately most of the ones you've posted haven't had much traffic. As the week goes on some of them will probably get enough to earn tickets.[/QUOTE]

Please could you answer my question?
Is it only attributed to clicks? Or to orders made?

Thanks... Also, since the INSTORE deals don't have a link to click, does that mean that they don't get any tickets?

Thanks a lot.
 
[quote name='Benedict']I think that the system is working fine.

Personally I think there is a lot of non-deals that has been submitted for moderation the last weeks.

I also think there is a risk that people are moderating deals as great or good too often, just to get a moderating ticket.[/QUOTE]

Are you refering to my posts? As far as im concerned, despite having a lot of deals in the main stream, they are all real deals.

In regards to just voting all deals as great, i agree as it seems the tendency.... Can it be that people are realizing, that they are earning more tickets by moderating rather than from submitting new deals?
 
[quote name='JohnWordCena']Please could you answer my question?
Is it only attributed to clicks? Or to orders made?

Thanks... Also, since the INSTORE deals don't have a link to click, does that mean that they don't get any tickets?

Thanks a lot.[/QUOTE]

Clicks. In-store deals are at my discretion. But obviously I don't want to go into too much detail about specifically how they're assigned, because the more people know about the specifics the easier it'll be for them to game the system.
 
[quote name='JohnWordCena']Are you refering to my posts? As far as im concerned, despite having a lot of deals in the main stream, they are all real deals.[/QUOTE]

No, Im not refering to your posts, I mean generally.
 
Any reason why I haven't received any tickets yet for my 8-11 deals I've posted the last couple of days?
 
I wrote a thread concerning Tesco's 'wretched voucher code', but in hindsight it might have been better to post in this thread.

The basic idea is that Tesco's scheme is over time reducing the value of this website to users who have used their (by now) infamous FTSL15-1 voucher code; if other vendors start doing the same its going to be difficult to decipher which submissions are really deals.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273722
 
[quote name='runtime']I wrote a thread concerning Tesco's 'wretched voucher code', but in hindsight it might have been better to post in this thread.

The basic idea is that Tesco's scheme is over time reducing the value of this website to users who have used their (by now) infamous FTSL15-1 voucher code; if other vendors start doing the same its going to be difficult to decipher which submissions are really deals.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273722[/QUOTE]

I think most people just register another account in order to use the code multiple times. A bit crafty, but it works.
 
Lol! Really? I never thought of that... still must be pretty easy for Tesco to tie voucher code to credit card and close that loop hole at some point.
 
[quote name='runtime']Lol! Really? I never thought of that... still must be pretty easy for Tesco to tie voucher code to credit card and close that loop hole at some point.[/QUOTE]

Heh, yep - I think they day they do that is the day when we're not going to allow those deals to be posted. I know people who have re-registered and used exactly the same credit card and shipping address, so it definitely works.
 
It hasn't ended, but we're done with the tickets for deals system. We'll just be having weekly competitions that use different criteria from now on.
 
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