Buxr Deal Quality as of Late

I agree with a lot of low level deals being posted. But they are still "deals". I think the main concept of the site is moving more from the solely daily deals winning to trying to win money through the Monthly contest as well. I was actually considering posting something regarding the “quality” and game that I perceive is being played on the site.

Here are my opinions on the matter. Points and how you earn them are out of wack.

Deals - I think this is right a limit on how many can be posted, good amount for winning a daily deal but not to make it so much that spamming with deals will make you a monthly winner..

Deal Votes -
It seems like more and more people are voting for what seems like every deal. Not to pick on Siggy but a quick glance shows he voted the most last month. 1423 votes on deals last month. How many deals were even posted last month? Of those he only got points on 156. Which is right only getting rewarded for the "winning" deals is a good policy. However if you just vote on every deal you are certain to get the "winning" deal and your other votes have no penalty.

Topics -
The discussion board is an important part of the community and I think the points are actually pretty close to where they should be. However it seems more and more random non deal or Buxr items are being posted for points I would only assume.

Comments - Comments are great and very important to the site. But making a comment like "good deal" or a smiley face adds nothing to the value of the deal or the site. Its just a chance to earn points.

Votes - Votes is in my opinion the worst part of the points system. It is what drives others to leave pointless comments. As people will vote on it just so they can earn points.

My ideas to "fix it"?

Deals - Just fine in my opinion however it is sad that on a "deals" site a user can earn likely 5x the amount of points per day through other forms of points.

Deal Votes - I'd suggest imposing a limit on # of votes you can make in a day. To make votes more valuable, and not something you can just pepper the field with to hit the winning deal. Also this would drive up the quality of posted deals in my opinion.

Topics - As I mentioned I think the discussion section is actually pretty fair. And while yes there is more "non-sense" topics as the site grows it will be come more friendly and less deal only especially in the discussion section. If any thing I'd maybe just lower topic points from 2 to 1 for positive votes.

Comments - Comments are an important feature of the site. However I think either the users need to take it upon themselves to make comments which have some value. And to others to + only those or - pointless comments like smileys.

Votes - I think votes should not be as big as of deal as they are, much like deal voting you can just pepper the board and + everyone. (I have started to do so myself as its the only way to try and stay in the contents). I’d suggest something like the way deal points are handed out. They are only awarded for “winning” comments. IE ones the community finds valuable, and not just every comment. Additionally I guess there should be some time of limit on comment votes per day, or maybe the more votes you make the less points you can earn off of them. (IE 5 votes = 1 point each, 10 votes = .75 points each, 20 votes = .5 points each)

(Ignore any typos punctuation, or stupidity. I ranted this out while working)

It's funny, I was just talking to my husband last night about how it seems Buxr isn't as good anymore. The one thing that I think would be good to implement is that only your first 5-10 votes of the day give you points. That way you would choose only the best deals to vote on. Then after that you could still vote for other deals that you thought were good. That way not as many votes would get thrown around but everyone would still get votes they deserved.

I also wish that something was implemented that you could cancel a vote. There's been several times that I accidentally voted on something because I either read it wrong or hadn't fully verified it before voting. I normally just vote on the front page and open all the deals I want to see in tabs so I can go through them when I have time. That way I don't forget to vote before the contest is up but I also don't forget the deals.

Also I completely agree with the stupid comments thing. I've been seeing that a lot lately. It also seems a lot of people are doing it on their own deals just to bump them to the front page. I have negged a few of them but I don't always catch them.

I also agree that some people are afraid to neg other people too. It seems a lot of arguments get started that way. Then the stupid little neg wars happen too.

I just hope that Buxr can become a better place again. I miss the old Buxr.

Sorry if I ramble on a lot. I'm sicker than a dog and have a 3 year old and 1 year old jumping around me. I'm not even making sense to myself today.

I agree on the comment voting as well.

You have no idea how many times I want to neg the comments when it is obvious that they are only being made to gain points and/or bump a deal to the front page.

The only way to stop this is for people to stop giving these comments positive votes and neg them. Than maybe the ones responsible for doing this will get a clue and cut it out.

I can think of a few people that do this as a matter of routine - even to the point that deals from a week ago are being bumped for no reason other than to gain a few comment votes.

Maybe Yan needs to take comment voting out of the point ratio so the random comments that are obviously being made will come to a halt....

Or I've got a another idea that will hit the perpetrators of this where it hurts. If people keep making comments just to get comment votes and/or to bump their deal to the front page than that comment and/or deal should be disqualified from the contest.

This will definitely put a stop to all that madness!

I'm Admin now, but I used to be one of the oldest active members, and this is clearly something to be worked out among general members is many ways. However, I will make a few observations and put forth some leading questions.

1. Perhaps some members want to contribute quality deals, but don't know how or where to locate "great" deals, and end up settling for what they can find. Would it really be harmful if experienced members suggested a few places to start looking?

2. Admin cannot solve all problems that arise within the Buxr community. Perhaps instead of simply talking about using voting ability a certain way, you should start actively voting a certain way, both on deals and comments. Is it possibly, at least in theory, the voting that tells new and old members what they should or should not be posting as deals or comments, as well as how they should vote?

I'm relatively new here, maybe a month and a half, so I don't know what the deal quality was like before I arrived. How about just a few of my observations from a short term perspective. My first few posted deals I was trying to get a feel for how to post, what was expected and how the system worked.

My second post, I think, was called out for a problem. Reasons don't matter it was 'called out' for good reason and I learned some new valuable information along with knowing it wasn't something I wanted to repeat. The thing was only one person had the gumption to call it out, there were several votes from people I can only assume were here for at least long enough to know the post shouldn't be on the boards -- that bothered me. I got two important lessons, votes don't mean something is a good deal and some people are more interested in the game of points and standings than a good deal.

I'm a very competitive person and I can't say I haven't observed and seen that there are certain ways to play the point game and what they are very quickly. I don't want to say I have any answers, these are simply the observations I've made in a very short time here.

We had neg votes in the past, there were 'worst deal' prizes and angry members. There were flame wars. Things got ironed out with 'contest off' awards and reduced point incentives for negging a deal - now we as a community seem to be headed into an opposite extreme - you've gotten cozy with each other and often just vote as a favor or because you play "the contests game".

The contests are far from perfect and there are ways to play them. I have tried to patch the holes but given the time and will there is always a way to go around them. My hope is that some of you vote up deals and comments for the sake of everyone's good and not just because you want to win. This is how in my opinion things can be straitened out. Unfortunately I don't have a better answer for you, not at this time anyway.

It is time to break my silence. Some of you might have noticed that I stopped participating a few months ago, but I have been lurking. Partially because I was burnt out and bored with the site when the "contest" changed. This site used to be one of my favorites. I used to find great deals that would not be found anywhere else. Users where out there looking for the "best deals on the net" in order to win the daily and monthly contest and the spirit of the site was to find deals not available anywhere else. I believe I remember even Yan or Mike using those exact words.

Then the rules changed. In order to "build community" users started receiving points for everything: deals, votes, comments, topics, ect...the site moved from being a place to find great deals to becoming the facebook of deal site with the voting of comments and topics nothing more that the "like" button on facebook. Users saw this and figured out well if I vote everything up, I will win the monthly contest. I considered do that myself, just to win and then thought to myself, this isn't the site I joined in June of '08. So instead of playing the game of voting everything up, I decided to take a leave of absence.

In my opinion, the new rules killed the worthiness and credibility of the site. 2 years ago, Yan and Mike created something unique and great. Now it is diluted with "deals" found anywhere and available to all with very little effort and I was one of those people who posted that crap too. I was a victim of trying to win posting amazon gold box and woot offs and one day site that anyone could find, instead of sticking to the foundation of the site in finding great deals not found anywhere else.

Thank you Midget for saying what needed to be said and having the courage to speak up and I hope this thread is taking a food for thought rather than being tossed aside as users "complaining."

Thank you to Yan, Mike (where ever he is), SD and now Solstice for giving us a place to share deals and thoughts.

Previous to my last member month, I also scoured the site for every possible comment to vote up, and made sure to try and vote up every plausible "Deal of the Day". Sure enough it helped me gain higher rank in the monthly contest, but at what cost?

Well, having at that time also grown weary of this kind of voting, I decided in my last month to abandon playing like that. It was not so hard really; in fact, I daresay it was easy to be part of the solution. To my surprise I discovered a couple of wonderful things as result.

1. I had more fun on the site, being able to vote and comment how I liked.
2. I spent less time on the site, not having to search out every little tiny comment and/or comparing numbers to see what deals might win the daily contest.
3. I won more daily contests, and thereby made more money as a member.

Wait… Did you catch that last part?

I said MONEY.

Cha-Ching!

Yes, o’ sweet members, by not trying to “play” the game, and instead just playing it, I took home more daily prizes. I will tell you why that happened.

1. I had more time to search out sweet quality deals if I wanted too.
2. I got more daily prizes by not voting every possible deal up for the points, which meant that there was less competition for the prize slots. I still voted for what I deemed to be the good stuff, but did not worry about the points.

The monthly prize is just a nice bonus at the end. Is it really worth investing hours upon hours of time searching the site for comments and voting up every deal, just to gain rank and win $50 versus $25 dollars? Certainly not if you’re winning more daily contests as a result. Do the math.

I will sum all this up with some nice advice.

Be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Be a member of action instead of being nothing more than mere talk.

You will have more fun, make more money, and improve the site that is giving you that money. Everybody wins all the way around, including members, shoppers, Buxr, and gerbils.

Very nice advice Solstice. Thanks again for your valuable "2 cents."

I feel the same way! It's why I took a break from Buxr too. Just too much involved, I don't have time time to come everyday, and/or vote up comments etc. Buxr used to be different!

I'm curious. I usually vote on discussions, because 1. Somebody's taken the time to put a topic on there and I enjoy reading them 2. I usually learn something new or at least have a good laugh. I'm not trying to gain points. I just feel if you take the time to post a topic, then it has some value. Should I not vote?

Alright, it is a done deal. The controversial vote points will be gone come next month. You will still be able to earn points by posting topics & comments but not via your own votes.

The original purpose of these points was really to encourage you to vote but it seems like they are doing more damage than good.

Just (like Tammy above said) don't forget to vote for somebody's comment or topic if you find it useful.

huh? maybe i'm tired (been up over 24 hours now) but when we vote on a deal that doesn't count anymore?

I thought comment voting was the big issue here

I'm lost.

I will try and help to clarify what Yan meant.

1. Voting up comments or threads will no longer give points to the voter. (Yourself)
2. The comment or thread submitter will still receive points. (The Other Person)

This will completely eliminate the possibility of gaining rank through voting on comments or threads. Possible rank gain will only come from having posted them.

I like it, it helps get rid of the + votes for every single comment for the sole purpose of gaining yourself points.

It doesn't however help with the "nonsense" comments. But now that people do not get points for +'ing them that should get rid off most the people just doing it for their own personal gain. Which then leaves it to the rest of us to not + a pointless comment.

Something has not been mentioned yet that is of relevance to the upcoming system change.

In the soon to be future, the following point values will apply to comments/threads voted on:

A comment/thread voted up will give the submitter +1 Point. (It is currently +2 Points.)
A comment/thread voted down will still give the submitter a -1 Point Penalty.