Downvoting Deals
Latest Deals
Does anybody else think we need to option to downvote deals on here? I know the founders don't like the rival being mentioned but downvoting works elsewhere if you get my drift.
Only allowing people to 'like' deals on here is not resulting in the prominent stuff necessarily being the best deals. I hate to see people wasting their money because they're assuming something is the cheapest just because it's 'trending'. It would also be a pity if Latest Deals ends up like the rival where the most popular posts happen to be added by members with titles.
It'll be interesting to hear thoughts on this.
I would like to see this actually yes it works on another site and does well on here in scroll along but dont understand how some get so many likes yes we all know tesco has 20p off they rotate prices every tuesday but if you check that item after one week the price has upped by 30p or more.
Yes I think it would be a good idea. I tend to ignore the deals that are not relevant to me but I do see ones that I think have clearly been posted to get the points and those ones need to be down voted so that proper deals can be seen.
MrsCraig I haven't been on here long, so I haven't posted many deals yet, but it would be easy enough for me to put up 3 random posts a day just to get some points.
What really annoys me is when someone puts up 3 posts from the same website saying something like '10% off £50', '15% off £100' and '20% off £200', if you get my drift.
Hey 
We've had a fair few of these threads and discussions in the past but we're always keen to hear more views!
The short version of our current position is that we prefer people leave a constructive criticism via comment rather than an anonymous down vote. That way the original poster (and other people) can see why the deal might not be very good.
The idea is that "bad" deals would then get less likes.
Appreciate there are pros/cons to the various approaches and we are of course open to change! 
We are still exploring tweaks to the points system but it has taken a back seat at the moment purely from a tech perspective as there's a bit of a backlog of things to do 
Kelsey In my experience elsewhere online, some people still comment when a deal is downvoted so it's always obvious why a deal is a bad one.
The issue I have is we see deals on here that are sitting at the top of the page in popularity but you scroll down and there can be as many negative (some constructive, some not) comments as likes. Also, it feels like people are clicking 'like' just because they like the product, not the deal. This happens elsewhere too but it is counteracted by the ability to downvote thus another reason to have the option there.
My personal experience of using Latest Deals is it being a catalogue of 1. products people have found in the sale section of a website and just posted at random, 2. products that are popular but not necessarily a good price and 3. genuinely good deals with significant savings, in that order.
If you leave a negative comment you often get attacked and no one does anything about it. Anytime I posted a comment I’ve been attacked every single time.
downvoting is a much better and anonymous way of showing what a bad deal is.
ukheather Hey Please do reach out to us if you're personally attacked for a criticism of a deal so we can look into it
Whilst we actively encourage people to be kind and courteous we also equally want people to be honest about their opinion of a deal - and that includes criticism if it isn't very good.
There is, I guess, a scale of ways to do it - from nice to neutral down to unpleasant. We'd encourage nice and have no problems with neutral. For sake of example:
- Nice: Hey, thanks for taking the time to share but it looks like it's actually available for significantly less at X [link to retailer or alternative deal on LD].
- Neutral: Not for me, can be picked up for half the price at Boots.
- Unpleasant: This deal, you, your mum and your face are all terrible 
Obviously we'd prefer people to avoid the unpleasant approach!
I was actually thinking (haven't discussed this with the team or any LD members yet!) of tweaking the comment placeholder text to encourage a range of opinions rather than just positive - e.g. "What do you think of this deal, good or not? Is it available cheaper elsewhere?"
Kelsey I had nothing but nasty comments if I give negative feedback on a deal, some not as bad as others but all nasty.
this is why a voting system would be better. too many posting honestly rubbish deals for points.
if you comment on a bad deal you will get your head bitten off. Encouraging we do it rather than adding a downvote is encouraging nasty replies.
a lot stopped bothering as we just get attacked
Posting a "Deal" earns 100 points . Doesn't matter if its a great deal or total dross it still gets 100 points . Just scrolling through the site at any point in time it is obvious that 90% of deals posted are just to "earn" the said points .
In addition we have posters who can't even be bothered to post a photo of the deal and we find the website's logo or an advert for Klarna on the "deal" . Then we have the "lazy" click and paste descriptions which always puts me off a Deal (shows the poster knows nothing about said deal!) .
Basically what I am saying is that probably 90% of "Deals" posted are not deals at all !
The reward for posting a deal should be say 10 points ? then an additional ,say , 5 points for every "Like" . This would discourage members from posting the first 3 items they see in the Asos sale or Amazon deals etc and actively encourage members to look a bit deeper and only post "real deals" .
I make this suggestion even though the majority of my deals (in better times ) are for high end golf equipment substantially reduced to prices that tempt me (and indeed I often buy ) .
I accept I am not going to get many "Likes" for these deals as they are niche , but at least they are genuine "Deals" and I explain why in every deal post (ie I put a bit of research and effort in ! ) .
So my suggestion would disadvantage me , but surely the point of this site is to share "great deals" with fellow members ? Not to post dross "Non Deals " to amass points to get Amazon vouchers as so many members do at present .
Agree totally. And you’re right about. 90% being non deals! Points gathering not deals
Golfforall I like the sound of this.
Points should be based on how 'hot' a deal goes.
Maybe points should be taken off for nonsense deals?
I’m sure people don’t buy products just because they are trending give us some credit. Folk only buy once they have checked other sites and done their homework. I really don’t think it’s necessary to downvote a deal. Maybe Kelsey & Team would consider giving extra points if someone’s deal gets over 20 likes. Let’s not be negative just be kind please.
Pjran Try reading the comments under some of the worst deals. People do buy stuff without checking. This constant "be kind" thing is doing my head in. There's a big difference between not being kind and providing constructive criticism. I've pointed out where I think this site is going wrong via my own personal experience and it looks like my views are shared by others. I have been kind by helping people out on multiple occasions via various topics and often pointing out technical issues to Kelsey in particular. I'm doing all of that for free whilst the founders make money from Latest Deals because it's a business funny enough. If businesses didn't receive criticism, they wouldn't improve. I have also delivered shopping to my Mum and signed up to the NHS volunteers scheme. That's being kind so please don't be coming on and telling me to "be kind". Thank you.
TheChimp Personally I love criticism on a deal site . I probably posted over a dozen Laptop deals in January / February (which seemed decent to me ) begging for criticism/constructive comments on those deals from fellow members and not a single comment on any of them ! just a few likes .
No good to me as I was looking for one to buy (searching for advice ) or indeed to any other member looking for something similar .
On certain other sites I would have found out that x processor was better than y processor . Could be bought cheaper at *** or maybe I should pay an extra £50 for such and such graphics card .
Nope nothing !
It irks me there are so few comments (positive or critical ) on this site . We need more interaction and this would be better achieved by finding a way to discourage members from posting dross "non deals" which comprise 90% of "deals" posted .
Golfforall One issue is less people and a lack of certain demographics. The trouble is it will stay that way if the attitude continues to be "smile and nod and everything's lovely".
I would love this idea. There is a lot of non deals posted for people just to earn points. We should be able to vote
A few thoughts on this:
Latest Deals, its mentors, and many of its members, have worked long & hard to make the site a friendly and positive place to be without trolls and where keyboard warriors are discouraged. It is well recognised as just that – a friendly environment. In my view down voting is a very risky path to take for a friendly site, and could rapidly reverse the friendly culture Latest Deals has sought (and fought!) to engender.
Down voting encourages negativity and sadly some people will attack every deal another user posts (good or bad) just because they have taken an online dislike to that person.
Down voting is very discouraging for newbies on the receiving end.
Down voting attracts keyboard warriors (i.e. people who make abusive and aggressive comments whilst happily concealing their true identity) and know-it-alls who feel the need to be deal police.
Down votes are often cast incorrectly because a deal does not appeal to the down voter personally, or because they don’t actually understand why the ‘deal’ is a good one, nor have enough market knowledge to judge.
It's worth remembering some deals can be good, and perfectly valid, even though there’s little or no discount.
Examples might be:
- Hard to find products, like Hot Tubs, Bread Flour, Trampolines and the Nintendo Switch right now. Many people would be more than happy to pay full price if only they could find some in stock! Others would give all of these products a down vote (without understanding why they were posted), potentially suppressing the very deals people are desperate to see.
- Some full price products are fantastic value for money, and are rarely if ever discounted, because the price is already very low to drive demand.
- Hot products – like Top Toys at Christmas where there’s massive demand and not enough supply. Again many parents are very happy to pay full price if they are told where they can buy. Other people knowing nothing about toys - or the huge demand - would give these deals a down vote.
- Where the real deal is hidden in the fact that there's FREE Delivery, such as for Lego toys under £10.
- Where the price is slightly higher than another deal, but there are hidden extras included (such as a 5 year warranty), that can actually make the higher priced deal the better one.
- New products just launched and available for the first time. Hot new products are often not discounted at launch, but people still want to know where and when they can buy them.
Another problem is that roughly half of LD members have Amazon Prime and half don’t. For those with Amazon Prime, ‘free’ delivery on almost everything makes some Amazon deals better than those elsewhere even when the Amazon price is higher. For example a garden spade might be £15 at Argos and £18 at Amazon. For someone with Amazon Prime the £18 Amazon deal may be better because Argos charge an extra £3.95 for delivery (£15 + £3.95 = £18.95).
My point is that many Latest Deals members want to know about more than just discounted deals. Many also want to know about hot products, where they can find products that are widely out of stock, the start date of sales, low price deals with free delivery and so on.
Different people have very different views on what is, and isn’t, worthy of a ‘like'.
The basic problems that it seems many people would like to resolve are:
a) Good deals are often swamped by poor ones and as a result don’t see the light of day
b) Users are awarded points (and Amazon Vouchers) for posting deals regardless of whether the deals they post are good or bad.
c) Many users abuse Latest Deals' goodwill by posting rubbish deals every day just for the points, and don’t care two hoots whether what they post is a good deal or not.
There is of course more than one way to skin a cat.
It seems to me a better solution to the problems a) b) and c) outlined above could be found by changing the points system and/or the type of deals permitted, rather than by adding a down voting function and all the negativity that comes with it. Those people posting rubbish deals solely for points without a care in the world, probably also wouldn't care about their down votes.
Here’s some other example ideas to help crack the ‘poor deals’ nut and provide some more food for thought:
- Don’t reward points for deals at all until someone has accumulated over 500 likes
- Reward only 5 points for a deal but 200 bonus points if the deal receives over 50 likes.
- Don’t permit any food deals (other than food gifts)
- Don’t permit any deals to be posted with a purchase price below £1
Its difficult to justify a deals site on the grounds "its friendly " yet which actively encourages dross deals being posted by the current points system . I doubt if anyone could deny that .
We have to have critical comments as well as "Good Spot " Blah ,Blah , surely we are all adults on here , not shrinking violets , and can take a bit of constructive criticism ?
As previously stated I was looking for criticism /advice when I was about to buy a new laptop a couple of months back- didn't get any comments - just a few likes on the laptop deals I posted - No help whatsoever .
I am quite happy with food deals TBH . Though not really of interest to me I can see how 10p off a tin of beans etc can really help some members when planning their weekly shop .
There are also other popular items Pukka Pies , Chicago Town Pizzas , Linda Macartney products etc that are half price at a couple of Supermarkets at a time and full price at the others on a seemingly cyclical basis . Its handy to know which places are selling at half price as I would never pay the "full " price .
As previously stated I fully accept that a half price £2 Pukka Pie is of much more interest to the majority of members (including me ) than one of my half price £500 Golf Driver deals . While those deals I post are amazing and very rare to see such a discount they are probably only of interest to 4 or 5 members .
I think we all agree there has to be a change - I can't count the active membership or the number of "click throughs" but I'm sure the founders do and are disappointed .
The site will never fully take off while it is totally clogged up with dross "non deals" posted solely to gain 100points ! Often by members who can't be bothered to write their own description or even post a photo of the item .
I was just sitting here with a beer and a few examples of successful ventures in which my suggested approach has worked, popped into one's head:
- Britain's Got Talent
- University Challenge
- YouTube
- Another deals website before it sold out
I would say politics but that's not gone so well recently, in my opinion.
Just curious for your thoughts on HUKD (I assume that's the site you mean)? What did they do to sell out? What did they do before (or not do) that was better? What changes would you make there for you to approve of it again?
MeestairChrees I've noticed a lot of top deals being posted by someone with an official title of some sort. I've seen that on here too though. It feels like when a mentor posts something saying "we've been working with company x" it jumps to the top of popularity rather quickly even if it's not a particularly good discount. Both sites are about making money because they're businesses afterall but it seems HUKD has gone too far in that direction.
Dennab oh yeah. I've seen that more here actually. Massive jumps in likes in a very short time when posted by admins sometimes. I think on HUKD those particular members/staff probably have a lot of followers (possibly more staff) which helps...
Just an idea if criticism can't be taken by few members and down voting not going to work I think latest deals would lose alot of members if they reduced the points on deals posted but maybe monthly if a member get the most likes though out month then they gain a little bonus. I don't know say 250 points that's probably equivalent to £2.50.
Ann1984 The thing is, that's my problem. If people were going to leave this site just because they couldn't earn as many points, they aren't here for the right reasons in the first place. I posted on Tom's nemesis website for years and never made a single penny from it. It was about the pride of finding a great deal by chance and being the person who found it. I'm pretty sure that's where it started for Tom - a passion to save people money. If people are just getting up in the morning, going to their usual website eg. Sports Direct, picking three products that are in the sale and posting them on here like it's some kind of routine, that is the problem.
What do you think of having price comparison data within deal posts? So you could see if the deal really was the cheapest price, and if not, where else to get it. I know I always like to double check, and also helps show what the “RRP” really is... in the sense of average prices.
Tom good idea but alot are to lazy to compare this site is amazing for amazon deals. Personally I wouldn't change the points as you will lose alot of people but maybe reward them with good deals or run competitions every few months for tops deal spotters. I know you lot get alot of freebies 
Tom That would certainly make a personalised experience of the site better. I still think to the casual user though, the deals showing up high in popularity don't provide a good shop window.
To see the front page of the site and find something like this with more likes than genuine one-off deals doesn't scream money saving to me: https://www.latestdeals.co.uk/deals/milkybar-mousse-4-x-55g-220g-iceland-6011. When several people have posted food items like that one, it just looks like I am browsing through a supermarket website because as you, I and everybody knows, some products are always on 'offer'! I then look at the comments and it's almost like some of them have been written by a robot. This is because people are writing words just to gain points, it seems.
The other issue I have is quantity over quality. I can accept that someone may post a link to a product that is extremely hard to come by. Let's use Furby as an example as I remember working in retail when they first appeared. If the points system didn't exist, someone would post that they've found a shop that has Furbys in stock. With the points system, they'll post it three times in different colours. When this happens with a handsoap in different flavours, it gets a bit tedious.
You know what turns your members on though Tom through clicks etc I assume but the comments I made are aimed to make the site better.
Regarding some people's concerns about negativity, I honestly don't think one member taking a dislike to another would have a detrimental effect on deals being voted up or down. You have what is it, about 65,000 active members don't you? Correction, 1 million 
The soap analogy really hits home.TheChimp I think I prefer the carrot rather the stick approach, i.e. don't punish, reward!
To stop people posting the BADs (Bloody Awful Deals) LD could reward points based only on a likes threshold (say 50 likes minimum, with 200 points awarded), thereby instantly making posting BADs 'pointless'! And the posting of good (popular) posts more rewarding.
What is a deal to one person is not a deal to another so just scroll past them. What really bugs me is when people post first three things on any particular website or deals for all the same item but different flavours/colours it's a bit 'points grabbing'.
lilyflower We agree on that latter point at least! I don't have time in my life for scrolling though.
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