First Post, Wiki & Voting Updates

Voting Updates

We rolled out the updates yesterday which were detailed in our sneak peak. The main new feature is the voting feedback and the corresponding design changes that were needed to accommodate it.

One of the biggest thread in our Suggestion forum (this thread) was a big debate on the deficiencies of the old the voting system. An issue that consistently came up was the need to know why a thumbs down was warranted. It was apparent that deal posters were frustrated to get voted down without knowing why. We don't want posters to feel discouraged to share their deals. Thus, we believe that having a rigid voting feedback system would help alleviate some of the frustrations. In addition, it provides a guideline for reasons to vote. We have had problems where people would vote down a deal because it was a repost which negatively affected the original deal when it gets merged so this will help identify & nullify the repost votes.

On every vote-able thread, there is a public opinion section on the right hand side. This is where you cast your votes and get a glimpse of the tallies so far. Notice the Voting Feedback tab - It is clickable to open and close the bar graph. The open/close state of the tab is saved via cookies so if you don't like it, you can close it and never have to see it again. The bar graph breaks down the reasons for the votes. If a deal is posted for a merchant you never heard and you see a large percentage of votes for Poor Merchant Reputation, you'll be informed to stay away. Of course, if you have ordered from them to your satisfaction, you can probably ignore the votes.

When you thumb down a thread, a pop up will appear that prompts for a reason for the negative vote. The options are different for each forum but we're mainly focusing on the Hot Deals forum first. We're able to add and remove options as we see fit so feel free to suggest more options.

Wiki Update

We gave the wiki a facelift and made it feel more community based rather then letting the user wikipost hog the limelight. The Wiki Community Post link and the image itself are clickable to expand & collapse the wiki. Also notice the edit wiki & revisions link are located on the top right hand corner. Everything else works the same way as the old wiki.

Design Changes

This is probably the most controversial change of all. The changes were done in part to accommodate the new voting system and also to update the design slightly. bryantq went over all the new stuff in his sneak peak blog post. There have been a few tweaks since the release. Most of it to de-clutter the post area. We're well aware of the large title and blue title bar. It's one of the things we'll tweak until we're satisfied. If you encounter any oddities, please press CTRL-F5 or clear your cache. If you have any suggestions, please post and be specific about it.