But I REALLY don't like the new changes on the forum. I am so use to the whole adding to old posts, I don't like the auto repost because now I have to clog up the forum with focus group things. I didn't find any problem with clicking last page to by pass the old posts.

Personally and I know I have spoken to some others about this, The forum now looks like FW's. I was happy that we were differnt in the whole no reposts thing. Now we are no different. *shrug* Just my opinion.

I understand they wanted to get the forum moving because of the dead period, but this was the wrong way to do it.

:iagree: The only things I don't like are the autorepost and the repost rule of 6 months (which does now look like FW which I hate that site).

I forget which things I get because there are so many offers I've gotten. I loved it when there was no time limit on the freebies. I hate to take more than once from a company.

I didn't like before when one offer were merged with a DIFFERENT offer with different links.

The only things I wanted out of a new repost rule was:

1) To have DIFFERENT OFFERS and LINKS have it's OWN thread. The few exceptions are Wal-Mart, BzzAgent, Survey Direct, WRInsiders because you can just check their sites everyday. Because they constantly give new things/new surveys. Plus some companies put their freebies on Wal-Mart and on other places, so separating these by Wal-Mart offers and these other places with different links in different threads is best.

2) If the link is still usable, then "BUMP" the thread by replying, if it's "EXPIRED", then a new thread should be made.

I can understand quarting PW's if you have to, Perhaps the autorepost could be disabled in the Freebies because of Selma's threads for organizing that thread which gets few replies? It's helpful for those looking for them, and easier to look in ONE thread rather than MANY threads. If it can't, then disable the autorepost all together.

Other than that, I like the new forums, shorter sigs - also maybe try limiting the size of font for them? (if mine can still be shortened with the same information and still readable for everyone, then please help) and soon to be icons for the freebies.

The problem with merging threads into year old threads.

Not everyone sorts the thread listing in Last Post mode. There is a UserCP option to sort by Thread Started.
Forums are designed for discussion. Discussions die when threads get merged into an old one. If you haven't noticed, when a new thread is posted people respond but once it is merged, it dies off.
Bumping an old thread to the top does not always signify that there is a new offer. People have gotten so used to it that they get annoyed when someone bumps up an old post with a question or discussion.
New users or users that don't visit Freebies everyday will miss these offers because of the thread started date.

6 months seems like a reasonable limit. The way I see it, we'll have a rash of new threads every 6 months to revitalize some of the older freebies.

It seems like freebies is a special case so I turned off automerge for freebies.

Slickdeals, I really appreciate how even though you have changes in a forum, you try to make it work with everyone, even if it isn't what you planned.

You deserve a rep :D

Thanks SD for fixing the autorepost in freebies. I quit posting all the focus groups because I didn't want to pollute the board with a bunch of groups. I like having the all in a single thread.

But I REALLY don't like the new changes on the forum. I am so use to the whole adding to old posts, I don't like the auto repost because now I have to clog up the forum with focus group things. I didn't find any problem with clicking last page to by pass the old posts.

Personally and I know I have spoken to some others about this, The forum now looks like FW's. I was happy that we were differnt in the whole no reposts thing. Now we are no different. *shrug* Just my opinion.

I understand they wanted to get the forum moving because of the dead period, but this was the wrong way to do it.

I completely agree!!! We are looking like FW now (as well as many other freebie boards), which is sad. I also have never had a problem going to the last page of an older thread and finding the most recent link. Plus, I really appreciate the history that original threads offer .... like what comes? what doesn't? what gets you spammed? what gets you on a junk mail list? what doesn't come as it's described? which ones are good and result in on-going sample mailings? That kind of info can't be replicated by new threads every 6 months.

If the problem is that "thank yous" clog up threads, then why not make all such messages "hidden" or put some limits on it? I would really love to see a different alternative to the new 6-month rule. Personally, I think it's not only encouraging people to not bother to search before posting, but must be encouraging people to ignore repost alerts altogether from what I'm seeing.

I completely agree!!! We are looking like FW now (as well as many other freebie boards), which is sad. I also have never had a problem going to the last page of an older thread and finding the most recent link. Plus, I really appreciate the history that original threads offer .... like what comes? what doesn't? what gets you spammed? what gets you on a junk mail list? what doesn't come as it's described? which ones are good and result in on-going sample mailings? That kind of info can't be replicated by new threads every 6 months.

If the problem is that "thank yous" clog up threads, then why not make all such messages "hidden" or put some limits on it? I would really love to see a different alternative to the new 6-month rule. Personally, I think it's not only encouraging people to not bother to search before posting, but must be encouraging people to ignore repost alerts altogether from what I'm seeing.:iagree: with you and Selma completely.

However, in all fairness, shouldn't we give this a try? It has not even been a week. Maybe after a few months of these problems still persisting, then I think we would have a better chance of asking to go back the old way.

What if there is some unforeseen consequence of this new rule that actually turns out to be great for everyone? (Note: emphasis on "what if" and "unforeseen").

Just give it a chance and see what happens. :look:

I completely agree!!! We are looking like FW now (as well as many other freebie boards), which is sad. I also have never had a problem going to the last page of an older thread and finding the most recent link. Plus, I really appreciate the history that original threads offer .... like what comes? what doesn't? what gets you spammed? what gets you on a junk mail list? what doesn't come as it's described? which ones are good and result in on-going sample mailings? That kind of info can't be replicated by new threads every 6 months.

If the problem is that "thank yous" clog up threads, then why not make all such messages "hidden" or put some limits on it? I would really love to see a different alternative to the new 6-month rule. Personally, I think it's not only encouraging people to not bother to search before posting, but must be encouraging people to ignore repost alerts altogether from what I'm seeing.


Thanks hon, actually my idea was a year limit.Gives you the idea of where it came from like you suggested plus most links are still active a year later.Not all I agree but most.I actually shot off a few ideas to a mod one being the year limit and one being shorten the achive so they old ones fall out. after a while nothing will be left but newer postings.

Also noticed alot of bad posts, I don't know if they research them to see if they work or not. And alot of out of the country ones. I'm not really sure how many folks visit SD from other countrys would be nice to maybe start posting them to see exactly how many.Might pull in more business for SD, but have them marked at UK so people don't get all in a tizzy about it and down thumb them.Always the business woman I am ;) Thinking about the gain margin.

For freebies, I agree that old posts should be bumped when the link is the same. How many times to we have to see a new ED Foods free soup sample thread? That one has been around for 10 years. My gripe was when a new deal got merged with an old one and the title wasn't changed to reflect the new deal. That seems to have been fixed. Thanks!

I agree with Selma - Everything she said - all of it.
Rock on Selma.

Just for laughs, I looked at FW today and guess what - their freebies section and ours were mirror images today.

Can I add one more thing into this discussion? Since when is normal web content a 'Freebie'?? Such as:

A website that explains how to get rid of ants.

WTH?

The freebie forum is getting clogged with dozens of such posts everyday. You all thought I was grouchy about the printable worksheets and paper airplanes, man you shoulda seen the face I made when I saw all those "Free tips on how to do this that or the other thing threads" that popped up in the past 4 days! :rolleyes:



The only thing that was ever a problem in Freebies aside from the massive influx of the junk posts, was the completely irrational merging of unrelated offers. That merging was usually caused by somebody hitting the mod alert button and providing an old thread link and claiming it was a repost. I know it's hard for the mods to check those and therefore something had to be done. however, in this case, the fix was worse than the problem.

In conclusion:
1. I like the one year rule for reposts
2. I like selma's master threads a lot and support anything that makes them work
3. come up with a specific definition of a freebie and/or post an alert to discourage the posting or urls for normal web content as "freebies" etc etc.

Thank ewe.

Oh and about the thankyou's - you could fix that by making a mandatory post length just in freebies so they at least have to say "Thank you very very very much" or somesuch. One site I used to go to did that and it worked out pretty well. It cured the casual Thankyou-people and the ones who simply cannot let a post pass without saying thanks just lengthened their thankyou statment. Everyone was happy.

I agree with Selma - Everything she said - all of it.
Rock on Selma.

Just for laughs, I looked at FW today and guess what - their freebies section and ours were mirror images today.

Can I add one more thing into this discussion? Since when is normal web content a 'Freebie'?? Such as:

A website that explains how to get rid of ants.

WTH?

The freebie forum is getting clogged with dozens of such posts everyday. You all thought I was grouchy about the printable worksheets and paper airplanes, man you shoulda seen the face I made when I saw all those "Free tips on how to do this that or the other thing threads" that popped up in the past 4 days! :rolleyes:



The only thing that was ever a problem in Freebies aside from the massive influx of the junk posts, was the completely irrational merging of unrelated offers. That merging was usually caused by somebody hitting the mod alert button and providing an old thread link and claiming it was a repost. I know it's hard for the mods to check those and therefore something had to be done. however, in this case, the fix was worse than the problem.

In conclusion:
1. I like the one year rule for reposts
2. I like selma's master threads a lot and support anything that makes them work
3. come up with a specific definition of a freebie and/or post an alert to discourage the posting or urls for normal web content as "freebies" etc etc.

Thank ewe.

Oh and about the thankyou's - you could fix that by making a mandatory post length just in freebies so they at least have to say "Thank you very very very much" or somesuch. One site I used to go to did that and it worked out pretty well. It cured the casual Thankyou-people and the ones who simply cannot let a post pass without saying thanks just lengthened their thankyou statment. Everyone was happy.
:iagree: Also the "didn't get one/mine" is really annoying to, clogging up the thread with useless information. It's ok the first few times in a thread, but after that it just clogs up the thread.

:iagree: Also the "didn't get one/mine" is really annoying to, clogging up the thread with useless information. It's ok the first few times in a thread, but after that it just clogs up the thread.


Kel be addressed that issue in an alert a while ago. You can heklp her out by mod alerting post that bump an opld thread just to say 'I got mine!" Or 'Anybody get this yet?"

She'll lock the thread.

FYI - The freebie section is still just like Fark wallet - I'm not gonna be posting much anymore if it doesn't get better. There's no point. Everybody is rushing to repost offers to whore up some rep and others are just treating the freebie fourm like a "post & Roll" site like DealCatcher. Mighty depressing. I've been gardening instead.:lol: I'm gonna have a bumper veggie crop at this rate.