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Drugstore/Grocery B&M Deals Index, Information, and Rules Thread (update 6/7/12)
The purpose of this thread
The purpose of this thread is to serve as a main index for all of the important and structured threads in the Drugstore/Grocery B&M Deals forum. Think of it as your one-stop-shopping thread where you can quickly get links to all of the information you need to save money at your local drugstore or grocery store! :)Who maintains this thread? You do! :) Everything indexed in this thread will be contained in the wiki posts below. If you see something here that needs updating, please edit the appropriate wiki. If you are not comfortable with editing the wikis, please post in this thread and ask for help and another user or a DS/GS forum moderator will be happy to help you.What information can be found here? The following things are located in this thread:What else do I need to know?Nonspecific threads and links The following things are helpful items found elsewhere on Slickdeals:Slickdeals.net Site Wide Forum Rules |
This post can and should be edited by users like you :)
A list of commonly used abbreviations in the Drugstore B&M forum
There is also a list of abbreviations that are used site-wide located here. To add additional abbreviations to the list below, simply click on the mod alert button at the bottom of this post and include the abbreviation in your mod alert. AC - After Coupon |
This post can and should be edited by users like you :)
Drugstore/Grocery B&M Deals Forum Specific Rules
DS'ers! We need your help! The times are changing, and we are going to try something new in this forum. We want YOU to write the rules! We have a set of site wide rules which governs everyone who has an account here at Slickdeals, but often our sub-forums require some additions that just don't pertain to the rest of the site. This is your opportunity to provide input on how you would like your favorite sub-forum to be run! To start things off, I have three guidelines to offer in this endeavor:
For sake of reference, here are the current rules which will continue to apply while we work together to create a new, simpler set of rules that will help foster a friendly environment for everyone. :) There is now in place a change to the previous wiki rules. Wiki's are vital tools for sharing information. The very purpose of their design is to be free for anyone to edit them. Users should never be chastised for sharing information in the wikis. |
Could we have a standard color for the same type of Qs when doing a matchup? A color for insert, B color for printables, C color for hangtags, blinkies, tearpads, D color for store related Qs, etc? Reformating from one store to another is a PITA.
What happened to slayers thread that he created for this purpose? |
The previous rules defines a small set of threads where the wikis are only updated by a special team. Speaking on behalf of the three of us that update the Printable thread, this thread needs to be kept closed in this manner as to not cause another wiki crash or a loss of data.
Here is the wording from Slayers' previous rules: Wiki's that are confirmed to be off limits to regular users: 1. Printable Manufacturer's Coupon Compilation 2. Kroger Deals 3. Alphabetical List of Unexpired Newspaper Coupons 4. Official PUBLIX (AL, FL, GA, SC, TN) Deals Thread. No OT please! (2nd wiki only) If a wiki is confirmed to be off limits to regular users, it means you cannot edit the wiki and it must be done by a special team member. In these threads you are to post in the thread and ask for information to be added to the wiki. These are threads where the OP and special team members are very active in helping to keep the wiki organized and up to date. |
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These coupon threads exist in multiple forums as well so that is something to consider. With the wiki though, anyone can edit them if they were so inclined. I do like the idea of a standard though. :) Quote:
When we brought slayers on, he and I at one time discussed switching over to a wiki format, but eventually decided against it for reasons long forgotten. Rules have changed over time, and the index became harder and harder to manage. Slayers preferred the individual stickies and managed the forum that way, and now that he is gone we're going back to my original index, but this time leveraging the power of the wikis which should make it easier on everyone. |
I guess I meant that make it a STANDARD for everyone to DO their wikis with the same colors for the same TYPE of Qs. ie, we make the wikis, we color them the way each thread does it now, but it would be great to have a COMMON set of coloring so we wouldn't have to change from Red (inserts) to Red (ANY paper Q, to exclude printables). If you've never done matchups, then you probably don't know what a pain they can be. If I've done matchups for Listerine :headbang: in the Kroger thread one week, it could be used again in the Publix thread, but the colors all have to change for each and every line. (before the new year, there were at least 15 different listerine Qs that were valid at one time, not including the printables, tear pads, etc).
I didn't know that there was an announcement that slayers left. I thought it was just cruel joke. RE: stickies, that's why the DS thread doesn't look the same tonight as it has... The new Q users thread is missing :bulb: for me. |
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If someone with demonstrated ability is interested in learning to help you keep up, I assume that the three of you would amicable to working with them? I am not referring to anyone specific here, just a general question. :) |
I would love to see a "coupon usage rules" thread (or some designated place to host the Q usage rules, even if that is just a wiki here). Slayers gave us lots of great posts about what the rules are, but they are scattered all over the place and the newbies can't find 'em (and don't know to even look for them). I had asked him about consolidating all of them into one SD Coupon Usage thread at one point, but he wasn't keen on it...I got the feeling that there may have been a reason behind the denial, but am not really sure what it was.
We do have the Coupon Barcode Basics thread, but Slayers closed it a while back and while it is an important thread that definitely needs to stick around, it has some conflicting info in it. With the influx of new q shoppers (thanks TLC :( ), we have lots of folks trying coupons without knowing what they are doing, and making lots of mistakes...which reflects poorly on the rest of us. I'd love to have one place for all the rules as they pertain specifically to coupons and their usage (I'd even be happy to host it/put it together/assist with compiling/whatever). Thoughts on this? Anyone? |
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:jawdrop:
Wow, |
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And when you have too many chiefs and not enough Indians .... oh, good lord! :crazy: |
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If all this was contained in the rules somewhere, we could direct these questions to that thread or to a particular wiki of that thread. Would be greatly appreciated! |
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TR, I understand you are going for "warm & friendly" and I'm all for that. I'd just like to see integrity maintained as well. :) |
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Coupon Police :whee: I'm gonna get started :) If anyone has any other specific suggestions, feel free to PM me if you don't want to clog this thread (all credit will be given, I promise! Unless of course you want to remain anonymous.). I'm going to get my thoughts together and get an outline going before I post a full fledged thread and wiki. |
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And TR, you may not realize what a big deal couponing has become these days and even if you do, it's about to get even bigger. (Thanks TLC. Ya' jackasses! :annoyed:) If some people are misusing coupons, intentionally or not, it makes the rest of us look either stupid ... or shady. I understand that "Slickdeals.net is not responsible for enforcing individual store policies" but I do think the rules should reflect a certain amount of INTOLERANCE for blatant misuse. We can do it with a hug and kiss for all I care ... we just need to do it. Quote:
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I hear what you are all saying about coupon misuse, and perhaps a coupon usage guideline is a way to address it. When putting this together, it is important to note that we (SD mods) can not enforce store policies, nor will we undertake this daunting task. However, we also will not tolerate blatant fraud and in fact have a 4-point warning for just such posts (you can see it by clicking here and scrolling down to Coupon Fraud).
It's a fine line, certainly, and I think you guys are on the right approach by creating a thread about it with examples of good and bad coupon usage, giving examples for each, and even down to each store's policies if you wish to include that information. We can collate the rules SD has about coupon posting and usage in that thread as well, but I do want to be clear that we will not be issuing warnings for posts breaking store policy, while we absolutely will have a zero tolerance approach to dealing with blatant coupon fraud. As for SD's rules about coupon posting and what is and is not allowed, I will have that clarified and I'll post it here, because quite frankly I'm confused by them myself. |
I would like to see the Target thread in this forum, too. Target, in my books, is a store just like WM. I never understood why that thread isn't here, too.
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let me inform the op of the target deals thread as a courtesy first. i'm sure there wouldn't be a problem since target now sells grocery as opposed to several years ago when not all of them did. |
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For example, RA's written policy is to NOT accept printables over $5. After I started doing RA, I asked about it at MY store and was told (by the manager) that reimbursement for those has never been a problem. Is he absolutely correct; I'd have no way of knowing. I can only attest to the fact that he was not only willing to accept them, but also encouraged the use. But sharing that information in a RA thread is sure to cause several people to start playing policy police and then the mods have to figure out who is right, who is wrong, who should get warnings, etc. Slayers used a blanket approach ... which worked ... but I guess some people didn't like it. It wasn't "warm & fuzzy" enough? :dontknow: Honestly, I don't care what people do as far as their individual shopping trips are concerned ... IF I DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT. But coming back here and talking about how they broke store policy or used a coupon they COPIED, or how they cleared out a store, or stole 118 peelies, or used a BOGO coded "14" with another Q, yadda, yadda, yadda ... always starts fights and derails the threads. Then we hit 2000 posts and *POOF*, the thread starts over and there goes the ability to search. And for the love of God, can we get a BanHammer for the morons who think everything THEY don't want to read about is OT???? These people spend more time b*tching about what other people wrote than the other person did writing it. :crazy: Staying on topic is one thing but SD is a user-driven site and some of us actually like interacting with other members. Crazy concept, eh? :D |
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Really like the format, TR. It seems to me that with the personal stickies feature and the wiki capabilities, this should be really easy for any user to personalize his or her forum view depending on need. |
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IMO, there does need to be some kind of notification to the poster that a post has been deleted by a mod (and why) points or no points, as right now, if someone doesn't understand why their post was deleted (by a mod), they just repost the damn thing (particularly the new folks). |
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I know its hard to police individual terms, but if the OP or wiki included a short list of things for the store that are not permitted (ie overage at certain stores, IPs over a certain amount), it would make it easier to get rid of such things. Slayers was very good about trying to keep a dozen people from posting against policy scenarios as it leads the newbies (and lurkers especially) to go and try that and then come back and spend pages trying to figure out why it was wrong to do since it was posted here. Couponing is becoming more popular (SD was just in a Yahoo news front page article about getting free stuff) and we can protect our ability to do as we do now or allow rampant ignorance and abuse of policies and see our wiggle room dwindle. If we enforce the 01/14 bogo coding we need to enforce other blatant abuses. I'm not saying they need points, just edited or removed posts. It may just be that you need to add some low level mods to do just this. |
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The individual stores can police their own coupon usage polices just fine without our help. Also, we must remember that Slickdeals is a forum about saving money and getting deals. We have mastered the art of using coupon codes in conjunction with price matching in conjunction with sales in conjunction with rebates and creative timing in order to make purchases online that save oodles of money. Why buy a hard drive for $100 when you can use multiple methods to get it for $15? Will everyone get these deals? No, they are often YMMV, but we encourage the posting of them so that as many people can get them as possible. Sure, the rebate might state that it is not valid with coupons or on sale items, but we submit them anyway, and if the check comes then great! If not, then we don't save quite as much as we had hoped but we know we still got a heck of a deal. Naturally, B&M coupons do indeed work a little differently and we understand and respect that. I used to do the CVS deals quite a bit back when they were much better, and I was able to super-stack my coupons at three out of four stores near me. Why shouldn't I share this? What makes this different than a YMMV hard drive deal that may or may not stack with a sale, coupon code, pricematch, and rebate? I would be able to at least get the discount on the sale, coupon code, and pricematch. If I got the rebate too, then great. If I don't, there's always the next deal. The point is that if a member posts they got $0.50 off of sausage links if the coupon was for sausage patties, and the store took the coupon, why should we punish the user for sharing this? It may not work for everyone, but many of the deals shared on Slickdeals do not work for everyone. Once I get clarification on our specific coupon rules, they will be posted and enforced with the tools that we have in place. There will no longer be any ambiguity as to what is not allowed, and the coupon rules will be applied as consistently as we possibly can. If our users wish to publish a Coupon Usage Guide (as mentioned previously) in addition to these rules in order to help new users understand what techniques should always work with regard to store policy then I'm all for it. If a user comes back from a run and posts that they successfully deviated from such a scenario and was able to save even more money, if there was nothing that blatantly violates our published coupon rules (even though it may violate store policy as published in a Coupon Usage Guide), we likely will not remove the post. The users are of course free to guide the individual to following store policy, but it is not up to SD mods to enforce such policy as long as our rules are followed. This discussion will of course evolve and our policy may indeed shift on this as more information is brought to light. Specifically, once we have a published policy on our coupon rules we will have a basis to go by and we can make adjustments from there. |
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Some posts are not generally worthy of warning points but for sake of sustaining civil discussion they may be worthy of deletion. Often such actions spark more controversy when we do notify the user of their removal rather than just stealthily remove the post. While on the subject, I feel it is necessary to also note that I am not a fan of editing users' posts. Someone may post something very verbose and somewhere in the post they state something objectionable and warn-worthy. I will generally remove the entire post instead of editing out a single comment. You see, I believe firmly that we all should own our words, whether spoken or written, and we should also own the consequences of those words reaching the public domain. I take this philosophy both in my own life and as a moderator here on SD. There are of course exceptions, such as if a user inadvertently posts personal information we'll edit that out as quickly as we can while leaving the rest of the post in tact. |
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If the coupon were altered to state that it was for links instead of patties, or if the user violated our (yet to be) published coupon policies in some other fashion, the user would be warned as appropriate. Again, once we have published our coupon rules we can go from there. |
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If SD is going to head down this path, I see bad things in our future. This site has always been the most ethical place I have seen, and I hate for that to start moving downhill... |
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How about this. Let's table the coupon discussion until we get official word from the powers-that-be on a published coupon policy.
Let me expand on this a bit. We will not be allowing illegal activity or coupon fraud. Our policy, once published, will reflect this. As I mentioned previously, I myself am not completely straight on what our current coupon policy is so it's entirely possible that the example we are discussing is a moot point anyway. Once the policy is published we'll get back to the coupon discussion but in the meantime I'm not so sure that it is productive to speculate on things that are yet to be determined by the legal guys. |
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Before you know it people will be using Crest White Strips Coupons on Dawn Dish soap because it scans. Who doesn't want $9.00 of overage on each item... this line of thinking has "Disaster" written all over it :sadwalk: |
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I really wish Slayers were still modding. He seemed to know so many of the store's policies. What a bear this forum must have been to handle mostly by himself. I just hope this doesn't turn into a cluster funk. :eek: |
I guess I may be alone in the thoughts I was trying to convey. I do NOT encourage, nor do I approve of coupon mis-use. I hope none of you (members or mods) got that impression from the example I gave (RA and printables over $5).
My whole concern is the appearance of impropriety on this board. I can use coupons legally and legitimately all day long in every store I shop at. By the same token, I can teach others to do the same. What I canNOT do is force others to do as I do when they shop. We should all police ourselves but the reality is, some folks are gonna see more value in rep points for posting a "questionable" deal that most people can get in on, than they are in posting a "by-the-book" deal that requires a moral compass. I see the rest of SD (Hot Deals, namely) as being a whole different animal from the DS forum. I've seen some abuse and craziness in HD that would NEVER fly in the DS forum! And color me twisted but I find most of the craziness in HD to be a riot. :lol: But I digress. I'm all for policing ourselves; I just want to know that there's someone out there backing me up if I MA a post containing "questionable" behavior. And I'm not throwing Slayers way of doing things in anyone's face, I'd just like to go on the record as stating that he was really good about backing up those who played by the rules and worried about this forum's integrity. edit: Sorry, I typed this out before I saw that you guy's had decided to table the discussion for now. Not trying to beat a dead horse. :) |
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SDs should in no way facilitate this kind of behavior. We're better than that. ETA: Responded before I read the discussion was tabled. |
LOL, just the coupon enforcement aspect is tabled for now, everything else is open for discussion.
I just didn't want to give the impression that we are pausing all discussion here. :) |
Where did the "New Q Users" thread go? I thought that was very helpful. :sadwalk:
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Once we've completed the discussion, perhaps we'll change the name of this thread to something more akin to catching the eye of new users and perhaps change the layout of the first post to send the new folks more directly to specific helpful threads. We'd then leave the rest of the index intact. The more I think about it, the more this approach makes sense because all of the seasoned users already know about the index, and it would easily direct new users right to helpful threads while still keeping the forum uncluttered of thousands of stickies. :scratch: |
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Coupons are a deal between the consumer and the manufacturer...and also between the manufacturer and the store. The manufacturer is the one who pays the reimbursement and they're the ones who decide what items they want to generate a coupon for. It is their money and their choice... Whether a store will allow a coupon for an unintended item doesn't matter. They're not the ones paying for the reimbursement. And I would gander that if a person got busted using the wrong coupon -- even if the cashier allowed it.. the cashier would NEVER admit they said it was okay to use it... and even if the cashier did admit it - it would still fall on the consumer's shoulders for committing coupon fraud. It's a slippery slope & slayers really knew the ins & outs of coupons, so I am really sad to see him go. If people start posting about misuse of coupons & the posts don't get deleted.. then I think that would put SDs in jeopardy. |
Wow just stumbled onto this, didn't even notice the post till I read the last comments and was like "wait, did I become unsubscribed to the thread?" I also had a bunch of multi-quotes till I read further and had to un-quote!
I luv the less stickies but the title might need some shanazing up to get peeps to realize what the thread is and what it can do for them, I was a huge fan of the old thread as I used it often on my phone, and away from my computer to get to my threads quickly! I think the idea of universal colors for coupons sounds great but implementing this could be hard....I like color coded but only those versed in the advanced editor really use them and I know being forced to put in certain colors will add steps to the process that might deter newer wiki editors from even trying (It's hard enough to get some regulars to edit it with all the rules and sometimes fear they have). Also finding the exact color used would be a problem as there is no special buttons we could add just for it, you would have to drop down the box and match it up and I know some people are color blind. A general coupon rules thread combined with the barcode thread would be nice, we do have to watch the abuse though. I think a solicitation of feedback from some of the heavy contributors is called for as there are a few here that really do drive the deals, I know a lot do go in the BS thread so it might help if a mod maybe asks for their input. IMHO the reason for the push for a little policing of coupon usage is that MANY don't just use this to get cheap stuff but use this to FEED their families and the loss of couponing would have a real impact on their financials so the need to be legitimate and follow the coupon wording ensures that coupon policies do not change or get restrictive and people can continue to get the needed savings. Now a question............I set up a new Rite Aid FAQ thread and we included a lot of Slayer's decisions of legitimate coupon usage at RA, should we remove them for now or wait for the coupon ruling from the SD gods??? A lot of the rules are specific for RA only. Also I know it was requested last year in the site problem.suggesting thread but a true coupon database system would be a greatly appreciate addition (I still :heart: you coupon thread maintainers) and would be a draw for this site instead of having us use other sites (HCW, AFC, or even some blogs now) |
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However, I'll add, that I don't mind the T thread being "elsewhere" it is quite a "different monster". I would prefer it where it is....:dontknow:
Dawn - You are always a great help over there too. And we appreciate that you do help them, guide them and are patient with them. Because in some threads, they would just get yelled at. (Ya, you know who you are:nono1:) |
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j/k but really I think the Target thread is a completely different beast of a thread then anything else in the DS forum. The issues alone with that thread and Q (ab)use is a daily walk on the wild side. If anything becomes YMMV on coupon coding and whatnot then I completely expect to see a C&D order fly out of nowhere. Things have been great in that thread for a while but it only take a second for someone to insinuate something "questionable" or start begging for MPP's. That's just my opinion though which probably isn't worth much :rolleyes: |
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suggestion 1: this thread we are in right now is one i "stumbled upon" right now. i have been a loyal (read: addicted) SD user since I joined in late 2009 and have been very active in the DS threads. most of the people who have posted here can attest to that. when i discovered the index: one year after i joined! what i did with it: looked it over, shut it and filed away for future mental reference that if need be i can work on finding "that index thread" again. referred one user to it because they specifically asked if there was some index. when i discovered the "new q users read this first!" thread: my first day on SD! what I did with it: sat and read it from first post to last in an all-night marathon of desperation (had never used qs before, needed to get going ASAP because of changing circumstances). referred to it frequently in following weeks and months. referred many users to it because they asked if there was some starting place to understand systems as a q user. most came back to tell me how helpful the thread was. many of the DSF regular users/frequent drugstore shoppers often say that SD is a place where you find more "high level" deal talk vs simplistic stuff in blogs etc. well the truth is, in part because of that, the SD DS forum can be incredibly overwhelming when you first set foot, because people are discussing deals and you don't even know the basics of how to get coupons, keep coupons, look up coupons, use coupons etc. :shake: so in my humble opinion, it is very helpful to have the new q users thread stickied to the top instead of buried, and then this index can be the second sticky. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- suggestion 2: on a separate note, when it comes to store policy discussion, is there perhaps an in-between solution that may be acceptable to mods? i.e. on the one hand is the idea that you aggressively patrol it and on the other is that you don't police it at all. well what about just some very basic rules for each store chain, that we know are on the highest levels of their coupon abuse list and make promoting those punishable on SD? i'm talking something as simple as "super-stacking" at CVS. when I first joined SD, i posted a scenario on a cvs thread that involved two different denomination $ off coupons. my friendly cashier accepted it: it was his first week there. i came and gleefully posted on SD what a great scenario I found: i was in my first few weeks here. I got a friendly zero point warning from slayers and we had a great PM exchange where he explained to me that what I had done was super stacking and that it had begun a fight in the thread between those who would do it and those who disapproved. he ended up having to delete a bunch of posts. Soon after that, I found out the cashier had gotten in trouble, so I went and apologized to the manager and explained my ignorance. Cashier was pleased, mgr was happy, and that CVS came to be one of my fav stores. I never superstacked again. I never posted about it again. for something like that, where SD has supposedly recd cease-and-desist letters from CVS about allegedly promoting super stacking, AND where we all know that it is not how the store intends the coupons to be used, AND where the coupons clearly state the restriction, would it not be reasonable to contend that if a user promotes such use on an SD thread then on their first time they should get a friendly warning (whether by mods or users on that thread), but that any repeat of that amounts to promoting fraud, and thus that users should be getting a hefty warning for it? don't know it once - you've been told. brag about it/tell others to do it after being told otherwise - you get punished. to me that's not about SD being the police, to me that's about SD protecting its own integrity, because silence is/can be assent. if you count the most active stores in the DS forum, there are only a handful - wags, cvs, RA, walmart, (if Target gets included then them, too), kohls and kmart. right? are there any grocery threads that match these in volume of users/posts? (i know the ones i frequent shaws, sns, market basket and whole foods are small in terms of users/posters and heavily self-policed). but any rate, it's just a few chains for which there would just have to be A FEW (not all) ultra-basic rules/high fraud rules/hot button rules that could be taken into consideration. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- suggestion 3: all users on drugstore/grocery threads should get a 4 point warning for incorrectly spelling vegetable or fruit names, even if such misspelling is in their SD names, and that rule should particularly apply to radishes. i plan on submitting this post as my PhD thesis once I enter a PhD program. Have a good weekend all. And slayers750, wherever you are in the SD universe: :blowkiss: , good luck, and thanks for all you did for all of us! |
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I guess I've never understood why the Target thread isn't located here as well. With the issues you noted with the coupon coding and mpp begging, that's exactly why having it in this thread makes sense to a lot of people. It has Q issues, just like we're talking about with these threads. Target has their own coupons and rules for engagement - just like CVS, Wags, RA. Seems like we're always fielding questions from folks who cannot find the Target thread. Maybe the forum name doesn't work for everything covered here anymore? If I'm going out grocery shopping, Target is one of my main choices. Needed advil last week, hit Target. Maybe it's just in the way I look at it, but Drugstore/Grocery Deals for Walmart, CVS, Wags, etc....and Deal Talk for Target. Just a bit odd. :confused: Edited to add: Good Lord I hope I don't have to turn in my Target deals membership now! Love that thread and the massive work put into it! |
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no target for you! :numchuck: :bonk: :lmao: well, okay maybe if you consider doing recaps 7 days a week for the rest of the year. :evil: yo slowtechhhhh, i think you might just have a great volunteer (indentured servitude?) here. :lmao: |
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Very sweet of you to say HD, but you were the driving force behind that thread. You put a lot of time and effort into creating it to help new people. :worship: It really is a great place for new members to get the info they need, and it should remain easy to find. |
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Unlike getting deals on hard drives or TVs, when we q shop for groceries and toiletries we are buying necessities, and being able to q is the way many of us survive. If coupon usage is curtailed because of mass incorrect use of qs encouraged by major sites like this, it hurts us all where it really matters. It will affect the ability of people to put food on the table, and afford things like shampoo, toilet paper, toothpaste, OTC meds, you name it. Those of us out in the q trenches have already felt the effects of the new TLC Extreme Couponing show, and it hasn't been good. Also, let's not forget that Bud from the CIC [cents-off.com] is lurking here just waiting for any instance of what he calls "coupon misredemption" so he can go running back to his group of high profile customers like Colgate-Palmolive, and justify the CIC's existence. (His great claim to fame was getting the Aetna Colgate pdf q declared illegal). We've already seen the language on P&G qs changed to 'limit of four like qs per shopping trip'. We really don't need any more of these kinds of restrictions, but we will get them if we aid and abet using qs in a way the mf. did not intend. This from the CIC's website: "The CIC is a not-for-profit association of consumer product manufacturers dedicated to fighting coupon misredemption and fraud. The CIC and its members have worked with Federal, State and local Law Enforcement officials on every significant coupon fraud case since CIC began operations in 1986. As of this time, CIC has not lost a single case." |
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-I would like the KMart and Target thread moved as well. Much prefer to have all the store threads in same forum.
-With the exception of the printables thread, I see no reason for some Wikis to be dictated over. They are either there for people to add information or not. I don't even bother adding anything to a Wiki anywhere because of the dictatorship. -A coupon usage forum or rules is an excellent idea. Sometimes it's not a matter of intentionall trying to mis-use as oppose to someone just not understanding. .....and stacking can get confusing. |
Thanks TR for making the newbie thread a stickie again!
no, I wasn't directing my comment to you hidn :heart: |
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The Printables thread wiki DEFINITELY needs to be maintained by a very precious few and the precious few we have doing it are doing a FANTASTIC job!!!! (:heart: you Wikibees!!!!!!) But yeah, this whole "it's MY wiki, don't touch it mentality" is for the birds. People make mistakes in the threads so of course they are going to make mistakes in the wiki. But if they don't try, they don't learn. And if they don't learn, then you have the same 2 or 3 people doing all the "work". I understand trepidation as far as not knowing what colors to use or how to make a link "pretty", but some users really FEAR backlash/verbal abuse from other members if they make a change to a wiki and that's just :crazy:. It's a USER DRIVEN SITE. The "hoarding of a thread" mentality needs to stop. I don't have a Target near me so I don't have a dog in that race, so to speak. But yeah, I never understood why it was over in DT either. :dontknow: The only negative I could see from it is that the "T" followers might discover the DS deals, leading to more competition for the rest of us. But let's face it, thanks to TLC, Marla Hooch, and the Jello Man, competition is already on the rise. :lol: |
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For the second part..the answer just arrived. Going now to read it. |
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Maybe we need a tutorial for the editor so people can learn how to use it or a link to one so that BB code is not such a scary thing. I just wish there was a stand alone editor so we could copy and paste easily without having to edit in that small box.
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Looks nice and tidy too! ;) |
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But I am mostly (or was to begin with) the one that goes out and takes pictures, finds out the deals. To begin with I took pictures of every monthly RR deals every month and then I made a google doc of them. That became a hard thing to do and was very, very time consuming. I didn't want anyone else in the wiki b/c there are so many that want coupon match ups in there and I just wanted it to be NEAT! I figured since I did all the work finding the deals I shouldn't have to put up with non-neatness being added to that wiki. Makes for more work for me to clean it up afterwards. I totally agree that more people need to add coupons to the weekly threads but no, they (may) post about a coupon in the thread but don't add it to the wikis. I don't yell at people for adding coupons to wikis in the weekly threads, I just go and fix the mistakes if there are any and i try to keep the wikis neat, It is usually people that do the least amount of work that complain the most :) And that has been said by many others |
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I do like the idea of having a uniformed coupon coding guideline for the threads. I am so used to manufacturer coupons = red, store coupons = blue, rebates = green -- which is used in so many threads to differentiate the coupon source. It would make things super easier if we had a standard format.. also I like the way the printable coupons are listed in the IP thread -- thatgirldawn set it up like that when she first started that thread & I think it is easier to copy/paste in that format to the wikis each week in the different weekly threads. Sometimes it can get confusing when you go to another thread which uses a totally different color coding/format, etc. Just some ideas.. :) |
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I usually do the Wags wikis and i do some work in the CVS wikis. I just think things are better understood if kept neat and orderly and not with a bunch of ad lib. Nice to see you posting :hug: Quote:
The idea of using pink/purple/orange (and other yuk colors) just makes it very difficult to understand... |
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You just wait we're going to turn you into a PUBLIX shopper before you know it :nod: I agree about the neat and orderly and some color's are better left in the crayon box :teehee: |
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The bottom line is, there are waaaay more people that would rather NOT touch a wiki than there are those that WANT to help with the wiki. But for those that want to help in a wiki and have the time, where's the harm in that? If they mess up and feel horrible about it, you help 'em fix it, give 'em a :hug: and life goes on. But if they mess up and you make 'em feel like an idiot, they might never post again. I realize some people don't care and say things like "you gotta get thicker skin if you wanna blah, blah, blah....". Fine. But you know what I say to people in REAL life that say that to other people? "Maybe they don't need thicker skin ... maybe you just need to be less of an asshole!" |
MsGal- My only point and what I think MFH was trying to say also is that if someone is the OP of a thread and already has a great system in place that reinventing the wheel isn't needed. If an individual is maintaining a wiki by themselves and need help or relief while they are away from the board then I think most people are going to make sure a stand in or a revamp is in place. Or at least that's always been my exp personally :dontknow:
Things might be different outside of the threads that I frequent but I can only speak of my own personal exp. |
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I understand what you are saying but in this case, and I am only using the Monthly thread as an EXAMPLE, it's not so much a great sytem as it is a guarded system. The way that wiki is set up is great, don't get me wrong ... but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to make changes to it. If my stores hung tags for monthly deals, and I went out and took the pics and came back with the information, I could easily make the additions to the wiki. Can the same be said for all of the threads? Of course not. I've created RA wikis and BEGGED for help because they are long and tedious. Wags threads are pretty easy. Grocery store wikis? I can't answer to that because I don't frequent them. Everyone that starts out in this forum is a "student". Not everyone advances, nor does everyone graduate. But without good teachers and the freedom to learn, we all remain students. :) |
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If someone wants to take time to seek the deals, collect info, pics, matchups, whatever, then start a thread, and they want the responsibility of keeping up the wiki with all pertinent info I think they should be able to.. Heck, if someone is willing to do all the work, and the info they are giving is correct, then I say go for it and I am thrilled.. Why fix what isn't broke? But, then again.. just my .02 |
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of course, this is all hypothetical for me.. cause I am not the OP of any main big thread :lol: I contribute when I can, answer questions, post deals I find, etc... but that is about it.. I am not up for as much work as those take.. and am so thankful to those OP who do :heart: Quote:
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If it truly becomes a forum of "ask for permission before you post", then I highly recommend that the SD admins find a way to remove the following from every ... single ... wiki ... on the entire site:
"Wiki Community Board This can and should be used by you to post updated deal information." There are a handful of threads that are best kept up by a small "team" of competent members ... but for the most part, anyone with reading and writing skills can add to or take away from a wiki. This issue has more to do with "power" and "authority" than it does with "uniformity". I can promise you that. You guys don't give yourselves nearly enough credit. |
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And I believe that most Wiki's like the PUBLIX thread have had that exact post edited out for the reason of not encouraging people to edit without asking for guidance or advice before doing so. |
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Editing a wiki is pretty simple and if you don't know what to do, then of course you should ask how to do it. You shouldn't have to ask IF you can do it. |
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We'll just have to agree to disagree about the whole wiki thing. In principle it's easy but as with all things content makes it more difficult. I hope the mods will see that there are many differences of opinions on this and until a good solution can be found just let the op's decide how their wiki's can best be handled. |
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The IP wikis are the only exception to that that I've seen so far, and hopefully we'll be working on a solution to that in the long term. :) |
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I say take a poll of the OP's of the most popular threads in the DS forum and see what their opinion about it is. I venture to say that most mods don't realize how much work goes into some of these wiki's but again I could be wrong. |
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I really tried to read through these comments with an open mind about allowing everyone to update wikis in all threads. And it's really hard coming from my standpoint where we've had the issues. We've had wikis crash, revisions discontinue updating to the current versions, updates lost due to other people updating outside the wiki team. If there was a way to lock the wiki while someone was updating it, perhaps those kind of issues and frustrations could be averted? |
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I could not agree more and that's why I keep harping on the importance of having the Printables thread maintained the way it is. That's a massive thread with multiple wikis and (in my opinion), harbors EXTREMELY valuable information for all couponers. Information that could not be replicated. I visit MANY deal sites and I have never seen a coupon thread as thorough. The same can be said of the Unexpired (inserts) Coupons thread. :worship: |
I think we all agree that the printables thread is a SPECIAL circumstance so no need to bring it into questions as even the mods agree....................My theory on this and I have the new RA FAQ thread as my creation is that the wiki should be open to all and others should be invited to participate as there is no guarantee that those doing it now will always be around to do it if it's a small team..........when you limit people's involvement then your "bench" of future contributors gets thin and it will lead to a point when no one wants or can do it. Any good manager knows that you train those under you to do your job so that it makes your job easier and sets up the future. In truth if an OP wants to maintain control of the info then they could just as easily put info in the first post and not the wiki. Now if a thread pretty much all agrees to a wiki team then let them do it but there should never be any negative or mean remarks to anyone that adds something to the wiki that isn't on the team as they could be the next super contributor.
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I think I can speak for Bailey and tn_native when I say that we would no longer volunteer in that thread if it became a free for all.. there would be WAY too much (unpaid) work & messes to clean up. :shake: No thanks!! :shake: |
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:iagree: on the idea of locking wikis while another member is in it so another cannot edit while another edit is in progress, so the wiki doesn't overlap one another. But I don't think it'd be that easy for the programmers to figure out. :evillaf:
I can see a slight problem: 1) the wiki being "opened" to be edited, but the editor forgets to "save & close" 2) because it was forgotten to be "saved & closed" the wiki will never be unlocked until that editor/user returns to "save & close" 3) if there's a timeline for the "save & close", members who actually take up 2-3 hours in a wiki may be kicked out without the save and lose their work...then there's the thought of auto-save (wow, wouldn't that be something for the programmers. :P) |
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But I can't get on board with the general principle of OP-wiki ownership. Yes, it's a good idea to let others know if you're doing major work in the wiki so as not to overlap. Yes, it's a good idea to encourage a uniform format, color-coding, etc. But, IMHO, it's not a good idea to promote the concept that users need permission to contribute on a user-driven site. :hug: |
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Most of the Wikis have a lifespan of a month or less anyway. If formatting goes a bit awry in one, it's not the end of the world, unless of course you're just some anal retentive Wiki dictator. |
Those of you who make lots of wiki edits or are in the wiki for a long time, how about this as a work-around?
One solution would be to copy the wiki in it's raw form with all of the BB code visible (i.e. not in enhanced mode), and past it into a utility such as notepad++ [notepad-plus-plus.org] with a BB Code [dcmembers.com] plugin on your local machine. Make the edits you would like to make, then paste it back into the wiki.l This way, you are in-and-out of the wiki in a very short period of time, even if your edits take a long time. Likewise, you could paste your edits into a new post or new PM (perhaps with your own username in the 'to' field in case you accidentally hit send) in the forum so you can view the edits by clicking on the "go advanced" button.l Again, once you are done with your edits, paste them back into the wiki. People who just add one thing at a time or who make short edits wouldn't need to do this since they won't be in the wiki for that long anyway, and if just one or two small edits gets overwritten those edits are usually easy to find. There are a couple of advantages here. 1. Short time in wiki minimizes negative impact of overwriting or forum software hiccup, etc. 2. Local record kept on your local machine in case something does go wrong. 3. With the correct tools in place, editing the wiki may actually be easier than doing it on the forum. |
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Been looking for a standalone BBcode editor for a while!!!!!!!!!! |
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mod alert it and i'll request that it does not auto-renew. when the thread gets too huge, i can maually renew it for you so that wikis are intact. |
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i see the little icon (prevent from archiving). that function is different from 'not auto-renewing'. that one will auto-renew but it will never be archived. only an admin can prevent from auto-renewing, two separate functions :) |
I couldn't even begin to start replying to all of the comments from everyone the last 24 hours in this thread as I would have 20 different posts - - - I do have a lot to say about this topic as I put in over 25+ hours a week on our thread working on match-ups and the Wiki.
First, thanks Serra for agreeing to manually move the Publix Wiki for us. That is what Slayers did for us and it is a HUGE help. I will most certainly contact you when the time gets closer so I don't have to recreate it every 8 weeks - That is a NIGHTMARE!! As OP for the Publix Thread (taking over for hidnprncss who "retired" and moved West) we have 2 Wiki's. The first Wiki is a compilation of items and the second Wiki is a coupon listing. Anyone can edit or note in either one however, most people don't. As the OP, I usually manage Wiki #1 by myself ensuring that it is continually updated, neat, consistent, etc. We have another volunteer who manages Wiki #2. I invite anyone to come look at our WIki's HERE Any peep from our thread can post in the Wiki. If someone goes into the Wiki and posts something, no one bites their head off including me. I totally disagree that the OP managing the WIki is a "power struggle" or "dictatorship" on my part. However, it makes things easier when there is 1 person or a team of people managing a Wiki. As for working "off-line" and transferring it into the SD system - that does not work in our case as so much of what I am doing is adding attachments, removing attachments, etc. I am pretty sure I have to be "in" SD to do that. I am not sure there is going to be 1 answer that works for every thread. I also think the DS/GS threads are different in that DS threads are for a specific ad/week and GS threads are for months and months of an ad (in most cases) therefore the needs and solutions that work are different. Then you take cases like the printables - and that is a unique animal all its own. I agree with HollyGolighty that I'm not so sure I would remain OP if the Wiki became a free for all. I agree that there would be way too many messes to clean up for unpaid work. Why try and create a new system if the one we have isn't broken? At least not in our thread!! You will not find a nicer, more ethical thread than the Publix Thread (Yes, I am bias :lol:) If we have people that want to help out and contribute - step on up and pick from a list of available jobs. No member or user is EVER denied their contribution on the topic of Publix. We are a message board so they can post whatever they want! I find it hard to believe that opening the Wiki for any and every member to post is going to make SD any friendlier! Whatever happened to the Coupon Database that I brought to the Site Questions Forum last July HERE? In October it was announced that it would be coming, yet here we are in April and still no sign of it!! :crying: I truly believe that SD could be making big bucks off the "clicks" from commissions from SD members going to coupons.com and RedPlum and SmartSource yet for some reason that funding source for SD remains untapped. Why??? I hate going out to HCW and H2S and IHP to use their sites knowing that the match-ups I am providing are funding their site and not ours. We have the best qualified web developers and techie people out there. How come we are the last peeps in the word to get a true B&M coupon database? Any update on that news??? I am also very worried about the notion of using coupons intended for sausage patties on sausage links and a lack of ethical standing behind that from SD. I know the discussion has been tabled, but this one REALLY worries me if SD changes the approach we have been following. I too would appreciate a universal policy on posting pdf's, MPP's etc. Although Target for example does not allow SD to post MPP's, there is no problem with it from Publix, so I ask SD to take this into consideration when making their new guidelines. I think that is all I have for now - - - however, I am sure I will have more to say later! ;) |
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:wave2: I'd just like to say that I don't follow the Publix thread but it sounds as though you make users feel welcome and do NOT treat people like idiots. :applause: I checked out the wiki(s) for your thread and it's quite impressive. It appears that you have a team of individuals (much like the IP thread), that keeps it clicking along beautifully. :) As for a coupon database, I'm intrigued. Other than the money that SD might make from a member clicking a link from this site, how would a database be more efficient for a member? I've seen the databases on other forums and find them to be confusing. The IP and Insert threads we have here are well-maintained, thorough and MUCH less confusing. If you know your ABC's you can find what you're looking for. I used one of the databases you mentioned and it gave no results for the coupon I searched for. A coupon that IS listed here in the IP thread. But it did give me 2 pop-ups and a bunch of ad garbage that increased page loading time. :lol: |
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Has anyone tried using this to add coupons? |
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Thank you for the kind words about our Wiki. We Publix Peeps take a lot of time to make it what it is and although I as OP may maintain it, the contributions and its contents come from ALL Publix users. As for the coupon database, without a doubt there are GREAT ones and not so great ones out on the web, hence perhaps why you could not find what you were looking for. I believe most people would agree with me that HCW has the most comprehensive and complete one out there so I will be using that as an example. First let me say that Bailey and the printables team do a STELLAR job. :worship: I want to make that clear as I don't want anyone to summarize from my statements that follow to say anything but that. I spend 4-5 hours a week doing match-ups for a grocery store ad that may have 300 plus items in it a week. That 4-5 hours does not include the 2 hours it takes to type it up from the physical copy, item by item, category by category. However, as the person doing the match-ups, the printables thread has little value to me overall to assist me. I need one source in which I can cut and paste the match-up information that not only includes the printables, but also includes the insert match-ups, tearpads, home mailers and store coupons. Currently this information is spread out in a few threads on SD and some of it is not available at all, hence why many SD DS/GS peeps leave SD to utilize this resource. Why are we pushing peeps off of SD? In a two month period, there are approximately 60,000 clicks just from the Publix site alone every few months (estimated - obviously - based on views times 2 clicks) Imagine the amount of money SD is losing? When I paste a link from another site to my match-ups the money is going there instead of here. Why?? Maybe Mr. SD could buy himself another Porsche or something?? :lol: I am not trying to put the printables folks out of business, however, a Coupon Database would partially do that. IMHO, I feel as though the printable team could manage the Coupon Database, just as they do on HCW to ensure the information stays current and relevant. If you are looking to see what coupons are available for Colgate toothpaste and are on SD, you now have to go to the printables thread and then the unexpired insert thread to find out. On top of that neither one of those will tell you if there is a rebate available or a peelie or a tearpad. My suggestion is one resource for all coupon info. Most blogs and message boards have one, so there must be some value to it. Look, we are the best message board out there. All of us know it or we wouldn't be here. Why not have the best resources available for all peeps for all instances? I agree with you that not all Coupon Databases are updated and reliable, but HCW is the closest thing to being the best and with our kick a$$ SD web folks I have no doubt they could improve on it to make it even better. Not sure if that answers your question - - - :D |
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I just went to your link and now remember why I don't visit that link. :shake: It does not help me in my purpose of finding match-ups for ALL available coupons for an item. Here is an example of an item in the upcoming Publix ad and the associated match-ups I posted yesterday: Nature Valley or Fiber One Granola Bars, 14.1-17.8oz box, BOGO $5.49 $0.75/2 Nature Valley Granola Bars 3/27/2011 SS Insert (exp 5/21/2011) $0.75/2 Nature Valley Granola Bars 3/6/2011 SS Insert (exp 4/30/2011) $0.75/2 Nature Valley Granola Bars 2/13/2011 GM Insert (exp 4/9/2011) $0.40/1 Fiber One Chewy Bars 3/6/2011 SS Insert (exp 4/30/2011) $0.50/1 Nature Valley Granola Bars (exp 4/10/2011) $0.50/1 Nature Valley Granola Bars (exp 4/5/2011) $1/2 Fiber One Chewy Bars Rolling $1/1 Nature Valley Chewy Granola Bars - Peelie When I go to your link, I typed in Nature Valley and it told me there were no available match-ups. Imagine that. Obviously from the above list there are several. Even if I tried to add the match-ups I got from another site, this is not possible to add the insert items or the peelie info as there is no place in which I can add them. :( By the way - - - Hi Mr. Raddish :wave: We have not formally met!!! :worship: Stepping off the soap box!! |
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Ok, just cuz I'm a nerdy, I just went and counted how many lines of printables we have. And lots of those have multiple links on one line. We are currently at 1300 lines of printable Qs. Amazing how much it's grown. |
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A combined database for all types of coupons sounds pretty amazing. No, the printable team would (now I'm speaking for them) not be managing it. (they'd kill me) I can't imagine the volume of updates required to keep up with the other types of Qs along with the fast-increasing number of manufacturers offering printable coupons out there for their products and the amount of daily changes and deletions. And the printable Qs would be of no use to a lot of people if it wasn't a pretty damned quick update set up as these Qs are sometimes so hot they last only hours. Whoever managed it would need to have the ability to constantly and immediately update the database. Am I interested in a combined coupon database here on SD - absolutely. But I have gone out trolling on other sites before looking for a good database, and I've not found one yet that I like. Mainly because they aren't up to date or comprehensive enough. That's going to be one of the main issues I'd think because if it isn't current, it isn't valuable. |
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I have much to go back and read but I noticed that ya'll restickied the New Q users thread. So far I haven't seen a post about it but thank you...TR (I am guessing??) for listening to us about the importance of having that stickied. Serra, if it was you, my apologies. Thank you as well. :)
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It was me, HD. I actually made a post about it, but lost the post on my phone as somehow it never showed up in the forum. :dontknow:
I'll try to remember to recreate it again when I'm in front of a full sized keyboard instead of the mobile site. |
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I'll get with the web devs to see if it can be adapted for DS/GS use.
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Wow! I had muliquoted so many posts it would have taken my forever to respond - so I just deleted them.
I, personally, don't see any problem with a person or a team being responsible for a wiki. Other people can still contribute information FOR the wiki - but the "wiki-people" put it into the wiki along with their formatting. I have never felt stupid, or less than, just because another person was taking responsibility for a wiki. Personally, if I put a lot of energy and effort into a wiki, I am not sure how open I would be for anyone and everyone just changing it when they wanted to. From my experience, threads that don't have someone step up and take a major responsibilty for keeping the wiki, that leave it more open for all the members to contribute as they do, do not have near the quality of wiki as the threads where someone steps up and takes that role. MFH used to do major work on the Wags weekly threads wikis. They were well organized, timely, had helpful links at the top, etc. I know I got pretty lazy because I rarely had to look for anything. There was already a link in the wiki for most of what I needed. When MFH stepped aside a bit and started doing less on that thread - the format of the wiki changed. I had to find the Printables thread, and the Monthly thread and sticky them, because I could no longer count on those links being in the wiki. I missed that. Then for a few weeks, even several days before a week started there were very few coupon match-ups in the wiki. Some were discussed in the thread - a few made it to the wiki... someone finally added some - but it certainly wasn't the same quality as before. Diffusion of responsibility doesn't always create the best quality. I was personally glad to see MFH taking a more active role in the Walgreens weekly wiki again. I think the first week she did that again the week had almost started and the wiki still had deals in it that weren't going on that week and didn't have the deals that were going on. I am not sure. I just remember there was a wiki, but the next post under that, or a second wiki had all the actual deals and the coupon match-ups. I just remembered I needed to go to the second one that MFH created - and not the first actual wiki that week - to find the correct information. I like the style of wiki MFH produces.Could I also do that style? Probably. Do I want to take the time and energy it requires to do it? Apparently not. In the Commissary thread - we don't even worry about the wiki. But that works for us. But commissary deals work differently than other stores. And so that thread is a different sort of animal. The Target thread also has a wiki team that keeps the wiki organized well. I do not think other members just go in there and edit information. So I am not sure if we can have our cake and eat it too. We want well organized, well maintained wikis - but to get that usually requires a person or group of people to dedicate quite a bit of time and energy to making that happen. But we want this to be a community effort, where no one has "ownership" of a wiki, and all members have an equal right to edit it - so those who do invest much time and energy are supposed to step aside and let that happen - or they are too controlling. But then it goes back to the diffusion of responsibility where the wiki may or may not be completed (unless the contributing "non-owners" keep putting in a lot of time and effort while stepping aside...) I don't know... lots of personal feelings seem to be connected to this discussion... |
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I think if we totally have a free for all and things start getting messed up and taking too much time to fix, then as some others have said, the people will stop all the work they have been putting in. The next thing will be people complaining and whining about why there are no current deals in the wiki and why no one has done matchups. There are several people who do a ton of work contributing here on SD and if they stop then I dont think we will have near the same quality of info in the threads. Just my opinion :) |
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And in the RA threads ... a lot of the really HOT deals don't get put there right away because we don't want the blogs to know about them too soon. :coverlaf: Silly? Maybe. But it works. :P I'm glad no one has ever made you feel like an idiot or publicly humiliated you---you're AWESOME! Not to mention, a "legend" in our little commissary thread. :worship: But I have seen people get verbally abused for editing a wiki. I have gotten MULTIPLE pm's over my time here from people who were so embarrassed or so angry that they just went back to lurking. Some even left. (And I'm not the only one that got those pm's. ;)) But again, with the exception of a handful of threads in the DS forum, there aren't too many that need "ownership". Quote:
And that is NOT what SD is about. It's not about a few that think only they are capable, taking all the credit. It's about a few that are willing to teach MANY that are capable to step up, help out and get some credit, too. Not that any of this really matters. I doubt we'll see any drastic changes. People can hoard their wikis all they want. |
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You know what? I have stepped back and left the wiki alone in the wags thread to see if anyone else would bother to do anything in it and guess what, nobody bothered most times. This weeks wiki, I waited and the day the ad began there was only 3 coupons added to the wiki, so I went ahead and put what matchups I had in there. Nobody can say I dictate that wiki because I have left it alone many times but nobody does anything. If anyone does happen to add anything to a wiki and it isn't in format, I just fix it and say nothing. I think some people on SD just need something to constantly bitch about. ETA: I learned how to do a wiki on my own, nobody "taught" me. it is something you have to learn on your own and there is a thread specifically for learning that somewhere by KMA. People need to read it and learn how to edit a wiki. Another ETA: If "controlling" the wags wiki means I go in the wiki and put stuff added by others in PROPER FORMAT, then I guess I am guilty. If a wiki isn't properly formatted and uniform, nobody will read it b/c it will be a mess. Proper format isn't hard to do...all you have to do is look at how the things are listed and follow suit:rolleyes: |
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You must :heart: me bc/ you stalk me a lot :lol: Yes, and those that bitch most do no, if any, actual work in a wiki |
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But I'm not gonna make this about something it's not. Think I love you, think I hate you; I couldn't care less. The issue at hand is wiki editing ... to do or not to do. And the Mods have final say on that regarding ALL of us and I will respect whatever THEY tell me I can or canNOT do. |
So now the real tests begin and I am not liking what I am seeing. The idea is for a warmer, friendlier DS/GS forum. But SD doesn't want to enforce store policies. So when someone posts that they have misused a coupon intentionally or not, those posts are allowed to stand because SD doesn't enforce store policy? This is going to cause HUGE issues. HUGE. It will NOT make for a warmer, friendlier environment. It is going to cause a lot of fights.
I like the gunslinger type attitude for Hot Deals. That works for that forum. As with all things SD, what works in one forum does not work with all forums. I do not want to meet other couponers and be embarrassed to tell them that my "home" site is SD for couponing. Allowing misuse leads to that point. The mental attitude for most DS/GS store couponers is legitimate coupon use, not whatever I can get away with is cool. We want to draw people here. We don't want to be embarrassed about the site. Right? I realize that DS/GS deals doesn't add much to the SD pot as far money goes. But eventually most long time users make their way all around SD. :biggrin2: EDITED TO ADD: No offense to the mods here trying to do their job but if you don't know the rules for these stores how can you possibly be expected to efficiently moderate them? You can't. Obviously. I am just trying to wrap my head around this. SD doesn't want you to know the rules? Or SD doesn't care what the store's rules are? I am not getting why, in this particular forum, this is being allowed? :scratchh: |
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Ok I feel confused about a couple things and feel like there's a conversation or a localized incident going on here that I'm out of the loop for or one specific "wiki" that people felt left out of. I think alot of our people have come in to defend their right to the way's there wiki's are treated and we've eliminated a lot of "What Wiki's we aren't talking about" so I guess the big question here is "What Wiki ARE we talking about where one person is controlling it and other's feel sad and excluded that they can't help out" so far I know it's not the printable's thread, the PUBLIX thread, the wag's thread, RA and Kroger (I think was also on the list) so is it the Target Wiki? They weren't even over here in the DS? Maybe it's an issues that needs to be addressed with one particular person instead of all wiki's being affected? I have to confess that I hate the way the RA thread works and the fact that I can't just go to the wiki and see what's on sale every week. The man of the house here works RA deals and follows the thread. Sometimes he'll say to me "Can you look up xyz for me in the Rite Aid thread" I can't just go to the wiki but instead I have to read pages and pages of posts just to see if a box of tissue's is producing up's and what the limit it. If the wiki isn't being updated because of "Other Blogger's Stealing the deals" then I think that's a horribly poor excuse. It's hurting other SDer's who don't have hours to read the thread and stay caught up on it every day. Our deals from our PUBLIX thread get swiped every week most likely by the same blog that swipes the RA deals (since they both :heart: both of those retailers) anyways if they want to steal the deals then let them! I feel like to work a Rite Aid deal I need a secret decoder ring and there aren't any other DS threads where I feel like that. I also feel the 2nd statement that I highlighted in red directly conflicts with the first statement. It's OK for the Rite Aid thread to purposefully not have the wiki updated so people can easily find deals but in the same respect there's a problem when other threads have info that doesn't get updated in the wiki. It just seems very double sided and doesn't make sense? I'll give our PUBLIX thread example.... every week we are lucky enough to have the AD (which starts on the following Wed or Thursday) the Friday before. We are the ONLY site that gets the ad before Monday which is a huge huge deal for PUBLIX peeps when ordering coupons and whatnot. The person who posts the ad is not the person who does the matchups. That doesn't affect the ad getting posted early. The ad gets posted as soon as that person get's home from work and types up the ad only. It's typically in straight black print and then that gives everyone their ad fix and we wait while whoever is doing the matchup's works on the ad. We still know what's on sale and we all help forward info on "Such and Such Q for Such and Such item" before you know it the ad and the matchups plus a "Dealz & Stealz" is up! This is all typically done 2 to 3 days before other blogs would even have the info. It doesn't affect us getting deals or other's finding out what the "Secret" deal in the thread is. Our biggest conflict with deals being stolen is not seeing credit issued to SD's (not the person who posted it) but SD's as a whole. If we are going to make this a friendly forum for all then the first step would be making the deals easily accessible for even the newest members and that also makes it a friendlier place. :heart: Quote:
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I almost want to say that instead of "who's editing the wiki" being the main question the real question should be If there's a deal thread then the Wiki needs to be maintained and updated with the weekly deals every week OR the thread needs to be turned into a store related chat thread and not a deals thread. Maybe that will help others step up to update these wiki's if the thought of loosing their threads as a deals thread is over their heads? ;) It upsets me to think that we have deals threads where wiki's aren't updated and people have to dig and dig just to see if they have a deal? |
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Also I think it's funny that there are 5 member's and -0- guests viewing this thread but everyone is hidden :lol: Guess you can tell it's all us old timers in here :teehee: |
I kind of fall on the side of anyone should be able to maintain a wiki. I just don't have a dog in the fight since we don't maintain the wiki in the commissary forum. But if we did...I'd want everyone to help. I'm too lazy to do it all on my own. :P
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MFH made this issue personal 2 days ago when she (mistakenly) responded that my concerns about wiki "hoarding" had to do with the Monthly thread. It was NOT about that thread ... but does happen to include that thread. She drew attention to that, not me. And I wasn't even the one that began the dialogue about wiki editing, I simply voiced my opinion. Let me say that again ... my OPINION. It means absolutely nothing about how things have been done or will be done on SD ... it's merely my opinion and I am entitled to it. Many members share the same opinion about wiki editing. Some have spoken out on the board, while others through PM because they don't want to get caught up in the conversation and feel as though they are having to choose sides. The reality is, no one has to choose anything. The Admin decides what will and what won't happen with the wikis and the sooner some people accept that, the better off they will be. But if things change to their disliking, they will have to blame someone and people like myself become collateral damage. That's fine, I'm a military wife ... I know all about collateral damage. :lol: I respect your opinion and thank you for taking the time to share it. The only thing I can say about the RA thread is that some of the RA'ers might visit the Publix thread and say the same thing about the Publix wiki .. hate it. I wish I had a Publix; I'd spend more time perusing the thread. The same goes for Target. But alas, I do not and am left to peruse the threads of the stores that I do have available to me and therefore, can only comment on the behavior I see in those threads. Things are better now than when I first joined, that's for certain. But I would love to see more people help out with the wikis. Perhaps I'll work on a cheerful, encouraging little "chant" that I can throw in every so often and see if that helps. :P |
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You should have just said the threads you were talking about to avoid confusion and to avoid people having to play guessing games. I'm not here to play games with you. If you took it personal, that's your problem, I try not to make personal attacks. I was just answering someone's post. |
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And no one was playing guessing games. It was a blanket statement regarding wiki "ownership" and applied to any wiki where a member felt that they and ONLY they could edit the wiki, EXCLUDING the IP and Insert coupons thread. And again, it's just my opinion and has absolutely no bearing on the outcome of how things will proceed. TR asked for input on the forum and I gave it about the particular topic at hand. Though you might not share (or respect) my opinion, the topic doesn't have to become ABOUT YOU. |
Ah, wikis. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
:lmao: Not quoting anyone here, cuz I'm not looking to inflame anyone...just want to state my opinion on the wikis. I have had my hand slapped for touching one before. Apparently I added some coupons in the wrong color, and a contributor that simply wants to copy the SD wiki to their blog in the easiest manner possible called me out on it. Thing was, it was an honest mistake. I had never updated a CVS wiki before. There was no legend of colors in the wiki I was working in, and no one had added any q's for me to follow. I was used to the Publix color scheme and thought the CVS color scheme was the same...but didn't realize there were differences. And frankly, I didn't feel it was that big a deal. It was something like 3 or 4 days before the sale started, and the OP hadn't put in any matchups, so I did, for the benefit of the community. And instead of gratitude, I got a public lashing. Now I only work on a wiki if I am the OP of the ad...and I don't always do it then. I didn't add anything to my wiki a couple of weeks back, and I do believe it stayed mostly barren for the entire week. A couple of people added a couple of things, but no one else stepped up to the plate with full matchups...sad really. A user driven site where users are either afraid to contribute, or are just apathetic. I know CVS deals suck lately, but still... I think in general wikis should be allowed to be edited by everyone (with the exception of a few, of course). And I think we DS folks should consider a uniform color scheme. No one should EVER have their hand slapped or be discouraged in any way from posting a deal and adding it to the wiki. If you are too afraid to add it to the wiki, so be it, but please ask someone to add it for you (and try to conquer your fear of the wiki...it doesn't bite!). If a certain thread wants a "closed" wiki, so be it. I completely understand why the printables thread is restricted, and I have no issue with that whatsoever. But a weekly or monthly deal thread shouldn't be... And I agree with others' disdain of the RA wiki. What a completely worthless piece of work it is. Those RA folks spend so much time trying to hide the deals, it's not even funny. My nearest RA is 65 miles away, and I can only get there once or twice a week or so...but the 10+hrs a week I have to spend hunting that thread for any useful info completely turned me off to the deals. I cashed out all my +Ups a few weeks ago and quit going. Not that I ever got much there anyways...when you don't visit until Wed or Fri, everything is gone, even though the RA folks tried so damn hard to hide the deals... I do like the RA color scheme though (I know, call me a traitor, or worse). It's is much easier on the eyes IMHO, as I have a hard time with all the red. Deal in Black Bold MQ in Black Narrow Store Q in Blue Narrow Rebate in Green Narrow |
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Honestly, in the past few months, it had gotten to where I was afraid to post in here. Half of things would get deleted, and I felt threatened to ask why, I felt threatened that if I repped the wrong post or person that I'd get warned for it, etc. As far as the coupons go, I think SD can put the store policy out there, but I don't necessarily think it's up to them to police it. Believe me, I've seen plenty of non-moderator people policing them. (:P) If something is posted that is against store policy, someone can say so and move on. |
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In the same manner I can read between the lines on most deals and all the "ahem" innuendo that's there but I've never been able to put together one "Up's" deal without getting frustrated with reading all the chatter. I think that thread and sometimes the Target thread both need to update a little better and make it more "Deal's Friendly". The Target thread became a memorial thread a while back when Jujuli left. I am sad to see her go too and valued her but did we really need a week of "In Memorial" posts? Since then I've not even been following the deals and just making my own way. Maybe I took the long way home on this but if somethings a deals thread then I think that's what it needs to focus on. Making the deals easy to find, easy to read, easy Q matchup's, and so forth. If people want to keep the deals to themselves then they shouldn't bother dealing with a forum and just freestyle on their own or come up with their own "Mommy Blog" to take the credit themselves. I've never been a person who cares about individual recognition but to some people it matters greatly too. I am enjoying the different views and opinions on things and hope the mods are also getting valuable insight from our exchanges about how the DS forum works. :heart: Quote:
:heart: Ya Rydergal :hug: |
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I agree about the "Mommy Blog" thing too and apologize if it came across as saying all "Mommy Blogs" are stealing deals from SD because it's not the case. In the PUBLIX thread though we've had many issues where we are actually doing our own primitive watermarking of deals and then seeing them copied and pasted to another PUBLIX forum with not acknowledgement of where it came from (watermark and all). If you start seeing 2 or 3 deals in a row copied to another site then it does wear on your nerves a little. Also if it was reversed then the PUBLIX thread always gives credit from where the deal was first found. We try to be respectful of other's and just get disappointed when the same "respect" isn't given. |
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I don't know what to tell you guys, as far as the RA thread. It's a long read most weeks and to be honest, I haven't shopped there in almost 2 weeks. (Just had too much going on at home.) For the most part though, I don't even consult the wiki, I just try to speed read my way through the thread or the daily recaps.
hdnprncss, "personal taste" is exactly what I meant when I said that earlier. I think it's just what people get accustomed to and some don't like change. A uniform policy on colors schemes is a great idea, IMO. Now who gets to decide what color format to follow? I can see that turning into a heated argument for some, too. Poor mods ... hope they are wearing their FLAK jackets. :lol: Jenni, I didn't know you had a blog. :) |
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Well, I started here at the HD forum when my friend forwarded me the link to a hot deal. I was curious about the site and read more but remained a lurker. I did not join until several years later when I stumbled upon the DS/G forum and see that I can save days after days for essential items that my family uses everyday. I felt in love :heart: with this forum :heart: It really helps my family through struggling time during the past several years and I deeply thank you for it -
The one thing that's setting this forum aparted from others is the continuity and our relationships with the stores. I don't want that to be ruined with the lax or wrong attitutes toward using coupons for items it's not intended for - I have seen some popping up in the last few days, and w/o Slayers, no one cares to delete those :( Many of us in this forum are increasingly facing stiffer competitions and constant OOS due to the TLC show, s&g'ers and bad apples, etc. that the RA thread has to go in ninja mode for their deals and risks appearing too cumbersome for new comers :( - to rydergal and hidnprncss: have you checked out the second wiki in RA threads? That's where the deals are ;) I just hope that whoever replacing Slayers would follow most of his footsteps and improving the DS/G forum so all new and old members could enjoy its prosperity and longevity. |
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I also lurked for quite a while and only really started posting because of the CVS thread that KMA had started (back while they were still in HD's). I must admit that I haven't tried to find deals at RA for at least 2 weeks but even with things being posted in the second wiki I don't think all the deal info is there? I might be wrong... I'm wrong all the time but I know there's a lot that goes on that isn't in the wiki :dontknow: We have a hard enough time getting deals in NorCal that we don't need people abusing what little we get :lol: Geez for someone (like myself) who typically doesn't leave the Publix chat thread I feel like I've been having too much to say about things :ermm: Going back into hiding now :ninja: |
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Now the RA threads do have a daily recap in place that will list all the good deals and such but some of the regulars felt that the "free" section would not be added into the wiki untill the day the sale starts. I'm not a fan of this but it is common practice in a few threads like the Target thread. Now the deals are in the wiki but listed as a regular deal and not highlighted. I believe the point is so that the readers of the thread can get thier coupons and orders in before it hits the other sites. I also agree that it is pointless as there are many sites that get the deals also and before this board so I dunno why they think it works. But the recap does have the deals, well at least mine do. We all need to chill out a little and spread some :heart::heart::heart:!!! |
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There is now a poll in t he forum. Please CCP this post in that thread and voice your opinions. :) |
I'm a bit confused of what is said by Rite Aid threads aren't as friendly to find deals versus let's say CVS... are we saying that matchup part is flakey? or do you mean that the scenarios aren't shared? Rite Aid has turned into a mini Target thread for weekly threads!
It used to just have a max of 5 lines listing rebate deals, maybe if we're lucky a coupon to match those rebate deals. Are we expecting members to be spoonfed scenarios in addition to the listing of deals, coupon match ups, and limits? I think that actually goes against self-help that SD is trying to promote? The search feature which is repeated over and over. Conclusively, we're a community, we need to communicate...so most of the deals and scenarios are discussed in the pages of the thread...or am I missing the ball here? |
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And I remember what you are talking about, Ryder. Maybe there are a few more things we need to define as standard in the DS/GS wikis besides color. What about the coupon format? Do MQs need to be listed a certain way to make the addition of coupons easier (WITH the data that's available now). Does it need to be in the same format as the Insert Q thread? And that begs the question of the printables and if a standard format is required there. I don't want any one to feel like a doof for putting it in a certain way, but is it easier to read across all the threads if it is standard? Or quicker to enter if it's in a standard format? What else could be 'standardized'? Or is there anything else? Different stores work so differently. |
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I will agree that the IP and insert threads here are not all inclusive. The IP is user driven and not everyone knows its there, so things may get posted to deal threads but not the IP thread. The insert list is based off TTP. While I love me some TTP, I mostly only use it to remember how many inserts I am looking for when I buy papers on Sun. Coupons are regional, and thus some get left out of TTPs list or are included when I don't have them. Most good databases use a collection of regions to update their inserts database hoping to get everything included. Quote:
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Wikis: I have always been rather put off by the fact that the OP of a thread is given rule over the thread, even if they are MIA for long periods or do no work for long stretches or are on again/off again with their contributions. To give one person such power is making them unfairly above the other users/contributors to a thread. While I can acknowledge that some wikis need less help from outside (such as the IP thread) I too have seen several people publicly humiliated for trying to help. Even if the thread says not to, making a public spectacle of someone is never the answer and only makes the lurkers more sure that they should never bother to help since it is unwanted. Asking for help but insisting on exactly how people help, when they help and how often they help is a bit controlling and is not making it a community effort. If you want that much control you should be doing it all yourself. You put yourself in a position for only your work to be good enough for you. I can think of a thread off the top of my head that has had very little help or intervention from the current OP for months (at least it seems that way). We have updated, deleted, reformatted, etc the wiki as we see fit since it won't get done otherwise. The RA "hiding" drives me nuts too, but being in the minority I have to deal with it. I skim 4 RA threads each week, do my own matchups and share them in the Shaws chat, since you may never find them in the actual RA thread. Knowing people remove pertinent information I am not about to do matchups/scenarios in the wiki just to find them removed later on.. I also have issues with even some of the colors used in the wiki. I use the dark forum skin. Green and blue are hard to read. As is black when used as a format color. No one cares that only people using the light screen can read them easily. Most of you probably don;t even realize there are two forum skins....a common format for colors would be superb however. |
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Shared scenarios weren't ever really posted on the wikis for drugstore threads... I've seen them in grocery threads... I think this goes into the wiki editing discussion part which I'm not trying to get into. People might be afraid to add their scenarios into the wiki? :dontknow: |
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All right. All right! Here! :P Linly |
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What I'm saying about RA is all of the "hidden" deals that aren't necessarily even in the 2nd wiki. People remove info, or just plain don't add it, so unless you read every post, you would miss some things and sometimes it's really irritating. Quote:
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IMHO, the RA threads are too full of chatter to get much meaningful deal info, or at least to get enough deal info to warrant the massive time investment. I would start reading a weekly thread the Tuesday before the sale...and never felt like I could catch up to what was going on. I wasn't looking to be spoonfed (I am diametrically opposed to spoonfeeding!), but folks tried so hard to make sure that deals stayed under the radar that things were intentionally left out of the wiki and recaps so that very few people could find them. I couldn't justify that kind of time for one or two small trips a week. The RA threads are fine for the hardcore folks that have multiple stores and lots of free time, but folks like me, just looking to find a few deals every now and again, have a very hard time with that thread. Chatter chatter rant chatter rant and trying to hide the deals doesn't make it very user friendly for the lightweights. Again, just my opinion. |
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AMEN! Same here! |
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My humble opinion on RA chatter..
Personally I feel that if there was a zero tolerance on chatter..it would be much easier reading. |
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I also know that to be "approved" you must be able to get to them from the outside so to speak. Meaning any user specific, e-mail targeted, etc IPs will not be approved from what I recall. And remember, just as the forums here are user-generated, so are the databases of some sites such as HCW. Our members are not (completely) their members and we will be able to add the things we have now as we do to the threads we have now. Thus if we have those IPs and they do not, a database here would also have them. Just because they are one of the best or the best databases does not mean they are as good as it could get (it simply means the rest are even worse). Anymore than because they are considered one of the best or the best coupon forum means I would consider them a better forum than SD. We know the quality of our information is often superior to all forums out there. A database populated by SD users I would expect to be quite the cut above what I see on other forums. |
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RA is just the HOT DS at the moment and I've already noticed a reduction in competition, I remember the Wags threads being long and unruly at one point so it comes with the territory, it's just some feel that since they have been shopping there for a while that they are more worthy to get the deals then others (I've been shopping there for years but I'm all for others getting good deals to) so there is some resentment. I personally can't stand it and when I started a poll to see if we needed to create a new combined FAQ, I actually had a lot of people vote no. We still did it (THX Bunnies)!
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If there's that much chatter then why not make a RA Chat thread? There was concern with our newly founded Publix chat but if anything it makes the deals easier to follow and a better deals thread all around. It would be an easy fix and make everyone happy :dontknow: |
I like the chat................I dis-like the deal hiding.................I actually missed a deal this week untill several days into it untill I found it on a .....................wait for it........................blog! :0
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We've had a lot of crap going on this week and I haven't had the time I normally have so I was just SOL. :lol: I'm going out of town Thursday so I don't know if I'll make it out there or not. |
My last post on the subject of chatter, I promise :)
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I personally doubt I'd post at all if there were a "zero tolerance" on chatter. I don't need someone scrutinizing my posts to see if they are worthy of being allowed through or not. Like I said, if ALL of the deals were in the wiki, it wouldn't matter nearly as much.
I also guess I feel if there's a post I don't want to read, I can scroll past it. I do it all of the time. :lol: |
I also agree on the chatter with RA but I am not a main contributor so I don't want to step my boundaries. I think chatter will always happen on any thread but since there are always so many noobs on RA the chatter seems to never end and now the fact that blogs put up the deals as soon as they are posted on RA, they are hiding the deals and that should not be right because the op that cannot read it on a daily basis (not me, I actually read every post) misses the deal. I just don't know what can be done but maybe having a chat thread would work better so that we could read the deals.
Now as far as this poll, I know it would be hard to keep up with all the stores and their policies but there has to be some middle ground. I think what we really don't want to see happen is people just posting away how they got overage at RA/wags or misusing qpons and nothing being done about it. this encourages more op to go and do it and so then it ruins it for the rest of us in the long run because then the stores will get tighter on their coupon policies and accepting them and that is what we are trying to prevent. I really hope that we can find either a group of people or someone who can do what slayers did. he was amazing and his shoes are hard to fill but we can't just say let the store worry about it....... |
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We will not allow coupon fraud. We have a 4-point warning dealing specifically with coupon fraud. It will not be allowed. Hawaiiandawn, let me say this again because you seem to be hung up on this point, even though I've already stated that the discussion is tabled until the legal guys have determined what our coupon policy will be. WE WILL NOT ALLOW COUPON FRAUD. Can I make that any more clear? Once the official policy has been handed down we will discuss the issue further. Quote:
I think that we have stumbled upon a very important thing here. Wiki's by their very nature are designed to be open for ANYONE to edit them. The largest and easiest example to point out here is Wikipedia. There is no such thing as wiki ownership there, and for good reason: wiki's are designed to share information from everyone, to everyone. It is the most open form of written communication on the internet today. What's nice about wiki's is that if some new person shows up and has something to contribute, but they don't necessarily 'get' the formatting, anyone else is free to go behind them and edit the content of the wiki to 'clean it up' or correct it or whatever. Wiki's are designed so that if some moron comes in and decides to really foul things up, you can simply revert back to a previous version and retain the content of the wiki. I think the argument here is simply that there is a difference between moderator enforcement of wiki usage and user enforcement of wiki usage. Let me explain further. I view it to be unacceptable for someone to make a legitimate edit to a wiki, and for them to be chastised for doing so even if the format was 'wrong'. It is very easy to edit. Helping someone understand the format is much more productive than biting someone's head off. In any case, I am guessing that this doesn't happen very often so it is likely a moot point. On the other hand, we have a warning in place for people who come in and intentionally abuse the wiki or attempt data destruction. Fortunately, the very structure of how wiki's work make it nearly impossible for someone to do this. As for the IP's, the biggest problem with that wiki is that a wiki is not the correct tool to use for a database. Right now it's the best tool we have, but hopefully we'll be able to change that soon enough. |
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(Of course, I haven't done a huge amount of wiki editing either...). But the hand smacking isn't reserved for editing the wiki. I have seen as many people chastised for not editing a wiki, as for editing one. Someone posts a deal and someone else snaps "Put it in the wiki!" - Then you have the problem of people being afraid of posting deals, going back to lurking, leaving, etc. because of that... Personally, I am more concerned about people being afraid of posting deals than I am of them being afraid to edit the wiki. Sometimes if you post a deal and don't do a five hour search to see if another human has ever posted anything closely similar since the beginning of time - someone has to jump in two seconds later yelling repost and accusing you of trying to take "credit" for something that has already been posted. I have felt the smack of those hands - and like many, my initial reaction (besides ouch!) is - wow... I am not going to try to share a deal again... For the most part I get over it. But I will have to admit from time to time I have run across something I have thought was a deal - and started to do a little research to see if it had already been posted - and just decided it wasn't that big of deal to go through that much trouble... So as long as we are talking about hand smacking and being user friendly - I think SD can really improve (as a community) in also encouraging people posting in the threads. Many lurkers have reported being afraid to post in the threads - and that is usually quite a few steps ahead of editing the wikis... And I certainly am not talking about you in that respect, Ms. Gal. I have repeatedly seen you be kind to the newbies, explain things, stand up to bullies, and help people save face when they have been smacked around in the thread for asking questions, or trying to share a deal, etc.... In fact I am not talking about anyone who is involved in this discussion. I am just saying it happens, and that the SD community could be more "user friendly" in more ways than the wikis. |
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If it is not about a warning, then issues can be posted publicly. Usually the best place is in the Site Issues and Suggestions forum where nearly all of the mods check daily. It's also the one forum to which some of the non-mod staff pay the most attention Quote:
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I honestly don't know how the hidden/transparency aspect of store deals will be dealt with because that's up to the contributor's discretion of whether or not they wanted it in the wiki...:dontknow: |
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I am overall very happy with the direction of this thread in general and the interaction there-in. |
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As for who gets to decide, that will probably be me. After all, I AM a dictator, even though I try to be benevolent. I will of course be taking user input into consideration. Otherwise there just isn't any benevolence, is there? :lol: |
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It was voted on and the majority felt that a RA chat thread was not needed. Slayers made it very obvious NUMEROUS times that the BS thread is for ALL DS forum users, not just the waggers that hang out there (myself included). Well, several people didn't mind taking their RA chat to the BS thread, but lo and behold, a few of the regulars in that thread didn't want it there. They deemed it an "invasion" by the RA'ers. Granted, some of the RA chat that found it's way there wasn't so much "chat" as it was ranting and there's a whole separate thread for ranting. But still, some were made to feel sooooo unwelcome that they never posted again in the BS thread. And I know this to be factual because I got several PM's from fellow RA'ers who said, "screw that, I'll just keep my mouth shut." Quote:
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My biggest pet peeve? People who quote AN ENTIRE POST when they reply, as opposed to editing it down or using <snip> and then replying. Geez, oh pete! :headbang: Quote:
And if ALL they do is chatter, the "Ignore" feature fixes that. :P Quote:
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This is why the Coupon Usage Guide that we discussed earlier (and which we have a rough draft to look through) is going to be such a valuable tool. Instead of coming down hard on someone, especially someone new who makes the same mistake I did when I first mentioned it, it will make it easier to point to new users exactly why this is bad couponing and will become a learning experience. I personally think that using the warning system to make this point, especially with new DS/GS participants who don't understand the system, is precisely the wrong approach. I really think we can reach a happy medium here where everyone wins, where we can keep the forum 'ethical', and where new users can learn and feel welcome and come to more easily understand the DS/GS deals. Face it, DS/GS deals are much more complicated and take much more work than anything you'll ever find in HD. By the same token, you guys in this forum save much, much more money overall than anything in the HD forums. Once we have picked through our working draft of the Coupon Users Guide, and once we have an official published coupon policy, I will be creating a thread here with the official coupon rules as the OP and with the CUG as a wiki for everyone to help shape into what you want it to be. It is important to understand that the idea here is to use this as a learning tool, not as a hammer with which to bash people over the head. |
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I left the last paragraph in that you wrote, just cause I wanna see you say "oh-pete". :hug: |
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I remember when you got knocked around a few times in the beginning but you stuck it out and stood your ground, and I applaud you for that. :applause: |
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SD started in order to share deals. That's what we do, and I don't care what forum we're in, sharing deals is the entire reason this site exists. |
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I agree with your pet peeve and will add mine. "thanks, I repped ya". ...........um why did you have to post that you repped the person? Until the day I can drive less than 8 hours one way to visit a Rite-Aid, I have never read that thread, so can't comment on how it may vary from the rest. However, I prefer forums with people interacting as opposed to someone's blog; which may be part of the reason Wiki dictatorship bothers me. |
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