Hey everyone,
You've asked how Slickdeals works: who owns us, how deals are picked, and what makes the Frontpage.
Here are straightforward answers from the team, no spin. If you want more detail, we'll keep updating this page.
Who owns Slickdeals?
Slickdeals has been privately owned since it was founded in 1999 by Van Trac. Since 2012, the company has navigated multiple stages of growth and evolution with the support of investors and owners, including Warburg Pincus and Goldman Sachs. Today, we're still independently operated under private ownership.
Do investors have any say in what merchants you have on your site?
No, none. Our investors have input on overall financial goals such as growth targets, but they don't make any decisions about what merchants or deals appear on Slickdeals. What you see on the site is entirely driven by our internal team and, most importantly, by our community.
Do merchants send you deals to post for them?
We do have a program that lets merchants submit deals for review by our Deal Specialists. It's never pay-to-play. Deal Specialists review every submission and only post offers that meet community standards on price and quality.
Here's how it works: our Deal Specialists review every submission. They'll check if that product (or a similar one) has been posted before and how our members responded. If the data shows members liked it at a certain price but not at another, they'll actually go back to the merchant and ask if they can lower the price. If the merchant can't, we usually pass.
If history shows our members just aren't interested in that product at all, we'll also pass.
Bottom line: we only post something if the team genuinely believes it's a good deal.
If you work with a merchant, does that mean they're guaranteed to go Front Page?
Nope. Front Page is earned, not bought. A deal's popularity (meaning community votes, engagement, and value) determines whether it makes it there, not whether we have a working relationship with the merchant.
What is the difference between a Deal Specialist and a Deal Hunter?
Deal Specialists review deals submitted to us, while Deal Hunters go out and independently find deals across the web.
Why do I see the same merchant often? Can you stop?
We know seeing the same merchant can get old. We feature them when the data shows a strong value for members. If you've had a bad experience, add a comment; your feedback affects what we surface.
We've actually stopped working with certain merchants in the past because of member feedback. Your experiences and opinions directly shape who we feature, so if you're tired of seeing a certain name, let us know why. We do pay attention.
Do you ever bump down a deal because a merchant isn't working with you?
Absolutely not.
Do mods remove posts that criticize merchants you work with?
We actually welcome and encourage honest feedback, even when it's negative. That's part of what makes Slickdeals different: members can speak freely about their experiences.
What we do remove are personal attacks and shills.
- ✅ "This merchant never ships on time." — Fair feedback
- ❌ "OP is an idiot" — Harassment, removed
Criticism of a product or merchant = fine. Harassment = not fine.
Why work with merchants at all?
Just like any other business, we've got bills to pay. We have about 250 employees, servers, infrastructure, and everything else that keeps Slickdeals running.
Some sites throw pop-ups and autoplay ads at you, or put deals behind paywalls. We've always wanted Slickdeals to stay free, open, and user-driven, so working with merchants in specific, limited ways helps make that possible without ruining your browsing experience.
Do staff have secret accounts to influence votes/comments?
Absolutely not. That's a strict no-go.
Our staff are Slickdeals users too and do organically engage with the community. For example, I like and comment on deals with my staff account but it's on items i've actually purchased or know that it's a good value. Whatever we do is labeled Staff, so it's all in the open.
Some staff accounts are used only for testing. For example, a staff account may be used to make sure things display correctly on the site, but those accounts are not used to post, vote, or engage in discussions. Most testing happens in a closed environment anyway, not on the live site.
Ok, what about bots then?
We have Slickdeals Scout. It scans retailers for price drops and posts them. It doesn't vote, comment, or influence rankings.
Why was my political post removed?
We get this one a lot. Our moderators aren't biased toward any political side, they're just enforcing the same rule across the board: Slickdeals isn't a political platform.
We remove political posts because they almost always turn into arguments and derail deal discussions. Speaking from experience (many of us were community members before being staff), it's tough to delete posts you might personally agree with, but it's part of keeping the space on-topic and welcoming.
Why so many Amazon deals?
Yes, you're right, a lot of Amazon deals are posted on our site by both community members and staff. Given the sheer volume of products and promotions Amazon runs, plus how popular they are with our community, it's no surprise those deals make up a big share of our content.
That said, we're always open to more variety. If you're shopping and come across an amazing deal from a merchant or store and you want to share it with our members, please post it!! And if there are merchants or types of products you'd like to see more often, let us know.
You can email us at
[email protected] (yes, we know, old school ) or post in the Help Me Find a Deal forum if you're looking for something specific.
Do you allow self-promotion?
We draw a hard line between sharing an organically found deal and marketing on behalf of a company. If something feels like an ad instead of a contribution, it's removed. If we find proof that the merchant is posting for themselves, it's removed. If we find out a merchant is voting for themselves or using various accounts to vote for themselves, that account is typically banned and if this has been an ongoing issue with a particular merchant, if they continue despite warnings to stop, they may be banned from being posted on our site.
Thanks
Thanks for sticking with us through all that. And honestly, for caring enough to ask these questions in the first place. Slickdeals has always been about the people who make the community what it is: you all. The feedback, the deal-hunting, the call-outs when we miss something are what keep this place sharp and worth visiting.
We're not perfect, but we're listening. The more open we can be about how things work behind the scenes, the better this community gets for everyone.
If there's something we didn't cover here (or something you think we should talk about next time), don't be shy. Drop it in the forums or email
[email protected]. We'll keep the conversation going.
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138 Comments
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I think this is the most ridiculous decision ever made here. Why in the world would you cater to a group of people because they were simply "upset".
Nothing illegal was posted, and if it was it is a violation of the TOS and would be booted
There is no liability whatsoever. What, are you concerned someone buys ammunition from a "slick deal" and commits a crime with that ammunition somehow SD would be libel?
By relegating those posts to the shadow realm, they are basically non-existent and that is just silly. Why lose out on all of the potential click revenue because some folks are upset. You know they can choose to simply not click on those deals, as I believe we are US based and in a free country.
So I ask you this question, why does slick deals allow blatantly illegal pirated software deals, posted by staff, all over the "Hot Deals" , but won't allow a legal gun or ammo deal?
I am upset that intellectual property is being stolen and slick deals is facilitating it.
It is the same as years ago when people shared music on napster. It is piracy and it is illegal period
Maybe make a shadow realm for software piracy deals?
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You gonna tell me some can of peaches that is suddenly 5 cents off (from S&S) is deal worthy?
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Your words can say one thing, but the actions of the site tell another. There is no trust because SD is looking out for their bottomline more than the user. No words need to be spoken for the actions of the site to be clear.
Yeah. I 'member?
Member since 2011, lurker since 2008.
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I think this is the most ridiculous decision ever made here. Why in the world would you cater to a group of people because they were simply "upset".
Nothing illegal was posted, and if it was it is a violation of the TOS and would be booted
There is no liability whatsoever. What, are you concerned someone buys ammunition from a "slick deal" and commits a crime with that ammunition somehow SD would be libel?
By relegating those posts to the shadow realm, they are basically non-existent and that is just silly. Why lose out on all of the potential click revenue because some folks are upset. You know they can choose to simply not click on those deals, as I believe we are US based and in a free country.
So I ask you this question, why does slick deals allow blatantly illegal pirated software deals, posted by staff, all over the "Hot Deals" , but won't allow a legal gun or ammo deal?
I am upset that intellectual property is being stolen and slick deals is facilitating it.
It is the same as years ago when people shared music on napster. It is piracy and it is illegal period
Maybe make a shadow realm for software piracy deals?
As far as pirated software, if it truly is, we'll take it down. We've had some people say someone is an unauthorized reseller but when we go looking ourselves, they are authorized. And there are a TON of threads we remove or just don't approve in the first place that obviously are pirated software keys. Sometimes I wish our members could see the crap we remove from the forum daily. So many threads and posts that are junk, shilled, trolls, etc. We had someone try to make a thread the other day asking for people to come to their house for "relations". Anyway my point is, there is a lot we shield our members from. If there are threads you are concerned are priated, you can always mod alert them so a mod can look further and if it's a staff thread, they can ask the staff member about it.
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You gonna tell me some can of peaches that is suddenly 5 cents off (from S&S) is deal worthy?
.
Your words can say one thing, but the actions of the site tell another. There is no trust because SD is looking out for their bottomline more than the user. No words need to be spoken for the actions of the site to be clear.
I do get a little sad when I see people say there is no trust and SD is only looking out for it's bottom line. Of course we're going to look out for our bottom line, we are a business after all. But we want and do look out for our members as well. There are people like me who have been here so many years who truly do love our community and for me, our community is first. Always has been and always will be. Many of us work many hours behind our actual work hours trying to work on ways to make the community better and more trustworthy. Of course there will be things some people hate and some love. That's true of any website. But to say that community comes after our bottom line is false. We'd have no Slickdeals without our community. Are things perfect? No. That's why I made this thread. At least to explain why we do certain things the way we do and also to gather feedback from you all to find out what the biggest complaints are with our site and see what we can do to fix it.
In your opinion, would you (or anyone else reading this) prefer that next year all black friday deals go in that forum? Or maybe like all Black Friday deals posted before Black Friday go in there but on actual Black Friday they can be posted in Hot Deals as well? We've got a year to figure this out but I am curious what others think.
Yeah, in the old days all BF deals went into that forum. Then it was they should go to that forum but if someone posts them in Hot Deals that was ok too. Now it seems that most are in Hot Deals. I see a few in that forum but yeah, not like how it used to be.
In your opinion, would you (or anyone else reading this) prefer that next year all black friday deals go in that forum? Or maybe like all Black Friday deals posted before Black Friday go in there but on actual Black Friday they can be posted in Hot Deals as well? We've got a year to figure this out but I am curious what others think.
Guess it's something to think about for the year as you said.
Guess it's something to think about for the year as you said.
Yeah I agree. I think the Black Friday forum was first added back when black friday sales were actually just on Black Friday. These days it's all week/month.
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I'm gonna do Thanksgiving dinner now and all that so I'm out for tonight but Happy Thanksgiving to you and anyone else reading this!
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