Hot Deals Forum Rules Change --

[Mitch101]

Originally posted by: HomeAppraiser
Not to mention that GottaDeal site

That site sucks. Might as well post retail as a deal.

 

[superHARD]

It's about time!!!

But AT added a WTB thread and a FS thread... :thumbsdown:

 

[qliveur]

Coolness!:thumbsup:

 

[ProfessorFate]

Yehah!

 

[Jaxidian]

I'm a fan of allowing coupons to be posted! As others are obviously wondering, why the change of heart? Was it determined that whatever risk there is with doing it is worth it for the possible growth in success?

-Jax

 

[AkumaX]

wow awesome!

 

[Highmodulus]

Good Idea, and it probably saves a ton of work for the Mods too.

 

[BrianC]

Too little too late... when the coupons were originally banned, the great exodus literally created the chubby billfold site, which is now the defacto standard. I'm sure with all the referrals they're pulling in that it was a costly mistake.

 

[jjmIII]

Originally posted by: Grandmoph
Good decision!

Yes, it only makes sense (cents?!).

 

[blckgrffn]

Wow, I never even realized that this was a "major" deal site. Crazy.

Nat

 

[SoulAssassin]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn
Wow, I never even realized that this was a "major" deal site. Crazy.

Nat

It was one of, if not the, first.

 

[iluvdeal]

Originally posted by: BrianC
Too little too late... when the coupons were originally banned, the great exodus literally created the chubby billfold site, which is now the defacto standard. I'm sure with all the referrals they're pulling in that it was a costly mistake.

Yea I've been around long enough to remember when AT Hot Deals forum was the leader in hot deals on the internet. There are a bunch of deal sites now, but the AT Hot Deals forum was the pioneer back then. Postings in hot deals dwarfed that of any other subject on the AT forums.

The banning of coupons when Staples threatened litigation against AT really was the death blow to its lead in popularity in deals. I was really disappointed to see AT fold like that due to the complaint of one store.

After that happened, a lot of folks moved to FW and the rest is history. I know AT is doing well, but they walked away from a lot of money by giving away their leadership in this area.

I'm glad this rule was finally been overturned but with all the other deal sites out there already allowing coupons for years, all I can think is it's about time.

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: Mitch101

Originally posted by: HomeAppraiser
Not to mention that GottaDeal site

That site sucks. Might as well post retail as a deal.

Gottadeal makes baby Ferengis cry

*looks over both shoulders to see if RossMAN is around*

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: iluvdeal

Originally posted by: BrianC
Too little too late... when the coupons were originally banned, the great exodus literally created the chubby billfold site, which is now the defacto standard. I'm sure with all the referrals they're pulling in that it was a costly mistake.

Yea I've been around long enough to remember when AT Hot Deals forum was the leader in hot deals on the internet. There are a bunch of deal sites now, but the AT Hot Deals forum was the pioneer back then. Postings in hot deals dwarfed that of any other subject on the AT forums.

The banning of coupons when Staples threatened litigation against AT really was the death blow to its lead in popularity in deals. I was really disappointed to see AT fold like that due to the complaint of one store.

After that happened, a lot of folks moved to FW and the rest is history. I know AT is doing well, but they walked away from a lot of money by giving away their leadership in this area.

I'm glad this rule was finally been overturned but with all the other deal sites out there already allowing coupons for years, all I can think is it's about time.

damn, i didn't know that.

 

[Robzila]

All I can say is that it's about damn time!

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

Originally posted by: iluvdeal

Originally posted by: BrianC
Too little too late... when the coupons were originally banned, the great exodus literally created the chubby billfold site, which is now the defacto standard. I'm sure with all the referrals they're pulling in that it was a costly mistake.

Yea I've been around long enough to remember when AT Hot Deals forum was the leader in hot deals on the internet. There are a bunch of deal sites now, but the AT Hot Deals forum was the pioneer back then. Postings in hot deals dwarfed that of any other subject on the AT forums.

The banning of coupons when Staples threatened litigation against AT really was the death blow to its lead in popularity in deals. I was really disappointed to see AT fold like that due to the complaint of one store.

After that happened, a lot of folks moved to FW and the rest is history. I know AT is doing well, but they walked away from a lot of money by giving away their leadership in this area.

I'm glad this rule was finally been overturned but with all the other deal sites out there already allowing coupons for years, all I can think is it's about time.

damn, i didn't know that.

That's not actually how it went.

We didn't fold to Staples -- AnandTech was never worried about legal issues wrt the forums, and we still are not. The author is legally responsible for their post, not the forum.

Yes, Staples had a problem with coupon codes, but that was their problem, not ours.

Posting coupons and codes was not allowed for other reasons and was decided at the forum admin level, not the AnandTech, Inc. level.

 

[agibby5]

What were the reasons behind not allowing coupons? I never understood it.

 

[BrianC]

Well, regardless of how it actually went, that was by far the public understanding of the events that unfolded and Anandtech did nothing to dispel that. Actually, if I recall, Anand himself made the decree and sited legal problems as the justification. For those curious as to how things started, I'll give a brief history!

Several years ago someone posted about a price mistake on Buy.com in the Anandtech technical forums. This spread like wildfire and overnight Anandtech became the hub of this "deal". Well, Buy.com didn't handle the situation very well and there was a lot of ill will towards the general public. There were so many off topic posts in the technical forums that a new forum was created called "Hot Deals" so that the Wounded Monitor Children can botch and moan to themselves (I was one ).

The Hot Deals forum took off as the central site for deals. For a few years, every single deal site revolved around the Anandtech Hot Deals world. There were no other deal forums with 1/10th the traffic of the Anandtech Hot Deals forum. Then came the [disputed] issue with the coupon codes and they became banned. There was public unhappiness and essentially a revolt occurred. For the next month, several sites popped up out of nowhere to try to take the unhappy traffic. It wasn't until Tim of FW created a site with the same FuseTalk forum software did the revolters find a home. Tim took a fight till the end attitude towards legal challenges and won out at the end.

In terms of Hot Deals, Anandtech was the pinnacle at its time. The exodus literally created multiple other sites that are now popular today. A number of these other sites wouldn't even exist if the coupon codes were never pulled at Anandtech to begin with.

 

[iluvdeal]

Originally posted by: DerekWilson
That's not actually how it went.

We didn't fold to Staples -- AnandTech was never worried about legal issues wrt the forums, and we still are not. The author is legally responsible for their post, not the forum.

Yes, Staples had a problem with coupon codes, but that was their problem, not ours.

Posting coupons and codes was not allowed for other reasons and was decided at the forum admin level, not the AnandTech, Inc. level.

So what exactly did happen? It was awhile ago but I thought I remember lawyers being mentioned. That's also the only reason I could think of why the drastic move of banning all coupons was instituted right after the Staples incident. Staples complained, a short time later later all coupons are banned from the site. To myself and many others, the reasoning behind that move wasn't hard to figure out.

I am surprised to hear this decision was made by the forum admins only. If you think about the ramifications of that move and all the eyeballs that left because of it, it was a pretty huge decision. Like BrianC says, a number of deal sites owe their success directly to that decision and the resulting exodus of Hot Dealers from AT.

I never understood why the forum with by far the largest amount of traffic to the site was just disregarded like that. It was like they turned their back on the biggest community they had on the forums. Actually from some of the comments from the mods at the time, I got the sense they wanted the AT forums to be more tech focused rather than deals.

Maybe it was all inevitable though. Judging from the number of sites now that solely focus on deals, perhaps that demographic looking only for deals just outgrew this Hot Deals forum on the hardware focused AT?

Regardless there are no hard feelings, it was fun being part of AT Hot Deals during those early days of finding internet bargains, price mistakes, and coupons. To me and many others bargain hunters, this is where it all started.

 

[cbuchach]

Finally; trying to figure out all the hints was just stupid.

 

[gcy]

:beer:

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: BrianC
The Hot Deals forum took off as the central site for deals. For a few years, every single deal site revolved around the Anandtech Hot Deals world. There were no other deal forums with 1/10th the traffic of the Anandtech Hot Deals forum. Then came the [disputed] issue with the coupon codes and they became banned. There was public unhappiness and essentially a revolt occurred. For the next month, several sites popped up out of nowhere to try to take the unhappy traffic. It wasn't until Tim of FW created a site with the same FuseTalk forum software did the revolters find a home. Tim took a fight till the end attitude towards legal challenges and won out at the end.

In terms of Hot Deals, Anandtech was the pinnacle at its time. The exodus literally created multiple other sites that are now popular today. A number of these other sites wouldn't even exist if the coupon codes were never pulled at Anandtech to begin with.

Yep. I first joined AT for the Hot Deals.

Now I go to FW/SD for my hot deals

 

[Zorro]

Just one more step in the cofin of coupon codes.

Mark my words before long no retailer will be using coupon codes.

 

[Devil2U]

OMFG!!!! I thought I would never live to see this day. No more forum NAZ...... I mean .... HORRAY!!!!

 

[firebyyrd]

cheeres!!!!!