Add your suggestion to this thread, then vote your support or disdain for other ideas. We'll keep our eye on it and move the most popular to their own thread for further consideration by both community and staff.
Get it? Add it here. The ones earning lots of green will get attention.
(I'll start off with a few refugees from the ol' Suggestion Box.)
Add suggestions and vote!
Added 2/05/09 FatWallet Pains 1. Too complicated & hard to learn. 2. Forums tone. 3. Search. 4. Getting C.B. from forums is time-consuming and frustrating. 5. C.B. process requires too many steps and takes too long. 6. C.B. links are unreliable.
Added 2/05/09 Un-edited list from another discussion 1. Add suggested search terms with number of results. 2. More detailed search, with more narrowing options. 3. Easier to find “Relevance” option on search results page… default ‘entire site’ by relevance? 4. Repost/similar topic checker. 5. Easy/intuitive “keep in mind for later” function (favorites you can find). 6. ‘Thank you’ button. 7. Standard format for topic titles. 8. Offer points/rewards to valuable posters. 9. Better CB rates (bottom line $). 10. Add a rep system. 11. Extend ‘most recent topics posted in’ on Today page (first/next/previous 20). 12. Make people give reason for red. 13. Limit voting/rating to topics (not replies). 14. Allow turning the ratings (results?) on or off. 15. Darker site look (as an option). 16. Direct # to US-support Dell (and all merchants). 17. Alphabetize list(s) of forums. 18. Hover to show store’s current C.B. rate. 19. Display ‘Consumer Alerts’ prominently. 20. Encourage newbies. 21. Be less invasive (move threads less, etc). 22. Improve interface so people know how to use the features we have. 23. Add retailer ratings (from us or somewhere) into quick summary. 24. Force geographical info into posts limited by such. 25. Referral incentives. 26. Hover on titles in topic list to see more of post. 27. My FatWallet (customizable) page. 28. Expand RSS offerings… including RSS of search results (categories?). 29. Expanded retailer ratings… or “disappointment factor” for reneging. 30. Free shipping. 31. Shipping to Hawaii and Alaska. 32. Clarify value presentation (homepage, header, ?). 33. Posters to share earnings. 34. Quicker scan of deals (to see best ones easiest). 35. Limit to OP, QS, and FlashChat. 36. …then auto-lock threads with no OP participation after 5 days 37. FW branded store. 38. Move dead deals out (quicker/more reliably). 39. Mods getting pied.
Message edited by: footn200 on 2009-02-06 09:38:50 CST
Leave a 120-second window for "Edited by"-less edits after you post. Sometimes you catch things after you post, and would like to fix them neatly. This can be found on Digg.
After the user personalizes his view for the "Hide Forum Categories" in the drop down menus, that personalization transfers over to this page. While that might seem insignificant by hiding all the forums the user has chosen, what's out of sight is also out of mind. If I've hidden the travel and computer forums from view, I will eventually forget that those forums are there (or ultimately decide that it's too much trouble to navigate to those forums) and FW might lose out on FatCash opportunities.
Why not leave the entire list of all navigable forums on the main Forums page and keep the personalizable forums list for the drop down menus and customizable menu bar? That way, if I decide I need to see what computer deals might be available, I just have to visit the main Forums page to click on the Computers forum instead of editing my personalized forum view or performing a search to get to the computer forum.
I like the ability to customize the forum navigation links at the top of the screen. What may be more helpful is if next to each of those headings you include number of new messages (or threads) since the last visit. Obviously, this would be a bog on the system if people don't visit regularly. So solution to that is change it from a number to infinity symbol after a certain number.
It would look like this:
Hot Deals(30) Free Stuff(~) Finance(5) Travel Deals(~)
Message edited by: footn200 on 2008-04-07 14:10:21 CDT
Make it easier to search a user's replies or topics but just clicking on their username and have a list of items to pop up, such as the user's replies or topics. Do it this way rather than going through the normal useless FW search engine, so that when people just pop up out of the blue on boards you can verify who they are or their previous threads more quickly, all just by clicking on their name.
They have this on Craigslist, and it makes it much easier to identify trolls & alts.
Suggestion: I would love to see a flag or colored thread icon (anything), indicating threads I have posted to. I've seen it in other forums and have found it very convenient.
I like the idea of the delay for editing a thread. In fact, I like all the suggestions. I would like to the the "who is logged on" feature brought back and of course, the last user to post in a thread when in Modern View. PLEASE consider adding some sub-forums to the Deal Discussion Forum, we really need a separate "Find Me a Deal" section. Consider consolidating the Product Review Forum into one of these sub-categories.
Thanks for appearing to really be serious about listening to the community this time around. Look how happy the minions were just getting custom avatars! I think taking an active role in user suggestions will really take FW to a better place.
This is a big one, but what about implementing true message threading? Quoting a post would automatically place it under its parent post, and threads within a topic could be collapsible.
Of course users would be able to choose between threaded and non-threaded topic views.
I could see this feature being especially valuable in very large topics...for example, I often see HD topics that include discussion of various features of the product in question, or digressions about an experience at a specific store. If you aren't interested in that aspect of the discussion, you can collapse that thread and be done with it.
Threading would also be a big help on catch-all threads like the newbie sticky in Finance, it would essentially make them into mini-forums.
Message edited by: jayK on 2008-04-09 16:34:16 CDT
What about a question/answer framework similar to Yahoo Answers? Allowing people who ask questions to reward points for answers might get people more involved in contributing.
I wanted to bring up adding the customizable forums tab to all the forums, especially the CashBack & Coupons page. It is even on the search page, why not add it to the stores page? Sometimes I just want to check promotions for a merchant, not shop and a quick way to get back where I was would be convenient.
Also, seeing posts in OT don't count, consider killing them in Free Stuff too. Is a member posting "thanks" 40-50 times a day any more valuable than the useless banter between us in OT?
How about different mod replies when topics are locked. The standard "the topic is covered here" doesn't always fit.
For example, in this OP in the Finance thread "securely parking a million dollars," the reason for locking was that the topic is covered in the Liquid Account Rates-only thread. But it's also covered in the CD rates thread, and really, since a question was asked, it should be linked to a discussion thread rather than a rate thread. Can the mod message "the topic is covered here" link to more than one thread?
As far as I am aware, the mod can link the repost to more than one thread if they choose too. I guess in the case of HD is it unnecessary because one example is enough. Based on the complexity of the Finance Forum, those same conditions would not apply.
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