RFD swag for posts since up-votes will probably be abused.TomRFD wrote: ↑ Hi VISITOR! It's been a few years since we were owned by Yellow Pages. We're now a part of the VerticalScope family.
Back to your main question, we're always looking for new ways to incentivize members to share deals. Most do it just for the benefit of the RFD community, but I agree that we would certainly get more deals if we did offer more incentives to members who share deals (beyond internet points that is).
More recently we started a monthly top deals contest where we send out gift cards to deal posters. In regards to the transparency of where the gift cards are going, we always post who gets them (both deal posters and contest winners) as a reply within each thread. Sometimes this process can take up to 3-4 weeks after it ends, but we always post it. For example you can see the list from February's contest in the last post here.
We might be able to do swag. What would everyone be interested in?
The RFD t-shirts! I still have one but it's starting to show it's age.
I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing though. It's a natural evolution in a community. We certainly want to keep everyone here, but nostalgia might actually hold back RFD.Jucius Maximus wrote: ↑ A lot of the fun old-time RFD members, who posted a lot of great deals, and made the community freewheeling and enjoyable, have moved on now.
What is it that caused them to leave?
Well, I don't want to get the thread locked. I also learned that complaining really vocally doesn't do anything on here.
Not posting deals is really the only effective way of providing criticism to this site. Long-time staff and community members probably know what I'm talking about.
I still don't understand the business model of RFD. Is this a for profit company? Is the revenue simply from the ads? I'm probably one of the few that does NOT come here for "deals", which are more like frivolous spending and FOMO than anything else.
They do make money from ads, referral links, and also sponsored posting.hierophant wrote: ↑
I still don't understand the business model of RFD. Is this a for profit company? Is the revenue simply from the ads? I'm probably one of the few that does NOT come here for "deals", which are more like frivolous spending and FOMO than anything else.
While communities will eventually evolve, all I ask is this:
Unfortunately the quality of deals have changed as companies & retailers have gotten better at managing their inventory. It's true a lot of what initially made RFD great is gone, but that's not due to the site's loss of focus. Because of the better retail management & online presence we unfortunately rarely see SCOP deals or price errors or clearance sales or door crasher sales. Those days are unfortunately gone.Jucius Maximus wrote: ↑ They do make money from ads, referral links, and also sponsored posting.
While communities will eventually evolve, all I ask is this:
Has the quality of deals on the site gotten better or worse over the last 10 years?
Has RFD gotten more or less fun over the last 10 years?
Deals are definitely worse. And probably getting worse and worse year over year. Evidence: just look at Black Friday and Boxing Day deal forum, the most popular posts are not about deals, the most active posts are "this Black Friday/boxing day is the worst ever". That should tell something .Jucius Maximus wrote: ↑ They do make money from ads, referral links, and also sponsored posting.
While communities will eventually evolve, all I ask is this:
Has the quality of deals on the site gotten better or worse over the last 10 years?
Has RFD gotten more or less fun over the last 10 years?
I think deals in general have become worse, unrelated to anything RFD.Jucius Maximus wrote: ↑ While communities will eventually evolve, all I ask is this:
Has the quality of deals on the site gotten better or worse over the last 10 years?
Has RFD gotten more or less fun over the last 10 years?
