What's Your Opinion on the Latest Deals Points System?
Latest Deals
Out of curiosity I was just wondering what everyone's thoughts were on the Latest Deals Points System?
- Do you actively collect points to swap for Amazon vouchers?
- Have you successfully claimed a voucher/vouchers?
- Do you like having the incentive?
- If anything, what else do you like about the points system?
- If anything, what do you think could improve the points system?
Tom Trying to be polite and helpful with this . But it is so obvious that you have sold the "birthright " Of Latest Deals to retailers and advertising agencies . Tell me if I am wrong but you have sold unlimited access for them to directly post non deals /vouchers etc on the site . In addition your moderators must have been instructed not to allow duplicate reports against these "paying customers" . I'm sure you don't need me to post a list of dozens of those (which you would doubtless delete ? ) .
I do understand why you have moved this way - Latest Deals cannot exist paying members for non deals and pointless comments . It has become, to the majority of members , a points earning site .
I'm afraid too many members expect to find deals whilst at the same time posting non deals for points from Amazon , various supermarkets etc all of which have a fictitious discount every day .
Stronger moderation would help , but why not let the members do it for you ? Why not activate the -ve vote ? I'm sure members know the deal they have posted is a non deal - but hey ho they still get their points
Perhaps if the -ve votes were actually activated and members could see their non deals were getting down voted (and vice versa for good deals ) they would try harder to post ONLY good deals . It is ridiculous that members get points for going through the Tesco, Argos , Amazon etc websites posting their ration of non deals daily .
I contend that this would lead to members posting better deals (duly moderated ) and you would not need to accept money to grant unfettered access (ie spamming the site on an industrial basis ) to various retailers/ advertising agencies .
Trying to be constructive . Only members who use Latest Deals solely as an Amazon voucher earning site could object . Maybe even trial some of my suggestions ? May be a shock to some members (having their deals (or non deals) properly voted on -but would surely lead to better deals posted by members and perhaps when the contract ends we would no longer be subject to the site being continually spammed by the recent (last 5 months ) additions to the "Deal Hunters"
Tom, I'm sure you crunch the numbers and do what you see fit . Just give points when a deal reaches say +10 (-ve votes included) . That I'm sure would lead to a proper deals site and no need to sell direct access to Momando , Amazon and Advertising agencies . Before you delete this I hope you will at least give it some thought ?
intherealworld Thanks for your feedback. Sellers can only post directly on Latest Deals in the "Flash" section of the website. Flash deals is clearly labelled as "time limited deals shared by brands or retailers". It was created from community feedback, as members asked to received exclusive discount codes with a minimum of 50% off in a dedicated section.
Retailers are not allowed to directly post elsewhere on the site. Latest Deals does sell sponsored posts, written by our team, and which are always clearly labelled: "Latest Deals has worked with XYZ to show you this deal", plus from "LD Team". Sponsored posts, of which there are a few each day, help financially support Latest Deals and enables us to pay out thousands of Amazon vouchers to members. Latest Deals is the most generous deals community website online and it's thanks to partnerships with brands that enable us to do that. To learn more about how Latest Deals makes money read here.
RE stronger community moderation and "activating the negative vote", there may be some confusion here. If you down-vote a deal, it does affect the ranking of that post. It's just that we only display the positive votes. So if you think a deal is bad and give it a downvote, that'll reduce it's ranking on site. This is similar to how YouTube does it. Approximately 40% of all votes cast are down-votes or negative, and it plays a huge role in the ranking of posts.
Of course, I completely agree and accept that many members do post a little bit of anything to get points and over the years it's a constant effort to improve. We're always seeking to address the balance of quality vs quantity and it's a difficult challenge to get right. Appreciate your feedback.
Tom I understand that there is, indeed, a lot of fraud around but the thing that puzzles me is why some aren't even allowed to be posted for checking? They just say 'something went wrong' and you have to abandon it and try with another voucher.
tumblespots 'something went wrong' is an error message when there is a bug. So that would be something you'd need to email in to get support for. When it's a new retailer, it is allowed to be submitted, the post will just go into review before being published.
I've entered a deal before that had successfully been posted, then a few mins later I've had a notification saying my post has been put on hold & asking me to send proof (i.e from company's house etc) that it is a genuine retailer and not a scam, obviously because the website had never been put on LD before.
I was happy to do this as it literally took me 20 seconds to take a screenshot of the company's house info & sent it over to the team. I also supplied a receipt showing that I had successfully bought and received goods from the retailer in question. As soon as I sent this the deal was posted straight away!
I completely understand why you need to have the LD team in the background flagging these issues & safeguarding the community with deals etc otherwise, with minimal or no monitoring going on behind the scenes, I believe, the LD Community would be scammed so much more easily when going to get a deal or enter a competition etc through something that has been successfully posted, so thank you Tom and the LD Team!! 
Also, before the comments start, this is just MY opinion lol 
skmoskmo212 Thank you for the feedback and appreciate the efforts you went to helping us review the company.
For anyone reading this, here's the relevant section in our guidelines in regards to posting deals:
Registered and established businesses only
In the interest of safety for our members, please only share deals from registered and established retailers. The business should have a company number and full address and contact details readily available. We review a number of factors including the company's age, trading standards history, reviews and more. Your deal may be put into moderation if the company fails to meet these standards. This is for the safety of our members.
Tom Are you sure ? We have pancake alien constantly spamming the site ( A LD Hunter ? ) with Amazon stuff , duplicated multiple times . In such quantities that Latest Deals has looked like an Amazon outlet site . Where are your moderators when dozens of duplicates are posted daily from just this one deal hunter ?
I appreciate few members are bothered (or even notice ) as long as they get their points from posting non deals . Some of us would prefer it to be a "Deals site" rather than a "points earning site ".
intherealworld I strongly believe that pancake alien, Mayonnaise and don't fly away are bots. Those accounts were created on the same day in January 2024.
intherealworld SebK84 the PancakeAlien account was created by the owners of LD. The account far exceeds the daily limit on posting deals. Regular members will get a 'sharing machine' message if they try to post more. When you get that notification you can't post any other Deals or Vouchers for the rest of the day. There are many similar accounts, some focus on Deals. Others focus on Vouchers, such as LifeOfBrian .
intherealworld I notice but now ignore the bots but they are very annoying /repetitive/ sexy posts as it generates money for the site/owners and itโs basically what the site is for the money saving part is like a bit on the side and we get paid too remember .
Pancake Alien seems to spend a lot of time looking for sex toys
smallbike1961 It's hard to ignore, especially Pancake Alien. Within the last 16 hours OP posted 252 deals. 36 deals per page to help you count. www.latestdeals.co.uk/@pancakealien
I would like some nice deals from good brands, shops, not Alliexpress type of copycat products posted at high prices from 3rd party sellers on Amazon.
If OP is a real person then he must be making a small fortune on this site unless it's a bot, which I believe the latter is more likely.
SebK84 Sadly the bots not only post multiple duplicates , they also post identical Amazon chinese tat items day after day with a small price difference ..
This morning on my 10 minute scroll through the "deals" Pancake alien alone had posted 20 odd duplicates which I reported .... some were removed many were not .
Obviously the "duplicate recognition " is bypassed/ turned off for these obvious Bots , but what about the Moderators ? Or are they not allowed to remove such obvious dupes ? If I can spot 20 odd glaring duplicates in 10 minutes surely a professional moderator could/should spot many more ?
SebK84 Not sure what else can be done apart from report them every time,surely its not just a couple of posters on here that are reporting the duplicates,it must be getting noticed ?
intherealworld I bet it has something to do with why they only offer Amazon vouchers.. they have to these bots that get to post untold deals constantly / no limit/ no rules apply!!?
I also reported a duplicate product from this morning from pancake alien .
LL81 The problem is complex and it's also because of some spamming this site and I am not talking about that single account but also about some community members with their non deals. Now I can imagine that the owner of the site has a dilemma as on one side he must make money and on another has to pay for deals, vouchers or even comments left by the community and let's be honest, the majority just post quick deals etc. etc. for points. I cannot see people buying or even clicking on the majority of deals (not sure how they make money from affiliate links for non deals, maybe they have some money from product allocation IDK).
I think if people posted good deals then perhaps LD wouldn't need to post so many deals themselves, but I could be wrong.
I see some deals which are sold out immediately, but others just sit for days with the same stock levels, so I can imagine those deals make no money.
I think moderation should pick on non deals and remove them with information that the price is not good, if price is lower in other stores then the lowest price should be posted, and I believe they would make much more from affiliate links if site started to remove bad deals, and perhaps some bigger businesses would want to post their product on site here or give them a cut from sales of products sold here, but it's only my humble opinion.
Unfortunately the majority of members view Latest Deals as a voucher earning site (not a deals sharing site ). Most have discovered that no deals are removed for being "non deals" so continue to post anything just to gain points .
So we have the majority of members not wishing to "rock the boat" hence the downward spiral in the quality of deals accelerates . Members reap what they sow .
Tom can you comment to the previous messages above posted by
smallbike1961 as it may clear up a few issues that members feel they are facing.
Again, controversial & bring on the backlash but if it was me that felt so strongly about what was going on with the community tbh i'd no longer contribute because I wouldn't see the point (unless it was for the points system) or just leave the community 
skmoskmo212 some people walk away, some people seek to improve, nothing wrong with either
DanielleMcK1992 The problem is that some wants quick money with no effort whatsoever and that's the biggest culprit here now.
SebK84 I understand your POV but having looked at the points system, there is no limit as to how many deals per day a member can post but the limit you are able to collect points for per day is 3. I think this is fair otherwise, members would definitely be more inclined to continuously post and flood the site with non-deals for the purpose of making 'easy money'
Hey all 
Firstly - thanks everyone for all their thoughts and feedback. We try and read everything and take everyoneโs opinions into account.
I wanted to jump in to clarify some things in this topic -
We do use automated systems to find and speed up the sharing of deals on Latest Deals. We have a list of criteria that a deal has to hit (e.g. a certain discount, or the lowest price for X days, etc) in an effort to ensure a certain quality is met before the deal is shared.
There have been some bugs with these processes, particularly when it comes to sharing (or rather, resharing!) duplicates. Weโve recently (yesterday) made some improvements and some further improvements are going live today. I hear the feedback and it seems like we need to tighten up these processes further. The LD Team arenโt necessarily all natural-born-bargain hunters and so weโll make continued efforts to tighten up the internal guidelines and processes that decide whether or not a deal should be shared.
Deciding what is and isnโt a deal has always been a challenging problem and is one weโve typically tried to leave up to the community - so, regardless of a deal having been shared by a LD Hunter or a member of LD, it is up to members to decide how it should be rated. Weโll typically only intervene if a member is consistently sharing deals that appear full price and where we canโt see a justification as to why that person considered it a deal. Our approach in those instances is always to try and guide and help towards better deals being shared rather than public embarrassment or harsh moderation (e.g. banning).
It is a continued balancing act to try and reward our members for their contributions with points whilst not encouraging or incentivising poor quality content being shared in an effort to โgameโ the points system. We appreciate the feedback on how this could be improved and if anyone has further ideas please do share them as theyโll be read and considered whenever we make tweaks in the future.
I appreciate I havenโt been able to perhaps answer everything but I hope that clarifies a few things. Iโll try and pop back in the topic to answer any follow up questions but have my hands full with some exciting website & app updates (hopefully in time for Black Friday!)
Kelsey please do allow thumbs down to count. Atm so many poor deals reach a big number of thumbs ups as thumbs down has no impact on deal eg. Not removing points.
Allow deals to be posted before the date. So if for instance deal will be available tomorrow why cannot we post it day before.
People play the system regardless. Some comments are really like written by ai. I could name over 20 users abusing the system with almost identical comments all the time. I am surprised moderators cannot spot those people. I would really prefer normal conversation about products with first hand experience and not quick comments for points. I think those who write the same comment should have their points removed completely with no ability to earn points from commenting in future.
SebK84 I am absolutely one of those people who will comment but I spend a long time on finding genuine products I am actually interested in before commenting. So although it looks like I do a quick comment I'm really not. I also love receiving the Amazon vouchers and I am so thankful for Tom and the team so yes some of us do the daily tasks each day but we also put in the time too.
Kelsey Sorry , it just doesn't wash , as I think you well know ? The mechanics of the site rely on having the maximum amount of members which then allows you to sell access to your site at a greater price .
Pancakealien is a totally obvious direct feed from the Amazon "tat clearance "department , often posting the identical item multiple times , which is so obvious to members who still would like to see Latest Deals as a "deals site" . Obviously of little interest to the majority of members who view it as an Amazon voucher earning site .
There have always been indirect feeds to your "deal hunters " which led to many duplicates . Were members expected not to notice ? I'm sure they do now but hey ho as long as they can post poor deals and comments for amazon vouchers the vast majority of members are happy .
I accept the business model must work for Latest Deals ? But wouldn't it be so much better if all Amazon feeds were to come through a Moderator , which would at least cut out the numerous duplicates.
Why does Latest Deals continue to "Work with" (ie take money from ) dubious subscription deals that are 99% panned by members ." On that ass" comes to mind .
I realise you are trying to further automate your site (ie get rid of all humans ) but it is so obviously not working (apart from with those who view Latest Deals as a points earning site -which is obviously the vast majority ).
Why not show -ve votes instead of just +ve votes ? OK a few members might be miffed that their non deals are spotted by the membership , to most I think it would be an incentive to improve their deal posting , rather than 3 a day from Amazon , Argos , Tesco , Morrisons etc etc .
Look at your site content - It is 80% Amazon clearance tat , 20% members "non deals" surely you cannot be happy with what Latest Deals has become - certainly not Deals and certainly not Latest .
Winge over please don't let the site go any further downhill , or at least rename it Amazon voucher earning site .
intherealworld lots of good points made,Iโm a bit of both I like to save folk money with hopefully decent thought out deals and at other times I just post to get the points,especially if Iโve forgotten to post that day but I do see what your on about but I donโt think itโll change. 
What could really improve the Points system is if this site had much better moderation. I've just posted a Topic and it received one answer before the notification that it's similar to your post, which it absolutely was not.
I had put forward the notion of the Points being changed to 10000 points for the ยฃ10 voucher, 15000 points for the ยฃ15 voucher, and so on. Not the same as your post at all.
It's actually quite frustrating and is one of the failings of this site.
Obviously the moderation on the site is largely automated . To spot rude/offensive words, phrases etc. That's fine . Latest Deals is an advertising business , let's not deny that and it shows .
The founders should by now have a billion pound business but have been reduced to advertising dodgy subscription deals and becoming an Amazon "tat outlet " (Pancakealien , Mayonnaise, Don'tlookaway, LifeofBrian just a few of the "new LD Hunters " ) .
If I , and many others can spot so many non deals and duplicates in a ten minute scroll what are your moderators doing ?
I appreciate one person's deal is not necessarily a deal to other members , but 95% of members are having a laugh at the expense of the site and its members by gaming the site for points .
A great site has been built - totally ruined by lack of moderation . Just think how great this site could be if it were not filled with Amazon "tat" and standard Supermarket and retailer "offers" ?
If members wish to post a Supermarket "offer" or Amazon "deal" they should explain why they consider it to be a "deal" rather than just "click and pasting off the site" otherwise it should be rejected .
There are deals to be found , but when members can click & paste 3 of the current fare daily off Tesco, Argos , Amazon etc for 300 points where is the incentive to post great deals ?
Perhaps members are so naive that they believe every Supermarket , Amazon listing etc is a deal ? I'm sure they know they are not but , hey it's worth 100 points on Latest Deals .
I have followed Latest Deals for many years , biting my tongue , before taking the plunge a few weeks ago to join and perhaps get my views heard ?
What could have become a massive world leading site has lapsed into a cottage advertising site sadly .
How to fix it ? Encourage members to post only good deals - How - Easy , display -ve votes as well as +ve votes - no hogwash about -ve votes being used to rate popularity .
Ok members would initially find this annoying , but surely there are members who would love to be appreciated for posting great deals , while obviously there are members who just want to post their "3 a day" non deals for the points .
I repeat , Members you reap what you sow ! Where do the great deals come from if you are happy to post non deals , where does the money come from for your vouchers ? I'll tell you......promotion of dodgy subscription deals , selling the site to Amazon "tat clearance ".
I could be wrong , I'm not in the advertising business, but the current Latest Deals business model appears to be destined to continue downhill .
So members must start posting decent deals for their points (very unlikely IMO ) or Latest Deals must persuade them to do so by moderation and displaying -ve votes .
Rubbish, never received my ยฃ5 voucher (months ago now) still waiting for points to be added to my total (waiting months again) no help from staff. Just ignore messages.
Geekygamergurl oh did your checked your email make sure your email address link to your LD account I always get mine on time last time emmabeckz helped me she might help you here 
Geekygamergurl Hi sorry you have had some issues. I can see you claimed ยฃ5 in September 2023 which was claimed and paid and sent to an Private Apple ID email address - is this the voucher you are talking about? Thank you
emmabeckz yes, it never arrived, i checked in box & spam for 3 months multiple times a day until i gave up hope. I still have a pending balance of points that havenโt been added, why does it take so long
Geekygamergurl Did you email in support about it as the only email I can see is the claim one from September 2023 and that it was sent. The issue may be that your account email is a private Apple ID email address we have had issues with people not getting emails on them before - we wouldn't know you hadn't got it as its showing sent to your email address on Amazon and people usually get in touch and say that they have not received it and ask us to resend to a different email. Please email us at Team@Latestdeals.co.uk and the admin support team can look into it for you and get it resent. Thank you
Geekygamergurl will make sure someone looks at this for you tomorrow thank you 
Geekygamergurl Hi do you want it resending to the email you emailed in off then instead of the private Apple one where it was resent to today - the one that ends in 87 at hotmail? Thank you
Geekygamergurl Hi this has now been sent to your hotmail address, please can you let me know if you have it? Thank you very much
I use the app daily to gain points itโs takes me about 3 months to get the ยฃ50 voucher
It could be so improved by only awarding points for "real deals" - not for just click and pasting "non deals " from Amazon , Supermarkets and retailers sites . Members should explain why the deal they post is a great deal- is that too much to ask ?
thanks to everyone who has been contributing comments to this chat topic. I didn't think for a second, when I asked the question, it would have the response that it has. I feel grateful to be a part of the LD community 
I definitely think it's important for the LD team to hear the opinions from us to see where improvements can be made, if needed. I personally use LD the most in the months running up to black Friday & Xmas. Without it I don't think I'd know about some of the deals available! I defo think it's important to give praise where praise is due and for the clearly laborious & time consuming job they do Tom emmabeckz Kelsey and more, praise is certainly due, so thank you 
To members of the community whose opinions are so strong with constant negativity, I'm wondering why, if you can't find anything you consider to be positive about Latest Deals as a whole, why you would want to continue to be a member?
skmoskmo212 how much you've been paid to write this comment
Opinions should always be welcomed regardless how positive or negative they are. I know some here live in a fantasy land.
www.latestdeals.co.uk/deals/celebrations-milk-chocolate-gift-box-950g-amazon
Celebrations box 950g for over ยฃ12 posted by hunter or a bot . 550g is 4.5. Lalaland
SebK84 Too true , I got a 550 gram one for ยฃ2 at Morrisons (more card deal ) but widely available for ยฃ4 or less at numerous supermarkets . I always say member's -ve votes should be displayed to give members an idea of other members real thoughts on a "deal" . Frankly I find "real deals" very hard if not impossible to find on this site and amazed that some members "think" they do ! Now finding duplicates from LD Hunters I find very easy (currently running at 40+ a day ) and time consuming though it is I have reported all the blindingly obvious ones . Many times my 3 a day points scoring ration , but hopefully doing my small bit to clean up the site from this so obvious spamming .
intherealworld www.latestdeals.co.uk/deals/sony-playstation-5-digital-console-1tb-ebay digital ps5 for 346 - 20 thumbs up
www.latestdeals.co.uk/deals/playstation-5-digital-edition-console-disc-free-amazon digital ps5 - ยฃ309 - 14 thumbs up.
Now how voting on this site make any sense? Going by thumbs up paying 40 quid more is a better deal.
Seems like site intentionally suppress some deals here.
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