About that morning Meh Mail...
4It made my brain frown. (Seemed to be missing sections too, although that could be my mail server since it periodically will do very strange things to the body of the emails I receive–like nothing appears to be in the body of the email, but if I hit REPLY, the missing text/images show up at the bottom of my reply message.)
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed getting the morning meh mail today and will be looking forward to them each morning.
The thing is, I’m not the brightest bulb in the morning. Is it possible to get a better hint in the email about the daily deal? A picture? Buzz words? I probably could even figure out a word scramble, although I’m not fond of puzzling through morning emails without plenty of caffeine coursing through my ancient system.
Not grumbling. Not complaining. Not not pleased. Happy to get the email. I’m just stupid & lazy, prefer coffee in bed with my laptop and not having to think too hard while I slog through early morning email.
- 21 comments, 38 replies
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Will the email be coming even to us dedicated mehtizens who already visited the site and clicked the meh button (or god forbid, even the buy button) at midnight? I wouldn’t think there’s much point in sending a teaser to someone who already knows what this day’s deal is, but maybe it’s useful in case you were half-asleep at midnight but the thing for sale is something you might actually want to buy.
@lljk We explored this and went as far as building a full implementation that did an analysis of clickstream data to find users to remove from the day’s email and integrated it into our email platform.
Then we removed it, because at the end of the day we felt customers would simply feel like our daily email was broken if they somehow didn’t receive it “daily”.
I like sleep too much to stay up just to see the new deal at midnight, but stopping in at meh every morning is part of my daily routine. Honestly, I can’t say which drives me here the most: checking for the stuff of the day I don’t have room for, or to see what silliness or good news is floating about in the forums.
If I’m going to meh.com anyway, how important is it that I click thru the email? Or does it not really make a difference as long as I land here one way or another?
I really should spend a few hours catching up on all the videos I put off to watch later and then never do.
@shawn I have a great n=1 study for you: I don’t like seeing a teaser for something I’ve already meh’d. I ended up unsubscribing, and not because it’s a bad idea. I’ve just seen all of the deals so far already. Maybe I’ll re-subscribe and stop coming by at 9 pm
@shawn When I first got it… I thought I was getting spammed… then I Realized I have a few accounts… lol
@sohmageek And a multiple fuku’s too on the same day then?
@Kidsandliz nope. I wouldn’t do that. I can’t get my wife to participate. I don’t do it. Now shirts. I’ve wanted to get a few over the limit a few times…
@sohmageek I think most of the purchases on my alternate account are shirts.
Look at the sales spike. It worked. #Marketing #WouldYouWantToBeSittingOnAllOfThatInvrntory
Hmm… daily mail essentially click bait teaser to drive you back to the site to click to see the deal… If you are seeing who clicked and who didn’t you will need to correlate that with those who have already been to the site to see if that email drives MIA member traffic up. Already had clicked meh last night, didn’t click on the email this morning to click through to the site, did open the email through.
@Kidsandliz Opened it, tried to read the redacted declassified military-like document, unsubscribed.
@hallmike I haven’t unsubbed yet, but based on the hype I was expecting it to actually tell us what the daily deal was… nope… it was more like lengthy spam. I think I was more expecting a subject line with what the deal was and then the body of the message would be a photo and link. Then signed “meh”.
Although since meh seems to have a really terrific backlog of really terrific hoarded words that they haven’t figured out how to stuff into their really terrific fuku boxes I bet they are trying to create these really terrific opportunities to use up the excess of the least terrific words in their hoard so they can keep the market cornered with respect to all those terrific words so politicians can’t use them.
@Kidsandliz the whole idea is to drive traffic to the site, not make it unnecessary for you to visit the site by telling you what the item is outright.
@Kidsandliz you didn’t read my manifesto of a post describing the email content and the downfall of delivering the full site experience. #dontbelievethehype
@snapster I did read it the other day (likely skimmed the manifesto as it way too late at night as I have had to be up way too late and up way too early too many times recently). Of course that doesn’t mean I remember the details of what you wrote (obviously I didn’t - grin). My short version memory of that post was: “coming to an inbox near you - a daily email about the deal is”. (Oops that was wrong). Instead what we got was a teaser and the is part was remembered wrong. Good thing this isn’t a class as I would have flunked that test question LOL.
The reason I posted was because of the first email we just got that was mismatched my apparently wrong expectations (and reading the new comments on this thread someone else was not happy with the email and had my expectations too). Then my second post was in response to @hallmike - (so not sure which of my two posts you are referring to).
Short version: What I (wrongly) thought you were doing and what you are doing aren’t on the same page. I’ll live and it doesn’t affect the frequency of which I come to the site… I long ago drunk the kool-aid and have followed the lemmings (unless I am too tired or too busy) since just a couple of days after meh.com opened. I am far from your best customer due to a serious lack of funds (thank you 3 cancers in 7 years, am only VMP for a couple of more days as I bought 2 more christmas presents last month…) On the other hand I have likely posted way too much on your forum despite not buying - this is a social media site and not a storefront - right? : ) Just as likely I am not your target market for those emails anyway. No biggie.
@Kidsandliz posting too much in this forum is analogous to eating too much bacon - it never happens
This reminded me to go through my promotions folder and find it.
Mine appeared intact. Like the stats. Like the guessing game, except I already knew what the deal was, but I like that it’s more fun than a traditional promo email.
I liked the morning e-mail, but thought it was a little too
for first-thing-in-the-morning reading. If meh could just 
it a bit, it would be 
.
@rockblossom Today’s was kind of
, but I’ve seen some past ones that made me 
out loud. Can I get a 
yea!!!
ok, nevermind
I have to admit, I thought it was hilarious that a critical response to the new circuit breaker crap ended up in the daily email with the ‘ear’ in ‘years’ redacted. Are y’all picking and choosing which product responses to include, or was that random?
@PurplePawprints the redacted content is automated by the comments liked by the midnight crowd and certain keywords removed. It isn’t a response to the circuit breaker but is more a part of preserving the site visit. We groaned at the need for code tweak on today’s y---- redaction of ear but we let it send anyways.
Having watched a week or two of these redactions, they are often the best part. I’d share some past ones but I think the future ones will be just as good.
I’m a bit torn over the Banter section. While I have great love for Irk, Glen, etc., this section simply makes me feel like a step back to Mortimer & Monte. I like that meh is elements (with improvements) of old woot but I don’t want it to BE old woot.
@cinoclav we agree. We’re proud of elements we created that work well but we want to improve on them. We’ll see if there’s room for improvement here too but the category of content seemed set.
@cinoclav @snapster, the Mortimer and Monte banter is honestly the only reason I don’t unsubscribe from Woot’s daily emails.
@snapster Don’t listen to that crazy person, y’alls imagination needs outing. The monkeys were great and so was kidfoot and whatever other characters you’ll decide to create.
I unsubscribed. I guess I just don’t get it.
@Marion14505 Since creating the daily deal business model I’ve been against these for 11.5 of 12 years. My brain is more full of reasons to dislike it than like it. If there is an adjustment to allow a state you’d enjoy between “no-email” and “everythings-in-the-email” then let me know. Otherwise either keeping it or unsubscribing, you picked right for you
@snapster I’m east coast, own my own business, don’t normally look at meh every day and when I do, it’s usually ~2pm Eastern. I’m not really the target market. Friend of mine told me about woot in 2008, and I enjoyed it for a while. meh.com is simply too [what’s the word…] “passionate family” for my taste. I’m a loner. Thanks.
/giphy "passionate family"
I didn’t get it
. Infant to see it now.
@conandlibrarian mine (uniquely to other staff) keeps going to my spam folder on gmail. Been a long time since I had a false positive but we managed to achieve it here. Or maybe that’s a correct positive and I’m the false one.
@snapster I finally found the email. I guess I was thrown by the title of the message. I am deeply offended that I was not mentioned in the first email, I thought I was your best customer, lol.
@snapster mine went straight to the spam folder in Gmail as well.
@Snapster - as you know, I have been a “fan” of the change, or at least a supporter. With that said, I think that the email is of little use, and did nothing for me this morning. Especially since it didn’t even reach my inbox until 8:51 and given the recent trend lately - with the exception of today - that would have been waaaay too late. Since meh is one of my first stops in the morning, even before email, it didn’t drive me to the site either.
As an East Coaster (who again, hasn’t whined) that typically shows up at midnight, I understand that I am not your target audience, but I was actually looking forward to the usual “silliness” and antics that I have come to love. It didn’t deliver. It seemed like a waste of time, and talent. Maybe my expectations were set too high, maybe the ho hum was what you are actually after, or maybe like all things meh it is an experiment that will be played with until you get it to your liking. Whichever, whatever, I will stay subscribed for now and hopefully the banter section will at least make it worth the spam feeling it has.
Memories:
@Ignorant Seriously? Fact checking a non-poitican? Tisk tisk what has the world come to? (grin)
@snapster Is meh.com/fuckemail becoming a thing soon? Possibly with a link on the front page somewhere? I don’t want a daily email, but would still read stuff most the time when I’m already on the site. I don’t want to miss out on the jokes or some irk/glen banter.
@metaphore formatting html for the multitude of email clients is such a major pain that browser support will actually be enjoyed for once. Soon, I hope.
@shawn any reason i get 2 of these emails? at first, i thought i was special and got a 2nd email with a secret fuck you, err… fuku link. so i carefully read the second email. i thought “hmm… this looks awfully like the first email.” then i pasted the text from the first and second emails into text files and ran windiff. windiff said “why are you bothering me? this shit’s the same.” which is weird because typically windiff doesn’t swear at me.
i then called a handwriting analyst to see if the same person wrote the emails. she was pretty miffed when she got here though. i think she said something like, “are you a fucking idiot?” to which i replied, “it’s possible. i did walking around yelling BROWN! for the longest time.” she furled her eyebrows, punched me in the head and left.
having been shunned by the handwriting analyst, i turned to my next resource, the Gibson. yeah, that’s right. the computer from Hackers. but that thing just made me feel like i was on some weird acid trip.
so, i really just want to know why i keep getting 2 of these emails. don’t make me consult the Unix system from Jurassic Park.
i’m horrible with addresses and navigating my way through all those buildings will take forever.
@carl669 forward me the emails and we’ll take a look. have you checked the “to” address? do you have two accounts?
@shawn err… never mind. figured it out.
So after a few days I have to say the e-mails are… Pretty meh.
I dunno. For the amount I bitched about the circuit breakers, they didn’t let me down.
@DrunkCat sadly the redactions on the first few haven’t met the quality bar of some of our earlier tests. hopefully that part increase.
also, the guessing game is the main content and if you’ve already been, there’s just not a lot to do to make it worthwhile. I’ve had one time where I could organically use the teaser to guess and then check my guess with a visit and I thought it was fun. I’m hoping others might find themselves in that situation more than me but it’s probably not the core crowd.
@snapster Yeah, it seems like the daily emails might be fun if I didn’t habitually check the site before bed. I’m holding on for now cause I love you guys, but as it stands I’m tempted to unsubscribe.
If the nightly visitor isn’t the target of this outreach maybe thats not a bad sign.
@snapster Yeah, it’s not bad but I can’t get myself to read the entire thing because I already get texts telling me what’s up for sale. Even then, I’d rather just click to see what’s on sale than guess in case it’s something I don’t want to miss out on. (And guess it is because it’s pretty vague; even when I know what the product is I still struggle to ‘catch on’.)
@snapster Good humorous writing would maybe make it worthwhile to read even if you are a regular… but then again if it is raising your sales from the emails those of us who generally check the site can always unsub. Of course there will be those who will not for fear the emails might change and they might actually miss something worthwhile LOL so likely you can’t win either way.
@Kidsandliz I try to provide good humorous writing by commenting on the deal and hoping it makes it into the email.
I check at midnight consistently, so I hit the -unsubscribe- button. My screen lit up with “You have unsubscribed from meh.com.” That was kinda scary, actually, but my VMP membership seems to be still in place. Maybe you could reword the wording on the confirmation to indicate that the unsubscribe will just affect the daily newsletter?
I am a weirdo I guess. I don’t like the “paused” deal concept, but I kinda like the daily email. Or at least I do see the potential of it. The more Meh content that comes my way, the better!
I’m normally pretty good at remembering to check meh at 11pm, so the daily e-mail the next morning was getting annoying enough that I unsubscribed from it. I’d definitely sign back up for it immediately if you could give an option to only send it if I haven’t made a purchase/clicked meh on the deal already by the time it’s set to go out the next morning. As it currently stands, it’s kinda redundant for me – and I’m sure there are others here who feel the same.
Throwing in my now un-biased $.02. I appreciate the attempt to try something different but can’t understand the value of these emails from any angle: Marketing, customer experience, humor, etc.
To me the whole advantage of receiving emails from shopping sites is that I don’t have to visit the sites. Or rather, that the emails themselves are little (personalized) versions of the site that come to me instead of making me come to them. But the Meh emails are the worst of both worlds: They clutter my inbox without providing any immediate value.
Sorry to rant, as this project was probably created by one of my friends, but it seems like the point of these emails is to make fun of daily emails instead of providing a better version of daily emails.
@skemmis The reason you like normal site emails is the exact opposite of what they’re trying to do though. They don’t want you to read the email and then not visit. They want the email to serve as a reminder that you should visit that day. I’m on the fence about this particular change, and haven’t unsubscribed yet, but most people hate these types of emails and never open them no matter what the content is.
@skemmis They left in my comment about catshirtswoot. There had to be some very slight value in that, right?
@PurplePawprints but what is the value of adding that extra step?
@skemmis Page views and ad revenue, of course.
@skemmis it’s not just that it doesn’t save you a trip to the site or that it’s, as you said, inherently not useful. worse, it is a poor piece of satire on daily emails, IMO (if that is, in fact, what it’s trying to accomplish). in short, it’s not clever, it’s annoying.
offending the spam sensibilities of a large group of internet geek’s inboxes seems like a newspaper-to-nose thwackable act. but maybe i feel a stronger than typical hate toward spam. BUT I DOUBT IT.
Question: Is this a separate mailing list from other Meh emails, or does unsubscribing from the daily mail remove all Meh mailings?
I don’t want to unsubscribe with the promise of future Irk and Glen banter, but if I did I also wouldn’t want to unsubscribe from other special commehnications.
i’m complaining. that email is dumb. there i said it.
kay i’ll guess i’ll read the useful commentary already in this thread.
it’s still dumb.