I have been watching the woot off for two days now. Kinda fun. Not really that much fun coming here to see the item sold out. Check once at 6am then done for the day... Just saying
@ghazianas Yeah that would be cool... and really difficult to set up on a lot of levels. We still love the idea of a Mehrathon/Ambivalanche, but it's gonna take some time.
I actually prefer that they're sticking with the one-deal-per-day idea. Woot started adding more deals and then more deals... and now we're all here instead of there.
I actually like this setup. It's what I loved about the old Woot. There are some great deals mixed in with the misses. It forces you to commit to checking the site at change over, or risk missing out on a really great deal. If it sells out, then that's great for Meh. They made their top possible sales for the day. I prefer it this way and would (personally) not like it if they switched to another model where they offered something new on the same day after a sellout. An occasional Mehrathon would be fun, but I don't want to be a slave to checking the site constantly on the off chance there was a sellout. Plus, the more they offer, the worse the items will become because eventually they'll run out of good cheap stuff and fill it with crap.
I dropped in on the woot off a couple of times and learned that it was the same usual shit and I didn't get a BOC that w as hidden in plain site in another section. I honestly can't dedicate hours and hours to that site looking at basically the crap over and over again. I'll take a ten dollar fryer any day. Who knows what I'll get tomorrow.
@ballpark I would imagine they do the same thing they do everyday? It's not like there's a team of people generating weird order numbers and manually keying them into the database when you click 'buy'. Or..... maybe there is???
@ballpark I come back to this site so many times of day it's crazy! Having more than one product up for sale kind of ruins the control of our experiment 'one deal a day.' And @jsh139 is right, there are so so many things for all of our staff to do every day regardless of how the sale does or if/when it sells out.
@JonT So are you able to be more productive on a day with a sellout? As in, since I don't have to worry about the sale, I can say focus on my other projects. Is there a financial upside to selling out?
@ballpark There is some work on the current day's sale, but I would assume most of the work involves shipping products from previous sales, and setting up future sales. First a buyer finds something to resell. Then the finance folks buy a pallet to a truckload of them. Days or weeks later it reaches the warehouse. The warehouse staff pulls out a few samples and puts the rest away. The shipping staff figures out how it will be shipped, and makes sure they have enough boxes on hand to ship it. The ad writer writes about how awful the product is. @snapster draws a Meh face for the sale. A graphics designer creates the official Meh face (this step may be the most work). The photographer takes some pictures and sends them to a graphic artist that uses photo manipulating software to add in humorous elements and removes any reflections of the naked photographer. Somebody enters all the key stuff into the databases for the website and the order entry system. Once almost everything is ready for a sale, the deal is scheduled. At 10 minutes to midnight EST, @mathew starts working on the video of the day. At midnight the computer automatically puts in the new sale of the day. The computers handle most of the real time aspects of the transactions. At least one real person reads the halp email and one or more monitors the community, to keep our expectations at the right level. They also have to fix the mistakes that weren't caught in the product write-ups. Days, or weeks later, the shipping team will go to the warehouse, box, label, and ship our orders (hey shipping team, could you send me my keyboard? the order says "placed" not "shipped"). Then the FedEx SmartPost truck takes the boxes away for a magical slow speed tour of various sorting facilities. Where the last 12 miles always takes 2 days. Meanwhile, yet other parts of Meh are doing other stuff. Someone is maintaining the building, buying equipment and supplies, doing payroll, washing the rat poster, changing the oil in the servers, etc... Stuff such as shipping only happens on weekdays, probably only during normal work hours, other stuff has to happen around the clock. Ever notice how @snapster even replies to customer comments on Sunday afternoons? It is probably part of his plan for world domination. The supervillain works some of the worst shifts, in order to get more faithful minions.
@Ignorant Good point. When there's something on the front page I don;t want that still available, I don't give it any more thought. But when it sold out before I saw I have to wonder, if I could get it, would I? If I wanted it enough to get it from meh, do I want to look for it elsewhere? Or do I hope that meh sells it again some day?
@hallmike Woe woe Wait! Vmp's get the unedited "naked" photos? That is just not fair! I already am missing on the baby arm jokes and now there is pointing and snickering that I don't get to appreciate since I can't see the pictures? Would you volintere to discribe them? HahaBig Grin
Well @thumperchick that is not entirely correct. Smile That badge means that my username is allowed access to the unedited pictures but it dosn't mean I can see them. When you are close enough to blind picts need discriptions. And I thought it would be funny to ask for the discriptions of naked photographers! hehe teasing
Hang out in the forums more! The item for sale is secondary to the fun that goes on in here :)
But you're here now…so you didn't just check and be done for the day!
Might I recommend creating an engaging forum topic that sparks thrilling commentary and responses?
Or perhaps you could work on your submission for the Photoshop Contest?
Find a nice web game for all of us to enjoy, like Room of 1000 Snakes, Binary System, or Geoguessr?
If you're bored, make things less boring!
There should be a rule, if the item sells out in less than an hour another deal should be posted.
@ghazianas Yeah that would be cool... and really difficult to set up on a lot of levels. We still love the idea of a Mehrathon/Ambivalanche, but it's gonna take some time.
@ghazianas If the item sells out in less than an hour, you should re-post the last item that didn't sell out.
@stienman I feel like that sounds like torture....ipad covers forever!
@stienman Or the item that had the most meh votes over the past month. Then you won't have to rush aroudn fulfilling orders.
I actually prefer that they're sticking with the one-deal-per-day idea. Woot started adding more deals and then more deals... and now we're all here instead of there.
I actually like this setup. It's what I loved about the old Woot. There are some great deals mixed in with the misses. It forces you to commit to checking the site at change over, or risk missing out on a really great deal. If it sells out, then that's great for Meh. They made their top possible sales for the day. I prefer it this way and would (personally) not like it if they switched to another model where they offered something new on the same day after a sellout. An occasional Mehrathon would be fun, but I don't want to be a slave to checking the site constantly on the off chance there was a sellout. Plus, the more they offer, the worse the items will become because eventually they'll run out of good cheap stuff and fill it with crap.
@PurplePawprints
@PurplePawprints I do like the fact that they don't post a new item that I might miss if didn't keep checking.
I got a complimentary gif from @JonT! My life is complete!
"You snooze. You lose."
That's a key principle of a deal-a-day site.
@nadroj In meh's case the snoozing is mostly literal, given the late hour at which things are posted for a lot of folks.
@moondrake Move to a better time zone.
@bluedyn I'm actually in a great time zone, meh posts at 11pm, which is my sorta bedtime on work nights.
@moondrake I like this time zone, too. Especially after living in ET for a while. That got old.
@moondrake @bluedyn There has to be some benefit to living in Texas.
I dropped in on the woot off a couple of times and learned that it was the same usual shit and I didn't get a BOC that w as hidden in plain site in another section. I honestly can't dedicate hours and hours to that site looking at basically the crap over and over again. I'll take a ten dollar fryer any day. Who knows what I'll get tomorrow.
So, I kinda see it this way. I am willing to come back to this site multiple times a day.
Meh needs to make money, and I need to spend money.
Seems like a win / win.
So, if you have more products does that mean they can't be as good of deals?
A good question is, What does the Meh staff do all day on a day like today?
@ballpark I wonder if they are all trying to score BOC's from the other site....
@ballpark I would imagine they do the same thing they do everyday? It's not like there's a team of people generating weird order numbers and manually keying them into the database when you click 'buy'. Or..... maybe there is???
@ballpark I come back to this site so many times of day it's crazy! Having more than one product up for sale kind of ruins the control of our experiment 'one deal a day.' And @jsh139 is right, there are so so many things for all of our staff to do every day regardless of how the sale does or if/when it sells out.
@JonT So are you able to be more productive on a day with a sellout? As in, since I don't have to worry about the sale, I can say focus on my other projects. Is there a financial upside to selling out?
@ballpark There is some work on the current day's sale, but I would assume most of the work involves shipping products from previous sales, and setting up future sales. First a buyer finds something to resell. Then the finance folks buy a pallet to a truckload of them. Days or weeks later it reaches the warehouse. The warehouse staff pulls out a few samples and puts the rest away. The shipping staff figures out how it will be shipped, and makes sure they have enough boxes on hand to ship it. The ad writer writes about how awful the product is. @snapster draws a Meh face for the sale. A graphics designer creates the official Meh face (this step may be the most work). The photographer takes some pictures and sends them to a graphic artist that uses photo manipulating software to add in humorous elements and removes any reflections of the naked photographer. Somebody enters all the key stuff into the databases for the website and the order entry system. Once almost everything is ready for a sale, the deal is scheduled. At 10 minutes to midnight EST, @mathew starts working on the video of the day. At midnight the computer automatically puts in the new sale of the day. The computers handle most of the real time aspects of the transactions. At least one real person reads the halp email and one or more monitors the community, to keep our expectations at the right level. They also have to fix the mistakes that weren't caught in the product write-ups. Days, or weeks later, the shipping team will go to the warehouse, box, label, and ship our orders (hey shipping team, could you send me my keyboard? the order says "placed" not "shipped"). Then the FedEx SmartPost truck takes the boxes away for a magical slow speed tour of various sorting facilities. Where the last 12 miles always takes 2 days. Meanwhile, yet other parts of Meh are doing other stuff. Someone is maintaining the building, buying equipment and supplies, doing payroll, washing the rat poster, changing the oil in the servers, etc... Stuff such as shipping only happens on weekdays, probably only during normal work hours, other stuff has to happen around the clock. Ever notice how @snapster even replies to customer comments on Sunday afternoons? It is probably part of his plan for world domination. The supervillain works some of the worst shifts, in order to get more faithful minions.
@hamjudo drawing of me in my super-villain costume
FYI - VMP members get the non edited product pictures with reflections of the naked photographer - another reason to sign up.
Is a non sellout not boring? It's still just one item on the front page.
@Ignorant Good point. When there's something on the front page I don;t want that still available, I don't give it any more thought. But when it sold out before I saw I have to wonder, if I could get it, would I? If I wanted it enough to get it from meh, do I want to look for it elsewhere? Or do I hope that meh sells it again some day?
welll... I am excited it's getting close to mid night now... Starts all over tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for eliminating my boredom today!
@hallmike Woe woe Wait! Vmp's get the unedited "naked" photos? That is just not fair! I already am missing on the baby arm jokes and now there is pointing and snickering that I don't get to appreciate since I can't see the pictures? Would you volintere to discribe them? HahaBig Grin
@silverqueen That VMP badge next to your name says you know exactly what the unedited pics looks like!
@silverqueen It's actually more like pointing and astonishment.
Well @thumperchick that is not entirely correct. Smile That badge means that my username is allowed access to the unedited pictures but it dosn't mean I can see them. When you are close enough to blind picts need discriptions. And I thought it would be funny to ask for the discriptions of naked photographers! hehe teasing