Best that ATDrake have a sticky to post their threads in Deals forum?

Lynx-lynx · 10-25-2014, 06:04 PM

As ATDrake posts very very many individual threads in the Deals, Freebies, and Resources forum, I suggest that it makes sense that they have one sticky and that all their offerings go into that sticky.

The rationale is that people will know where to find all the deals/freebies that ATDrake posts and it keeps them together.

It also means that one can more readily locate single threads from other members.

Please contribute your thoughts on this ......

TrevorViking · 10-25-2014, 06:32 PM

I think I'd prefer them separate. I check the forum daily and have never had to scroll past the first page to see everything new.

ATDrake · 10-25-2014, 06:49 PM

Part of the rationale for posting individual threads is for future proofing with regards to the MR search engine, which defaults to showing thread titles only.

If someone is looking for science e-books (many of which are offered free as Resources on a permanent basis from various institutions), it's considerably easier for them to skim past search results that say (spoilered for length, this is the actual search results from page 10 of running the default for the keywords "free science"):

Spoiler:

The equivalent page 10 search set to Posts looks like this:

Spoiler:

and IMHO, it's noticeably harder to spot relevant results.

One of the other parts of the rationale is to make it more convenient to spot and skim past offers that are Not Relevant To Your Interests®, and it's considerably easier to do that with only a 2-3 line thread title heading to scroll past (depending on how small your browser window is set and whether you're using the Liquid layout) than an entire post within a thread, which the above search result comparisons also demonstrate.

(Also, dedicated threads allow for easier noting that whatever deal it is now available in additional stores/regions and for commentary on it by interested MR readers who may have read it or have related questions without going OT in a megathread.

I mean, did you really want to see that multi-post discussion on the merits of AmazonCrossing translated foreign language titles to go on in Mystery/Suspense/Thriller?)

This, incidentally, is why I've advocated for years that free ebooks (or ebooks deals in general) should probably be separated off into their own subforum, so it would be easier for people to spot audiobook/device/other deals/bargains/resources etc. while still making it convenient for people to quickly skim over ebook offers they were interested in.

However, the posting style within Deals has always been left up to the discretion of the poster, subject to modly considerations, despite previous proposals to regulate the confining of stuff to megathreads, whether they simply be the freebie deals, or the specific Kindle offers (paid or otherwise) which people used to complain about cluttering up the forum, or whatever.

And for the record, we get considerably fewer official publisher promotional freebies (which I feel are worth individually spotlighting due to relative rarity value and the fact that they're generally "curated" offerings of the sort equivalent to what you could walk into a present-day bookstore and find on the shelf even if you're not personally interested in buying, moreso than the daily KDP slushpile trawl of everyone who can self-pub their shopping list nowadays) than we used to.

It's actually dried down to a trickle from the quantities they offered us as little as two years ago.

GtrsRGr8 · 10-25-2014, 08:23 PM

I really appreciate the information that I get in ATDrake's posts.

Instead of having an ATDrake sticky, I would prefer that his--and everyone's--posts go into the appropriate general thread ("Non-fiction," "Christian Interest," "Children/YA," et al).

murg · 10-25-2014, 08:55 PM

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