Newcomers advice on HotUKDeals & general forum usage

Anybody can post information about what they think is a Hot Deal, as long as you are registered with the site (free to register , and only takes a minute) you can post deals, be it something available online, only available for purchase in store, or both. The idea is to create a community sharing deals with one another, so we can all grab a bargain


Code of conduct

Anyone using the site is expected to comply with the “forum code of conduct”, which you can read here. These policies apply site wide.


Help!!

For help on using HUKD, click here . This shows all threads that have been tagged with the words “hukd help”, showing various rules and help threads.

How is the site laid out?

The main page displays all the latest Hot deals. Only deals that have been voted hot by users, and reach a certain temperature rating (more on this later) will be displayed on the main page.


Narrowing down the deals

Firstly, you’ll see the large tabs across the top, labelled hot, new, discussed & custom.

1. Hot – shows the recent deals that have been voted “hot” by the forum members
2. New – shows all new threads in reverse chronological order (note, the time you see on the right is the time of the last reply, so don’t let that confuse you)
3. Discussed – shows threads in order of the last reply to them
4. Custom – you can set up a custom view, to view whatever you want (more on this later)

The site has several sub-forums, including Deals, Vouchers, Freebies, Competitions, Deal Requests, For Sale/Trade, Misc, & Feedback. You are welcome to post in any of these forums. You should see these forums along the grey bar at the top and if you click any of these, you will see only threads for that particular forum.

You can also narrow by topic, you’ll see these at the top as well, in the slightly darker grey bar, from Clothing, Computers, Electricals, Entertainment, Finance, General Deals, Groceries, Home, Kids, Mobiles, Nonsense & Travel. If you click any of these, you will see only threads for that particular topic.

Remember, the forums and the categories can be clicked in any combination. For example, you could be in All/Deals/New or in Groceries/Vouchers/Hot.

Also, the “view options” underneath affect what you see. The “include expired”, “online deals only” buttons can be toggled, showing you whichever you want. And remember – if you are doing a search using the "merchant filter" – these will affect the output of your search. If you don't need to use these, click "hide tools" at the top right.

For more help on effectively searching on HUKD, please read this thread. For cackles recent guide on how they deal with the new forum layout, click here.


Voucher Finder

The green box over on the right is the voucher finder. It is very easy to use. Simply type in the first few letters of the merchant you are searching for, and when it appears in the list, click the appropriate merchant. This will product a list of all active vouchers for that particular merchant.

Setting up a custom view for your deals

Click the “customise” link at the top right. You can set this up to view whatever you want, all on one page. Once you save your settings, you can then view the results by clicking the custom tab at the top. I find this very handy, as I have it set to view all new “deals” and “vouchers”. You can set it to whatever you wish. If you need any help with this, feel free to post in this thread, and we’ll see what we can do, but most of the fields are quite self-explanatory.

Hottest all time



This little section on the right of the main page, can show you some of the hottest deals of recent times. It shows you the hottest 5 deals, either today, in the last 3 days, in the last week, in the last month, or the hottest deals ever. (Excluding those expired) Remember, the output you are seeing there will depend on which forum/topic you are in. So if you are in the grocery topic, you’ll only be seeing the 5 hottest grocery deals.


Your recent activity



This box on the right of the forums shows the 10 threads you have posted in last. Quite self-explanatory! You can also see the last threads your buddies have posted in, by clicking “buddy activity”. If you don’t yet have any forum buddies, you can add them here, which you can also access from the menu at the left of your control panel. Alternatively, you can add someone to your buddy list by clicking their username, and selecting “Add XXX to your buddy list”.

Deal alerts

You can get email alerts for deals, just make sure you tick the correct box in the above custom section. Alternatively you can use the RSS system, either the “all " feed, or the custom one you have set up above. You can see the link for it in your custom settings. Mine looks like this: http://www.hotukdeals.com/rss/emmajk42 For more help on the RSS, Ducky has a guide here on how to set up the RSS in a deal ticker in FireFox.


How to share your finds!

Click here to see the help thread on posting deals, it will tell you everything you need to know. POINT TO NOTE: in order to minimise duplicate posts, please search before posting!!

Please note, we do not allow:

1. Referrals
2. 3rd party affiliate links
3. Amazon MarketPlace/PlayTrade deals
4. eBay auctions/eBay based sellers
5. Self promotion of any kind
6. Spam
7. Non UK sites (except those pre-approved by Admin)
8. UK Sole Traders/Individuals

All new posts, for new companies, by any members, will be checked out, and may be pulled from the viewable forums while we do so.

Temperature & voting

The temperature gauge is used to judge how hot a deal is, and if it should make it to the main front page. Once a deal reaches a certain temperature it is added to the main page of HotUKDeals. Anybody registered can click hot or cold on a particular deal, and this will increase or decrease the temperature.



There are several factors which dictate the impact your vote will have, as explained by Admin below:


So if you want to have a larger impact voting for deals, your best bet is to start posting your own hot deals, and the hotter they are voted, the more impact you will have when voting.

To vote hot or cold on a deal, use the blue and red arrow buttons to the left of every deal, as shown in the image above. You can also vote lukewarm by using the grey square in the middle. If you are a new member, you may see the temperature move by very little, or not at all. If you see it take a big jump, it may mean that someone else was voting on the deal at the same time as you, and you see the cumulative effect when the page refreshes.

If you are cold voting a deal, it is good forum etiquette to post a note in the deal as to why you have done so. There is nothing more confusing to a new member, than to post a deal, only to see it go cold with no explanation. If you found the item cheaper elsewhere, please let us know where and how. If you have no interest or knowledge about the deal at all, please don’t vote cold, just move on.

HUKD has systems in place to detect serial cold voters, and it may lead to a ban from the forums, as it is against the code of conduct.

Reputation

You click on the button underneath somebody's username if you find their post helpful. You are encouraged to spread it around as much as you like. When you click on the button you can leave positive rep (for helpful deals and things which have helped). You can also leave a comment. Reputation is anonymous; however the recipient of the reputation will be able to see the comment and which post was made.

You can view your reputation points and comments people have left for you >> HERE <<, the page can also be accessed by clicking on "Control Panel" near the top right of the forum. The most recent 10 comments are available for view, and the total points are in the top right of the rep area.

What the different coloured boxes mean:

Orange lights in your rep mean that you have received positive reputation from someone with a positive reputation score. This will have increased your points.
Grey lights are also positive rep, but have been given by someone with no reputation, and therefore does not have the ability to affect your reputation score. This will have had no effect on your points.

When you give out rep, it is not a set amount. The more you have, the more you give with a single click.

Forum custom titles

You'll see some text under your username, it changes according to the number of posts you have. This is what it means:

1. Flint = 0-9
2. Matchstick = 10-99
3. Pilot light = 100-499
4. Flame Thrower = 500-999
5. Solar Flare = 1000+

If the custom text includes the word "mod" in some shape or form, this means that this person is a forum moderator. Currently, the moderators are Admin, Amibees, Col, Duckmagicuk2, Edi, Emmajk42, Juliet_Bravo, MikeT, Millarcat & Rayman.



Tags - what are they for?

Tags are entered against a deal, as single words or multiple words. Tags allow deals to be linked. For example, if a Dell PC is listed, tags entered could be Dell, PC or Computer, for example. Clicking on the tag “Computer” would bring up all other deals with the tag Computer.
Tags are entered when a deal is originally posted, but anybody can add additional tags to an existing post. On a deal listing, at the end of the tags list, just click “add a tag” to add your own to that deal.

For a complete guide on Tags, please see this post by Admin.

The expired button
When you click the button it counts as a vote and when enough members vote EXPIRED then the deal is marked as expired. EXPIRED will then automatically show in its title and it will drop out of the active deals list.

So as you can see, particularly with vouchers, this is a very important thing! You can find the button on the bottom left side of any thread, along with the Edit button. DO NOT use the expiry button just because you do not like a deal - persistent occurences of this may be met with a ban.




The spam button

You can click the spam button on any post you feel is actual spam, referrals, 3rd party affiliate links, eBay auctions, Amazon marketplace deals, a dodgy site, or a duplicate post. If you feel it is any of these, it would be great if you could also use the report button (see below) to immediately notify a moderator.

A quick post in the thread saying something like: “post reported because of xxxx reason, please do not bump”, is also a good idea. If it is a duplicate post, please don’t be nasty to the poster, being civil costs nothing, so a quick, “sorry, but you have posted a duplicate, please see here”… and include link.




Reporting abusive forum posts & contacting admin

If you want to report a thread on HUKD that is offensive or spam, please click the abuse button - This emails all available mods online at that time.
If you are in any doubt about any post, click the abuse button and let a Moderator check it out. Please try and avoid posting a reply having reported it, as this can cause issues if a moderator is removing the post at the time you are writing a reply. While we can say that all reported posts are checked, we may not necessarily undertake the action you wish.

If you wish to email admin, please use the “contact us" link at the bottom of the page.


Thread subscriptions

With the volume of posts on our forums, it might be worth using thread subscriptions to keep track of what threads you are active in. To make sure they are turned on, go to your control panel from the link at the top right of the page, and click “edit options”. There are a few things in here you can mess about with, but if you want to subscribe to all threads you post in, make sure that the “Default Thread Subscription Mode” is not at “do not subscribe”. Mine is set to “no email notification” for example.

Now, any thread you make a reply in, will be listed in your thread subscriptions, which you can access from your control panel.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to a thread by click the “thread tools” menu at the top of each and every thread, and select “subscribe to this thread”.

Where did my thread go?

There are several reasons a thread could be removed, in most cases a mod/Admin should message you with the reason (they are busy, so be patient!). Here are some examples:

1. The post was for an item on eBay or Amazon Marketplace, these are not allowed on HotUKDeals (or any other auction/marketplace site where someone could list their item for sale and then list it as a 'Hot Deal' on this site). We also do not permit eBay based businesses.
2. The item has already been listed by another member. Before posting a deal, do a search to check it's not already posted, and if your post is removed without an explanation, search for the same item as it may have been listed at almost the same time as yours.
3. The deal may be moved to a 'private' forum soon after posting if a mod feels it needs to be checked out. Be patient as it is then likely to be put back for public viewing.
4. If it looks like the original poster is self promoting an item/merchant the post is likely to be removed.
5. If the deal is regarded as 'spam' the deal will be removed.

Usually a moderator will Private Message you if your post has been removed, but this may not always be the case. If you are still not sure, pop a note in here and a mod will try to respond.


Moderated posts

Some posts are moderated when a new poster arrives here. This means they are hidden from view, until approved by a member of the moderation team. It depends on what you're including in your post. For example, hyperlinks & images will need to be approved by a moderator for 'new users'. Please be patient, and your posts will appear. Please do not repeatedly post again and again.


Infractions

Infractions are the penalty system in place on HUKD, which record your breaches of the forum rules or the forum code of conduct. If you receive an infraction, you will get a PM explaining the reason. You can receive either a yellow card, which is only a warning, or a red card, which is a permanent note on your account. Persistent offenders may be banned from the forums altogether. NOTE: some breaches of the rules will result in an instant ban from the forums, with no warning, but you will see a note as to why you have been banned.


Avatars

If you want people to be able to recognise you more easily on the forums, an avatar is the first step in doing this. Let’s define an avatar: “A graphic identity you either select from a group of choices or create on your own to represent yourself to the other party”. To add an avatar, go to your control panel, and click “edit avatar” on the left.



If you have seen an image somewhere on the web that you want to use, paste the image link in the “option 1” box. If you want to upload from your PC, click “browse” and locate the image file on your computer.

Click “save changes”. If there are any problems, the system will tell you here, for example, if your file exceeds the limits (80 by 80 pixels or 19.5 KB). If you need any help with your avatar, please feel free to pop a reply to this thread, and we’ll help you out.



Forum updates

From time to time, the powers that be will decide to try and change the forum for the better. Embrace the change!! If you find you are seeing errors in the way the forum looks, try doing a forced refresh on your browser – to do this, press Ctrl+F5 on your keyboard.

If you have any suggestions or comments about the site, please pop into the feedback forum and post there, perhaps searching first, to see if there is already a discussion about that particular issue.


Duplicate Thread and Repost Information

Please note these are not hard and fast rules, but guidelines and as stated in the 'Code of Conduct' moderators discretion will on occasion be used.

If an item price changes by a relative percentage of it's value and the thread is under one month old, a new thread is acceptable.

Any thread over one month old would be fair enough to receive a repost if there is a price drop or not, as this allows newer members to receive notification of that deal. With site membership increasing as fast as it is, that would become more significant for new users, as it would be unlikely for them to easily stumble across a month old thread.

However, some threads contain a lot of useful information about the product and whether a month old or not, those would preferably be better either pointed to in a new thread or the older thread updated.

Some guidelines for a repost are:

1. If the product has dropped in price by at least £1.00
2. If a thread is at least one month old.
3. If specific changes or information for a product has increased its value.
4. If the product goes out of stock, expired and you are unable to back order it, but it has been restocked within at least one week.

Some guidelines for updating a thread are:

1. If it is less than one month old and there hasn't been a significant or relative price drop of at least £1.00
2. If the information on the product changes to decrease its value.
3. Adding information to the original thread is deemed to be more beneficial to anyone who has already bought it.

Many thanks to RichieRea – I have grabbed some of your text from the previous post to make up some of this help thread.

good guide, answered all my questions

Thanks marc

Only thing is... Will you have to bump it every few days now we have no 'sticky' function on the board?

It will be going in mods sigs, plus I will ask admin to put a link to it on the box on the right hand side of the front pages

Cool. Out of interest, how did you manage to make the above posts without your sig appearing at the end of each one

You have not mentioned that you can also vote "lukewarm".