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Freebies - Hide Ebooks / kindle etc or give them their own section
Update 1
14/05/24: Kindle books must now have an 'about the author section' to be shared in deals / freebies
Hi everyone, i was wondering if anyone knows how you can hide kindle or ebooks on the freebies page. I get technically they are free, but there is so many of them its hard to find non e book related freebies.
I just want my free teabags......
Thanks!
I just want my free teabags......
Thanks!
Community Updates
99 Comments
sorted byWe've been looking at ways of reviewing kindle book deals to help improve the general quality of the published content we alllow to be shared.
As a first step, from today onwards, all kindle books must have a genuine 'About the Author Section' displayed on the kindle book page. Reviewing recently shared freebies this would remove the majority of book titles that members suspect were AI generated self published books. The guidelines only apply to ebooks submitted from today, not restrospectively.
We can then review again in a month+ to see if further minimum criteria should be introduced, such as minimum number of ebook / author reviews etc.
This is a publication guideline update, but we have shared feedback with our product team from our community members asking for a wau to exclude content and have a more customised browsing and deal alert experience. That is not something the Community teams on the various pepper platforms can introduce, as it's changes to the platform in all formats - web; mobile browser; iOS app; android app.
But hopefully adding minimum criteria will improve the general quality of Kindle ebook content being shared on the community.
Endless low quality free Kindle ‘deals’ from the usual suspects do nothing but reduce the quality of HUKD as a whole.
If someone likes collecting tat that nobody would ever pay for, and wants to give attention to those posting who are clearly desperate for it, then great for you, but let the rest of us stick to *actual* deals, please.
Although people have been requesting this feature for years now, so I doubt HUKD will do anything about it…
The sheer number of poor-quality Kindle freebies artificially inflates the number of deals HUKD can claim they have…
I'm not saying these don't have a place on HotUKDeals as some people appreciate them. There are too many though and most of them follow the same format:
They're not published books, the authors of self-published novels give them away for free. By giving them away and getting a load of free downloads, they can bill themselves as a 'best-selling author'. They're having to give them away as they're not selling otherwise. These aren't quality publications.
Because they're not published books they all use the same Photoshop-generated mockup effect to create the visual of a physical book. At no point have these been available in print format.
They frequently use the same techniques - five stars on the cover (this is added by the author and there is rarely a mention of where this review came from), a subtitle saying 'Part of the Jane Smith Mysteries' or 'A Detective Smith Mystery' (nobody knows who these people are, it's another marketing technique to make you think it's from a well-established author).
The "books" were originally available for a very low price - often just a few pence. Making them free is only a way to increase perceived sales.
Maybe compiling these into a single feed would be a better option. Those who are interested and want to download free Kindle books en masse would be better served by having these collated in one place. This creates more space for genuine deals and a broader range of content.
There are so many it's starting to feel like the stream is being spammed with these 'deals'.
books are clogging everything up - can they have their own section please ?
It would be awesome if Freebies could become 2 different categories: Digital Freebies and Real-World/Physical Freebies
This would make it much easier to weed out the few-and-far-between real-world freebies from the masses of e-books etc. that are posted.
Thanks for your consideration!
Please add a filter to the filters menu that can deal with this problem.
How many of us have to complain about this before something is done?
Can you just pin a kindle post so everyone that finds it useful can congregate in there? Or give them their own section that doesn't show up elsewhere?
Hilariously, one of the serial spammers has the following as their profile strapline:
"the never-ending battle against illiterates who vote cold"
Reading AI-generated "books" and collecting thousands of worthless e-books from unpublished authors makes you some sort of genius and everyone else is "illiterate", apparently.
I had a warning from HUKD for voting this incessant spam as cold. I'd imagine you'll get something similar for reporting them all as spam, even if they genuinely are spamming the boards with this rubbish.
6 out of the first 10 things listed here for me today are free kindle books...
Enough please!
I get it, they are free and everything but like.... "Learn Ukrainian" and "the uses of CBD oil" - are so seriously niche and I will guess that 99% have no interest...
Don't get me wrong it's great that these deals are put up here... BUT its starting to become hotukbookdeals!!
Is there any chance of someone starting a megatread just for these book deals? Or some way to have them in a section of their own?
Thanks
We had indeed several similar feedbacks ! Hope we can do something for that, I will pass it on again (edited)
I think the ideas about a digital section are a little unnecessary, it is very clearly and specifically kindle ebooks that are the problem. Games and apps and the like simply don't have the same volume of posts.
This thread also seems really well hidden away from the world too (edited)
This kind of thing isn’t what HUKD was created for. It’s supposed to help the masses save money on things that otherwise we would pay more for, and to spread the word on good deals so everyone can take advantage.
We all know that there are free Kindle ebooks and that they are easy to find. There’s no need for the dozens of rinse-and-repeat free self-published deals to clutter the timelines every day.
Surely even the most ardent hands-off HUKD moderator can see that the quality of the timeline is now degrading?
The message is loud and clear, HUKD is all about the quantity rather than the quality, as this and other issues have taught. I guess it’s time to vote with my feet and go elsewhere to look for a higher quality deals forum… 🤷🏻♂️
The amount of books in the freebies is a joke now. Please can books have their own section finally ?
Okay that fair enough but can you contact the spammers and remind them of this part of the Code Of Conduct as they are spamming the Freebies site with deals which clearly aren't deals and in doing so are causing a lot of frustration and anger to other members of the site....
Integrity and Honesty
We encourage all members to consider the impact of their actions when sharing deals, opinions, or information. Imagine you’re offering advice or opinions to a friend or family member. In an era of fake news and misinformation, these behaviours set Pepper communities apart from many other spaces and create trust between members.
This weekend my feed was just a sea of ebook posts, and I lost interest in the site completely and gave up
I tried muting Boz and Fantasy-Ireland but their posts still remain - any other tips?
the books are really clogging up the sections, can you please please give them their own section asap
Repeatedly flagging these posts as spam might be perceived as excessive, especially considering the substantial number of members who find value in them and regularly vote them as hot. Also please reserve reporting for instances where there's a specific reason, such as duplicate listings or cases where the price has remained at "free" for an extended period, perhaps since release. Addressing non-report-related matters consumes unnecessary time for our community team.
Rest assured too, we have consistently shared community feedback with Pepper's senior team, advocating for future design changes that could possibly allow for greater personalisation of deal feed preferences for each of our members.
Meanwhile your understanding and cooperation is greatly appreciated as we work towards improving the community experience for everyone.
However I should earn you this is an often requested feature that so far has not been picked up by the development team for implementation.
hotukdeals.com/dea…375
"Hey JLB75,
Thank you for reporting the following deal: "Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell - Kindle Edition".
You reported for the following reason: Deal already exists "https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/george-orwell-1984-kindle-edition-4314106"
We've reviewed your report and no action was required on our part this time. Here's what we decided - different edition
This report will now be closed - if you think we overlooked anything, let us know. We appreciate your help."
Different edition or different cover, what a joke HUD are.
These Kindle books often don't stay free for long, and some people pay money for them.
The same arguments could be applied to the watch deals, that there are too many of them and they are not really deals nor bargains. Should the watches have their own section?