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I wanted to take a moment to post a quick note about the recent "refining" of policy regarding Promotions.

We do, in fact, welcome people to join the Forums and post about promotions which they run, if they are of benefit to this community (for example, software deals like those recently under scrutiny are actually quite alright). We do ask, however, that those promoters would consolidate their deals into a single thread. That is, if I run Acme Mac App Bundlers, Inc., then I would create a new thread titled "Acme Mac App Bundlers, Inc. Promos" and post regular updates there. Discussion and comments would be welcomed and even encouraged. What I would not do is post a new thread every time I come out with a new promotion.

I find this to be a very nice balance between free exposure to a group of sexy, intelligent Mac users while not clogging up the Forums with threads about every sort of promotion.

Notice: We will be using our best judgement with regards to terms like "benefit to the community" and the like.

Thanks to John for clearing up our position on this, I hope this new "policy" is helpful and clear.

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Thank you. Looks like a reasonable approach to me.

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I prefer having a quick look at the titles of new threads to see what new offers are around. If new offers are all included in one long thread I'm unlikely to see new deals.

How about allowing the original poster the option to update a thread's title. That way we can have the best of both worlds: one thread but with relevant titles so that it's easier to see what new deals are around.

i agree with craftyheist. beside some cool deals there would be useless chat and so i missed some deals as in the iapps or the appstore-thread.
and the option for discussing and showing alternates is way better in single-threads. if they have a correct titel for the deal its easy to skip the unwanted and head for the cool ones (depends on the user).

John said single thread, so that's the direction right now. It's up to him, really.

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+1 for single vendor threads....makes lurking less of a pita.

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This is not an easy thing to deal with. A single thread makes sense for frequent deals, like mupromo or maczot. But those who create infrequent promotions would benefit themselves (and the readers here) better if each thread is about one specific promo. Of course, if someone is creating multiple threads about the same promotion, that needs to be treated sternly. But as CraftyHeist and itsme23 said, a single thread for multiple promotions (spread over several months or years) may make it difficult for readers to follow the context and might make it difficult to navigate the forums.

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For my understanding this only affects people actively promoting their products. If you like a certain vendor with regular updates and you like their offer you will be more interested in reading their thread on a regular basis as well. Single threads are still all right as long as they are from members, that do contribute in another way as well.

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Why would the context change that much? Its just different deals from the same vendor.

More difficult to navigate the forum? Because of fewer threads? Perhaps you meant that it might make it more difficult to navigate the thread. I see this as the vendor's problem, not MacHeist's. If the vendor wants to make the thread more clear, then they should do so by all means. For example, it would be wise to date every deal when they post it. Each post could be edited later to reflect that the deal has expired. Also, the first post could be updated to reflect which deals are available and which ones have expired.

Edit: Also, it would not hurt for them to link to the first post in their sig.

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Yeah, to clarify, the single thread thing is mostly intended for frequent deals (like daily deals sites) so that the forums don't get all spammed-up. For things like MUPromo's bundles and similar which happen a few times a year, it makes sense to have a thread for each of these as they come up.

John Casasanta
MacHeist Director
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Pertinent clarification; overlooked on my part. Thanks, John.

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This sounds like a reasonable approach and a good way to get the deals out there, and an easy consistent way to find them.

Sounds like a great idea!

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I agree. It makes sense to me too.

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Seems that's a good idea to update the post every time I meet the promotions from one site. Cool. Thanks OP!