Tester Threads in Hardware Area No Longer Allowed

pjk

pjk

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Due to the tester threads becoming a form of advertisement and cluttering the forums, we have decided to no longer allow them. If you own a shop and want to give away tester puzzles, please do so in your own puzzle thread shop in the puzzle shop area ONLY.
 
pjk said:
This forces 1 thread per shop, and removes the overcrowding in the hardware area.
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Did people complain about overcrowded hardware area? I for one had no problems with these threads. In fact, I like how it keeps the search for the perfect cube alive. I can understand that cubeshop owners that do not want to give away free cubes to get some advertizement here would complain.. but yeah, that is how life works.
 
I think this is nice, a lot of threads on the first page were of this kind, and it's not really something you'd want to read. Also I agree with that companies can just do testing in their own threads.
 
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I don't see the big deal personally. Once the testers are chosen the thread disappears after a couple of days or so and never seen again for the most part. Doesn't matter where it is, if people are posting on it it get's bumped to the top so either way it's "cluttering" the forums. I also don't look at it as clutter. I look at it as a thread where people can get the chance to get free stuff, does it really matter at all where it is? It's going to show up the same regardless.
 
If I was a cube shop owner paying for a shop thread and saw others getting free advertising, I'd be unhappy, so requiring them to be paid up to start these threads makes sense. Whether the tester requests should be separate to their main shop thread is a different question - I like them separate, personally.
 
This rule is sort of contradictory to what we do in the hardware thread -- discuss hardware. This happens all the time in these threads. Still, I don't care either way.
 
You cannot deny that this is a form of advertising for cube shops. In this forum that should only be done within their own thread or in adverts around the site if they pay for it. I agree with this decision.
 
What if maybe, shops paid something like $10-$15 to have a testing thread; whether it be in the Hardware Area or in the Puzzle Shops section. And have a limit of a month to do it in. I personally like this idea, and removes the problem of 'free advertising'.

All the shops that have a testing thread have paid for a thread in the Puzzle Shops area; so I think these threads should be moved into their respective threads; with the request of the thread starter of course.

Personally, I like these testing opportunities, and shops should still be allowed to do this. How and where though is another question.
 
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I think that a shop providing x amount of cubers with free cubes, on the premise that they provide an unbiast review of the cube, is supporting the community more than enough to merit 'free' advertising.
 
ThomasJE said:
What if maybe, shops paid something like $10-$15 to have a testing thread; whether it be in the Hardware Area or in the Puzzle Shops section. And have a limit of a month to do it in. I personally like this idea, and removes the problem of 'free advertising'.

All the shops that have a testing thread have paid for a thread in the Puzzle Shops area; so I think these threads should be moved into their respective threads; with the request of the thread starter of course.

Personally, I like these testing opportunities, and shops should still be allowed to do this. How and there though is another question.
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I somewhat agree with you but it would be better if someone from that company posted the thread about look for testers on there next product. Like for say if Calvinfan posted thread looking for testers for the next Calvin brand puzzle or Uwe Meffert Posted a thread asking for testers for Meffert's brand puzzles. But owners of a shop doing this for allot of new cubes is a bit of an advertisement for the shop and puzzle. But if stared my own online cube shop I would ask if anyone would want to test some free puzzles and help advertise my shop then that would be good.
 
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Michael Womack said:
I somewhat agree with you but it would be better if someone from that company posted the thread about look for testers on there next product. Like for say if Calvinfan posted thread looking for testers for the next Calvin brand puzzle or Uwe Meffert Posted a thread asking for testers for Meffert's brand puzzles.
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I disagree. Most shops don't sell their own products; the only other shop that I know of that do sell their own products is Witeden.

Michael Womack said:
But owners of a shop doing this for allot of new cubes is a bit of an advertisement for the shop and puzzle.
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Isn't that the whole point?

Michael Womack said:
But if stared my own online cube shop I would ask if anyone would want to test some free puzzles and help advertise my shop then that would be good.
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Again; that's the whole point.
 
applemobile said:
I think that a shop providing x amount of cubers with free cubes, on the premise that they provide an unbiast review of the cube, is supporting the community more than enough to merit 'free' advertising.
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I think you're misunderstand why most puzzle shops provide free cubes for testing in the first place.

One problem with these threads was that they required potential testers to post in the threads, which continuously bumped these threads to the top of the home page. The shop owners could have simply created online forms for the potential testers to fill out, but instead they explicitly used the threads, which brings much more attention to the shops.

Also, the threads were a clear violation of the Please Read Prior To Posting Thread in the Hardware Area.
 
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There is nothing wrong with cube shops, but more importantly, manufacturers and puzzle designers to advertise their work and listen to users of their products, to receive feedback and ideas for improvements to apply in future puzzles versions, while at the same time, allowing potential customers to see the advantages (or issues) of what they can potentially be buying.
The goals being the quality improvement of puzzles designed for speedsolving, the increased popularity of these puzzles and brands/shops/designers, raising their sales and ultimately making for a better equipped speedsolving community.

The main issues and general annoyances of these threads can be divided in two parts:

- Was/Is the feedback that is conveyed by all the testers actually useful in any way (for other than store advertisement and increase sales)? Are actual puzzle designers and manufacturers listening to what people say about their products and do they actually care or take steps to fix them? I know some actually do and contact the people responsable to make improvements but it would be nice to know what they think about it and say a few words about their designs, hoping they would talk about the main issues with them (maybe even after they are discontinued so it doesn't affect sales(?)). I know it's a lot to ask and it has much deeper implications than I am portraying here, and we do not live in a perfect world where everybody speaks the same language and is in the same timezone, but at least that's what I would like to see happen sometimes in this forum, at least.

- The way people applied could probably have been done in a better way, outside of the forum, in something like an online form. This way it made the threads tend to always stay at the top and look like newspaper personal ads: "Caucasian white educated male seeking for Cube companion to form a long-term relationship and have joint results together in the future."

I would like to end this by stating that is post is not a knock on puzzle shops/manufacturers at all. I appreciate and commend the idea and what they are trying to do for the community specially since a big part of it doesn't have a steady income that they can spend in hardware so I would like to thank them all for giving this opportunity, even if it promotes them in any way, which is an acceptable tradeoff. But after a while I just zoned out of those threads because really it was just not a lot of useful content beyond other than people's information.
 
cubizh said:
Are actual puzzle designers and manufacturers listening to what people say about their products and do they actually care or take steps to fix them?
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That's why I think that only the company would make the testing thread. Also most of these testing threads in the past 5 months are letting us test a product that is the final version. It would make sense if they where to let us test the Prototypes so they can have our opinion on what can be fix to be on the final product.
 
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Michael Womack said:
But the shops that are doing this testing stuff are very popular shops that almost everyone has heard of or bought something from them.
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And why? Because they make these tester threads that give their shop good PR.

(And I know there are other reasons, but that is a major reason)

cubizh said:
There is nothing wrong with cube shops, but more importantly, manufacturers and puzzle designers to advertise their work and listen to users of their products, to receive feedback and ideas for improvements to apply in future puzzles versions, while at the same time, allowing potential customers to see the advantages (or issues) of what they can potentially be buying.
The goals being the quality improvement of puzzles designed for speedsolving, the increased popularity of these puzzles and brands/shops/designers, raising their sales and ultimately making for a better equipped speedsolving community.

The main issues and general annoyances of these threads can be divided in two parts:

- Was/Is the feedback that is conveyed by all the testers actually useful in any way (for other than store advertisement and increase sales)? Are actual puzzle designers and manufacturers listening to what people say about their products and do they actually care or take steps to fix them? I know some actually do and contact the people responsable to make improvements but it would be nice to know what they think about it and say a few words about their designs, hoping they would talk about the main issues with them (maybe even after they are discontinued so it doesn't affect sales(?)). I know it's a lot to ask and it has much deeper implications than I am portraying here, and we do not live in a perfect world where everybody speaks the same language and is in the same timezone, but at least that's what I would like to see happen sometimes in this forum, at least.

- The way people applied could probably have been done in a better way, outside of the forum, in something like an online form. This way it made the threads tend to always stay at the top and look like newspaper personal ads: "Caucasian white educated male seeking for Cube companion to form a long-term relationship and have joint results together in the future."

I would like to end this by stating that is post is not a knock on puzzle shops/manufacturers at all. I appreciate and commend the idea and what they are trying to do for the community specially since a big part of it doesn't have a steady income that they can spend in hardware so I would like to thank them all for giving this opportunity, even if it promotes them in any way, which is an acceptable tradeoff. But after a while I just zoned out of those threads because really it was just not a lot of useful content beyond other than people's information.
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I have to agree with all that you have said. Although they do spam the front page and are completely useless until the testers are chosen, they can give valuable information to buyers.

Also, if these threads were put into a testers section on the forum, then they could be hidden from the front page like forum competitions are.
 
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