Use ’em or lose ’em… last licks for the thumbs up/down counter.

March 28, 2025 ABS, FDM, Gadgets, Kits, Maker, Parts, PETG, PLA, Random, Resin, SLA, Specialty, Tools, TPU, WC

Deal Score+48

5

Deal Score+48

Going up across all post categories, because when i do this in the news section no one reads it…

As the title says, thumbs/up down counter’s future is up in the air at the moment. If you have been following along on Discord, you already know that i’m working on a new/enhanced grid for the site, and as of right now it’s highly likely that the thumbs counter won’t make it in.

There is a “Best Deals” tab on the home page. The thumbs counter is meant to populate that tab with the most upvoted (aka best) deals on the site. As i take a look at the site, and the tab, it’s obvious to me that it’s not doing that, or at least not doing a good job of it.

There are other functionalities that are tied to the counter. Site notifies Discord whenever an item becomes “Trending” (4+ upvotes), “Popular” (7+ upvotes), or “Hot” (10+ upvotes). Upvotes even matter when it comes to what posts the site keeps in the “Expired” archive – anything with a 0 gets deleted after a certain period, everything with a 10+ stays forever, etc.

I like the functionality, and i like to keep it, but….

As of right now no one is using it.. well, maybe one or two people (thank you, btw). There are exceptions on some of the craziest of deals, like the one for the $5 headphones out now, but usually best deals on the site sit with big fat zeroes, and occasionally someone downvotes something that’s a perfectly good deal… and just leaves me scratching my head why. Once a deal goes in the red, it’s dead – everyone skips it from there on.

So thumbs counter is not really doing what it’s supposed to be doing, and on occasion actively hurts the site.

The thing about laying out a grid is that every row and every item matters. There is a balance between presenting a lot of info, and having each cell in the grid look clean and easily readable. If no one is using the thumbs counter, there is no reason to have it there, and i can replace it with something else – like S&S discount, or Amazon star rating, etc.

So, like the title says – use ’em or lose ’em…

Should be about a week before all the changes go live. Enough time to see if thumbs up/down should stay or not 🙂