How can we make the Daily Server Deals website a better experience for you?

[MannDude]

Howdy vpsBoard members, MannDude here.

Almost a year ago we launched http://DailyServerDeals.com, a brand new offer listing website built from the ground up by vpsBoard member @Novacha and specifically designed to publish VPS offers. I'll admit, it's been slow going and hasn't received as much of my attention as it should have but I am now more than ever determined to get the ball rolling and get this site off the ground as my focus shift towards improving it.

My existing DailyServerDeals to-do list looks like:

• New website design to replace the existing bootstrap design.
• Rewriting the literature and documentation to make it easier for providers to submit new offers.
• Promote it outside of vpsBoard.
• Sync with Twitter to publish new offers to https://twitter.com/DailyServer
  

By design, DailyServerDeals is awesome. For those who are unfamiliar with it, let me give you a quick little recap:

• The system is built specifically for displaying VPS offers.
• There is unbiased posting of offers. By design, there is no (and can not be) higher or lower priority given to offers submitted.
• Every day at new, the next offer in queue is published. This gives each offer exactly 24 hours to be displayed as the top spot on the website before a new offer is published.
• Providers know exactly when their offer will be published and can see the number of offers in queue before theirs. No surprises, and no ability for offers to be emailed in last minute to jump to the first spot in queue.
• A very detailed 'find a plan' feature. This allows you to search all offers for specific features, resources, locations, datacenters, virtualization types, etc. No other offer listing website has such a detailed search.
• Privately owned and not operated by a web hosting provider.
• OpenSource software!
• Offers listed are from vpsBoard's Verified Providers group.

Despite all of this, the system is not perfect and adoption has been slow. As mentioned above I am now more than ever eager to get this off the ground as I have neglected it some in the past. With that said: How can we make Daily Server Deals better for you?

Also, if you're a Verified Provider you can submit offers to Daily Server Deals using these instructions: . I also have several PMs regarding this that I will update later tonight.

 

[drmike]

Once upon a time, long before LEB was stolen by some a$$hole$ from Buffalo, the originator of the site had similar disinterest / lack of momentum.  To get LEB moving they ahh, manually injected offers that caught their eyes for a long while.   It's a very typical approach, necessary.

Frankly, I like that approach and ideally it brings fresh offers, things not seen every day and shakes things up.

Build it and they will come just isn't a good approach in today's search engine filter bubble.  Visibility of new things for most people is approaching zero - as they live in that profile curated bore-bubble.

Have to remember, you are dealing with on the independent hosting operator side -  legendarily lazy folks.   Ones who are not, are busy busting their tail to keep things going and anything they can't just copy and paste into is too much for them.  This fact I cry bullshit about and say lazy 2.0 and shortsighted for those folks.  Remaining sliver that will post, yeah, probably already are... Those are the companies I consider first for referrals and  purchases for random projects.

DailyServerDeals is WAYYYYYY more useful and powerful than that damn blog shit LEB runs.

I think vpsB and DSD need to upgrade though.  You need a server cluster with 8 9 10 real servers.  So you can drive that e-penis up Biloh's a%% and yell cluster-f**king-error about everything.

 

[Hxxx]

Being sincere. Does anybody use it?

 

[sv01]

left vpsboard alone

 

[rds100]

I just figured out there is no way to reset your password for dailyserverdeals if you don't remember it. Am i missing something?

Anyway here is a list of bugs i found and reported about 3 months ago, these seem to be still present (or for some i can't verify if they are still present since i can't reset the password).

1. There is something strange with times / timezones displayed on the website. For instance the current front page offer says "offer released 10 hours ago" and the counter says "9 hours 41 minutes 38 seconds" until the next offer. These two don't add up to 24 hours.

2. Can't list (or search) a plan with half yearly (6 months) term.

3. IPv6 addresses - can't specify that an offer comes with a /64 subnet ipv6 addresses. Must enter number of IPs instead. 18446744073709551616 is a nice number, but /64 looks better

 

[DomainBop]

A very detailed 'find a plan' feature. This allows you to search all offers for specific features, resources, locations, datacenters, virtualization types, etc. No other offer listing website has such a detailed search.

Detailed is in the eye of the beholder. It doesn't answer any of the most frequently asked low end buyer questions:

Are torrents allowed?

Do you ignore DMCA?

Warez allowed?

Minecraft allowed?

Hitleap?

Tor exit nodes?

Can I use all 4 cores 24/7?

IRC, Proxies?

Will you suspend me if I get hit with a 1Tbps DDoS attack?

Can I get a /24 for email?

Port scanning OK?

Sponsor Me A Freeee VeeepeeEs?

QEMU and Windows on OpenVZ allowed?

 

[drmike]

Detailed is in the eye of the beholder. It doesn't answer any of the most frequently asked low end buyer questions:

Are torrents allowed?

Do you ignore DMCA?

Warez allowed?

Minecraft allowed?

Hitleap?

Tor exit nodes?

Can I use all 4 cores 24/7?

IRC, Proxies?

Will you suspend me if I get hit with a 1Tbps DDoS attack?

Can I get a /24 for email?

Port scanning OK?

Sponsor Me A Freeee VeeepeeEs?

QEMU and Windows on OpenVZ allowed?

Send those to Kossen for the cluster enhancments over 'der. 

Minecruft has to be first though.  Beginning to think thats a code word for half the folks in that community instead of a game.  Must be some deviant trouser relationship.

 

[fisle]

Plan finder page could use sliders instead of input fields for things like memory, HDD space etc. I think it would improve the user experience a bit.

 

[MannDude]

Build it and they will come just isn't a good approach in today's search engine filter bubble.  Visibility of new things for most people is approaching zero - as they live in that profile curated bore-bubble.

Have to remember, you are dealing with on the independent hosting operator side -  legendarily lazy folks.   Ones who are not, are busy busting their tail to keep things going and anything they can't just copy and paste into is too much for them.  This fact I cry bullshit about and say lazy 2.0 and shortsighted for those folks.  Remaining sliver that will post, yeah, probably already are... Those are the companies I consider first for referrals and  purchases for random projects.

DailyServerDeals is WAYYYYYY more useful and powerful than that damn blog shit LEB runs.

Aside from the tangent, you're right.

Being sincere. Does anybody use it?

Honestly, not as much as I'd like. Then again, I've not really promoted it heavily and providers have been slow to adopt. As mentioned in this thread I've been busy and focused on other things, though my focus is now re-shifting towards DSD again and getting it actually up and off the ground.

The potential for it being a great resource is there, though it's going to require more effort than I've been putting forward to get it there.

I just figured out there is no way to reset your password for dailyserverdeals if you don't remember it. Am i missing something?

Anyway here is a list of bugs i found and reported about 3 months ago, these seem to be still present (or for some i can't verify if they are still present since i can't reset the password).

1. There is something strange with times / timezones displayed on the website. For instance the current front page offer says "offer released 10 hours ago" and the counter says "9 hours 41 minutes 38 seconds" until the next offer. These two don't add up to 24 hours.

2. Can't list (or search) a plan with half yearly (6 months) term.

3. IPv6 addresses - can't specify that an offer comes with a /64 subnet ipv6 addresses. Must enter number of IPs instead. 18446744073709551616 is a nice number, but /64 looks better

I know Novacha is busy with real life work stuff, though I will ping him and see if these are fixes that he can implement. For the password reset, PM me.

Detailed is in the eye of the beholder. It doesn't answer any of the most frequently asked low end buyer questions:

Are torrents allowed?

Do you ignore DMCA?

Warez allowed?

Minecraft allowed?

Hitleap?

Tor exit nodes?

Can I use all 4 cores 24/7?

IRC, Proxies?

Will you suspend me if I get hit with a 1Tbps DDoS attack?

Can I get a /24 for email?

Port scanning OK?

Sponsor Me A Freeee VeeepeeEs?

QEMU and Windows on OpenVZ allowed?

Well, offers are required to list a URL to the Terms of Service. That would cover some of the 'is this allowed' thing. The idea here was to encourage people to actually read the damn Terms of Service.

Plan finder page could use sliders instead of input fields for things like memory, HDD space etc. I think it would improve the user experience a bit.

Possibly. I've never been a huge fan of sliders myself but I can see how that may modernize it a bit.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

 

[24/7/365]

Well, offers are required to list a URL to the Terms of Service. That would cover some of the 'is this allowed' thing. The idea here was to encourage people to actually read the damn Terms of Service.

Are you new to the Internet?  :lol: Here's the standard operating procedure:

1) Order up VPS

2) Torrent movies on it

3) Get suspended by service provider for breach of ToS

4) Complain about suspension

5) Directed to the specific line in the ToS

6) Claim to not have seen it

7) Threaten to write bad reviews

8) Chargeback

9) Make angry posts on a public forum somewhere

But on a serious note, I think you have a chicken and egg situation here - until you're getting traffic, advertisers aren't going to make the effort (free advertising though!) and until advertisers are on there, it'll be hard to build up traffic.

Personally I think it's great that you're building something at all so I'll make an effort to use it this coming week 

 

[concerto49]

It needs to be run by a neutral childcare center

But yeah, just need to get word out there and increase popularity!

 

[24/7/365]

just need to get word out there and increase popularity!

1) Build website

2) ...

3) Profit?

 

[Kayaba Akihiko]

Perhaps you could add sections, like the more low and high end offers?

 

[zzrok]

I used to use it frequently, but I haven't seen a new offer on there in a long time, just a bunch of reruns.  The site has a lot of potential, but it needs fresh, exciting content.  I don't want to see everyday prices on everyday products; I want to see a special deal or a new product/location launch.

 

[D. Strout]

Make the number of plans listed a link. Like on the current offer, "6 Plans listed (6 available)" should be a link which, like the comments link, goes directly to that part of the page. Also, I don't like the dark theme, I'd prefer something lighter. For the search feature, I can filter by country and datacenter, but not actually by city, which is more useful to me. Also, what determines what offers are listed by default on the "find a plan" page?

 

[D. Strout]

Oh, also, if there is a coupon, its expiration date should be listed.

 

[24/7/365]

Well, I finally got around to posting an offer

The website looks great and is well laid out.

I have a few suggestions though.

1) Can we have a field for the name of a VPS product?

This would be useful if you want to refer to it in the header text. Sometimes there's something about the VPS that might need pointing out that there isn't a field for.

2) Virtualisation Type

We offer managed VPS as well as lower end packages. Where the package is managed, this field isn't relevant and possibly completely wrong as there's no guarantee what virtualisation type might be used.

3) Relisting

I've not checked but is there an option to relist an an offer? When re-listing, we should be able to edit the offer and resubmit. This might help fill up the queue too although you might want to have a 24 hour delay on these so they're not continually being relisted if no-one else is in the queue.

Otherwise I think it's going to be a great site for us hosts so thanks

 

[libro22]

Here's some honest opinions. The layout is confusing for new visitors. I visit that site from time to time to check for interesting offers. Every time I go there, I'm always confused.

There are some usability issues there, for example:

• "1 Plan listed (1 available)" <-- those should be links and not just the title of the offer/company alone
• Those flag icons at the frontpage should be tooltips (Bootstrap made it easier to use) of the exact location of the DCs. Users should not click on the pages just to know where the servers are located.
• Still on frontpage, those descriptions are too long. What I recommend is put a 1-3 sentence company description + 1 interesting plan/offer. There will be better engagement from users if you remove the extra clicks to find out about the listed offers. Most will care about the packages, not the company itself.
• Still on frontpage, make it two column. 
• The single offer page is comprehensive enough, good job.
• Limit title length and allowed characters. There should be some guideline like Company Name + Interesting Offer Specs + DC. No offense for whoever posted these titles but they are actually expected from you as a company: example of terrible titles: "✔0% Packet Loss Guarantee ✔100% Network Uptime SLA" and "w/ Redundant Power Supply - 24/7 Support!"
• Use TAGS! The Find a Plan is fine enough but I find tags much useful. DC locations should be tags, Virtualization types should be tags, etc.
• The all text design, I actually like that. It's making a statement that the target customers are more of the intellectual people who bother to read.

I hope those are useful suggestions

 

[24/7/365]

• Still on frontpage, make it two column. 

No strong feelings on anything you've said except the quote.

Don't make it two column. Scanning through two vertically scrolled columns is painful.

It's easy to miss something and is hard to follow.

 

[catatonic]

Would it be possible to have billing methods listed too?