OzBargain Blog

OzBargain under Spam Bot Attack

scotty — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:33:42 +0000

Here are some reports from the developers :) OzBargain has been under some spam bot attack over the last couple of weeks. We first discovered the attack at around mid-April, and through our new account creation logs, we found:

Lots of new accounts were created with weird sounding names, strange looking @hotmail addresses and originated from all over the world.
Most newly created account never logged in. However for a few that did manage to come back, the first thing they did is to update their user profile to include a link to their spammy website (or sites loaded with malware, which I didn’t dare to try).
Going through our webserver logs reveals that they are hitting only the pages and none of the other assets (Javascript, CSS, images, etc). That pretty much concludes that these are “bots”.

We do utilise Google’s reCAPTCHA on the user registration page to stop the bots, but from our incident obviously reCAPTCHA is broken or can be easily defeated. The spam bots however, aren’t very smart either. All of them are using “Firefox/13.0″, a 10-month old browser, as their user-agent. So I ended up just blocking all Firefox 13 on the web server level and be done with it. That stopped the spam account creation pretty much straight away, although also cause some false positives.

Fast forward two weeks and on inspection of our new account creation logs, spam bot accounts are back again! It’s pretty much the same pattern, except they have smartened up and changed the user-agent to the latest Chrome! Well, due to similar behaviour, they are still easy to spot and block. We have been running some new spambot detection code on the user registration page for the last 3 days, and here are some of the stats that we have collected:

Average number of account creation attempts per hour — **320**. That’s 5.3 account creation attempts by spam bot every minute.

Three biggest offending countries — Ukraine, United States and China. Mostly from residential broadband addresses so most likely part of some spambot network.

Going forward, we’ll continue to monitor new accounts for abnormal activities.

[April Fools] New Design for Growing a Balanced & Diversified Community

scotty — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 14:01:30 +0000

tl;dr — OzBargain has been a male dominant site for the past six years. We are hoping to steer OzBargain towards being a more balanced community with a new design.

The Humble Beginning

OzBargain in 2006

It has been more than six years since OzBargain was launched. Before I soft-launched OzBargain back in November 2006, this blog was where I shared electronic, computer and cheap prepaid mobile SIM bargains. This was an era before iPhones and Android devices. But hey, I am a nerdy guy and I love my gadgets.

After OzBargain was launched, we initially received a wave of visitors from other popular Australian forums, namely Whirlpool and OCAU. In fact Whirlpool remains one of our biggest referrer to this very day, sending 2000+ gadget-loving tech-savvy geeks to OzBargain every 24 hours. Again, mostly nerdy blokes.

Cheap, Tech-Savvy, Geeky and MALE

The figures speak for themselves. For example, these products probably won’t be all that useful if you are a man. However, looking at the commenters and the voters — most of them will not be able to use these products. “Female members?! What female members?!” seems to be the running joke on OzBargain, where many express disbelief sarcastically when hinted that there are actually female users on our system.

Our Facebook page statistics seems to agree as well.

Well. It does not look too bad, as there are just a bit shy of twice the males who “like” the OzBargain Facebook page than females. However, when you look at the number of people talking about OzBargain on Facebook, there are actually 3.5 times more young males (18-24yo) than females of the same age bracket (the gen-Y’s).

What does that conclude? OzBargain is dominated by its male members — not just in terms of numbers, but also in its opinions and its voice. I fear the domination here is so strong, that many female visitors do not even bother to sign up, to vote, to share or to join the discussions.

IMHO, it is actually a loss to the community. Personally, I have learnt so many saving money ideas from my wife and some female friends are the most vigorous bargain hunters I know. Without their contribution, OzBargain will continue to be in its little niche of cheap gadgets and making Ainol “that’s what she said” jokes, instead of benefiting the greater Australia.

Something needs to change!

How to make OzBargain more female-friendly?

To continue to grow OzBargain into a more balanced and diversified community, we need to make the site more female-friendly so women will be more willing to sign up and contribute.

Having no idea how to get started, I went to ask the question at SavvySME, a newly launched community website for the business kind. I asked, How to Grow a More Diversified & Balanced Community Website, pointing out OzBargain’s male-dominant nature. I got some vague answers. One said that I need to “find those pockets of people and give them a reason to come to your website”. Yeah right it’s like telling Gerry Harvey to find pockets of people happy to pay high price and bring them to shop at his store — it’s obvious but not very actionable.

Maybe, it’s just the design?

Then one day I had a bright new idea while browsing the latest deals on OzBargain (who hasn’t?!). By changing the design of the OzBargain website, it could create an environment that is more female friendly, which in turn would help OzBargain to be a more balanced community! Brilliant! I am an engineer after all who knows nothing about all that marketing fluff. Creating a new design however is at least more doable than “finding pockets of prospects and persuade them to signup”.

After a few days of testing out the new colours, let me now introduce you our new design — Pink.

It’s only a start, but here are some of the changes:

PINK is now the primary colour. Most people are sick of the OzBargain Orange anyway.
Comic Sans as the primary font will definitely bring out the vibrant side of the community.
Love hearts on the OzBargain logo because we know how much you love it!
Falling animated love hearts on the home page. Can you say bling?!
New default avatar featuring My Little Pony-lookalike (well, until we figure out a more suitable, copyright-free avatar image)

I have briefly tested the new design with two female family members and they absolutely adore it!! (those are from my 6yo and 8yo daughters, btw). I have also shown it to my wife and she could not stop laughing which I presume that means she likes it.

That’s not all. More features are planned, gearing towards female members. For example,

Cosmetics, Fashion and Shoes deals automatically get +10 after posting.
Teaming up with other community websites such as Essential Baby and Vogue Forums, so female members can share their experiences across all the sites.
Inviting celebrities and popular mummy bloggers to endorse the brand.

Stay tuned! That’s all I want to say. I believe this effort will eventually move OzBargain to a more balanced community, which would be good for everyone.

Any suggestions? Feel free to leave them in the comments.

Winners of the OzBargain Short Video Contest 2013

neil — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 04:34:20 +0000

We are pleased to announce the winners of OzBargain’s 2013 Short Video Contest. The last time we ran a competition this big was in 2008, in which XyleneFree won with her Ode to OzBargain video. This time around we had 23 entries. After much deliberation, we have picked our top 4. All videos are embedded in this page for viewing.

Let us know what you think.

1st

ElWircho

2nd

ovazealous

3rd

funkymonkeyman

4th

m0nkeycheese

The rest of the videos:

lameturd Warning: Loud scream at end.

donga100

zelda707

Using The Ice Cream Currency Calculator & The Big Mac Index To Determine If A Country Is More Expensive

neil — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:52:37 +0000

The Big Mac Index was created in the 80s as a simplistic way of calculating how much the exact same product (a McDonald’s Big Mac) would cost in other countries. According to the latest BMI, the most expensive Big Macs come from Venezuela, Norway, Sweden & Switzerland. Australia ranks in the middle of the pack with a Big Mac price only 12% more expensive than the US.

In a somewhat similar index, Kaiku has created an Ice Cream Currency Calculator indexing prices of ice cream globally. I’m not sure how Kaiku figured out the average price in each country but their premise is that cheap ice cream means everything else in the country will be cheap too. Assuming the data is correct, the most expensive ice creams come from the UAE, New Zealand, and Sweden. This time Australia clocks in at around the 5th spot as having one of the pricier ice creams in the world. Compared to the price in New York, Australia’s ice creams are more than double in price.

We know that Australia has one of the highest costs of living in the world in addition to being expensive for tourists. There are a only a handful of more expensive countries in the world. On the flip-side, places like Malaysia have relatively cheap food prices. Combining this with an Air Asia deal, Malaysia becomes a reasonably priced holiday destination for Australians. Of course, if you want free ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s free cone day is April 9.

OzBargain January 2013 Photo Contest

neil — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 01:14:15 +0000

10 pictures for $10.

In the picture above are 10 images relating to deals, forums posts or stores on OzBargain. The first to correctly identify all of the images will win your choice of 1 x $10 gift card to one of the following stores (Amazon, Amazon.co.uk, Bunnings, JB Hi-Fi, iTunes, Skype) AND an OzBargain T-shirt. Feel free to send as many entries as you want. I will be giving clues during the week.

How to Enter:

Send a private message to me OR send us a message on Facebook OR direct message OzBargain Buzz on Twitter.

In the message, include your guesses for all 10 pictures. Please give us specific links or URLs in the guesses when required.

The following is what we are looking for in terms of answers:

1 – Location (Name of place) or Deal (URL).
2 – Deal (URL).
3 – Store (Name or URL).
4 – Deal (URL) or Location (Name of place).
5- Forum thread (URL)
6- Deal (URL).
7- Store (Name or URL).
8- Store (Name or URL).
9- Store (Name or URL).
10 - Store (Name or URL) or Location (Name of place).

Contest ends January 28, 2013 (12PM EST) or when a person correctly guesses all 10 images. If no one correctly guesses all 10 images by January 28, 2013 (12PM EST), we will select the person who correctly identifies the most images.

Update: For clarity, images 7 & 9 are 2 different images.

Hint #1: Question 10 seems to be tripping people up. Well, I took that picture myself in Melbourne and it’s never appeared on OzBargain. It was taken in Melbourne, is a store that has been around for a long time, and has multiple locations across Australia. Additionally, there have been deals posted for this store.

Update: The contest is now over. Lots of interesting guesses.

The correct answers are:

1 – Location: Cathy Freeman Park or Sydney Olympic Park.
Deal: Free Movies by the Boulevard: 8.30pm 2nd-13th January @ Cathy Freeman Park (Sydney Olympic Park)

2 – Deal: Johnnie Walker King George V & FREE Johnnie Walker Blue – $499.99! Free Delivery

3 – Store: Dominos

4 – Deal: – Free Hotdogs for PizzaHut Promotion at Parramatta, NSW in Front of Parramatta Town Hall
Location: Parramatta or Parramata Town Hall

5 – Forum: Photo Comp – Submit Your “Being an OzBargainer” Photo to Win Gift Vouchers!

6 – Deal: Free Ramen 7-9 Dec 2012 at Hakataya Ramen, Mount Gravatt, Garden City Shopping Centre, QLD

7 – Store: 7/11

8 – Store: Woolworths or Woolworths Mobile

9 – Store: Amazon.com

10 – Store: David Jones
Location: David Jones Melbourne, 4th floor lifts

Someone guessed MSY for question 10. Thanks for the laugh.

Congrats to ldstr.

OzBargain Zeitgeist 2012 : Top stores, deals and comments

neil — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:44:06 +0000

2012 was another successful year of bargains on OzBargain. Let’s examine some of the trends from 2012.

Deals:

2012: 19,032 Published | 3886 Front Page | 2,459 Removed Deals | Vote average: 16.74

2011: 15,234 Published | 3665 Front Page | 2,616 Removed Deals | Vote average: 16.57

Published: 20% | Front page 5.6% | 6.1% Removed Deals | Vote average: 1.1%

Removed deals decreased as we improved duplicate detection of deals, detecting keywords in the title for competitions, upgrading the identification of spammers as well as some other enhancements.

——————

Highest voted deal: Grays Outlet $10 Discount Code No Minimum Spend (Applies to Total Invoice Inc Shipping) +688

Store with the highest pageviews: Dominos 556,270 pageviews

Deal with the highest pageviews: Dick Smith Games Clearance 114,436 pageviews

Total deals per store (2010-2012)

Store	2012	2011	2010
amazon.com	668	176	29
itunes.apple.com	662	417	136
dicksmith.com.au	625	455	236
bigw.com.au	416	465	134
jbhifi.com.au	414	310	178
harveynorman.com.au	370	265	108
ebay.com	297	277	159
woolworths.com.au	275	170	102
catchoftheday.com.au	256	181	217
kogan.com.au	249	52	14

The clear breakout winner is Amazon.com. The company is slowly increasing the variety of goods that can be sent to Australia from shavers to golf clubs.

Front Page deals (2012 vs 2011)

Store	Front Page deals	Rank vs. 2011
itunes.apple.com	237	-
dicksmith.com.au	154	1
amazon.com	146	9
bigw.com.au	130	2
woolworths.com.au	99	-
jbhifi.com.au	98	-
harveynorman.com.au	79	-
coles.com.au	75	4
amazon.co.uk	59	1
meritline.com	55	4
kogan.com	50	47
officeworks.com.au	49	3
greenmangaming.com	49	40
shoppingsquare.com.au	48	47
dominos.com.au	47	1
steampowered.com	36	6
shoppingexpress.com.au	34	101
zavvi.com	33	8
kmart.com.au	33	8
mygroceries.com.au	30	1

Despite the uptake in Android devices, iOS apps temporarily changing from a paid app to free remained the most popular deals. The 3 biggest movers on the chart Kogan, Shopping Express and Shopping Square have dominated the deals this year in help from it’s competitive pricing of Android phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S III. Both Amazon.com and Greenman Gaming experienced surges in popular posts due to very competitive pricing on digitally delivered video games.

Where did the popular retailers come from?

Country	2012	2011
Australia	168	155
U.S.	23	16
U.K.	11	10
Hong Kong	3	3
China	4	2
France	1	0
Italy	1	0
New Zealand	1	0
Cypress	1	1
Sweden	1	1
Ireland	1	0

Gerry Harvey doesn’t have to worry as even the bargain hunters mostly do their shopping in Australia. While US companies increased their percentage from 8.5% to 10.7%, it’s the emergence of other countries that has dropped Australia from 82.4% in 2011 to 78.1% in 2012.

Deals by Country: Retailers that made the front page >2 times in 2012

Deals by Country: Retailers that made the front page >2 times in 2011

Maps created using Gunmap.

Comments:

2012: 460,516 Published | 5,107 Removed

2011 : 360,633 Published | 4,639 Removed

Published 22% | Removed 9.2%

Top 5 Positively voted comments:

For more stats, see the wiki.

Christmas Gift Guide 2012

neil — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 10:17:12 +0000

There is not long to go until the holidays are here. The crew at OzBargain have compiled a Christmas gift guide to assist you in finding gifts for your loved ones. We will constantly be updating this list up until December 25. The items listed are chosen by us with help from the community. Spot any good ideas? Let us know in the comments.
BONUS: If you can guess where this picture was taken (city), we will send you a free OzBargain t-shirt.
Update: Charlie correctly guessed that this Santa is from the Ala Moana Mall in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Quicklinks

Video Games & Consoles

Delivery Cut-Off Dates

Films & Movies

Downtown Abbey Series 3 £19.60 (~$30) delivered Series 3 will not be airing in Australia until sometime next year, which means that the DVD will not be released in Australia until late next year. Why not get the whole series now from the UK?

My Neighbour Totoro – Blu-Ray + DVD £15.94 (~ $24.51) Delivered @Zavvi - For anime fans – My neighbour Totoro was released on blu-ray in November. The UK version is better value with both blu-ray and DVD.

Toy Story 1-3 Box Set on Blu-ray £16.08 (~$25) Delivered

~~Amazon.com $5 off $25~~

Police Academy 1-7 Complete DVD Boxset – $16.62 Delivered

Electronics

Olin 8-inch Digital Photo Frame $39 Officeworks

Sunbeam Cafe Espresso Machine EM6910 $498 BigW – save $200 – Online Only (plus $8 Delivery)

5th Gen Ipod Touch 32GB $298 Harvey Norman

iPod Touch 8GB White (4th Gen) for $129 / 16GB for $169 @ OfficeWorks

WDTV Live Free $50 Gift Card Promo (Valid with $99 Office Works WDTV Live)

Canon EOS 650D 18-55mm IS II Lens Kit $529.00 + $29 Shipping at Kogan

Map Presto Capsule Machine Now Only $49 @ HN

Modular Tetris Light $36 from EB Games – Normally $58.36

Books

Dr Seuss Box Set – $20 – for kids as well as nostalgic adults.

Jack of Diamonds – Bryce Courtenay – $24 @ Big W – Australian Author of best-selling books, Bryce Courtenay passed away last month due to terminal illness. His last novel is Jack of Diamonds, released Nov 2012 (RRP $45, $18.84 at BigW)

Couture Chocolate William Curley – $36.17 – Great for the foodie/chocoholic, this book won Cookey Book of the Year 2012 from the Guild of Food Writers in the UK. It contains techniques and recipes, but is also beautiful enough for the coffee table.

Cocktail Bible (850 Page Hard Cover) – $26.90 Shipped

Jamie’s (Jamie Oliver) 15 Minute Meals

Food

French truffles, dried porcini, vanilla beans, himalayan salt, gourmet oils and more! Perfect for the gourmet cook, you can order some really special products from Premium Gourmet Food that are not usually available in supermarkets. Shipping is $9.50 in Australia.

Beauty

GHD Scarlet Collection $152 – features the very popular GHD classic styler with red plates, a travel hair dryer, protective plate guard, hair sectioning clips and a heat resistant bag. (adapter plug required – cheap and easy from eBay)
Moroccan Oil Treatment 100ml $33 – $38 – this award-winning product is recommended by salons and getting rave reviews. It can be used for conditioning and styling hair, and is nourishing and suitable for all hair types. It is available on eBay for $36.50
Make-up/skincare travel sets – $28 onwards. You can get some nice gift sets such as Clinique, Estee Lauder, Lancome delivered from $28 onwards from Strawberry Net. Here’s their list of Christmas Specials

Still stuck?

For the person who either has everything or doesn’t want anything, how about remembering those less fortunate at this time? You can buy a goat or some chickens on behalf of the recipient to help fight poverty!

Oxfam: A pile of Poo $15

World Vision

Delivery Cut-off Times

Target
Friday, December 7 for Perth, Darwin, Alice Springs, Far North Queensland and regional NT and WA
Monday, December 10 for Brisbane, Central and South East Queensland and regional NSW and SA
Tuesday, December 11 for Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and all Tasmania
Friday, December 14 for regional Victoria
Saturday, December 15 for Melbourne

Big W
Friday, December 14 for small and standard size items (such as books, DVDs and small toys for delivery to metro and most regional areas.
For final delivery dates to rural areas or for large items check the BIG W website.

Toys R Us
Wednesday, December 5 for regional WA, remote Northern Territory and remote Queensland
Monday, December 10 for Regional & Perth
Friday, December 15 for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide

Kogan
Monday, December 17 for deliveries to Eastern states for all Kogan branded products that are in stock.
The Kogan website will be regularly updated with expected dispatch dates for products from other brands

StrawberryNET
Monday, December 17 Registered post – Major cities
Monday, December 11 Registered post – Most areas
Monday, December 5 Registered post -Remote areas
Monday, December 10 Non-Registered post -Metro areas
Thursday, December 20, Express – All areas

Premium Gourmet Food
Thursday, December 20, Express

JB Hi-Fi
Monday, December 17, Metro Areas
Thursday, December 13, Regional Areas

DealsDirect
Monday, December 10: NT
Tuesday, December 11: Regional WA
Wednesday, December 12: Metro WA, Country SA, TAS
Thursday, December 13: Country QLD
Sunday, December 16: Regional Vic, Metro SA, Country NSW, Regional QLD
Monday, December 17: Metro Vic, Regional NSW, ACT, Metro QLD
Tuesday, December 18: Metro NSW

International:

Amazon US
Monday, December 10 for standard shipping
Sunday, December 16 for priority shipping

Amazon UK
Tuesday, December 4 for standard shipping
Monday, December 17 for priority express shipping

ASOS UK
Thursday, December 13 for standard shipping
Tuesday, December 18 for express shipping

Zavvi UK
Monday, December 17 for standard shipping
Wednesday, December 19 for express shipping

Some delivery dates sourced from news.com.au.