Starting today you might notice some major changes to the Woot homepage (www.Woot.com). Or maybe you'll only see some minor changes. You see, only some folks are able to see the overhauled version of the homepage, a phenomenon that can be explained with either of two hypotheses:
(1) A multiverse collision is taking place in which some of us exist in a universe with one type of Woot homepage and others in a universe with another type (similar to the Berst*in Bears Problem).
(2) We are testing a new version of the homepage with some people to see exactly how and why they will rage quit over it. We will then fine-tune this change to maximize rage before releasing widely. JK LOL we want to make sure it works and is useful before we dump it on everybody.
Spoiler: It's #2. Which means that some people will only notice changes to the some parts of the Woot homepage, and others will see a new page with "Best Sellers," "New Deals," and "Last Chance" lists in place of the Woot Plus sales.
Now how about some good ol' Franquently Arksed Quostoons:
Why do I see different versions of the homepage when I visit at different times?
We're trying to keep the experience consistent, but sometimes we won't know it's the same person visiting each time (if you visit on your phone and computer, for instance, or clear your cookies).
Are you testing on me, Woot? Doesn't that violate some kind of international human rights agreement?
There are two ways to think about this: (1) We're treating y'all like so many guinea pigs for our pernicious experiments, or (2) We're giving certain Wooters a special sneak peek of some exciting new features! Both are probably a little disingenuous so yes, we are testing these new features with some folks to make sure they're good.
Can I control which version of the site I see?
No, it's randomly assigned. That said, we're fairly confident some code-savvy Wooter is probably working on a Chrome extension or something right now to work around that. We don't particularly care if you want to find a way to check out both versions, we just ask that you not abuse this tremendous power.
How long is this test going to last?
We're not sure, but probably a few weeks.
Something seems broken, what should I do?
Tell us!
Are some people able to see deals that other people cannot?
Nope, the deals are the same for everybody, but the way they are presented is different. The Woot Plus sales on the homepage will also be shown on the category pages to which they belong (a TV Plus Sale will be on the Electronics.Woot page, for example).
I don't like change and I don't like this.
Well that's not really a question, but we hear ya. Change is the basis of all suffering after all. We're totally open to all the negative feedback you want to dish out, in fact we encourage it, but we ask that you try to be as specific as possible when airing your grievances. "This sucks" aint helpful, but "This sucks because I can't find deals in the way I'm used to finding them" is.