I come to Woot for the writing, not the products. I just happen to also buy a lot of products from Woot. I guess a shorter format during a WootOff is ok, but please leave enough info/teaser copy on the first page so I don't have to click through to the item to see if I really want to buy it. I HATE extra clicks and would rather infinite scroll.

I don't think you should force a short or long write up. If whatever you're writing requires it to be longer, go for it. If you've got a short and sweet one and would just be putting filler in to make it longer, then make it short that's fine too. I don't think it should be limited...but I will say generally the longer ones are more entertaining.

Oh, that was an intentional change? I thought someone just got lazy this week.

tasukete wrote:I liked the write-ups, and they were Woot's big differentiator from its imitators.

It's hard to believe that anyone at Woot sat down and thought, "These write-ups are really getting in people's way. We need to streamline the site," because the new Woot site is anything BUT streamlined.

It's much easier to believe that someone at Amazon sat down and said, "These write-ups are really getting in the way of cramming more stuff onto the home page," because the new Woot site looks just like Amazon -- crappy, cluttered, confusing, every pixel of real estate crammed with stuff that I pretty much do not care about, forcing me to wade through offers and ads to find the information I want. And I'm speaking as a fan of Amazon.

The dead giveaway is the phrase, "Explore these deal events now." Nobody in the world talks like that except for web marketeers.

What happened to "One day, one deal"?

Yep, agreed. What he/she said.

I love the poll, being a customer service professional myself I'd like something in between - like the ease of reading the shorter description, but I miss the details of the specs (1 GB RAM is very diff than 4 GB RAM on things)

Slydon wrote:We're all still here, honest.

"I'm not dead" ...
Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
"I'm getting better."
No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment. ...
"I don't want to go on the cart. "


Silly writers.

tasukete wrote:I liked the write-ups, and they were Woot's big differentiator from its imitators.

It's hard to believe that anyone at Woot sat down and thought, "These write-ups are really getting in people's way. We need to streamline the site," because the new Woot site is anything BUT streamlined.

It's much easier to believe that someone at Amazon sat down and said, "These write-ups are really getting in the way of cramming more stuff onto the home page," because the new Woot site looks just like Amazon -- crappy, cluttered, confusing, every pixel of real estate crammed with stuff that I pretty much do not care about, forcing me to wade through offers and ads to find the information I want. And I'm speaking as a fan of Amazon.

The dead giveaway is the phrase, "Explore these deal events now." Nobody in the world talks like that except for web marketeers.

What happened to "One day, one deal"?

Quintepled ??? Maybe.

I also liked having the write ups and some of the actual specs visible on the main page. It was enjoyable and made opening the woot page fun, rather than having your eyes assaulted with the woot plus section. With all the different woot sections (tech,home,sport,etc.) it should be easy to add another called "plus". Or maybe call it "extra crap forced onto us from our parent company".

I don't like having to click on a separate link to read more about the product before clicking the stupidly large buy button. I wonder if woot can run some stats on what percentage of people click the buy button only after clicking the more information link compared to buying straight from their very abbreviated description.

I miss the simpler look of yesteryear.

dkscudder wrote:I can't stand that the blog posts don't include the price of the items they discuss/announce. I read the posts in an RSS reader. Click the link there that takes me to the blog post. Then I have to go to the main page just to see the price.

I realize you are probably trying to drive traffic to the main page now that you have other deals on it, but it mostly aggravates me. I'm usually doing this on my smart phone, and it is way too much work just to find out the price.

The blog posts have never included the price in them. For a while there was a poster (non-woot-affiliated) who would make a "first post" for every product which listed the name and price, for historical purposes I suppose, but he/she/it seems to have dissapeared.

RoniRami wrote:I love the poll, being a customer service professional myself I'd like something in between - like the ease of reading the shorter description, but I miss the details of the specs (1 GB RAM is very diff than 4 GB RAM on things)

What he said. I don't mind the shorter descriptions I suppose, and it does cut down on effort during wootoffs. I occasionally miss some of the laugh-out-loud moments where I could barely stifle my mirth in my cubicle. However, what I REALLY miss is the details! I know there's those three little tabs off to the right, but I get frustrated reading it because it often is missing full specs that I am interested in, and never in one easy-scrolling view. It was nice being able to see at a glance the top comments and have my interest piqued by someone who "owns one and talks cons" or "chimes in with the rainy-day-cloud" or whatever, where now I have to FIRST click on the more details from the homepage, THEN click on the "top comments" tab, THEN click on the "join the discussion" link. Yeah, that's not a good navigation choice. Forget showing the sales stats snapshot on the features tab, just put the quality posts (top comments, whatever) there instead

And seriously? If you're going to have short writeups, get rid of the soap-opera "thanks for tuning in, lets hash a writeup full of old links on here that is the same every time."

EDIT: Also, I don't like the new "it's a wootoff" arrow... I really preferred the bright yellow box surrounding the picture. What would be even better? Making the tab-bar along the top (tech! home! etc) have a yellow box around each one if it's got a woot. Since now I have to scroll all the way down the sidebar to find associated wootoffs. OR better yet? Put the affiliated woots, that have pictures along the bottom of the product page (not the homepage), put those pictures along the top tab-bar instead of having to hover over the names to have a stupidly large picture popup under my mouse. If I am interested enough to want to see a larger picture, I'll click the tab, I don't need it hiding the whole page just to show me what's on the wootoff, plus it's quicker to parse if I can just see all the previews at once instead of hovering over them or scrolling down to the side of the homepage to parse the pictures.

soxgal wrote:I come to Woot for the writing, not the products. I just happen to also buy a lot of products from Woot. I guess a shorter format during a WootOff is ok, but please leave enough info/teaser copy on the first page so I don't have to click through to the item to see if I really want to buy it. I HATE extra clicks and would rather infinite scroll.

Ditto

runnerfrog13 wrote:Ditto

Where art thou, Old Woot?

To the people at Woot, please stop destroying everything that Woot was known for. That includes the hilariously long and ridiculous write-ups.

I love the long write-ups the first time I read them, but as someone who checks Every product during the year it's nice to see these short blurbs with new wit instead of reading a stale old writeup.

I like the update but I'd also like to still be able to read the old writeups if I wanted to.

Bring back the old Woot, the one before Amazon messed it up. There is too much junk on the page. I don't mind the shorter write ups for the Woot-offs but keep the longer ones for the daily Woot.

ed0849 wrote:Bring back the old Woot, the one before Amazon messed it up. There is too much junk on the page. I don't mind the shorter write ups for the Woot-offs but keep the longer ones for the daily Woot.

Just shop elsewhere,scamazon middlemans everything they sell for profit.

For the love of god STOP.
It's like watching FOX news with all the blinking banners and different segments of the screen flashing and changing and trying to get your attention. It's impossible to navigate with all the clutter. LESS IS MORE.

No its far to messy! Falling off the page on both sides. WHY oh Why does everything have to be "new and improved"? Actually as usual it's just different and definitely not an improvement. Sorry WooT

The new format is painful, especially on a mobile device (iPhone, etc.). Too much clutter, a pop-up sign in box, the write-up hidden behind a tap/click, the tech specs/details hidden behind a further tap/click.

The new Woot front page is a serious mess, and takes away from the original Woot experience to which we have all grown addicted.

I've come to Woot pretty much every day for the past 7 years (yeah, I signed up in 2005), but of late it's been more annoying than exciting.

And now you want to take away the one thing most defines Woot (to me personally) - the long-form hilarious product descriptions.

It's a sad day.

I hope the poll responses change your mind.

p.s. To the writing team - you guys rock!

I really liked the full write ups on the first page. I support what everyone else here has said about it and will add this:

Obsessively I would check Woot.com before. Nights I should have gone to bed and knew I would not be buying anything, I would wait until a midnight F5 showed me what was happening.

The only reason I came to the site today is because I have been away for awhile and was clicking through old bookmarks.

Since you have asked... when the format changed, the overabundance of "one day, one deal" combos and the clutter on the page made me realize that I was not having fun anymore, but just checking to see what the item was. I got a woot watching app and stopped coming. Eventually, I realized that being notified of a random object on sale is really annoying and not delightful at all.

I now visit the site mostly if a friend tells me the write up was particularly good or if the deal is too good to pass up (in which case it tends to be sold out).

Why should I care? Why would I take the time to write if I don't visit? I used to live blocks away from the woot! offices and would smile when I passed the logo walking to a restaurant - I was emotionally invested in seeing the new writeup and ranking it among the best. Woot-offs were rare and the only time you could see several items from woot! in one day. I would click through to comments to see how many versions of Bilious Orangutan Children there were. I would share a deal with friends because it was funny. Now I feel like people who keep paying for the newspaper just to read the comics and recall how it used to be.

The changes in design make me feel marketed to rather than included in. The woot! family feels like someone just started selling Mary Kay and can't give it a break. What I'm trying to say is, I don't think I can make it in for Thanksgiving this year, and it is breaking my heart.

I miss the old woot. It seemed like everything was more streamlined and easier to navigate the old way.

Plus old woot looked better too. Now, its too much white and not enough green.

tasukete wrote:I liked the write-ups, and they were Woot's big differentiator from its imitators.

It's hard to believe that anyone at Woot sat down and thought, "These write-ups are really getting in people's way. We need to streamline the site," because the new Woot site is anything BUT streamlined.

It's much easier to believe that someone at Amazon sat down and said, "These write-ups are really getting in the way of cramming more stuff onto the home page," because the new Woot site looks just like Amazon -- crappy, cluttered, confusing, every pixel of real estate crammed with stuff that I pretty much do not care about, forcing me to wade through offers and ads to find the information I want. And I'm speaking as a fan of Amazon.

The dead giveaway is the phrase, "Explore these deal events now." Nobody in the world talks like that except for web marketeers.

What happened to "One day, one deal"?

In fact I liked Woot 1.0 better than the monstrosity it's become.

Sardinicus wrote:Stop complaining or they will write another song making fun of us.

They made a song making fun of us? And I never noticed, since I stopped checking Woot! everyday, since they changed the layout.

I think this can be best expressed in song (with apologies)...

"...But you didn't have to cut them off
Shorten your write-up, full of fluff and nothing
And I don't even need your deals
When you treat me like a stranger and it feels so rough
No, you didn't have to stoop so low
Change your website and clutter it with advertising
I guess that I don't need you, though
Now you're not the Woot-off that I used to know..."

This is a natural step in the evolution of any business:
A: marketing department takes over operations department.
B: business dies. oops.

woot.com is not interesting nor good as an e-tailer. its interesting as a snarky way to feel justified and simultaneously embarrassed about over-consuming crap.

sorry about sounding pretentious.
also, i will want two more leakfrogs soon.

tony1043 wrote:I don't mind if it is just for the Woot-Offs. But keep the long format for the daily Woots!

agreed.

I love WOOT and I sincerely hope you guys make a ton of money but the new site is a real pain in the neck. I came here for the humor and the LACK of clutter. Now I get less humor, more clutter and a headache from sorting out the 57 ad windows screaming for my attention. Since I cant stop looking could you add aspirin to the next Woot-Off?

I wouldn't mind a shorter format that put features and specs (with the model #) on that one page. I'm not talking unnecessarily separated by tabs either like it is now.

I rarely read the write-up, don't care.

How about you fire the writing staff and hire a competent website designer with the spare money? One that thinks going with "Clown-shoes" as a motif is a bad choice.

No, and I'm getting tired of saying it. If it wasn't for the serial story on home.woot, I can promise that I wouldn't be checking it the same way I am now - and while the write-ups are interesting, it's still an insult to truncate them like a livejournal.

trickqba wrote:I really liked the full write ups on the first page. I support what everyone else here has said about it and will add this:

Obsessively I would check Woot.com before. Nights I should have gone to bed and knew I would not be buying anything, I would wait until a midnight F5 showed me what was happening.

The only reason I came to the site today is because I have been away for awhile and was clicking through old bookmarks.

Since you have asked... when the format changed, the overabundance of "one day, one deal" combos and the clutter on the page made me realize that I was not having fun anymore, but just checking to see what the item was. I got a woot watching app and stopped coming. Eventually, I realized that being notified of a random object on sale is really annoying and not delightful at all.

I now visit the site mostly if a friend tells me the write up was particularly good or if the deal is too good to pass up (in which case it tends to be sold out).

Why should I care? Why would I take the time to write if I don't visit? I used to live blocks away from the woot! offices and would smile when I passed the logo walking to a restaurant - I was emotionally invested in seeing the new writeup and ranking it among the best. Woot-offs were rare and the only time you could see several items from woot! in one day. I would click through to comments to see how many versions of Bilious Orangutan Children there were. I would share a deal with friends because it was funny. Now I feel like people who keep paying for the newspaper just to read the comics and recall how it used to be.

The changes in design make me feel marketed to rather than included in. The woot! family feels like someone just started selling Mary Kay and can't give it a break. What I'm trying to say is, I don't think I can make it in for Thanksgiving this year, and it is breaking my heart.

Yup!

The1LoneWolf wrote:Just another step in destroying the old Woot that I would sit up all night watching.

I have been known to call in at work during Woot-Offs just so I could stay glued to the computer. Now I barely even check. Often I miss a day or two before I even know there is a Woot-Off in progress.

The Great Items, the hilarious write ups, and the insanely funny comments and pics were what kept me watching. All of that is gone now. It is more like the boring TV shopping channels now. I miss my Woot.

Amen, brother.. Amen.

Reading the Woot write-ups was like a ray of sunshine, no matter what was happening during the day. Now I see "Sunday paper drugstore coupon page" design mentality. Or maybe it's "T-shirt superstore at the beach" visual perspectives. Yech! Sense of community, and wry humor lost. Marketing dweebs have taken over - find a good thing, repeat multiple times until all that is unique is gone. Then wonder why your creation stinks. Rarely check in. Used to be daily. Friends I turned on to the site are skipping it as well.

I like longer write ups. Doing shorter write ups is just management's way of "cutting costs" by not needing to employ as many writers. I would hate to see any of you guys get canned.

In addition, I am also not a fan of the new design. It's packed together and too hard to see what I want to see.

WOOT! was once awesome, now it's just one measly piece of bacon!

pec2b wrote:WOOT! was once awesome, now it's just one measly piece of bacon!

With nothing to read, I check the item and close the browser. I'm not hanging out on woot as much as I used to. The descriptions were always a good read. I like woot, the lighter atmosphere here is nice, other wooters' dryness and detachment are something that I can often relate to and understand.

That said, as it is there is too much clutter. I dont like having to hit the more details button to see the full product and all the goods that come with it.

Then, when you get to the details page... under the product on the left you have the wootoff theme description which is a good 40 percent horizontal size of the actual product picture and description.

I'm just not sold on it. Even the margins on the sides look extremely wide. Maybe that's just the way it is on a 16x10 monitor but I can't remember the old page having so much "white space" on the sides.

I got a little side-tracked there.. I miss the descriptions. Please keep them in, please please.

tasukete wrote:I liked the write-ups, and they were Woot's big differentiator from its imitators.

It's hard to believe that anyone at Woot sat down and thought, "These write-ups are really getting in people's way. We need to streamline the site," because the new Woot site is anything BUT streamlined.

It's much easier to believe that someone at Amazon sat down and said, "These write-ups are really getting in the way of cramming more stuff onto the home page," because the new Woot site looks just like Amazon -- crappy, cluttered, confusing, every pixel of real estate crammed with stuff that I pretty much do not care about, forcing me to wade through offers and ads to find the information I want. And I'm speaking as a fan of Amazon.

The dead giveaway is the phrase, "Explore these deal events now." Nobody in the world talks like that except for web marketeers.

What happened to "One day, one deal"?

Ditto again! Tasukete, you nailed it!

Yet another poll that highlights what we DO NOT like about the new designs with no visible shift back to the ways and woot of old......