It's not anger, so much as parts sadness & disappointment that are compelling me to add my $.02 here.
When I joined woot! in 2006, I was reasonably skeptical of all the refurbs and "grab bags" of random stuff. I didn't buy anything for months after joining, but I eventually pulled the trigger on some lighted USB cables I felt were priced at a steal. Time passed, and I learned the ways of the woot. The elusive Barrels of Crud emerged as the flagship draw (any who disagree are kidding themselves). I scored my first one four years ago this month.
Then this happened, and this, and (zOMG) this... and I've been completely HOOKED ever since. My "What You've Bought from woot!" page is littered with crap bags, and fan-boy items: USB lights, monkeys, shirts, and calendars. Counting up all these items easily out-numbers standard woot! fare purchases.
Not that long ago, woot-offs were practically a party (anyone remember @WootTV??). Lying in wait for Random Crap to appear, you never knew when that next unique must-have, cheap impulse-buy, or conversation-piece sale would appear (there were 200 "personal hand massagers" sold -- y'all know who you are). You just had to be there, or miss out. Schedules were adjusted, vacations were disrupted, F5 keys were incessantly pressed, much sleep was lost.
For some time now, the Random Crap has become less random and more crappy -- so much so that "Random" was unceremoniously removed from the title. To have the most recent 72-hour marathon end with a woot-off killer and not a single hallmark offering was a bitter pill to swallow.
What it boils down to is, there are lots of places on the interwebs to spend my discretionary income, but there's only one woot! Clearly a chord has been struck, as other wooters like myself express their viewpoints. I just hope that the powers that be are paying attention, and can keep the core components of this pastime intact before it's too late.
