2023 Black Friday Cyber Monday - FLASH SALE + MEGATHREAD

_MS_ · November 2023

Before @FAT32 closes this Mega Thread for good, here's a poem dedicated to @FAT32 that I (ChatGPT) wrote generated (actually, did this even before one of the providers asked users to do this for a giveaway).
So, here goes:

A Black Friday Song for the Mega Thread Maestro, @FAT32.

(Verse 1)
In the realm of forums where servers align,
FAT32 emerges, a legend so fine.
On LowEndTalk's stage, where the techies convene,
He steps up to organize, a Black Friday scene.

(Chorus)
Oh, FAT32, conductor of the deal,
In the threads and the posts, your impact is real.
Black Friday's chaos, you turned into art,
With organization skills, you stole every heart.

(Verse 2)
Threads multiplying like codes in the air,
FAT32 steps in, with a digital flair.
Mega thread master, orchestrating the show,
Deals and discounts, in a virtual flow.

(Chorus)
Oh, FAT32, weaving through the fray,
In the bandwidth of bargains, you lead the way.
Black Friday's symphony, you conduct with grace,
In the bytes and the bits, you find your space.

(Bridge)
Through the zeros and ones, your keyboard resounds,
FAT32, organizing the deal bounds.
In the cyber bazaar, where discounts gleam,
You turn chaos to order, like a tech dream.

(Verse 3)
From VPS to hosting, a cyber bazaar,
FAT32's megathread, a shining star.
Community gathers, the excitement's untold,
In the forums of LowEndTalk, your story unfolds.

(Chorus)
Oh, FAT32, architect of the thread,
Where the Black Friday frenzy is widespread.
In the servers' kingdom, where the whispers repeat,
FAT32, your organizational beat.

(Outro)
So here's to you, FAT32, in the Black Friday song,
Where the deals are plenty, and the bargains are strong.
In the digital echoes, where your impact is spun,
FAT32, the thread maestro, your work is done.

FAT32 · November 2023

Hello everyone, so this is it, the LowEndTalk Black Friday / Cyber Monday Flash Sale event for 2023 is officially over. It was a blast, and I sincerely hope all of you enjoyed the experience. There were some hiccups along the way, and I acknowledge that most of them were due to my poor planning.

This year, we had an impressive 159 pre-planned providers joining us, marking a 66% increase from last year. Additionally, we featured 306 pre-planned offers in the event, a remarkable 97% surge from the previous year. Managing such a substantial number of providers and offers was no small feat, and I truly appreciate the patience the providers showed as I took some time to respond.

Before I proceed, I'd like to share something that some of you may already be aware of – this marks my last year organizing this Flash Sale event voluntarily, unless circumstances change. I've invested hundreds of hours, faced considerable stress, and, in my opinion, the results haven't met the significant goals that I aimed for, which is the main motivation for me to organize such event.

That said, I may still organize other events from time to time. My general direction is shifting away from online activities to focus more on my life and personal development. I am also happy to see that I have finally achieved my 20,000 thanks milestone (I know, internet points are useless), it made me aware that my efforts are appreciated which boosted my confidence.

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported me throughout these 4 years of Black Friday / Cyber Monday events. The GIFs, memes, jokes, hectic posts, insane flash offers, crazy providers, encouraging words are something I truly enjoyed. As a nostalgic person, I still find myself revisiting past Black Friday threads, and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.

Special thanks go to @DP, @crunchbits, and @emgh. They provided emotional support behind the scenes, listened to me, encouraged me to make changes to ensure the event run smoothly even when the backstage (my mental stability/emotions) is on fire.

A big shout-out to the attentive and humble providers who believed in me, working together to bring the best deals to all of you: @berrybyte @crunchbits @Lampard @Ian_Dot_Tech @NDTN @SpartanHost @VirMach @Zappie

This isn't to say I don't appreciate other providers – all providers have done their best to offer us delicious and tempting deals. Some have been supporting this event continuously for the past 3-4 years, even during the uncertainties of the pandemic.

Special mentions go to providers who trusted me since my first Black Friday: @Abd @BharatB @Cam @exception0x876 @freerangecloud @Lampard @naranjatech @qba82 @RIYAD @SpartanHost @terrahost @virtono @visualwebtechnologies @WebProject

And providers who trusted me since my second Black Friday: @AnthonySmith @Hostshield_LTD @HostSlick @NDTN @NetDynamics24 @ploxhost @PulsedMedia @Shakib @xethost @xTom

Of course, let's not forget the providers who created instant and special deals for us: @BasToTheMax @berrybyte @Cloudie @Clouvider @crunchbits @DavidAtInfraveoCloud @dustinc @fresent @Hassan @HostSlick @Ian_Dot_Tech @MrRetslav @NetDynamics24 @PulsedMedia @SilverCreek @terrahost.

Additionally, I want to express my gratitude to each and every provider who participated/joined our event:

@1gservers @4Server @Abd @ADTAQ @Advin @AK_KWH @AkileCloud @alexhost @AlexPads @AllHost_Rep @AnthonySmith @antonpa @aqua @Aquatis_Joseph @armandorg @Atomic_Networks @awmbilisim @BAHUPRO @balhost @BasToTheMax @berrybyte @BharatB @BloomVPS @BreezeHost_Ryan @c1vhosting @Calin @Cam @Cloudcone @Cloudie @Clouvider @ColoCrossing @contabo_m @crunchbits @cubedata @Damonho316 @dann00 @DavidAtInfraveoCloud @ddps @dedioutlet @Dedispec @DewlanceVPS @dustinc @eddie_at_porkbun @estnoc @exception0x876 @fiberstate @FireVPS @FlorinMarian @freerangecloud @fresent @GeoBeo @GetServers @GoSSDHosting @gowtham @greenwebpage @GTHost @Hassan @HBAndrei @Hivelocity_Sales @Hizakura @host_c @hostaris @hostdare @HostEONS @Hosteroid @hostiko @HostMayo @HostMedia @HostSailor @Hostshield_LTD @HostSlick @HostWild @Hostzop @Ian_Dot_Tech @iizyhost @inet.ws @internetport @interservermike @Jack_SBE @Jamie_DreamIT @jar @Jasonhyperhost @jayjay @jizbel @jmginer @jonbeard @labze @Lampard @launchvps @layer7 @leapswitch @letbox @LiftUpHosting @lnx @Mahfuz_SS_EHL @mailcheap @MechanicWeb @Mevspace @MikePT @MivoCloud @MrRetslav @naranjatech @nbgames @NDTN @nessa @NetDynamics24 @NicholasOXI @Nick @noezde @oplink @OwnTN @PHP_Friends @physgun @plasmarack @ploxhost @pqhosting @PrepaidHost @Proxies @PulsedMedia @PureVoltage @qba82 @Rabisu @randvegeta @RefinedHost @rickbakker @risharde @RIYAD @rsk @ryanarp @SebekVPS @serveroffer @Shakib @ShiftHosting @SiliCloud @SilverCreek @SmartHost @SolidSeoVPS @SpartanHost @SpeedBus @spiketel @sthosting @swedendedicated @SwiftModders @Swiftnode @tasnim @tentor @terrahost @Terranode @TNAHosting @VirMach @virtono @Virtury @visualwebtechnologies @vivithemage @WebProject @WLIS @worldbus @xethost @xTom @Zappie @Zare @zetou @zgocloud

Thanks to all the admins and moderators, especially @DP and @Jord for moderating this thread to ensure it doesn't spiral out of control and for attending to new signups. @jbiloh has been exceptionally supportive, providing the resources needed to make this event happen. Without them, the thread would have been more chaotic than it is now.

Finally, a big thank you to all the members for supporting this event, especially the active ones such as @_MS_ @admax @BruhGamer12 @cybertech @DeadlyChemist @doobydoe @dosai @ehab @indiankesh @JabJab @lala_th @Murv @NHNHNH000 @nocloud @ralf @redart @risharde @totally_not_banned @user123 @Zyra. It's an honor for me to organize this event, a 96-hour "live show," virtually connecting with all of you from different regions around the world.

As all good things come to an end, I want to thank everyone once again. If you have any comments or suggestions about the event, feel free to comment below or even PM me. This thread will remain open for deals for another 24 hours, after which it will be unpinned (discussion will still be allowed; we will not close the thread).

FAT32

FAT32 · November 2023

If you're interested to know about the behind-the-scenes challenges, allow me to share different perspectives so that potentially someone can learn from my mistakes:

1. The Environment + Providers

With the introduction of Paid Plans (Patron Provider) on this forum, some providers inevitably felt the need to extract more value from LET to justify their costs. Merely offering ad space was no longer sufficient. The support from admins and moderators will now affect the satisfactions of the providers.

This led to a negative impact during the Megathread/Flash Sale events. Some providers misunderstood their entitlement, assuming that their payment granted them the freedom to spam or create offer posts at will. They expected prompt responses even when I am very busy handling different tasks.

I received numerous threats and demands from providers that goes along the lines of: "If you don't ______, I will ______." Common threats include canceling the Patron Provider tag or discontinuing payment for ad space on LowEndTalk. However, since I derive no income from these actions, the impact on me is minimal.

You see, I am just here to help promote the providers and providing an organised event that is beneficial to all LET members, it will be good to be treated with more respect. I consider myself fortunate not to be financially compensated, as it would complicate dealing with such demands.

Despite making a lot of efforts to show that the event is meant for real Flash Sales (very low margin deals), providers still submitted mediocre deals all the time. This makes it very difficult for us to market it as Flash Sale as it might not even be different than their normal deals. Even then, this loss-leader marketing approach is not everyone's cup of coffee.

From members' perspective, some complained that it would be better if we can do more background check on providers. However, I don't usually have much time on hand so I assumed that if a provider has a Host Rep/Patron Provider tag + no major red flags (verified by at least a Google search first page result), it should generally be safe.

While a more thorough analysis before granting those tags is an option, it requires significant manpower overhead on our Admins/Mods and isn't a straightforward solution.

2. The bad apples

Another significant challenge arises from the bad actors targeting our events. By this, I don't mean harmless shitposting, but rather individuals from specific communities aiming to sabotage the success of our events.

For instance, one of the very affordable deals with IPv4 (~$5-7/yr) orders all ends up being canceled because customers who placed orders never paid for it. This not only prevents those genuinely in need from obtaining the deal but also disrupts providers' stock and resource planning, as certain deals are intentionally set aside for sales.

This issue extends to dedicated servers, causing considerable headaches for providers. They must manually cancel invoices, replenish stocks/coupons, and hope that customers still remember the available deals. When this happen too frequently, providers will soon lost interests in investing additional time in such money-losing deals.

While preventive measures such as enforcing shorter payment times exist, they require extra efforts. Although I'm actively developing solutions to assist providers (captcha being the first step), it becomes increasingly annoying. Even then, there's nothing preventing them from doing chargebacks or exploit the refund mechanism, creating additional challenges for providers.

Based on unofficial survey with providers, they revealed that they usually spend more support time on promotional plans sold during Black Friday than on their regular plans. This is likely due to the low prices that attracted the wrong crowd.

The wrong crowd tends to have lots of free time on hand too. When things don't go as planned, they retaliate and tarnish the provider's reputation. Put yourself in the providers' shoes, why invest money and effort into creating enemies?

3. The Audience

Having one big megathread is the tradition in LowEndTalk, which is one tradition and format that's quite enjoyable if you like it and follows the thread since the beginning. However, it isn't particularly provider-friendly. We have more than 100 providers participating this year, imagine if each member just contributed to 1 comment, it will be very difficult for providers to manage inquiries, let alone skipping all the potentially inappropriate content in the thread.

With this in mind along with the Patron Provider privilege, many providers would prefer creating their own threads, Telegram, or Discord channels for direct interaction with their clients and supporters. This approach provides more control over the timing and content of interactions, and the members already on those channels are more likely to be supportive on the flash sale, which actually drives up the conversion.

This might finally lead to the death of Megathread, more and more providers are no longer interested to join this but rather organise their own thread/event.

4. The Organizer

Yes, that refers to me and the team. In the past 3 years, I could usually manage the preparation and organization of the Black Friday event, albeit it was very tiring. I assume this was because the number of deals was much less than this year. However, this year is much different and I find myself overwhelmed with everything to the point where I am not enjoying it at all and just want it to be over as soon as possible.

What was supposed to be a fun event has grown into a responsibility with high expectations from both members and providers. Every time I feel sleepy, thoughts of this "live show" where tens of thousands of active members and a few hundred providers are waiting haunt me, urging me to stay awake. I cannot afford to let them down or make any mistakes.

The preparation for this event is the only thing I did for this whole month outside of work, contributing to 0.1% of my life. Looking back, I admit my planning was rather poor and could have been done better. If time could rewind, there are a few things I would like to change:

Find at least one more person to help me (It is hard to find people who share the same passion as I do)
Be stricter about the requirements to participate, deal format, the submission deadline, and enforce that deals must meet a certain standard

While this might not be apparent to many, I am very flexible when talking to providers and carefully analyze every deal to ensure it is competitive. About 20% of the time, I am the one proposing and designing the deals for providers such that it maintains a healthy balance where the provider doesn't loss money while it still looks attractive to LET members. I also point out bad deals from time to time, though not all providers appreciate or understand them. My goal is to lower the barrier to entry for providers to almost zero by providing a human touch to the preparation, but this has undoubtedly added a lot to my workload.

An interesting data is that I used to only give a 2+0.5 week notice for providers to submit their deals, and this seemed to work reasonably well. This year, I gave a 3+1 week timeframe to prepare. While it did result in more deals than in the past, most of them were submitted during the last week, and quite a few came in after the deadline.

Closing

Thank you for taking the time to read about the challanges I faced and experiences above. Those problems will need to be resolved if we want to ensure a smooth event in the future. In any case, I hope this information serves as a valuable resource for others to learn from, regardless of whether or not I will still host a similar event in the future.

doobydoe · November 2023

@FAT32 said:

❤️

emgh · November 2023

@FAT32 Absolute legend❤️

c1vhosting · November 2023

@FAT32 said:
If you're interested to know about the behind-the-scenes challenges, allow me to share different perspectives so that potentially someone can learn from my mistakes:

1. The Environment + Providers

With the introduction of Paid Plans (Patron Provider) on this forum, some providers inevitably felt the need to extract more value from LET to justify their costs. Merely offering ad space was no longer sufficient. The support from admins and moderators will now affect the satisfactions of the providers.

This led to a negative impact during the Megathread/Flash Sale events. Some providers misunderstood their entitlement, assuming that their payment granted them the freedom to spam or create offer posts at will. They expected prompt responses even when I am very busy handling different tasks.

I received numerous threats and demands from providers that goes along the lines of: "If you don't ______, I will ______." Common threats include canceling the Patron Provider tag or discontinuing payment for ad space on LowEndTalk. However, since I derive no income from these actions, the impact on me is minimal.

You see, I am just here to help promote the providers and providing an organised event that is beneficial to all LET members, it will be good to be treated with more respect. I consider myself fortunate not to be financially compensated, as it would complicate dealing with such demands.

Despite making a lot of efforts to show that the event is meant for real Flash Sales (very low margin deals), providers still submitted mediocre deals all the time. This makes it very difficult for us to market it as Flash Sale as it might not even be different than their normal deals. Even then, this loss-leader marketing approach is not everyone's cup of coffee.

From members' perspective, some complained that it would be better if we can do more background check on providers. However, I don't usually have much time on hand so I assumed that if a provider has a Host Rep/Patron Provider tag + no major red flags (verified by at least a Google search first page result), it should generally be safe.

While a more thorough analysis before granting those tags is an option, it requires significant manpower overhead on our Admins/Mods and isn't a straightforward solution.

2. The bad apples

Another significant challenge arises from the bad actors targeting our events. By this, I don't mean harmless shitposting, but rather individuals from specific communities aiming to sabotage the success of our events.

For instance, one of the very affordable deals with IPv4 (~$5-7/yr) orders all ends up being canceled because customers who placed orders never paid for it. This not only prevents those genuinely in need from obtaining the deal but also disrupts providers' stock and resource planning, as certain deals are intentionally set aside for sales.

This issue extends to dedicated servers, causing considerable headaches for providers. They must manually cancel invoices, replenish stocks/coupons, and hope that customers still remember the available deals. When this happen too frequently, providers will soon lost interests in investing additional time in such money-losing deals.

While preventive measures such as enforcing shorter payment times exist, they require extra efforts. Although I'm actively developing solutions to assist providers (captcha being the first step), it becomes increasingly annoying. Even then, there's nothing preventing them from doing chargebacks or exploit the refund mechanism, creating additional challenges for providers.

Based on unofficial survey with providers, they revealed that they usually spend more support time on promotional plans sold during Black Friday than on their regular plans. This is likely due to the low prices that attracted the wrong crowd.

The wrong crowd tends to have lots of free time on hand too. When things don't go as planned, they retaliate and tarnish the provider's reputation. Put yourself in the providers' shoes, why invest money and effort into creating enemies?

3. The Audience

Having one big megathread is the tradition in LowEndTalk, which is one tradition and format that's quite enjoyable if you like it and follows the thread since the beginning. However, it isn't particularly provider-friendly. We have more than 100 providers participating this year, imagine if each member just contributed to 1 comment, it will be very difficult for providers to manage inquiries, let alone skipping all the potentially inappropriate content in the thread.

With this in mind along with the Patron Provider privilege, many providers would prefer creating their own threads, Telegram, or Discord channels for direct interaction with their clients and supporters. This approach provides more control over the timing and content of interactions, and the members already on those channels are more likely to be supportive on the flash sale, which actually drives up the conversion.

This might finally lead to the death of Megathread, more and more providers are no longer interested to join this but rather organise their own thread/event.

4. The Organizer

Yes, that refers to me and the team. In the past 3 years, I could usually manage the preparation and organization of the Black Friday event, albeit it was very tiring. I assume this was because the number of deals was much less than this year. However, this year is much different and I find myself overwhelmed with everything to the point where I am not enjoying it at all and just want it to be over as soon as possible.

What was supposed to be a fun event has grown into a responsibility with high expectations from both members and providers. Every time I feel sleepy, thoughts of this "live show" where tens of thousands of active members and a few hundred providers are waiting haunt me, urging me to stay awake. I cannot afford to let them down or make any mistakes.

The preparation for this event is the only thing I did for this whole month outside of work, contributing to 0.1% of my life. Looking back, I admit my planning was rather poor and could have been done better. If time could rewind, there are a few things I would like to change:

Find at least one more person to help me (It is hard to find people who share the same passion as I do)

Be stricter about the requirements to participate, deal format, the submission deadline, and enforce that deals must meet a certain standard

While this might not be apparent to many, I am very flexible when talking to providers and carefully analyze every deal to ensure it is competitive. About 20% of the time, I am the one proposing and designing the deals for providers such that it maintains a healthy balance where the provider doesn't loss money while it still looks attractive to LET members. I also point out bad deals from time to time, though not all providers appreciate or understand them. My goal is to lower the barrier to entry for providers to almost zero by providing a human touch to the preparation, but this has undoubtedly added a lot to my workload.

An interesting data is that I used to only give a 2+0.5 week notice for providers to submit their deals, and this seemed to work reasonably well. This year, I gave a 3+1 week timeframe to prepare. While it did result in more deals than in the past, most of them were submitted during the last week, and quite a few came in after the deadline.

Closing

Thank you for taking the time to read about the challanges I faced and experiences above. Those problems will need to be resolved if we want to ensure a smooth event in the future. In any case, I hope this information serves as a valuable resource for others to learn from, regardless of whether or not I will still host a similar event in the future.

Your work was amazing, this is our first of many BF with you!

Shakib · November 2023

Clouvider · November 2023

Thank YOU @FAT32 - amazing job!

_MS_ · November 2023

#ThankYouFAT32

host_c · November 2023

@FAT32

sycot · November 2023

BIG LOVE for @FAT32 !! you're a god and the next BF megathread organizer has FAT shoes to fill

crunchbits · November 2023

@FAT32 Absolutely epic job. Whenever we got swamped (...still are catching up) it was always very motivational to realize you were busier, and doing it as a volunteer.

Oh, by the way:

A big shout-out to the attentive and humble providers who believed in me, working together to bring the best deals to all of you: @berrybyte @crunchbits

No need to mention me twice

EDIT: Oh, yeah.. and I guess.. @Jord was here, too?

luisx10ia · November 2023

ThankYouFAT32

dahartigan · November 2023

You're a legend amongst mere men, @FAT32

Enjoy your hard earned rest and thank you for your interest our services

doobydoe · November 2023

this marks my last year organizing this Flash Sale event voluntarily

Thank you @FAT32 i'm gonna miss you in next BF.

Decicus · November 2023

Thanks a lot for all your work this year too, @FAT32

FAT32 · November 2023

@crunchbits said:
No need to mention me twice

EDIT: Oh, yeah.. and I guess.. Jord was here, too?

That's what happen when you hired everyone.

DP · November 2023

Thank you legend ❤️

geekyhillbilly · November 2023

Thank you @fat32 for all you have done! It has been a fun BF/CM mega thread this year. I did get a few deals and even though I missed a lot of deals, I still had a blast thanks to all your tireless efforts. Your work this year as with other previous years has been very much appreciated!

awmbilisim · November 2023

It was a very good process, we would like to thank the forum administrators and members.

DeadlyChemist · November 2023

look mommy mommy im famous!

that was fun, had a blast
also simped to few providers so that's always great hehe

next year will be fun as well

thanks for everyone for organizing the event and participating!

DP · November 2023

And of course, thanks to all of you, the providers and the community members, that have been supporting this event ❤️

ralf · November 2023

Yeah, great work @FAT32! Your work is appreciated greatly! There's been moments of order, and there's been moments of chaos, but it certainly felt like you were keeping it all together from this side of the curtain. That said, it's clear every year it's taken an unbelievable toll on you - not least because you never seem to get any sleep! It actually feels like this shouldn't just be your job. An event of this scale in the real world would probably have a team of at least 5, maybe 10 people, making sure it all runs smoothly and nobody's overworked. Even though you relied on a few people you mentioned, you still pulled off an amazing feat! Hopefully whatever happens next year will be run by an events team so that it can be run without detriment to the organisers personally. It's also always felt a bit weird that it's not really officially run by LET - for an event that must surely drive much more traffic to the forum than e.g. some LEB articles, it seems crazy not to have more support provided in whatever form you need.

@FAT32: hip hip hooray!

AlexPads · November 2023

Thank you everyone and especially FAT32 for letting us participate in this amazing event for the first time. It was fun, scary and great all at once!

You will be missed, and hopefully participating in the deal snatching next year!

cheapoVPS · November 2023

finally, I can sleep

jbiloh · November 2023

Always so impressed and thankful for your contributions to LowEndTalk @FAT32.

Fabulous job this year running one of the best threads in LowEndTalk history.

HostSlick · November 2023

Thanks you @FAT32 for everything! You are The best!!!

Zyra · November 2023

i like fat32

raza19 · November 2023

Gun salute to @FAT32 . thank you for all the hardwork you have put in all these years. Everyone benefits from it.

SpeedBus · November 2023

Thank you @FAT32 Your passion and effort really shows throughout this thread! Thank you so much for making us a part of it

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

2023 Black Friday Cyber Monday - FLASH SALE + MEGATHREAD

Comments