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Comment by psycr | Hacker News Reader

So it sounds like there's an opportunity for someone here. If you read to the end of the article, you'll note that the actual scam is in spinning up discount code sites.

We need a Rapgenius for online discount codes. Right now, it's full of scummy, crappy sites (just like lyric sites), but could be easily improved with a simple interface, minimal advertising, and collaboratively sourced content.

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You mean http://www.retailmenot.com/?

Retailmenot has gotten much more scammy over the last few years.

It's actually gotten more legit. Most of the coupons are seeded there by vendors themselves these days. Which is how they just IPOed for a billion dollars.

The original point was to get discount codes that weren't given out willy-nilly by the vendors, so I'd say that makes it less useful/legit, not more.

I've tried to use RetailMeNot in the past, and their coupons have never worked. I think they are part of the author's "big ugly affiliate scam"

We recently launched (http://www.robotoatmeal.com/pages/about/) to address this. We're addressing the scam coupon issue by surfacing real time usage data. We also try to validate the coupon before it's published on the site.

While I think we can definitely do better (the data is pretty sparse in some areas), I believe the collaborative / real time validation approach will lead to a better experience for shoppers.

I know http://www.hotukdeals.com/ have branched out into discount codes at some point, but they're obviously UK-only I'm not sure how many people use that section of the site.

Worth mentioning that HUKD were referred to the IAB over their voucher code practices.

http://www.affiliate.me.uk/affiliate-news/online-deal-site-i...

you're about 10 years late boss

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