Brad

Here is the thread from last year: http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?149196-Dates-When-Ads-Came-Out-(2005-2008)-amp-Ad-Item-Lists-(2003-2008) We'll have the new thread up with 2009 dates soon.

Only Walmart sent a letter of the ones in the poll. But yeah, those stores usually don't come out until November.

I won't even have the t-shirts for a few more weeks, but we're going to start the first contest anyway. This one is going to take place on the Black Friday site itself via the new comments feature, so go there and read all about it: http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com We'll be running contests on the forums, the Black Friday site, Facebook and Twitter (although most will still take place here on the forums). Good luck and be sure to post your entry on the site itself so that it counts, not here on the forums. In fact, I'm going to close this thread just so there is no confusion.

I'm just going to ignore that awful joke as to not embarass you anymore and say that the issues were not as bad as expected and everything is still on schedule. Look for the first contest within a week :)

Having some communication "issues" with the printer. Hopefully it doesn't delay the shirts. Otherwise we'll just go with a different printer.

In about a week, but I'm guessing they won't hit Target until days/weeks after they first appear in Apple Stores, so I'd be very surprised if they were at Target on Monday. With it being almost 3 months until BF, I doubt stores will have enough inventory of the old model to make them a BF ad item.

ok, attachments should be working now. might not be able to fix the issues witht he old attachments, but new ones should be working.

testing image attachment

YouTube links should be working now. Give me examples of the other problems like the picture issue and I'll try to fix those as well.

$99 netbooks are definitely possible, although the specs probably won't be great. we've posted deals on the site in the past for netbooks around that price. just a week or two ago we had a refurbished model for $89. but those cheaper models usually have smaller screens (7" typically), very small amounts of ram/storage and either linux or windows ce for the operating system.

Too late. I went with Marcster's suggestion to change "TEAM" to "CREW" though. If you don't like the saying, get some tape and cover it up

Shirt order has been placed Besides these new BF shirts, we still have lots of other GD stuff to give away: - regular GD t-shirts - reusable grocery bags - drawstring backpacks - calculators - magnetic clips - coin wallets (GD and BF designs) - pens & highlighters I want to get rid of most of this stuff by the end of the year (so we can get some new stuff) so we should have a lot of contests this year

It won't be for a couple of weeks. The BF part of the site still isn't "officially" open yet.

They'll likely be one color. It's tough enough having the correct sizes for everyone so I don't want to add color variables to the mix. As for if you'll be able to buy them, it will depend on how many I order. I like giving them away because it encourages people to participate in the various contests and other things we do these next few months, but I might be able to set some aside for purchase.

here's a quick idea i put together (front/back): http://www.olsonnet.com/images/bffront.jpghttp://www.olsonnet.com/images/bfback.jpg keep in mind that since these shirts will be given away (i.e. FREE!), they aren't going to be too fancy - just a single color printing, and i'll have to cram the GD name/logo in there somewhere to get some advertising, so... let me know what you think about the design above and how you would change it.

If they come back, we're probably going to stick to the same "slogan" on the back since everyone really seemed to love those. It'll look a little different though and I'm trying to think of something nice for the front. Something like "Black Friday Elite Shopper" or something like that. I don't want to just have the site name/logo like the old shirts. Any ideas for the front?

probably the same

Images are not allowed in signatures mostly to keep page load times down and for aesthetic reasons as well. Text signatures are fine as long as they comply with the guidelines posted on the site.

Thinking about bringing back the Black Friday-specific t-shirts to give away again this year. As with most non-essential site "features" though, I might have to find someone who'd be willing to help out with the packaging/shipping though as that can take up a lot of time, something I don't have much of to spare during BF season. I'll keep everyone updated though...

One idea we've always had would be to do a weekly podcast of sorts where we'd answer questions. People could call anytime to leave questions to voicemail, and then we could choose the best questions (i.e. the ones that would be most informative or that a lot of people ask about) and answer them in a podcast format each week during BF season. Like you've all said, something like that would take a lot of time, so it's not something I'd probably be able to do with everything else I do during BF season, but if someone had the technical expertise to edit a show like that and knew enough about BF, send me a PM and maybe we can work something out.

The signup form for the alerts on the BF site has been open all year - that never closes. Just make sure you are sending them there instead of the forum or the main GD site, otherwise they might get lost, lol

Big thread from last year about being pregnant on BF: http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?150676-Anyone-shopped-on-BF-while-pregnant

yeah no kidding. all this BF stuff really crept up on me this year. i kept putting off working on it and today i happen to check and we're only 100 days away.

I'll see about getting one on the BF site one of these days.

Also, we're still working on the actual BF site (http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com) and will be for the next few weeks, so don't be surprised if things look strange. Last year's ads are still on there as well. We'll have some new goodies on there as well such as a new comments system for the news posts, the ability to share our BF news updates with your friends on Twitter and Facebook and much more.