Brad

Yep, we'll have those tomorrow. We wanted to do the server upgrade first before we bring all that traffic here.

You can get the RAZR for free after rebate right now with a free Bluetooth headset (choose either Cingular or T-Mobile): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/580743 Much better deal than Walmart will have.

LOL. We planned it like that. This was "turn back the clock" day on the forum. Experience what it would have been like in 1998

For some reason that menu we had at the bottom of every forum page listing the latest 20 deals on GD was causing the slowdown. I still have no idea why it was causing a problem today as we've had that menu there since we upgraded the forums and we had twice as much traffic last week without seeing a problem. We haven't touched it since then but for some reason today it started acting up but luckily I was able to figure it out :) Still scheduled to move servers later tonight :)

Thank you Marcster. That's what I'm experiencing as well.

Back to the topic.... Try the main GD site or the BF site and see if you are getting the slow 5+ second page load times and it if seems crawling, or if it's just the forum.

We're going to submit a ticket and have it looked at.

Yeah I noticed that as well. Page load times are 5+ seconds for some reason. The server load is not high, so there must be something else going on - possibly with the network.

bump for tonights downtime

bump

Exactly, there is nothing wrong with sharing the info. In the past sites have claimed they had the ads first when they didn't which is why the watermarking started as a way to "prove" who had it. Every year there are more and more BF sites that pop up. Some have good intentions of being a "mirror" of the info in case other sites are down, while others do it only to make money from ads. Here at GD we do it because we've been BF shoppers for a long time and it's just fun to do this thing every year, but also because it's the perfect way to let a lot of people know that we have this forum and main GD site that's open 365 days a year and you can find great deals at any time, not just during BF. Last year was the first year the BF site was on GD (it was on one of my other sites before that) and many of our currrent forum "regulars" found us because of the BF site last year, so that made it all worth it and we hope many of you who have just found the site will stick around after BF :)

This is just a note to say that our move to the new server will be happening Monday night instead of today. We are going to do it late at night so hopefully it should not affect too many of you. The forum will be closed at 9:30pm PT (which is 12:30am ET, 11:30pm CT, 10:30pm MT) and will remain closed for approximately 90 minutes. The downtime could be shorter or longer depending on how things go. During the forum downtime you will still be able to access the BF site and the main GottaDeal site. We have to close the forum because any posts made after we do the final backup won't be transferred to the new server. If you have any questions, either reply to this thread or send myself or RossMAN a PM.

Yeah we are paying for those Google ads - a few pennies per click so it's not too bad to bring more people to the site. As for the ads spreading around, it's going to happen with every ad. The other sites are going to get a lot of the ads before us (we only got a couple of them first last year), and will probably watermark them as well. But we'll still post them - we won't try to remove the watermark because we know that even if you go to every single other BF site out there, you'll find this one to be the best, have the most features, no annoying ads, and by far the busiest and friendliest forum. In fact if another site has the scanned ads first, go ahead and download them from there and use their bandwidth , but then come here to discuss them and add the items to your shopping list :) And really, having the ad a few hours before another site doesn't do much good when you can't buy anything until BF anyway, lol.

Last year I believe Walmart had some of their online items starting Thanksgiving day. Walmart's shipping charges are pretty low compred to other places.

Send RossMAN some points then

It was difficult coming up with a date and time that worked for everyone in every time zone, but this is what we are going to do. The "official" day and time for the weekly Black Friday chat will be Tuesdays at 9:30pm ET / 6:30pm PT. The first one will be this coming week, 10/25. You can get to the chat by clicking the "Chat" link above in the blue navigation bar. Although that is the official time, you are welcome to stop in earlier than that. I'm sure there will be others that show up, so just stop in whenever you can. It will last as long as people are still chatting. We'll be discussing Black Friday and whatever else comes up. There may be some prizes given away during the chat as well, so there's an incentive to show up :) We hope to see you there

We don't have an exact time yet, but we'll give you notice ahead of time. We'll close the forum (but the main BF site will still be "open"). The forum needs to be closed because once we start moving, any posts made here would not carry over to the new server. I'm hoping the downtime for the forum is less than an hour. We are going to do whatever it takes to get it done as quick as possible :)

The scanned ad for the "main" part of the ad will be posted Monday morning most likely. We plan on moving servers tomorrow, so we want to have that done before posting the ad just so there is no inconvenience.

bumping this for the afternoon crowd

Your order has to be over $300 (before discounts) to use the $35 off coupon, and the camera/printer bundle is $299, so you have to add something else (can be anything you want - memory for the camera, etc...)

We also have the biggest forum by far. We have several times the number of posts as all the other BF forums combined (as well as the best people posting) :)

Wow, another site copying us. I'm shocked

I'm guessing CircuitCity will be next (not that I have any inside knowledge or anything)

At most online stores, just having them in your cart does not "hold" them for you. If they sell out before you checkout they'll likely be removed from your cart.

For those of you who are considering the Kodak with dock for $199, here is a great deal at Dell.com that you can get NOW that has a similar Kodak digital camera, but this one includes a PRINTER dock, not just the regular dock. You also get a camera bag as part of the deal. To get the deal, follow these instructions carefully: 1. Add this Kodak EasyShare Z700 and Printer Dock to your cart. 2. Add this LowePro Digital Camera Bag to your cart. 3. In your shopping cart, apply 25% off coupon code CH?VK7VVDDWCFR 4. In your shopping cart, apply $35 off coupon code $DF97G9KXSNJWW 5. After all the discounts, your final price should be $199.41. 6. Shipping should be free, although tax is charged in a few states. Want proof of how hot this deal is? Check out this price comparison: http://gottadeal.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=7145279/sort_type=bottomline When you factor in shipping, this deal is $48 cheaper than the cheapest price from 48 different other stores!!! And you don't have to fight the crowds to get it on BF! http://ai.pricegrabber.com/product_images/7145000-7145999/7145279_640.jpg