Finally for 2014 can we....

[daglesj]

....have the US and UK News/Reviews discussion threads merged?

Really guys whats the point in having an article to discuss with two different discussion threads, one with two comments in and the other with 56?

It's pretty pointless. Also to some folks it might make it look like your site is playing to an empty house.

Please just merge them so as a UK user I don't have to keep selecting the US side manually and joining in there.

The articles/content is 98% the same so I really wont miss the odd mobile contract offer for the UK. I kind of have one already.

 

[Shaun o]

And for 2014 can we have competitions open to the rest of the world.
Not just limited to the US. After all most of the products offered in a competition, are made in another county
and imported to America, and export shipped.

A bit more community spirit would not go amiss.

 

[jpishgar]

The US and UK News and Reviews article commentary split because the news and reviews themselves are different. There are localization issues and region-specific news items that don't show up on the US site.

On the subject of rules expansion, this is something we're working on. My hope is that we'll be able to expand the eligibility for rules to the Top 7 countries. The challenge here, of course, is having lawyers from each of those countries look over contest rules and adjust things. It's tougher than one might think, but it's something I've put on our wishlist as a priority item.

 

[Shaun o]

Rome was not built in a day !.
It`s nice to know.

So thank you for keeping us informed Jpishgar !

 

[daglesj]

But the UK and US news sections are not that different. They are 98% the same. It isnt enough to warrant having busy comments for one and useless empty comments for the other.

This is is the most convoluted tech site I visit. I don't know any others that use such a daft system.

I bet if you asked the UK folks (I'm one too) they would not care if you did away with the three UK specific items a week. Anyway why not just put those three items in the US listing? It's a big world out there and we get enough US centric stuff already. I'm sure US users readers can work out that a title such as "T-Mobile UK offers better deal for UK customers" wouldn't probably refer to them.

If it's down to some bizarre ad revenue contract thing you have going then just fess up. Otherwise it doesn't make sense.

Look at the pitiful UK comments section. Is it really worth the effort/bandwidth? 99% of tech stuff is from US centric sites so we wouldn't be losing anything.

 

[jpishgar]

I'll relay your feedback to the team. It really is simply a matter of region-specific news... but if there's a big enough push for even further unification, I'll represent that interest when the matter is re-opened for consideration.

-JP