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Hi, thanks for reading this.
No, I, HiFiGuy, am not affiliated with Jellyfish, but to get the most out of your visit, you should read this document before asking questions. Your fellow smack shoppers will be happy to answer any questions you have, but if it's here and you didn't read it, then, well... frankly it's time for you to cancel your AOL account and return your computer to Wal-Mart.
There are two main elements to the Jellyfish shopping experience:
"The Daily Smack" Countdown sales (Monday through Friday, beginning at 11 am and running to about 1 pm Central Time)
Jellyfish Smack Shopping is like a "reverse auction." An item (which is always a surprise; we never know what will come up next) starts at a particular price, but with each passing second, the price drops until the item sells out. The price may initially appear to be high, but as stated below the "Final Price" this price includes tax and shipping.
Want more information on the item? Click on the "Product Details" tab (see at right).
During the first two minutes that an item is featured, there is "Guru Guessing." Guess the highest percent off that an item will sell out at (without going over) and win up to 9 Guru points and a chance to spin the Smackwheel. (See "Guru guessing" in the gaming section below.)
Usually, there are 1-4 quantity of this item (higher priced items = as few as one), and when it sells, it sells, regardless of when you click through on the initial buy or purchase confirmation buttons or what the countdown percentage actually says.
To actually purchase the item, you have to click the BUY button, fill out your billing/shipping information, choose sizes and colors (if applicable) and then complete your sale. In the meantime, however, other people are probably doing the same thing, and it might sell out from under you.
To go through, your transaction has to register with Jellyfish. The price at which you confirm your transaction is the price you get, regardless of who ultimately gets the best deal.
Didn't get a confirmation (regardless of what the counter is doing)? Too slow? Computer froze? Sorry.
How will you know if an item sells? It will say "number of items sold out!" You can't miss it. No one knows how many items will actually be for sale, nor what the next item will be. (Before you ask your next question, "Yes, there really were only a handful--or even only one--for sale.")
- Earning cash back through Microsoft Live Search shopping
Get back a percentage of your purchases. Cash money! (You can request a check once at least $10 has cleared.) And did we mention a spiffy SS badge?
There are two main elements to the Jellyfish gaming experience. After each item sells out, there is Smackwheel and/or Outwit the Smack:
Guru guessing/wheel spins (or, "How to Play Smackwheel")
Short explanation: The audience guesses the price at which items will sell out. At the start of each deal, audience members have a few minutes to guess the best percentage-off discount. The closest guesser, without going over, gets a wheel spin (usually), where they have a chance to win Jellyfish swag, cash, or other prizes.
Long explanation: How To Play SmackWheel
Where the thrill of a game show meets the Internet, the SmackWheel is the Internet's first spinning wheel of goodies that is viewed by a live online audience.
a. Best Guru Guesser Gets to Spin
The person who made the best guess on the previous Smack deal (closest to without going over) gets to stop the Wheel and win a prize. (See Wheel Prizes and Odds, below.) In case of a tie, the guess placed first wins the chance to stop the wheel.
b. Don't Guess and Leave
If you win the Guru guess and don't stop the Wheel, you'll bust (aka Moose) and lose out on your chance to win a prize.
c. Guru Points
Guru points are awarded to the top 10 guessers on each deal-9 points to the best guesser and 3 points each for guessers 2-10. Guru points not only give you extra "street cred" with the Smack, they also give you a chance to win a badge in our monthly guru points race.
d. Past Winners
Past Wheel winners and prizes are listed under the Past Deals tab.
Outwit the Smack
Outwit the Smack ("Outwit" or "OTS") is a little six-answer quiz where you have the opportunity to earn a Guru point or coins. Opt in, and then try to guess the LEAST popular answer to the Outwit question. One audience member is randomly chosen to play for three guru points and the coin pot, which (under most circumstances) starts at 2,000 coins and increases by 2,000 coins until won. Everyone else plays for a point.
Now that you've gotten through all that, be sure to do the following:
- Read the FAQ on how a smack auction works. (Yes, now that you've read all this, you get to read another FAQ.)
- Get an avatar/icon. Avatars should be 75x75 pixels, but will be resized as needed. If you uploaded it, but it doesn't show, hit your browser's reload or refresh button, perhaps with CTRL held down, and maybe "a couple" of times. You can also try right clicking/control clicking on your avatar image. Select "View image" and then refresh/ctrl-refresh a couple of times until the image finally refreshes.
- Fill out your wishlist, with a few sub-$250 items on there. (Currently, this is "hard to do" because the functionality has not been re-enabled yet. It mattered more when there was a wheel spin prize called "Make a Wish" but it is currently unavailable. Anyway, in the event of its resurrection, "If you don't, and you win a wheel spin that lands on "Make a Wish", you will get NOTHING. View other people's wishlists for great suggestions. You add items to your wishlist by searching for products in other people's wishlists, or using the Microsoft Live Cashback Search, then clicking "+/- to My Lists" or Add to my lists, depending on which screen you're looking at and whether or not it's been fixed.")
- Add shopping buddies. If you see someone in the Talk'n Smack Studio Audience and want to become their buddy, click on their names, then click on "Send buddy request" next to their avatar. If someone sends you a buddy request, you can accept or reject it. Then, you can chat in their "living rooms."
- Fill out your profile
- Buy items through Jellyfish links to vendors and earn cash back.
- Have fun and be excellent to each other.
Assorted Smackronyms/terms:
bentley: To get selected for Make a Wish (a prize off your Wish List), but have no eligible items. (In which case you get NOTHING.) So, make sure you have some sub-$250 items on it!
blinky: Check your Private Messages (your envelope icon in the top right is probably blinking)
captcha: That funny warped word you have to retype in order to opt-in for Outwit or to bet coins. Can't read it? Reload the browser window and you'll get brand new one.
fj: To not answer an OTS question
jf: (Do you really need to ask?)
jf link: A URL like http://search.live.com/cashback/products/offerings/6012/7125083 to a product that one of Jellyfish's partners sells. Show hosts request that you send them JF links so they, in turn, can ask Jellyfish staff to put those items on their show.
LR: living room
moose: to not stop the prize wheel. You get a MO badge that will haunt you till the end of days.
MrGromit: to moose twice in a row.
Mindstorm: Though everyone calls it Mindstorm (like "Frankenstein" instead of "Frankenstein's monster"), SwakSmack is a Mozilla Firefox extension intended to enhance your Jellyfish.com Smack Shopping experience. Get it at http://mindstorm360.com/
OTS: Outwit The Smack
PM: Private Message (to send a private message to someone, click on their name, then click on the Send Private message button)
SD: SmackDaddy
Other questions:
Where do I get coins? What do I do with coins?
Earning coins. Jellyfish gives you 5 coins per guru point (plus bonuses for reaching certain milestones or earning 1-2-3 badges).
Winning coins. Outwit the Smack contestants who win the pot and lucky Smackwheel stoppers get coins.
Trade coins for prizes and badges. Get Jellyfish swag, Smack Passes, make donations, etc. for your coins.
How long does it take for new coins to show up in my account?
It may take a few minutes. At least wait until the Outwit window goes away.
Do I lose Guru points if I trade in or lose coins?
No.
Do coins expire?
Only if you don't use your account for 180 days.
How do I get more coins?
Get more Guru points. (Primarily, this is done by getting Outwit questions correct.)
I have zero coins...
Consider yourself lucky. If you go negative, Carl comes looking for fingers.
I requested a Gift Card. When will it show up?
WARNING: Some gift cards, like Circuit City, show up electronically. Do not inadvertently delete the e-mail!
Can I use a Circuit City eGift Card in-store?
Yes. Online, in stores, or by phone. Read more on the Circuit City website.
Read more here about coins: Prizes and bonuses and rules and FAQ.
What is the number after people's names?
It is the number of Guru points they've accumulated. One point for each correct Outwit the Smack answer, three for a top ten Guru guess, and nine for the top Guru guess.
What are Guru points used for?
Top monthly point earner gets a prize. Also, one of the Wheel prizes is Guru cash, $1 for every point.
Where can I see my Guru stats?
You can view your Guru stats on the leaderboards. (Click on "Outwit %" once you get there.)
How much did (whatever) sell for? Who won the last Outwit pot? What was the result of the last Wheel Spin?
Click on Past Deals, which is arranged reverse chronologically. Items may take a minute or two to show up.
What do these badges (to the right of someone's chat text) mean: SS (Super Shopper), NC (Name Change), QP (Quest Participant), MO (Moose), CH (Co-host), ND (Name Your Deal), SP (Smack Pass)?
See above (under the Wheel Prizes), but for more detail, check out the the GLOSSARY tab in the talk'n smack window.
How do I get a badge?
SS: This is the easiest. Buy something.
Most of the others are earned by wheel spin. Some can be purchased with coins, or by asking/compensating some other shopper to use one on you (Name Change, for instance). QP is no longer obtainable.
What do the icons (to the right of someone's chat text) mean?
1-2-3: picked three lowest Outwit answers in a row
HB cake: It's their birthday
[party hat/Dillo]: It's their "joined Jellyfish" anniversary
[Jellyfish logo]: They are a Jellyfish employee
SH: They have been named Smack Hero (see below)
How long does a 1-2-3 last?
Until you get an answer WRONG or a coupla days (with OTS so infrequent now, I'm not sure how long it'll stick around), whichever comes first. This means that you can opt in, choose not to answer, and still keep your 1-2-3 badge.
Why is someone "SH" (Smack Hero)?
Check Jellyfish's Smack Shopping Blog. (You can also sign up to receive updates daily, by e-mail.)
This is expensive.
Uh huh. Give it some time.
This will never sell.
Betcha ten bucks it WILL sell! How about it?
What's the deal with the Name Your Deal show?
One of the things you can get with your coins is a "Name Your Deal" badge. You can turn this in for an opportunity to have Jellyfish list a sub-$250 item on the Smack for sale.
Now, anyone can buy the Name Your Deal item. Good form? Bad form? Rude? It can be debated for hours on end. Due to it's "up for grabs" nature, this might be better called "Name Your Drama" or "Choose a Smack."
Does anything ever go for free?
Practically speaking, no. There always is a non-zero price that someone will buy an item for. It did happen, though.
I want to send people to my (really long) web site, but it gets chopped off.
Use http://tinyurl.com/
There's a few cash back bucks in my Jellyfish account. How do I use it? Can I apply it toward a purchase?
Any money in your Jellyfish account is given to you as a check. There is a $10 minimum to request a check, which you can do by visiting My Info in the upper right of your screen (and then click on "My Cash Back Purchases").
I've got some great Outwit questions. Who do I send them to?
Click on the Outwit the Smack logo to the left of the main chat and fill out the form.
Since everyone is trying to pick the least popular Outwit answer, wouldn't that mean that people try to second guess?
Yes, so that's why you should use reverse psychology.
Won't other people use reverse psychology, too?
Yes, so be sure to use reverse-reverse psychology.
Aha. But since everyone else is using reverse-reverse psychology...?
Then, of course, you should shift to reverse-reverse-reverse psychology. Duh!
But then... Aargh, all this reverse-psychology stuff is making my head hurt!
Join the club. "What would Tom Cruise do?" Pick that answer.
Any other Outwit advice?
When in doubt, pick 4.
I can't seem to get a point!
Pick an answer and stick with it. It'll come up eventually.
Uhh, what happened during the first Knot show (August 24, 2007)?
Two hundred smackers watched six hundred bridezillas (and a hundred bride-not-so-zillas) storm into Trixie's living room, lock her in a closet, spill wine on the server, grab two crates of digital picture frames off the sofa, and leave without cleaning up. Yeah, that's pretty much what happened.
And, uhh, what happened at 2 am EDT on November 4, 2007?
DST ended and Jellyfish's computer got screwed up. First, it ended an auction early. Then, it ran an auction too slowly. Then, it started giving away the farm. Six deals went for free, starting with the appropriately named TimeShift! (Oddly enough, TimeShift appears in the "Past Deals" as being before the National Geographic game, though it really was the deal that followed it.) Finally, wild_boy won the big pot and everyone got to go to bed. Jellyfish reported that the next show would start in 5 hours, though half an hour later, things seemed back to normal. The next day (Monday), the Gaming show didn't want to let people buy anything (the dreaded "tangled tentacles" error).
And, what happened on June 30, 2008?
Jellyfish stopped holding Smack sales 24/7. And, top monthly Outwit guessers could no longer earn coins. Also, you could no longer cash out coins. Big changes, indeed.
Anything else I should remember?
Yup.
- Jellyfish Rule 86: No whining "someone buy this" in main (chat) if you have no SS badge (signifying smack/Jellyfish purchases). Tired of seeing it up there? Feel free to buy it!
- "Hey buddy, you waited too long. It's gone!" (You'll find that this applies to a lot of things...)
Found this guide helpful?
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Got more questions?
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