My personal thoughts on this:
1. I agree whole heartily that we should have a coupons section, on the same note, we shouldn't have a need for a bunch of new posts for ongoing promotion or sites that continually post the same general coupons IE the Restaurant.com threads (now an all in one for June
Restaurant.com June Coupon Codes)
2. What makes a deal "hot" is really varied by personal opinion, FS on some deals can be very hot. Case in point a recent PC case purchase, it wasn't on sale but newegg finally offered FS - saved me $20+ that is a fairly sweet deal in my book.
3. "Not so hot deals" - I've seen a lot more of these popping up this month than previous months. IMO just because a deal is on another deal site or a daily deal doesn't make it hot! QUALITY should be the focus.
4. Again in my personal opinion, all the recent "up to % off" threads aren't really hot deals, and IMO look a lot like filler. If its a great sale and there are good deals in there then we should be adding more substance than just the link. At least add in a couple of good examples of what you see as a "hot deal".
I've seen a few deals that go to an every day outlet sale, clearance section or open box section and no other info, if its a one time sale that's different but almost every site on the web has their own outlet or clearance section. The idea, at least IMO, is to find the deals hidden in those sections someone might overlook.
One thing to keep in mind, as SJ said, just because a site says 40-50% off doesn't mean they really are. Overstock, Amazon and several other sites advertise everything as huge savings, that doesn't mean those prices are big sale prices (heck most the time they aren't even decent prices).