Social network popup

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
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I got the social network "thing" twice tonight. I saw no way to close or minimize it. When I went back, it reappeared. The only way out was to close DC.
 
andy, i think the not-so kind responses were a result of lack of communication.
you have every right to profit from the work you do to run this site, but changes that are particularly obvious that relate to creating revenue freak people out. i guess it's fear of being exploited. not that i think you'd do things like that, such as collect and sell our private info, or insert advert spyware and cookies in our systems. but running a beta ad project without a heads up was a little unnerving to some folks.
that said, it bothers me a little with the upcoming plans that certain members would be forced to see more ads, others less. the reasoning for it is too arbitrary. i totally agree that unregistered guests and not-logged-in visitors should get all of the ads you can chuck at 'em and still make the place attractive. it may make some of them join, in fact, to get around it. but as far as the experience here once in the door, all members should be equal. this may not be a democracy, but we should strive to be as fair and mutually respectful of all members, no matter their current popularity (karma), number of posts (many of mine are pure cr^p, but they add up), or if they're in one of the admins doghouses (been there too).
if everyone has to see ads, then lets us all see them together, as peers, co-members,... friends. you're inviting trouble if you set up a system of favoritism.
also, if you make light contributors feel unwelcome, then they will tend to stop contributing all together, and we all lose.
just my 2 cents, man. all in all, this is the best foodie community around, and an equal share of the credit goes to you and your administration.
now don't screw it up...:)
 
lol, as soon as i posted this, i got my first annoying ad.

geez, how the heck are we supposed to live with this??? :mad: to heck with this. forget what i said, i quit!!!! :angry:

(only kidding):)

i waited a minute, then clicked the back button, then surfed back. it got rid of the darn thing.
 
My reponse would have been the same irrespective of a warning. It's a cheap way to get a lousy page hit.

I totally 100% disagree with being sent to a different website for doing something like clicking "New Posts" or trying to get to the 2nd page of a thread from within DC. It's underhanded and sneaky. Tonight not only did I get pushed to that other website, but three clicks of the back button didn't return me to DC but right back to the same **** place. So I had to completely close my browser and start over.

Forcing us to be hits on your advertisor's sites just doesn't sit well with me. I can tell you right now that any site that forces me to an ad will never ever ever get a "buy" from me so it's pretty much a waste of time. And if people here were being totally honest with you, I'd bet they majority of them would say the same thing.

There is a reason that pop-up blockers are so popular. There is a reason that Mozilla has such a devout following. Intrusive in-your-face advertising is annoying. Let people click over to that stuff on their own time. If what is being offered is that great, standard advertising blurbs should be enough.

Zereh
 
zereh, not to pick on you (would i ever do that to a babe like you??? :) ), but in real terms we all come here of our own free will. andy has a right to cover his costs, and if he does what i say, er, i mean if he does some things right, he will stand to make some money off of providing a place for us to congregate online. really, he owes us nothing in real terms. it may suck, but that's the jungle, baby.:cool:

i agree the ad is too intrusive. there should be a simple way to close it immediately. but i'm doing some testing and i think that it may time out so you just have to wait (a full) minute then hit the back button, or it may be you have to reload the page a number of times, then you get past it. lemme see.

ok, andy, do you see why favoritism is a bad idea? i'm uncomfortable debating zereh because now we both look bad, like trouble makers. if you say you accept and appreciate all responses, both negative and positive, but are judging a members "worth" in some unseen fashion thereby allowing them not to have to see ads, all you'll get are yes men, and no one will ever complain, or give us constructive criticism for fear of being black listed for more ads.
 
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Then use the traditional methods of advertising, I have no problem with that. You know, the kind where I get to choose whether I visit or not.

You'll never get me to agree that it's ok to force me over there. Intrusive, unavoidable advertising sucks. I won't play.

:mrgreen:
Z
 
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Advertising and DC Users/Visitors

The intermission ad has been removed. It was only a webpage that was NOT malicious... We will be studying various ways to offer advertisers ways to reach our membership.

In this case, it was setup as a network wide setup that helps attract advertisers because of the size of the network as a whole (75,000 members) but it is obvious that we need to keep all advertisements specifically related to each forum communtiy.

The long term plan is to show the most ads to visitors and guests as they are not contributing to the community. As a member posts more, earns more karma, does not get warnings, etc then less ads will be shown. That is much harder to implement then it sounds. Please understand that is our goal and be patient as we work towards that.

...we need your feedback to help our community evolve.
I appreciate that DiscussCooking is a business whose revenue stream comes from advertising. It is certainly your perogative to explore ways to increase that revenue.

However, IMHO, your plan
to show the most ads to visitors and guests as they are not contributing to the community. As a member posts more, earns more karma, does not get warnings, etc then less ads will be shown
is not good business sense.

> Visitors come b/c they're interested in cooking tips or joining a community so you already attract a targeted audience. Studies show that new users evaluate a site within the first 30 seconds.A plethora of ads will not encourage them to return, nor will they know that ads will decrease in proportion to their participation.

> You can't predict purchasing on the basis of frequency of posts. Dedicated cooks (who may be frequent posters) are as likely to buy specialized cookware as more casual users (perhaps more so).

> Unobtrusive ads are more acceptable than obtrusive ones; targeted ads are even better. No ad should ever require action on the user's part to get rid of it.

> Don't test an important change on your production site - you risk alienating new and old posters alike. A beta deserves a separate test URL; invite DC administrators and frequent posters to visit the beta site and provide feedback. More work? - yes. More expensive? - yes. Worth it? - yes. A proposed change that gets a "thumbs up" can be moved into production; a proposed change that needs refinement can be further tested without risking upsetting your user base which is, after all, your income source.
 
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I agree with bucky. These guys spend a lot of their time and effort to keep this place running. Keep in mind that we don't pay to come here but I also am not so keen on these types of ads either and don't think it's fair that some will have more ads than others. I think it will discourage newbies and maybe some oldies too.

That said, last night I figured out how to close the ad (I think). At the top right hand corner of the ad it says something like "continue with socialnetwork," click that and it should let you into dc. It worked for me, hope it works for you guys! :)
 
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I really think that the banners and ads that are a permanent on the pages is better. It's there if you want to see it, but, not in the way of getting to DC.
Most sites that I have gone to that say, if you register, you will have fewer or no ads, rarely will I register, if I'm there just to find one quick answer for something, I'll go back to google and find another site that doesn't make me register.
 
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