Amazon Ad

Please tell me this is a bug. I noticed the ad in a few ports, thought it was

some photog hacker doing some work. Please please tell me that this is just a

glitch

I am having the same problem

I saw the same thing. I completely understand the need for the site to run ads, and I'm OK with the size that we've seen in - for example - the Aperture ads that have appeared below posts... but the large Amazon "panel" ad (which, at fist glance appears to be about 600x600 pixels - quite a lot of scrolling required!) shows up in between comments... and could easily make some people think they've seen the bottom of the thread, where there's really more to read, several hundred pixels farther down the page.

 

This probably just comes down to which bit of ad rotation script is in place on that part of the dynamically-rendered forum pages, and it looks to me like somene has slipped a much more open-eneded bit of JavaScript (open-ended, in the sense that the advertisor seems to have license to run some BIG ads in those slots) into that portion of the page.

 

I don't mind photo.net's ads, and even click on them occassionally... but as a paying subscriber and someone with a personal interest in seeing the site survive and thrive, I think those ads are a bit much. I like the redesign, by the way - but this is one area where a little fine-tuning is called for.

Have you clicked on any of your personal photo pages yet?

 

Theres a surprise for you there!

Ken: if, by "surprise" you mean "land mine" then, right you are!

I am sure it is not a 'problem' as defined by the those who run the site. However it is extrmely annoying and shows no respect for those paying subscriptions. However, it is not the first time Dr G has showed a complete lack of respect for those that feather his nest.

Who is Dr. G? If he is responsible for this, as you describe as a lack of respect David, huge ad in the middle of our pages, how do we rectify this. I personaly feel that a benefit to this site would be a next function in the photo preview. The slideshow feature is very poor because of the compression. If your image is larger than the slideshow limit, then your photo is shown shrunk and crucified. Back to the ad. Is the side, like in this forum post not enough?

I am a paying member so I don't expect to be paying for huge, distracting ads that take a long time to load. I don't mind the discreet small ads, but the large Amazon panel ad is not acceptable. My subscription is up for renewal soon. I am seriously considering going back to non-paying status which really pains me but the site is going down hill. I am seeing too many technically good photos garnering 3's and 4's which is aggravating the advanced semi pro and pro photographers. Many are talking or have left the site.

 

I was an active member in the AOL user community and watched the AOL user community get destroyed because AOL management allowed the stats that determined ad pricing and placement to take over the user environment and experience. In the short run, AOL made money, in the long run they are tanking. Many people became disgusted with the AOL's decision to stop monitoring chat rooms and message boards, deciding that an abusive and antagonistic membership would generate more hits because everone loves a fight. Well, for a while this is true but eventually the novelty wears off as the arguments become more and more sophormoric and nothing can shock anyone anymore. The mainstay of the AOL brand -- its user community -- soon self destructed and with it went the membership, the brand's good name, and company's bottom line. AOL lost the one unique appeal it had over other providers -- a close knit user community of basically decent folks that created a value-added experience for the user.

 

I wonder when providers of websites for user communities will realize that the quality of the community experience is often the most important value metric for the user. The community is both the backbone and the achilles heel of the "product." In engineering terms, this product has a built in feed-back loop with the user community as the resonance point. If a variable trips this resonance point, it can cause unexpected good or bad consequences. The variable in this case is changes to the user environment. Great care has to be taken to protect the user as the user is an integral part of the user experience which IS the product.

People are constantly complaining about the rating system, which we'd like to attack, but we can't do it without some revenue. So we're experimenting with different kinds of ads. The Google ads in the photo gallery pages don't produce revenue since people don't click on them. We're trying to see if people will be enticed by the Amazon ads. We'll probably update this to reduce the ads for subscribers, but we can't do anything in the next few hours...

I am really floored that there are Amazon ads on the critiques of my images! I thought this was a forum for serious photography. I am seriously considering finding another venue for my images.

 

Paul

I have been a member for many years and am so tired of the excuses ( We'll probably update this to reduce the ads for subscribers )and the promising of limiting advertising. I also belong to P Base and they for the same yearly cost have NO advertising!

It seems to me the way to increase revenue is to increase the number of paid subscribers and limit the free loaders. Give them a trial period like software companies, and if they don't wish to subscribe, say farewell. That would eliminate much of the rating problem and the need for server capacity. The opposite is being done here. Paid subscribers are fed up with many of the known faults of the site. This ad in the middle of critiques is just the latest faux pas. Already many of us have paid memberships on another site or are there on a free basis, just waiting for our subscriptions here to expire. If policies don't change soon, watch the revenues dip when more of us paid subscribers leave this site.

I think that Jin figured out how to suppress the big Amazon ad for paid subscribers (we haven't done the big software conversion yet, so we are still hobbled by using the old code base, which is entirely without documentation). Please try the pages again, if you're a subscriber, and let us know if you still see the Amazon ad.

Tommy: We aren't going to tinker with the subscription stuff until we've finished our big software/hardware upgrade. I'm not interested in charging people until we can be sure that we have the technical capability to serve them well and be responsive to requests for features.

To the folks who think we are evil geniuses: We put all of the money that comes in from ads into improving the operation of the site and updating the content. If someone wanted to make a quick dollar from photo.net, what he would do is fire the entire staff except for the contract sysadmin and dbadmin. Then he would put a lot more ads on the pages. Maybe he would shut down the community altogether so that he didn't have to moderate content, etc. The pages would continue to be indexed by search engines and read by searchers who would then click on the ads at the same rate that they do now. So you'd have maybe 85 percent of the revenue with 5 percent of the cost.

 

So you can criticize us for being incompetent, but not for trying to make the last dime at the expense of the community.

Thank you Philip. Understand you are viewing our comments based on the revenue you think, that we think you are earning. I believe what you are reading are compassionate statements by photogs, who feel this site is special, it is personal, our site. The Amazon add for the most part, felt like an infection we all got. We were horrified. You explain to us that it is just a childhood disease that will pass. Ok whatever right. Your choice to remove the add from the paying customers is a good move, however, even those who don't pay, and have their beloved images posted on this site, will feel a sting. Philip we feel violated. And through the course of being the moderator and the property owner puts you in a precarious position. You know the cost, you know your clients. For business and pleasure to work sometimes one has to suffer for the other. I hate it. Makes you mean and me a doormat. Choices

I don't feel any sympathy for non-subscribers who have to wade through advertisements. Nothing is free in the world.