Come on people, let’s be reasonable here.
It seems pretty clear to me that the revenue from the google and banner ads weren’t enough, so TPTB had to grab hold of another revenue-stream – advertising forums! Just wait 'til the Ronco forum shows up…
Sorry, why the roll eyes? I don’t think I could have asked any politer.
You don’t get your money back, but instead of renewing new time around you get the option of staying a paying member without ads or becoming a member that sees the ads, all the ads the you would currently see if you logged out and surfed the dope.
I’m not mad at you, don’t take it that way.
Isn’t Ed’s book forum an ad? An ad that shows EVERY FUCKING TIME you look at the list of forums? Just sayin’, we paying folks shouldn’t be seeing it.
I wonder how long it would have taken me to discover the new forum if it hadn’t been for this thread. But, you made me look, and, by golly, there is a new forum there. To which my instinctive response was to start singing the Sesame Street “One of these things is not like the others” song to myself.
:: goes off to check out new forum ::
Okay, Ed, I’ll letcha have this one, even though it doesn’t seem like it really belongs here. (It wouldn’t have seemed quite as out of place if it had been next to"Comment on Cecil’s Columns" on the forum list.) I probably won’t be spending much time in TBH. My guess is that it’ll mostly get quietly ignored. But, whatever. Queasy rah rah.
I think it’ll be fun. They’ll trot out new stuff to promo, and get twenty threads apiece telling them how much it sucks. OTOH, I’m pretty ticked off about my pregnant sow.
You mean like the server upgrade and change to free posting? That should happen any day now- oh wait, it happened last week.
This board grew out of the Straight Dope column, people. I wasn’t there when it happened, but seeing as how this is the Straight Dope Message Board and Ed has been editing the column for 30 years… what’s the problem here? Has your money and time been taken away because there’s a forum for the book? No? I didn’t think so. We hang out here for fun, but this board is part of a business. I’m not seeing the logic in resenting Ed for promoting something that’s related to the Straight Dope here. It’s not a Straight Dope book, but if you read the thing you’ll recognize the thoroughness and the sense of humor. Ed’s not just a poster here, and he’s not a mod, he edits the freaking column. Why is it so astounding that his book gets promoted? What is actually wrong with that? It’s not an ad, it’s a forum.
Frankly this is one of those situations where common decency could be exercised even though this is the Internet. The guy’s had a book published. It’s not his first, but that’s a goal for a lot of us here. So he’s started a forum on the site devoted to the column he’s edited for 30 years, bringing some attention to the book to people who like his other work and discuss related issues - and the reaction is “How dare you?” I really don’t get it.
None of which is intended to devalue anybody’s contributions here. This is a conversation and it’s a group I’ve had a great time being a part of. People who post here have written staff reports and made a direct contribution to the SD column in addition to the ignorance-fighting and the fun that happens on the board. Why that means Ed should be scorned, though, I have no idea.
Well that is fair, it is basically an ad for his book and we will see it when we display the forum list. I guess I just don’t care that much about it. I never minded the Google ads either, but apparently we won’t see those sometime soon.
I understand the complaints, but the SDMB is basically Ed’s message board. If he decided to add a self-promoting forum that will specialize in home repairs, I don’t see what the big deal is. At least it wasn’t the Hookers and Blow forum. 
Best laugh all day.
Because it’s an ad. Talking about subjects brought up in the book would be fine for CS or MPSIMS. There’s no new topics for which there was nowhere to discuss them. There’s no new rules which allow for a change in posting in it. The only reason to make a new forum instead of simply making a thread about it as all posters may do if given permission or even putting a sticky somewhere is to make it more visible.
It’s Ed using the power he has to publicise his book to the extent he can. That’s perfectly reasonable and understandable. But let’s not pretend it’s anything other than that.
Pfft. How does it harm anyone aside from the fraction of second longer it takes to scroll to the forums underneath it? And hey, if it is nothing but an ad for the book, oh well. As has been said before, maybe some of that money will be funnelled toward the board itself.
You’re right, those are the only two things we’ve ever been promised, and they happened right on time :rolleyes:
Okay, it is the clear light of morning, and I am not quite as miffed as I was last night.
I still think the idea is incredibly tacky, but I’ll just deal with it as I do with all things I find tacky: I’ll raise my eyebrow, smirk at the lack of taste, and then ignore it.
As for “respect” and the fact that it’s Ed’s message board and he has the right to do anything he wants, I’ll quote from one of Dorothy Parker’s* book reviews:
“And yet, somehow, one’s deeper respect must always go to the writer–or the grocer or the friend or the stock-broker or the tragedian–who stops just this side of doing those things that no one has a better right to do.”
*[sub]come back Eve, we miss you.[/sub]
It’s an ad? Seriously? The whole website, including the message board, was started (and exists) to promote Ed’s books and column. The fact that it largely failed at that and instead succeeded wildly at being a general interest board doesn’t make the original purpose less appropriate. Again, this is all here to promote Ed’s projects! Every bit of it.
Grow up, people. Would you go to an Ask Amy or Marylin vos Savant forum and bitch that they’re promoting Amy or Marylin’s new book? Would you go to a message board for your favorite band and complain that they have a forum about the bass player’s latest solo album? No? Then STFU.
I think if it were a Cecil Adams book there woudn’t be many complaints. Cecil Adams is the Perfect Master, after all. But who the hell is Ed Zotti?
On AOL, I think the board was only for commenting on the columns, and a forum for everything else was added later. Since then, Everything Else has just been sliced up in various ways so more topics are visible and people can find what interests them the most.
A sticky about the book would only be about the book, and Ed’s trying to start conversations about home repair and other things that are related, but wouldn’t be in the same forum (house rehab questions would probably be in MPSIMS or GQ and a thread about a book would be in Cafe).
You were promised those features and here they are. I know there’s other stuff, too, but it’s also not like somebody made a forum instead of working on the servers.
And that seems perfectly reasonable. I just don’t see why a special exception needs to be made in this case - there haven’t been calls for a forum for home improvement and the like because they don’t fit anywhere else that i’ve seen.
But those conversations can be started anytime anyone wants. What Ed appears to want is for other people to start conversations about home repair and other things, but even then I don’t see why an entirely new forum was needed to do those things. There are many subjects on which threads might be started in different forums - that’s not a reason to create an entirely new forum devoted to it. The only reason is to make the book more visible.
I can understand the disappointment, and both the pro-forum and anti-forum arguments mostly make sense. But as a returning poster, unless one of the upgrades to the site includes reaching into my wallet and charging a copy of the book to my credit card, I’m just not interested enough in the thread or the book to give it much of a thought past this point. It’ll be just another forum that I scroll past on my way to something that I might be entertained by. To me, that’s all the board is. Entertainment. And I’ve gotten my money’s worth in this thread alone.
Cecil has a forum on the SDMB for discussing his newspaper column and the books based on it. Now that he has published an unrelated book under the nom-de-plume of “Ed Zotti”, why shouldn’t he have a forum for it as well?
coughsockcough
Speaking for myself I was intrigued when I saw the name of the new forum.
I went to it and immediately thought what a bloody good idea for a topic,why the hell hasn’t anyone ever come up with this before?
OK no I didn’t,I’m only a thicko Limey but I thought what the fuck is going on here?
At face glance it appears to be some sort of abuse of power.
BUT!
I am so totally sure that this is some sort of feedback test from Dopers or maybe an elaborite practical joke.
The reason I think this is that I have thought long and hard about starting a M.B. let alone a thread about mending punctures on my pushbike.
You may well laugh but I think that theres a good audience for this.
No sorry I was taking the piss there.
When I first joined this board I did a pit of people not anything to do with S.D…
I got piled on ,but one of the people who did it(An S.D. researcher or something)who’s name begins with M. claimed to be ex service(Army AND Navy)but who persisted…
I thought that he was taking the piss and responded in kind because he just didn’t have a clue about being a serviceman,yanks,krauts,outer Mongolians will know what I mean(and will not take offence about nicknames )
but I have a nasty feeling that this administrator isn’t joking though I hope he is.