There’s a small one mostly made up of Brits and Irish but all are welcome. http://nadsters.com/nads/
I realize that you’re not the first person to bring this up MacTech, but perhaps more lies to this sentiment than we realize. If they annoy the hell out of us to the point that hordes are actively encouraging a two-tier membership to avoid these ads, then they have a way of 1.) still keeping them to generate revenue, while also 2.) upping the cost for anyone willing to pay the price. So, isn’t that the best of all possible worlds for them?
Oh, and just out of curiousity… doesn’t Salon also have forums? If so, I understand they’re somewhat expensive, but if they’re stable and have the right level of discourse, I don’t see why voting there with my wallet would be (much) different than here. Since I only P2P on one site anyway. You guys know much about it?
I was really hoping that the original response by TubaDiva in my ATMB thread (“it’s temporary”) would turn out to be the case.
Apparently it isn’t.
And her response was, IMO, snarky and uncalled for (and I haven’t got any further response to my direct query about it, in that thread, either.)
I don’t know yet whether or not this is enough to get me to stop posting, but I’m royally pissed.
I’m not much of a complainer myself, but I gladly ponied up the cash to subscribe to the SDMB in part because it wasn’t the kind of place with flashing banner ads. I hate this, and the fact that there are ads popping up on every conceivable surface of public space I encounter nowadays doesn’t make me feel any better about seeing them here, it just makes it more intolerable. I resent paying someone to show me advertising, whether it’s on cable TV or here.
However, I really appreciate your going to bat for us, Giraffe. It’s nice to feel that someone’s not just dismissing all these complaints.
Awww fuckin’ A.
Well our “tech god” :rolleyes: can barely keep this place running and couldn’t be arsed to even update the software so I’m hopeful that the level of thought put into the tech side of the board remains on the crap side
I bet if we all clicked on the occasional Google ad, it would generate a bunch of $ for the Reader, and they might decide they don’t need banner ads.
Of course, spam in a can might sprout wings, but it’s a suggestion.
This is Bullshit. If the Reader’s new owners want to close down the boards, they should just do that, not do this sneaky shit. If the banner ads are up when my sub runs out I’m out of here. This is some serious passive-aggressive nonsense.
Except that Google can tell when you’re just clicking to generate revenue and it really pisses them off.
Dear Reader,
Please reconsider your decision.
Thank you.
I have had AdBlock and NoScript plugins installed into Firefox since they were released, so I rarely see advertisements of any kind; in fact, I have never seen the Google ads nor was I aware of the banners until I saw the ATMB thread.
However, and I’m trying to think of an appropriately phrased way to say this . . . Bitches got me fucked up if they think I’m putting up with this nonsense from them.
Knowing that the admins expect paying members to see banner ads, in direct opposition to the ordinary Way of Things on the Internet is (to me) the same as knowing that they don’t care one little bit about customer service. I’ve seen the way we’ve been yanked around before by the upper-level and I’ve never complained, but this is over the line.
TubaDiva’s response was uncalled for. What the hell? I know she has had more than her share of fights with members on the board (some overblown some not) but to preemptively insult people who have a valid concern over the surprise banner ad assault? She should fuck off (first time I’ve ever said anything like that about a mod)
As for the ads I’ve seen this place get worse and worse over time. When I first came here the place was miserable from a technical standpoint. Pages took forever to load (if they did at all) duplicate postings were normal with all the timeouts and other errors but damn if it didn’t have the most engaging interesting people I’d ever seen gathered in one place. Over time the load times got marginally better (however this was before we went pay to post) but then when we went pay to post the place slowed down less ‘new blood’ meant I saw more of the usual suspects arguing and bitching the same discussions I’d seen a million times already. I still stuck around for the occasional Cafe Society thread and I scan the pit but I have to be really bored before I even bother checking Great Debates. I used to spend hour after hour here and barely be able to follow all the threads I wanted. Now I leave it open in the background and occasionally refresh a page but that’s it. I sometimes wonder why I stick around. More for the memories than the actual content perhaps.
I’m on the fence about putting up with banner ads for paying members myself. It could be a worthy carrot to convince lurkers there are reasons to buy a subscription but to charge people and to force banners down their throat? Nobody new will be coming now and as more leave this place will be a ghost town. It’s amusing to think of all the ‘exciting bonuses’ members were promised. Apparently it’s to pay to post and pay to see ads. Not what I was expecting.
Anyway if this trend continues I guess I’ll be another to quietly pack my things and move on (not that anyone will miss me the little I post anymore)
I can honestly say I will be reading the dope until the day it closes its doors. However, if there’s ads I won’t be paying for it. I’ll just say out loud what I would have posted and pretend you guys heard me.
This is kinda how I muddle through here anyway.
Wow, you guys sure know how to complain. Over 270 posts and 7000 views in less than 12 hours. :rolleyes:
The banner adds go or I do.
And that is fucking that
Worked like a charm bless you.
I don’t know… I always wanted my photos on REAL POSTAGE. Now, thanks to the SDMB, I know how!
And now I can send in a complaint letter to the SDMB, include my snazzy new face-postage for the return reply, and tell them to lick me.
It’s a mountain of frustration over the board finally overflowing. I’m hard pressed to think of a professionally ran board that has software this outdated. Hardware that is so consistently slow and owners that act like they’re doing us a favor by having the place at all (which was reasonable enough when it was free).
I don’t buy the hat in hand excuse after we started paying ‘financial black hole’ as they called it but I was willing to pay. Hell I was eager to pay when they claimed that service would dramatically improve instead I got at best some very minor hardware updates (as I stated I honestly believe most of which were implemented long before I paid a dime) the software updates were slow in coming and though welcome (thank og for the edit post button) weren’t exactly cutting edge.
Many of us defended the place. Many of us rolled our eyes at the endless bitch threads about the complaints about the boards. Many of us argued for the board long after we stopped believing in what we were promised. It seems like this was the breaking point for that however. It’s one thing to be over promised and under delivered it’s another to be actively insulted when we question why the place is actually getting worse.
Outside of male genitalia, what other subject which only takes up a couple of inches can generate so much hostile discussion and anxious hand wringing?