Differnt idea for ads

[Cron0]

Since the intelli ads are not going over well, how come hard ocp does not try some new type of advratising? In the hot deals forum, ask everyone to buy through something like Rightcart, so Hard gets to keep 2% of the purchase price. I just think there are better ways out there then lowering the quality of the forums.

Paying bills is good. Finding a way to pay bills and keep readers happy is better.

It would be awesome if readers instead of bitching could come up with ways to help out the site with suggestions.

 

[derfunkenstein]

I agree. Intellitxt sites get deleted from my bookmark list because just mousing over an Intellitxt link by accident obscures part of what I'm reading.

Between this and the Core2Duo preview that focused on getting the benchmarks as GPU-bound as humanly possible, I don't see myself reading much more here anyway.

 

[Pirate Pete]

My biggest complaint is that it's almost impossible to read the dark green. Not that this hasn't been said before, but those incharge should take notice of it, and change it.

I don't read with my mouse, so I don't roll over them anyhow. I can't imagine a lot of people click those anyhow, I doubt seriously you'll gain any revenue at all from people clicking them. It almost seems like trickery.

I understand the need to pay the bills and what not, but I'd personally rather have banner ads and graphics than the text tricks if it means articles and posts I can read without highlighting or making my own style sheet etc.

Again, my biggest gripe is the readability of the links it breaks my flow when Im reading, I have to stop, squint or highlight, then continue.

 

[Mayhs]

i didnt realise intellitext was on the forums...but now it is...i dont like it but i can live with it...im used to it being on other websites so it doest make a difference to me but hard was easier to read without them

 

[anonymous_user]

I registered this account just to post in this thread. It was registered at a school computer in a public lab using a friend's email address. Why all the trouble? Because I'm scared. I'm afraid of using my main account for fear of retribution from the big, bad Kyle.

It seems that this forum no longer caters to its users. The users are now expected to bow down to the forum owner.

In another post, Kyle mentioned the reason for needing so many ads being that he needs to pay for a "new cooling guy, 4 video card editors, and the 7 in the consumer section". You're asking for ideas for ads? How about not overextending your bounds? Stop spending money you don't have on employees you don't need. It's bad for business.

When I first joined about a week before the forum crash (Man, that was back in the day!), I did so because this forum looked fun. It was about a bunch of geeks getting together to help each other out, and laugh at each other's stupid mistakes. Kyle would frequently chime in. He was one of the guys, not a dictator overlord who's word is law. The users on this forum have spoken, and they have unanimously decided AGAINST using intellitext advertising. A large portion of them would have nothing against a text advertisement, provided it was located in a non-intrusive location. Hell, most of them would support another annoying flashy animated .GIF.

What's really sad about all this is that even those who have put money into the [H] personally have no say in the matter. They're having intrusive advertising forced upon them even though they wasted an hour or two of their lives (many of us only make minimum wage) to provide some of the money for the [H] to live on. I personally no longer visit HardOCP. It's too commercialized, too flashy. There's more ads than content these days, even though the content is well-thought-out.

You seem to have some of the brightest editors on the net here, Kyle. But without readers, the editors are worthless. I realize you have to make some sort of a tradeoff, better editors for less viewers, but in my personal opinion, you have pushed too far, and traded too much. The [H] used to have a sense of dignity. These days, I see more and more new users on xtremesystems.org, many of them runaways from the evil empire the [H] is becoming. Please, don't become so commercialized. Listen to your users a bit. Don't threaten to ban each and every one that complains - They're only doing it because they love the place, and hate to see it degrading as it is.

To any users who may agree with any points I have said in this post, please do not respond. I'm potentially sacrificing my posting priviledges here, and that of my friends, in order to show the man in charge how I feel, and how I feel many others feel as well.

Hopefully Kyle will read this post before it gets deleted.

 

[mpcamer1220]

How about not overextending your bounds?

Can he do that? It is his forum after all..

The users on this forum have spoken, and they have unanimously decided AGAINST using intellitext advertising.

How can they decide against it though, when it's not their place to do so?

I'll be honest, I don't like the intellitext stuff, but I also didn't like the ad on the side when it first came..

I'm used to the ad by now, but that might have to do with the fact that I got a bigger monitor with a higher resolution..

It will take time for me to get used to this new stuff, but hey.. Kyle has to pay the bills some how..

 

[anonymous_user]

How can they decide against it though, when it's not their place to do so?

It is their place to do so. The only reason Kyle's forum is worth a damn is not because of Kyle himself, but rather his userbase of almost 65,000 users. Assuming that half of them still actively post, and that half of the active posters are pissed at the new ad scheme, and that half of THEM leave because of it, the quality of the forum posts degrade by about 25%. Many users notice the degrade in quality, and start posting more often elsewhere, instead. (Example: The multiprocessing forums - The elitest attitude there has driven many people to 2cpu instead.)

I'll be honest, I don't like the intellitext stuff, but I also didn't like the ad on the side when it first came..

I'm used to the ad by now, but that might have to do with the fact that I got a bigger monitor with a higher resolution..

It will take time for me to get used to this new stuff, but hey.. Kyle has to pay the bills some how..

I still don't like the ad on the side. Makes it hell for me to catch up on my PDA. I've taken to using lynx on my PDA just to browse the H, and he's sure as hell not making any money off the ads that way. Still, there's nothing I can do about the sidebar advertisement, and it's not intrusive. I can just ignore it. The intellitext adds, I can't.

 

[Cron0]

Come now, this thread was supposed to be about suggesting alturnitive ways to make some cash off the site instead of the ads words, not to attack the site.

Another idea, even though I don't know if it would make much money would be to do an affiilate program through something like gogamer. Similar to what Ars has. You could post a link in the games forum on in the hot deals forum.

 

[hity645]

Id glady subscribe to a [H] based magazine. Hardware, software, games..Throw in a lil bit of everything and try to target all users: Home Users, Gamers, Professional, and Enthusiast(sp?). I would see this being a big hit as there are magazine that cater to only one of each.

This seems like it would make alot of revenue...just a thought.

 

[CommanderFrank]

You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to break the rules to do so. Registering two accounts is not allowed....this account is banned and your other account you were protecting is vacationed for two weeks. Not smart.

I registered this account just to post in this thread. It was registered at a school computer in a public lab using a friend's email address. Why all the trouble? Because I'm scared. I'm afraid of using my main account for fear of retribution from the big, bad Kyle.