Whats up with the GREEN UNDERLINES ?? Sales Dollars??

[Danno]

Hey Guys, If you used Firefox as a web browser instead of microsofts internet explorer those green words dont show up. I found out about firefox from my I.T. guy after I got a bunch of spyware on my computer. I had to open VCA in Internet explorer to see what you guys were talking about. I dont work for Firefox, I'm an insurance guy. Maybe its good, maybe it *****, but it works just like internet explorer and theres NO popups and NO Spyware and NO green words like your talking about. Its just fire fox.com and download. Ask your computer or I.T. guy about it. My guy MADE me switch.

 

[Jay Herbert]

You'll let some ***** advertise but you won't let the Viper Wizard???

I vote aganist; AND I vote to let Chuck Tator TO advertise in his signature!!!

Bill

I'll answer this one first, because it is extremely misleading at a minumum, a outright lie at the maximum.....

First:

Chuck still has a link to his dealership in his signature. That is what is allowed, it is what the other sponsors have. All we were doing was getting him in line with all the other sponsors.

Second: Chuck was called and asked if it was OK to make the change before it was made. We knew we had let it ride for a long time, so we wanted to talk to him first. CHUCK WAS OK WITH IT.

 

[VIPER BAZ UK]

I just clicked on dealership and got this..
http://www.mkkia.co.uk/
Must be a UK thing LOL LOL or it only works over there....

 

[Jay Herbert]

So whats up with some specific words being underlined in green, when we type the words in our posts?

When you click on them, they take you to some advertisement website.

So whats up with that ?? VCA making a few bucks? This mean dues will come down?


What gives ??

Jon

PS. Personally I think they are a distraction, and break continuity, but if they provide some monitary value for the club, I guess I'll just deal with it.

Jon

Yes, the underlines are a new method of trying to increase the sites revenue so we can make the upgrades we need to do. Please keep in mind that the users pay $0 toward the cost of keeping the site running, to do this, someone has to pay. To this point the primary source oof revenue has been the sites sponsors and the classifieds. Not one red cent of a VCA members dues goes toward the site, it is self funding.

With programmers running $25-$50/hr... the site either needs programming volunteers, or to increase its revenues to pay for programmers. This is a thirty day trial of a Google like pay-per-click advertising structure. When we looked at it, it seemed pretty unobtrusive, we have the right to remove ANY advertising link, and plan to remove all that compete with our current sponsors or are just plane stupid or are not in line with the sites policies or vision (like any link to GM). We looked at adding Google ads, but guess what, we had no control over what Google put up, so ruled it out immediately.

We are a Viper site, and advertising for GM is certainly NOT A GOOD THING. We will turned it off (it may not be possible until Monday), and will not turn it back on until we have a chance to review all the keywords and their corresponding links.

If there are other suggestions to help increase the sites revenue, we're sure open!

 

[JGK95]

If there are other suggestions to help increase the sites revenue, we're sure open!

Yes,

How about a column along either side of the page that isn't too obtrusive and still allows for revenue? I'm not averse to seeing site advertisers get more window space. Sometimes there's a flash of a vendor that I want to learn more about and its gone because I went to another page. Or another idea is if all or however many of the vendors had vertical ads in columns that repeat from the previous page or continue onto the next page. That kind of information could be helpful and provide for more revenue opportunities as more desktop advertising space would now be available.

Thoughts?

Jay K.

 

[Purdue_Boiler_Viper]

Don't care. Have already trained my brain to ignore them. I think.

 

[2002_Viper_GTS_ACR]

Thoughts are, is Jay just pulled this from the only forum it would truly get exposure.

He effectively killed the oposition.

At least they are going to do Version 2.. limit stupid links.

Wow, guess its just me, but in the world of IT, you DO NOT DO DEVELOPMENT WORK IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT. What about user acceptance testing? What about the communications piece?

Little Hint... I am a IT Change Manager, Communication, Coordination, Planning, Testing and Validation. They are effective actions that help mitigate BAD IT.

Ok moving on.. since now this thread will be effectively killed by lack of participation.

Jon

 

[santo]

Jay,

I don't know PHP but I know Java. From my understanding, PHP is simpler. I'd be happy to volunteer my time as a developer (especially during the winter). I manage a team of web developers (Java programmers) and do some programming myself. Let me know how I can help.

Please PM me off-line.
Santo

 

[Bonkers]

If you want me to like it (which I can) you need to bid out very specific words to very specific vendors and charge based on the links. If someone types "partsrack" or "partrack" as a vendor it should automatically link to JonB's site. If he wants more links, he could pay extra for say the words "Michelin," "Wing," and "EBC." You would have to avoid letting out common words like "Tire" or "Oil" to keep it from being annoying.

I would be a great tool for Newbs coming to the site and reading about, for instance, "MGW."

 

[Warfang]

Let's improve the speed on the sight first, please. Jon is right, you're supposed to test before it goes live.

 

[Jay Herbert]

Thoughts are, is Jay just pulled this from the only forum it would truly get exposure.

He effectively killed the oposition.

At least they are going to do Version 2.. limit stupid links.

Wow, guess its just me, but in the world of IT, you DO NOT DO DEVELOPMENT WORK IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT. What about user acceptance testing? What about the communications piece?

Little Hint... I am a IT Change Manager, Communication, Coordination, Planning, Testing and Validation. They are effective actions that help mitigate BAD IT.

Ok moving on.. since now this thread will be effectively killed by lack of participation.

Jon

LOL.

How many of you noticed it had been in test on the "threaded" version of the pages (most use the flat method).... that is how we tested it... in a less visible version to look for bugs and see if it was going to be obtrusive. The problem was on that threaded version of the forums only a few words popped up underlined, it was very unobtrusive, and not nearly the quantity of words were underlined in the posts that were reviewed. So few as a matter of fact, that we were not sure it was working.

Following is what we were told, and what we saw in the testing:

Publisher Controls:
• Publisher controls on which pages the ad unit runs
• Publisher controls the number of links per page (maximum of six links per page)
• Publisher controls the number of links per paragraph
• Publisher can block or exclude advertisers from running on site

Obviously there were a LOT MORE links showing up, something that absolutely can be corrected, but caught us by complete surprise, even thought we tested for it.

As for your second comment, the introductory post was all written, it was to go up tonight. In hind site, it should have gone up last night. One thing it said, and one thing that it appears nobody seems to have found because they did not click on the "what is this" part of the links, was you can turn it off. If you click on the "what's this" and read to the bottom it has the following text:

"Do you want to disable the IntelliTXT links? Deactivation requires the use of cookie technology. If you should delete or refresh your cookies, please note that the service will be re-activated automatically. Click here to disable."

We figured, if people did not like it, they could turn it off. It does not get any better than that. We just never had the chance to tell y'all, our fault.

Would it be acceptable now that you know you can turn it off? and that we would limit the number of links per page as well as eliminate links to sites that compete against site supporters.... and as side note, we would love to add code to highlight references in posts to site sponsors. Maybe that would be a fun little programming task for the volunteer above

 

[santo]

.... and as side note, we would love to add code to highlight references in posts to site sponsors. Maybe that would be a fun little programming task for the volunteer above

I will have a look to see what can be done but I'm just a little confused. I assume that current advertisers will pay more for such a service? Will this bring more advertisers?

I don't want to question the way this site is run but there appears to be a specific need for those extra ad dollars. We are a community of users and I'm sure that individual people would step up, if there was a need. If it's hardware, I'm sure some of us will be happy to chip in. If it's bandwidth than I'm sure someone here runs an ISP and could help out there. If it's time to maintain the site, than I'm sure that various folks could help. I think you just need to ask.

Santo

 

[Knight Viper]

Sounds to me like if the VCA wants to raise a little more money, most of us will pay to have the green links removed. A lot more money would be raised if they just asked us for it, I know I love this club and will do what I can to support it.

 

[Viper Wizard]

They are still on!! I can't believe that the National Officers would vote yes for this crap! I have all these fancy progames on my computer to STOP this sort of thing and now looky here it's ALL over this site! NOT HAPPY!! I may not visit this site as much now with all the "POP-UPS" running!

 

[Jay Herbert]

They are still on!! I can't believe that the National Officers would vote yes for this crap! I have all these fancy progames on my computer to STOP this sort of thing and now looky here it's ALL over this site! NOT HAPPY!! I may not visit this site as much now with all the "POP-UPS" running!

Sorry you feel this way, but I do appreciate your input.

First:

Although it may be semantics, IntelliTXT links are not pop-ups, they do not even appear unless you mouse-over the link to see where it goes to. It is nice enough to tell you what it is about, and the link that it will take you to if you choose to click on it. No surprises, and if you are not interested, tehy are nearly invisible (when we do the below). Pop-ups open a new window without you asking for it, and yes, I have a pop-up blocker on my PC as well.

The beauty of this system is you if you do not like them, all you have to do is mouse-over the link and click on "what's this?" and scroll down and click on "Click here to disable" and they're gone. This procedure should take about five seconds.

If I understand the issues brought up to this point, the following should address them:

1) Remove all links that are to sponsors that compete with existing sponsors.
2) Change color of link from green to black
3) Limit number of links per thread to six maximum. This is six per thread, not post, most posts would have zero under this method.
4) Ensure users know how to turn IntelliTXT off.

 

[Viper Wizard]

OK now that it's been explained a little more to me, I can see the benefit of bringing in more revenue for the VCA. But it does need to be tweeked a bit! I don't need to know about "window glazing"? In this world today, everytime you turn around there is an advertisement in your face! I just can't stand it, but on the other hand the bills still need to be paid. With that said, and "maybe" with a little more work [on Jay's part Thank You ] it will get to the point that this site can choose their links and users.

I'll give it a little more of its "trial period".

 

[2002_Viper_GTS_ACR]

Tator Rocks... thats all I gotta say


Jay thanks for the response, you do well by responding in a non confrontational manner. I get what you are saying, and I am not against it. It should have been tested a little better, definetly communicated and tweeked to avoid bad advertisement.

Ok moving on.. my work he is done.

Jon

 

[Janni]

Mozilla - Firefox - haven't seen a green linky yet!