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General discussion

Please, tell me this is temporary?

Dec 31, 2007 5:38PM PST

Discussion is locked

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But would that be considered a disruption
Jan 2, 2008 8:05PM PST

or an enhancement?

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Victoria's Secret
Jan 13, 2008 12:57PM PST

Jonah, I hope so!

-Kevin

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Well...
Jan 2, 2008 6:28PM PST

I appreciate your words Lee, and I understand the position you find yourself in. As a section manager and an office manager I often had to inform my staff of top-management decisions that I personally disagreed with and had argued vehementaly against. Whilst I disliked some of the decisions made I could not let that dislike show through when I filtered the information down the line. I had to stand with top-management full square. I suspect you are in the same position.

So, understand that anything that might be, and may have been, said in this discussion and elsewhere is not a personal attack on you. However, since you are, to us, the public face of the management, we have no other outlet with whom to register our disagreements.

Here I am, and here we all are, sitting around a virtual table discussing computer problems and ways to resolve those problems. We talk to each other and explain difficulties and possible solutions as if we were together in a room facing each other in person. At any one time someone is standing up against the whiteboard or blackboard, or in front of a display projector, gathering all the information and displaying all the suggestions, so that everyone in the room can see. That is the beauty of the internet. It allows us to meet, to get to know each other, from wherever we are in the world. It is a great "bringer together" of different peoples.

And then, suddenly, someone from corporate advertising enters the room and places a damm 5 foot billboard in-between the person standing up and the table of contributors. He says, "Get used to this, it is permanent. It will not affect how you do your job, but it will make us plenty of money".

Now, the person standing up has to peer around the billboard to see the rest of the group. They have to stand-up, walk around, peer over the top, whatever, to see that person and the whiteboard. The 'flow' of the discussion is continuously interrupted and disrupted. People wander off, start talking amongst themselves, or just lose interest. There are already adverts dotted around the room. Now we have them full in our faces.

Now, perhaps that is a little over the top, but that is what these forums feel to me now with these page-centered, in-line adverts. They are in constant view. They stop me from seeing the full shape of discussions. They interrupt, and they are very annoying.

There are already a number of adverts on each forum page. Are finances now so critical for CNET that they have to fill up the forums pages with these adverts? You have already said that the forums do not generate much revenue. Do the mogols at the top of the CNET hierarchy think that these adverts are going to significantly improve the income for CNET?

The 'beauty' of CNET forums is that they are a place to call in with computer/tech problems without the annoying avatars, signatures, in-post adverts, pop-ups and pop-unders, and everything else you find in other, less friendly forum sites. You could settle down and relax, ask away and wait for responses, discuss and chat.

This intrusive advertising is horrible. Plain horrible.

Sorry, perhaps being a Moderator I should share the corporate view and show the corporate flag. But sometimes corporate are just plain stupid.

Mark

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Mark, I could not agree with you more...
Jan 2, 2008 11:32PM PST

It's just plain stupid and ruins the continuity of the thread! How can anyone call that progress let alone gain added income from such an obnoxious practice.

Maybe I missed something! Sad

Glenn

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Glen?
Jan 21, 2008 12:15PM PST

When was the last time you purchased anything because of a Pop-up Ad or a slider?
I think CNET is wasting their time here on the Forums.
I cannot remember what the Ad was in the first place because I do not want to look at them at ALL!

I wonder if CNET considers all members MORONS!
They probably do. LOL!!
The only thing you missed was purchasing that product in the first place.
Shame on you. You and I should have bought it.
Gosh, What a great Deal!!
I wonder what the Ad was!?
Glenn,can you remember the Mid-Placed Ads?!
I am lost. I have CRS! Thank goodness.
I cannot remember what the SLIDERS were about either:

The newest in aggravation: A Survey that slowly creeps in from the left hand side of your screen to the center.

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/6118/screenshotforumsphotogrpi6.jpg

Kind of transparent and very annoying to me.
All stops are unleashed from CNET marketing it seems.


-Kevin

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well asive said before
Jan 3, 2008 3:47AM PST

fire fox and ad block i dont see any ads.

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as was said before
Jan 3, 2008 11:34AM PST
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No noisy ads, please.
Jan 3, 2008 7:16AM PST

Some sites have flash based ads and other media types which suddenly blare out at you if you mouseover in addition to suddenly expanding for a time across the whole monitor. Please avoid the sound ads.

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Cnet's done them before...
Jan 3, 2008 7:18AM PST

I've encountered such in a few of their roll-over ads in the past, as well as a square insert on the Cnet.com mainpage. For as much as I dislike the current one, though, I must admit it could be worse.

John

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Cnet's done them before...
Jan 15, 2008 2:19PM PST

John, I have seen only one and that was at the right-hand side of the forum message last week. I sent you a post. :

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James, didn't there used to be more than....
Jan 3, 2008 8:39PM PST

.... one banner ads "back when"?

Seems I recall more than one ad on a page somehow, Maybe side-by-side????

Thanks!

Angeline

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I don't remember
Jan 15, 2008 9:32AM PST

I know they always had one at the top, and that's a tradition at almost all websites that use advertising now. They may have had one at the bottom too, or under the left margin choices.

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Well, here's a new twist to the ad
Jan 3, 2008 9:31PM PST

It's not in all forums but, if I go to my profile and check for responses to my posts, it appears in every forum....even this one. No escaping. Gotcha!!!

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Please, tell me this is temporary?
Jan 7, 2008 1:19PM PST

Mark, I have never seen this on Speakeazy or Digital Camera forums.
I do not see it on Forum feedback Forum either. Maybe comes in with other browsers?
I use Firefox and Safari as browsers. Sorry to be so late.

-Kevin

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check 'operating systems' forums
Jan 16, 2008 11:48AM PST

or 'hardware' or 'broadband'

.,

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getting tired of downloading then have to uninstall it becau
Jan 21, 2008 1:10PM PST

this site is like all the rest anymore juck scams it use to be a good site now you spend more time going through the bs of getting rid of crap you download b4 you can use it pay for it everyone needs to boycot these sites

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Update
Jan 28, 2008 4:03AM PST

Hey everyone,

I'm still working on this with ad folks. I'm not going to guarantee anything yet, but something is in the works.

I have voiced your complaints of the ad being in the threads and they have listened and are working on something that I think will make it much better.

Stay tuned as I will update you all with the changes.

Thanks for being so patient.

-Lee

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Thanks Lee!
Jan 28, 2008 10:01AM PST

As mentioned earlier I have been waiting for something to occur.

Thanks for hanging in!

Glenn

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Me Too?
Jan 28, 2008 1:59PM PST

-Kevin

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That's good, but...
Jan 30, 2008 12:53PM PST

It still doesn't address my previous questions from earlier this month (see above), which were promised answers. What happened to the promised funding, which were to keep the forums well maintained? What happened to the promised development of new features, such as the PM system that was expected 'in the near future' as of two years ago, the HTML-like functionality of lists, indentations, etc. expected last year, or the Javascript infusion into the remainder of the existing functionality? What happened to the promised maintenance from the engineers when bugs are still unpatched from November 2006? Why are some members with post-mismatch issues not being tended to, one since July 2007? Why are the latest forums, supposedly monitored and moderated by Cnet editors, editor-free for months at a time? Why are the same malicious websites still being advertised by Cnet a year after the issue was raised? Why are our questions going unanswered? I've been bringing some of these questions up for months but each time I either hear postponements of direct answers or nothing at all. I'm sorry, Lee, but this is one of those times when a "the advertising revenue dropped unexpectedly," "TPTB decided ______ is more important than the forums," or even "I don't know" is better than silence. I'll be looking forward to the decision of the advertising department, but that'll be back-page news until after some of the larger questions are answered.

John

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The ads here on Cnet really don't bother me.
Jan 28, 2008 2:14PM PST

What really is beginning to grip me thou are those ads that show up before the web site does. The "big ones", you know what I mean. They're just "way" to time consuming. If they get much worse I think I'm just moving on to another site when they pop up. A boycott of sorts.

Rant, grovel, sniffle, whine, complain, etc., etc.....
I'm done but I don't feel better. Sad

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Un-stick
Feb 28, 2008 12:11AM PST

Some time has passed now since this issue was first raised, so I have unstuck this thread.

If anyone disagrees violently, (it will have to be violently to persuade me, Happy ), let me know here.

Mark

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Un-stick
Feb 28, 2008 12:11PM PST

MarkFlax, stick or un-stick? When I first tried the page could not be found.
I really do not care any longer with ads in the middle of threads.
I know that they are there yet I never read them. To me, it is a waste of your advertisers money. Stick in as many as you want. I never read them at all.
Wait until they read my thread. They might get the idea.

-Kevin

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(NT) I'm thinking the ads are gone... seeing none today :D
Feb 29, 2008 6:03AM PST
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(NT) Maybe the ad being gone is only temporary!
Feb 29, 2008 6:11AM PST
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(NT) Maybe the ad being gone is only temporary!
Feb 29, 2008 12:17PM PST

PudgyOne, maybe! Why aren't there any here?
Beats me? I never read them anyways. I suppose we can wait and see.

-Kevin

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The ads are only temporarily gone, however...
Mar 4, 2008 7:15AM PST

because of all your feedback and your displeasure in having the ads being integrated into the discussion thread, they have agreed to move the ad unit to the bottom of the page--so it doesn't sit in the middle of thread after the first initial post. I think this is the best location available, so it does not disrupt the flow of the discussion at hand. The ad unit that exist on the forum discussion listing page will remain as it was before.

Thank you all for your feedback and your extreme patience while I worked through this with our ad folks.

Cheers!
-Lee

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The ads are only temporarily gone, however...
Mar 4, 2008 4:26PM PST

Lee, I never read them at all. I really do not care where you put then at all. I never read them here on the feedback forum or any forums on CNET. Waste of money for these advertisers here on the CNET Forums.
How do you explain GRPS to the advertisers here on the Forums?
I do not think that anyone looks at them at all.
Just my observation.
Lee, put the ads where ever you want to. Top, middle or the bottom.
No one reads them. What a waste of Advertising revenue and resourses.
I hope the advertisers read my post.
Most likely they will and get my message across.

Stop advertising on the CNET Forums.
No one wants it and no one reads it.
Total waste of your money!

-Kevin

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The danger is...
Mar 4, 2008 6:25PM PST

Regrettably this is a commercial world and CNET is a commercial company in it. It survives through the revenue it receives and I suspect the major part of that revenue is through advertising.

If I am right, (and I am no expert), then the choices for CNET are simple. Allow as much advertising as possible to increase/maintain revenue, or fail.

Sometimes that conflicts with what forum members want, but, although I personally don't want advertising in these forums, I can understand the commercial dilemma CNET find themselves in.

Mark

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The danger is...
Mar 5, 2008 1:54PM PST

Mark, the Ads are not only obtrusive, they are poorly designed and seldom read in the first place. The Ads presented are a total waste of the advertisers revenues. "No Bang for their Buck"
The Advertisers are wasting their money here on the Forums as I view it.

I am in the Advertising/Marketing industry and like a nicely designed advertising campaign.
Shame on CNET. Pathetic attempt from CNET here on the Forums.

A better way for the advertisers would be to have a link to their web site.
If NIKON Corp., from Japan, were advertising here on CNET, I would like to go to their site and learn more. I may want a new Nikon D300 Digital camera for $1795. Or a new lens.

I do not want to view Colonic Clensing ads however.
State of the art Ads and only related to hi-tech is my suggestion.
Mark, Do you want to view an Ad for DEPENDS here on CNET!
No? Neither do I.

-Kevin