06-19-2006, 03:11 PM
Fishhound, I thought I might post this here as not too many BFT-ers frequent the float tube forum where I generally post. It concerns the "content ads," the little links placed in users' posts. It is my opinion and my appeal to those who make policy here on BFT. I won't be offended if you decide it is inappropriate for this space.
[size 1]My experience tells me that the majority of members on forums like this are lurkers, not post-erz (spelling altered to avoid ad link.) The lurkers come to read the good things created by the most productive posters. (Hello! They don't come to read the ads!) The draw is the content. The great rule for internet entrepreneurs is content, content, content. If you offend the productive posters and they go away, you're killing your content. Kill the content and the lurkers will thin out because there is little reason to come. With fewer eyeballs on the pages, there will be fewer click throughs on the ads, revenue begins to dry up. How much "testing" does it take to figure that out? How long can you offend your productive posters until they decide to leave?
When I buy a car, if the salesman puts so much pressure on me to buy that I'm not even free to think for myself, after a polite warning I "vote with my feet" and leave the idiot talking to himself on the lot. If he can't figure it out, he doesn't deserve my business. He can ignore my action, but if he continues the same thing with others he'll be out of business.
Forums are a partnership. The owner provides the space. The most productive of the posters provide the content. The owner "farms" the setup and hopefully makes a profit. All good and fine. Great setup. Given the draw provided by a good poster, I venture that one productive poster is worth many lurkers. So offending one productive poster is like offending maybe 100 lurkers. Perhaps even more. If 100 lurkers suddenly posted saying they were leaving because of the ads, it would get attention now, not later.
Again, a forum is a partnership between owners and productive posters. A productive poster is a good partner, indeed. You need to keep him/her happy within reason. If you keep stomping on your partner's feet, pretty soon you'll have no partner. No partner, no farm. No farm, no money. The powers that be need to start respecting their partners [#ff0000]now[/#ff0000] and quit stomping on their feet.
And by the way, a good, productive poster is worth more than what he/she posts at a given moment or what he/she has posted in the past. The potential of a good poster is that he/she becomes a better and better draw. You need to listen when your productive poster partners speak - especially when you see that you're offending them and killing their incentive to post.
Keep the ads out of my posts.
zonker [/size]
[signature]
[size 1]My experience tells me that the majority of members on forums like this are lurkers, not post-erz (spelling altered to avoid ad link.) The lurkers come to read the good things created by the most productive posters. (Hello! They don't come to read the ads!) The draw is the content. The great rule for internet entrepreneurs is content, content, content. If you offend the productive posters and they go away, you're killing your content. Kill the content and the lurkers will thin out because there is little reason to come. With fewer eyeballs on the pages, there will be fewer click throughs on the ads, revenue begins to dry up. How much "testing" does it take to figure that out? How long can you offend your productive posters until they decide to leave?
When I buy a car, if the salesman puts so much pressure on me to buy that I'm not even free to think for myself, after a polite warning I "vote with my feet" and leave the idiot talking to himself on the lot. If he can't figure it out, he doesn't deserve my business. He can ignore my action, but if he continues the same thing with others he'll be out of business.
Forums are a partnership. The owner provides the space. The most productive of the posters provide the content. The owner "farms" the setup and hopefully makes a profit. All good and fine. Great setup. Given the draw provided by a good poster, I venture that one productive poster is worth many lurkers. So offending one productive poster is like offending maybe 100 lurkers. Perhaps even more. If 100 lurkers suddenly posted saying they were leaving because of the ads, it would get attention now, not later.
Again, a forum is a partnership between owners and productive posters. A productive poster is a good partner, indeed. You need to keep him/her happy within reason. If you keep stomping on your partner's feet, pretty soon you'll have no partner. No partner, no farm. No farm, no money. The powers that be need to start respecting their partners [#ff0000]now[/#ff0000] and quit stomping on their feet.
And by the way, a good, productive poster is worth more than what he/she posts at a given moment or what he/she has posted in the past. The potential of a good poster is that he/she becomes a better and better draw. You need to listen when your productive poster partners speak - especially when you see that you're offending them and killing their incentive to post.
Keep the ads out of my posts.
zonker [/size]
[signature]