Hello,
on 04/26/2005 03:25 PM Ryan A said the following:
>>>>several classes that provide different kinds of Flash integration:
>>>>http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/class/102.html
>
>>>True, but going there has become a real pain in the ...you know where
>>>coz you get a crapload of popups,
>
> <snip>
>>I understand you do not like ads. I do not like them either, but the
>>truth is that if the site had no ads, it would had been closed by now
>>because it takes money and all my time to keep the site up and running.
> </snip>
> Nobody really likes ads but we have all come to accept them to a certain
> degree,
> I just feel it is very unresponsible and greedy of site owners to empty a
> cartload of
> ads onto their site once it gets popular....the page becomes 10% of content
> and 90%
> advertisments.
It is not a matter of greed but rather of keeping the site open dedicating full time to its support and development.
> <snip>
> I am sure that most users that care about this site would not like this
> site to be closed. So, think about the ads as a better solution then
> having no site at all.
> </snip>
> I like the site too and wouldnt want it closed down, but lowering the number
> of ads per
> page would still keep the site running quite peacefully and money in your
> pocket, with the
> number of ads right now I'm betting you're looking more to saving up to buy
> a Ferrari asap
> than getting enough dough to run the site and a bit in your pocket.
I wish that was true. The advertising generates enough money to keep the site alive but nobody is getting rich here. If only it would generate enough money so I could afford hiring staff to provide support to the users so I could dedicate more time to the development of new features I would be already happy. Unfortunately that is not the reality, even less affording Ferraris.
> </snip>
> The good news for users that really care is that, if all goes well, in
> the second semesters the site subscribers will have the option to access
> the site with ads by adhereing to the paid subscriptions plan.
> </snip>
> Sounds good, will the developers who contributed to the site too have to pay
> 5$ per month
> or do they get an account for free? after all, without them the number of
> classes on your site
> would probably be less than the number of cousins I have :-)
It is a possibility to consider. Anyway what I can assure you that nobody that submits classes to the site granted automatically the right for free subscription. That would be bad because it would attract event more people to submit classes of questionable interest.
Maybe only the authors of well rated classes will get free subscriptions. That would encourage the authors to submit better classes and keep supporting them.
> <snip>
> Subscribers that do not want to adhere to the paid subscriptions will
> still be able to access the same site resources as before, only with ads
> though.
> </snip>
> Of course, those ads are never going to go less even after you run a paying
> service, right?
> <snip>
> Nobody will be required to pay anything, but people that want to get rid
> of the ads and benefit from other services will still have an option. I
> don't know how to make it more fair than this, but I am always open to
> suggestions.
> </snip>
> Cool, heres one: when you open your paid service lower the number of ads on
> the pages
> for non paying subscribers, you are making money off the paying clients...so
> why not?
I am afraid it would be unfair to paying subscribers if I dropped the ads exposed to non-subscribers. Maybe I will reduce the number or kind of ads that non-subscribers will be exposed over time, but that depends on the adherance of the paying subscribers. Probably that will only happen after I add a significant number of exclusive services that the paying subscribers may benefit. Time will tell. For now, there is a lot of work ahead.
> As for expenses...last time I checked bandwidht and hosting charges are > wayyy down, > so even if you are on a dual xion 2.8ghz with a 100mbps connection and > 1000gb bandwidth > per month...it shouldnt cost you more than $337 per month > BUT, since your site is so popular and related to computing and hosting, > making a deal with the > hosting companies shouldnt be a problem at all.....which is good for you, > but still does not explain > the bonanza of ads per page. > Bandwidth shouldnt be all that much of a problem either as you have more > mirrors than a funny house > at a carnival.
I don't know that yet. The site was just migrated to a dedicated server. I was warned that it is taking 150GB last month. That seems to be due mostly to the site e-mail newsletters and alert messages. For now I am not being charged because I just moved. I will have to see what the hosting people have in mind regarding the charges of the bandwidth which grows over time.
> <snip> > I appreciate the time and patience of people that bother to make > criticisms, especially if they show they are concerned with presenting > viable solutions for the problems that they face. > </snip> > And I appreciate you taking the time to answer my criticisms, I hope my > suggestions are viable to you > although i somehow dont think you would think so.
Yes, it is not like you are asking for the heaven, but maybe what you want will take some time to provide.
> <snip>
>>I recommended the site to a pal of mine who is starting on
>>php (with just a book and a few web links, i told him to join the list if
> he has probs) and he downloaded
>>that cursorware or whatever from phpclasses...then i had to help him get
> the crap off his machine
>
> I am so sorry that your friend clicked on those ads and downloaded that
> software, but for the record the PHP Classes does not serve any of those
> downloads. As a matter of fact those ads are intermediate pages served
> by the advertising agency company.
> </snip>
>
> I think thats a pretty poor excuse because you know quite well what the ad
> company is going to be serving
> on YOUR sites pages, those full page ads are *only* displaying the
> screensavers or icons from those junk
> companies that are installing spyware.
> Would you say the same thing if they were serveing _hardcore porn_ pictures
> from there?
It seems you are not familiar with how these ad agencies work. Let me explain. All I do is to place some HTML tags to make the ads be fetched and displayed in the site pages. From then on, it is up to the agencies ad servers to show the ads. Usually they make the ads appear as soon as the advertisers order their campaigns.
I have some controls to automatically exclude certain types of campaign, like for instance campaigns Provocative content, ads with audio or video, etc...
AFAIK, there are no controls to exclude campaigns that lead to downloading and installing spyware. I do not think that any of the advertisers really do that or else they would probably have been excluded by the ad agencies.
If you are certain that there was an ad displayed in the PHP Classes site lead to download and install spyware, I would appreciate any information about the ad so I can complain to the respective ad agency and ban such ads from the site.
> The bottom line is this:
> you can easily reduce the number of ads on that site without hurting
> yourself in any way,
> but you have decided to take the RIAA way and thump the very people who made
> your product a success
> just because you can and greedyness..
>
> but please correct me if I am wrong.....anybody?
You are jumping to conclusions because in reality you do not know exactly how things work. For now, the site needs the ads to survive, maybe that will change in the future. Until then, the users will have to be patient.
--
Regards, Manuel Lemos
PHP Classes - Free ready to use OOP components written in PHP http://www.phpclasses.org/
PHP Reviews - Reviews of PHP books and other products http://www.phpclasses.org/reviews/
Metastorage - Data object relational mapping layer generator http://www.meta-language.net/metastorage.html
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