# Social network popup



## amber (Jan 15, 2006)

Is someone going to fix the problem?  It's been taking over the DC page since yesterday.  I've already read the Texasgirl thread on this, so I thought I would start a new one just to ask when it will be fixed.  Thanks.


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## texasgirl (Jan 15, 2006)

Okay, I clicked on the "about this ad" it shows a small window saying it's an advertisment and will only show once a day. If this shows up once a day, it's going to get VERY annoying. Is there anyway to contact these people and tell them ENOUGH!?


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## pdswife (Jan 15, 2006)

Do you have your pop up blockers on?  Is it concidered a pop up??


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## amber (Jan 15, 2006)

I have a popup blocker, so I guess it's not a popup, it overlaps the DC page completely.


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## licia (Jan 15, 2006)

I have popup blockers also, but it obscured the entire dc page - I had to close completely to get rid of it. Luckily, it hasn't bothered me today.


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## Alix (Jan 15, 2006)

amber, I think it must be a pop up because I am not getting it. I just posted in the other thread. I suggest Google pop up blocker and Microsoft too. I use both. You can also set the level that you want to block. If you set it to high you should be OK. 

This seems to be a more individual thing. Not everyone is experiencing the problem. I wish I could be more helpful to you. Give the pop up blockers a go, see if that helps.


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## Alix (Jan 15, 2006)

I would also recommend you run your spyware program. AdAware or Spybot, either will get rid of any nasty thing you might have encountered. I have also had wonderful success with Ewido Security Suite, thanks to southernlady for recommending it.


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## texasgirl (Jan 15, 2006)

It is not a pop up. I have 3 pop up blockers, verizon, msn and google.
It doesn't come up as a pop up. It almost completely covers the DC page. It is like one page together. I also have Microsoft Anti-spyware and Spybot. Both have run, my virus scanner has run and it's all clean. It's not a pop up. For some reason many of us are getting it and some are not. My opion is that it isn't a world wide thing, only nation wide within the US.


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## GB (Jan 15, 2006)

I am not getting it either though. Maybe it is because I am using Firefox and not IE?


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## Alix (Jan 15, 2006)

I'm on IE GB, so I don't think that is it. I'm not in the US though. Maybe that is the difference.


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## texasgirl (Jan 15, 2006)

I don't use IE either, mine is verizon/msn. I don't care for the IE format.


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## GB (Jan 15, 2006)

If it were not for how many people it was affecting then I would say it sounds very much like spyware, but since it is happening to so many different people at the same time then I would think this is unlikely.


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## cara (Jan 15, 2006)

maybe that is why I don't have probs with it?


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## texasgirl (Jan 15, 2006)

whatever it is, it's really annoying and hopefully, Andy will see this and let us know what is going on.


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## amber (Jan 15, 2006)

GB said:
			
		

> If it were not for how many people it was affecting then I would say it sounds very much like spyware, but since it is happening to so many different people at the same time then I would think this is unlikely.


 
I agree.  Just to be sure, I did run adware and spybot and my system is fine. I have a pop up blocker too.  I havent had this problem at other sites, it's specific to DC.  It began yesterday, it happened a few times, and so far today it happened once. 

Perplexing!


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## Alix (Jan 15, 2006)

Very odd! I wish I could help out, but I don't know what else to suggest. Sure hope this goes away soon. Is there some way you can "X" out of it so it is gone quickly when it shows up?


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## texasgirl (Jan 15, 2006)

There isn't anywhere to x out of. It's not in a window, it's a page just like this one, sitting on top of this one. There isn't the minimize, maximize and close buttons except for DC's own window. If you close, it closes DC. It's hard to explain. If it comes up again, I will try to copy it and show you.


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## amber (Jan 15, 2006)

Alix said:
			
		

> Very odd! I wish I could help out, but I don't know what else to suggest. Sure hope this goes away soon. Is there some way you can "X" out of it so it is gone quickly when it shows up?


 
Yep, when I hit the "back" button it went away. It's more annoying than anything.  It doesnt seem to be specific to browsers either since many mentioned they use IE, mozilla, firefox, verizon.  It does seem only to be those of us in the US ....so far I've noticed people from Maine, Texas, Florida, Indiana, CT, Calif, Kansas, and Washington mention this problem, and all of us around the same time yesterday and again today.  Weird!


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## GB (Jan 15, 2006)

I sent Andy R a PM about this issue. I will let you all know when I hear back from him.


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## texasgirl (Jan 15, 2006)

Thank you, GB.


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## GB (Jan 15, 2006)

My pleasure!


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## Andy R (Jan 15, 2006)

Our communtiy is participating in a beta advertising program. The new ad formats are called intermission ads and basically once per day you are shown a website. User experience is a top priority. Intermission Ads are never shown to a user on their first visit to a site, and are never shown to the same user more than once per 24-hours. It is easy to instantly close an Intermission, should the user choose to.

This next week we will install a system to that will prevent these ads from showing based on various metrics. The goal is to not show these ads to the members that meet certain requirements as far as contributing to the community. Look for an updated announcement on that towards mid-week...

Please post your comments and concerns to this discussion.


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## Home chef (Jan 15, 2006)

Andy R said:
			
		

> This next week we will install a system to that will prevent these ads from showing based on various metrics. The goal is to not show these ads to the members that meet certain requirements as far as contributing to the community. Look for an updated announcement on that towards mid-week...
> 
> Please post your comments and concerns to this discussion.


 
Andy,

I don't like that one bit. I don't participate here very often. As far as sending these pop-ups (or whatever they are) to people who don't meet certain requirements as far as contributing to the community is just not right. Why have these ads in the first place? What do the members benefit from these ads?


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## amber (Jan 15, 2006)

Andy R said:
			
		

> Our communtiy is participating in a beta advertising program. The new ad formats are called intermission ads and basically once per day you are shown a website. User experience is a top priority. Intermission Ads are never shown to a user on their first visit to a site, and are never shown to the same user more than once per 24-hours. It is easy to instantly close an Intermission, should the user choose to.
> 
> This next week we will install a system to that will prevent these ads from showing based on various metrics. The goal is to not show these ads to the members that meet certain requirements as far as contributing to the community. Look for an updated announcement on that towards mid-week...
> 
> Please post your comments and concerns to this discussion.


 
Would have been nice to have the "heads up" on "our community" in the beta advertising.  Wow, I dont like this idea at all Andy.  I've been here for quite some time, but to base this on user experience is against my grain.  That would exclude new users, as well as put off older members I would think.


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## pdswife (Jan 15, 2006)

I haven't seen it happen yet...but... I guess I don't really mind.  If it's just one button that I have to push to get back to the important DC stuff.  Even if the new folks have to push one extra button a day...is it that big of a deal??

Just my opinion.
smiles, Trish


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## Home chef (Jan 15, 2006)

Yea, I understand it is really no big deal to just push the back button. To me it's just the principle of the matter. One of the reasons I decided to participate in this forum is because I spent time checking it out without my pop-up blocker on. The way I see it, if there are no pop-ups happening the owner(s) of the site are really only into the site for the information and not for making money. I know it costs money to run a site but that's why this site has strategicly placed Google ads which don't intrude in any way with my surfing.

I'm not going to leave DC just because of some beta testing or some remote ads once every day. In essecne it really doesn't bother me. Like I said... It's just the principle. Also, not knowing of the impending situation ahead of time kinda sucks, too.


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## AllenOK (Jan 15, 2006)

I've had it happen twice to me, once just now, and once last night.  I'm using Opera v8.51, build 7712, on a Win32 platform running Windows XP Home edition.

Like many others, I would have preferred a head's-up about this.

I would like to point out to everyone else, that advertising is probably one of the biggest driving forces behind the internet.


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## Zereh (Jan 16, 2006)

It feels like the worst kind of underhandedness to kick me over there when I click on the "New Posts" button from this board. So I very much mind being sent to a completely different advertising website. 

I choose where I want to surf; I am totally against being blindly forced onto a completely different site without warning and at your whim.

Zereh


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## buckytom (Jan 16, 2006)

so long as it is only once a day at most, i'm ok with it. i mean, this is a community per se, but it exists at a cost, and is a possible profit making enterprise as well by those who own/run it. dat's just the cold facts.

other foodie sites attack you with these ads which fly under pop up blockers and spyware radars every time you open certain pages. it gets really annoying. it's a large part of the reason i don't go to those sites much anymore.
recipe sites are a dime a dozen nowadays, so i would think it would behoove this site not to drive off potential new contributors by making them see ads more often than anyone else. the community, in other words "us", are the main attraction, imo. 
and we need a constant supply of new blood....


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## jkath (Jan 16, 2006)

I just scrolled up and the first few posts were covered by the social network. Not like a popup, but like it was eating up the posts......

anyone have a big fly swatter?


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## cara (Jan 16, 2006)

Andy R said:
			
		

> It is easy to instantly close an Intermission, should the user choose to.


 
And how? When I read this posts it seems to me there are not so much possibilities to shut that down... except for closing the browser... or hitting the back button..
I must say, I'm glad, this doesn't happen to me (yet?).. it woul be very annoying...


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## texasgirl (Jan 16, 2006)

There is not x out as with a whole new window, it just covers the DC page. You have to close out DC and it still comes back until you shut down the internet and log back on. I don't like it at all. BUT, if that is what I have to deal with for DC to stay alive, I will do it.


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## Home chef (Jan 16, 2006)

buckytom said:
			
		

> so long as it is only once a day at most, i'm ok with it. i mean, this is a community per se, but it exists at a cost, and is a possible profit making enterprise as well by those who own/run it. dat's just the cold facts.


 
Isn't that why there is a Google ad bar and a rotating banner ad at the top of the screen as well as other hotlinks at the botttom of every page? Don't those generate enough money to keep this site running without having to resort to this darn window pop-up whatever?


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## Andy R (Jan 16, 2006)

The intermission ad has been removed. It was only a webpage that was NOT malicious. Your feedback (kind and not-so-kind) is appreciated. We will be studying various ways to offer advertisers ways to reach our membership.

In this case, it was setup as a network wide setup that helps attract advertisers because of the size of the network as a whole (75,000 members) but it is obvious that we need to keep all advertisements specifically related to each forum communtiy.

Many thanks to those of you who patiently waited for us to beta this product and kept your cool during the last 3 days. In all we served less then 800 intermission ads over the last 72 hours. That is not much when compared to 16,000 - 18,000 pages of information viewed each day.

The long term plan is to show the most ads to visitors and guests as they are not contributing to the community. As a member posts more, earns more karma, does not get warnings, etc then less ads will be shown. That is much harder to implement then it sounds. Please understand that is our goal and be patient as we work towards that.

Just like in this last beta test of the intermission ads, we need your feedback to help our community evolve.


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## pdswife (Jan 16, 2006)

Thank you Andy.


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## texasgirl (Jan 16, 2006)

Andy, I'm sorry that you didn't get all positive feedback. If you could warn us next time that you are going to do this, it won't come as such a shock and freak us all out. I understand that it takes things like this to keep us going for free and I appologize for any rudeness. I never thought that it was malicious in anyway. I really just thought that the server was overlapping another page somehow, at first. You do a great job with this site and I don't want to see anything happen to it. Thanks Andy!


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## licia (Jan 16, 2006)

Thanks from me, too.  I just had no idea what was happening. I was afraid some alien force had overtaken either me or my computer.  Hope I didn't offend you.


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## cara (Jan 16, 2006)

In my opnion most peole thought they got some virus or adware installed on their computer.. so you better let us know next time and everyone will be relaxed


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## amber (Jan 16, 2006)

Exactly, I think most of us thought it could have been a virus, or something like that.  A heads up would have been fine with me so I would know what I was dealing with.  Thanks for your effort to bring us a quality site.  Much appreciated.


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## kadesma (Jan 16, 2006)

Andy,
while I didn't expierience the intermission ad, I would have gladly done so, if I'd know the reason for it..Having been on a forum where the main goal of a group of people was to see what mischeif they could cause each day, I left that site and didn't touch a computer for almost ten years. Then I happened on DC..It took me several weeks to see that here I could visit and not be afraid of being shot down or yelled at..On that note, I'd gladly do anything I could to help keep DC the wonderful palce it is.
A hey gang heads up, we'd like to try this to improve our site, would have been just the thing. I bet all of us would have been more that willing to help..We appreiciate all that you and the modrators and site helpers and administrators do for us and would like to give back to you in any way we can.
kadesma


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## Corinne (Jan 16, 2006)

If we are going to have ads, please let them be cooking/food related!


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## purrfectlydevine (Jan 16, 2006)

I got the social network "thing" twice tonight.  I saw no way to close or minimize it.  When I went back, it reappeared.  The only way out was to close DC.


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## corazon (Jan 16, 2006)

I didn't get the ad for a couple days but it pops up more than once a day when I do get it.  I can't seem to get rid of it for an hour or so.  It's driving me crazy.


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## buckytom (Jan 16, 2006)

andy, i think the not-so kind responses were a result of lack of communication. 
you have every right to profit from the work you do to run this site, but changes that are particularly obvious that relate to creating revenue freak people out. i guess it's fear of being exploited. not that i think you'd do things like that, such as collect and sell our private info, or insert advert spyware and cookies in our systems. but running a beta ad project without a heads up was a little unnerving to some folks.
that said, it bothers me a little with the upcoming plans that certain members would be forced to see more ads, others less. the reasoning for it is too arbitrary. i totally agree that unregistered guests and not-logged-in visitors should get all of the ads you can chuck at 'em and still make the place attractive. it may make some of them join, in fact, to get around it. but as far as the experience here once in the door, all members should be equal. this may not be a democracy, but we should strive to be as fair and mutually respectful of all members, no matter their current popularity (karma), number of posts (many of mine are pure cr^p, but they add up), or if they're in one of the admins doghouses (been there too).
if everyone has to see ads, then lets us all see them together, as peers, co-members,... friends. you're inviting trouble if you set up a system of favoritism.
also, if you make light contributors feel unwelcome, then they will tend to stop contributing all together, and we all lose.
just my 2 cents, man. all in all, this is the best foodie community around, and an equal share of the credit goes to you and your administration.
now don't screw it up...


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## buckytom (Jan 16, 2006)

lol, as soon as i posted this, i got my first annoying ad.

geez, how the heck are we supposed to live with this???   to heck with this. forget what i said, i quit!!!!  

(only kidding) 

 i waited a minute, then clicked the back button, then surfed back. it got rid of the darn thing.


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## Zereh (Jan 17, 2006)

My reponse would have been the same irrespective of a warning. It's a cheap way to get a lousy page hit. 

I totally 100% disagree with being sent to a different website for doing something like clicking "New Posts" or trying to get to the 2nd page of a thread from within DC. It's underhanded and sneaky. Tonight not only did I get pushed to that other website, but three clicks of the back button didn't return me to DC but right back to the same **** place. So I had to completely close my browser and start over.

Forcing us to be hits on your advertisor's sites just doesn't sit well with me. I can tell you right now that any site that forces me to an ad will never ever ever get a "buy" from me so it's pretty much a waste of time. And if people here were being totally honest with you, I'd bet they majority of them would say the same thing.

There is a reason that pop-up blockers are so popular. There is a reason that Mozilla has such a devout following. Intrusive in-your-face advertising is annoying. Let people click over to that stuff on their own time. If what is being offered is that great, standard advertising blurbs should be enough.

Zereh


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## buckytom (Jan 17, 2006)

zereh, not to pick on you (would i ever do that to a babe like you???  ), but in real terms we all come here of our own free will. andy has a right to cover his costs, and if he does what i say, er, i mean if he does some things right, he will stand to make some money off of providing a place for us to congregate online. really, he owes us nothing in real terms. it may suck, but that's the jungle, baby. 

i agree the ad is too intrusive. there should be a simple way to close it immediately. but i'm doing some testing and i think that it may time out so you just have to wait (a full) minute then hit the back button, or it may be you have to reload the page a number of times, then you get past it. lemme see.

ok, andy, do you see why favoritism is a bad idea? i'm uncomfortable debating zereh because now we both look bad, like trouble makers. if you say you accept and appreciate all responses, both negative and positive, but are judging a members "worth" in some unseen fashion thereby allowing them not to have to see ads, all you'll get are yes men, and no one will ever complain, or give us constructive criticism for fear of being black listed for more ads.


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## Zereh (Jan 17, 2006)

Then use the traditional methods of advertising, I have no problem with that. You know, the kind where I get to choose whether I visit or not. 

You'll never get me to agree that it's ok to force me over there. Intrusive, unavoidable advertising sucks. I won't play.


Z


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## subfuscpersona (Jan 17, 2006)

*Advertising and DC Users/Visitors*



Andy R Yesterday said:


> The intermission ad has been removed. It was only a webpage that was NOT malicious... We will be studying various ways to offer advertisers ways to reach our membership.
> 
> In this case, it was setup as a network wide setup that helps attract advertisers because of the size of the network as a whole (75,000 members) but it is obvious that we need to keep all advertisements specifically related to each forum communtiy.
> 
> ...


I appreciate that DiscussCooking is a business whose revenue stream comes from advertising. It is certainly your perogative to explore ways to increase that revenue.

However, IMHO, your plan 





> to show the most ads to visitors and guests as they are not contributing to the community. As a member posts more, earns more karma, does not get warnings, etc then less ads will be shown


 is not good business sense.

 > Visitors come b/c they're interested in cooking tips or joining a community so you already attract a targeted audience. Studies show that new users evaluate a site within the first 30 seconds._A plethora of ads will not encourage them to return_, nor will they know that ads will decrease in proportion to their participation.

 > _You can't predict purchasing on the basis of frequency of posts._ Dedicated cooks (who may be frequent posters) are as likely to buy specialized cookware as more casual users (perhaps more so). 

 > _Unobtrusive ads are more acceptable than obtrusive ones; targeted ads are even better_. No ad should ever require action on the user's part to get rid of it.

 > _Don't test an important change on your production site_ - you risk alienating new and old posters alike. A beta deserves a separate test URL; invite DC administrators and frequent posters to visit the beta site and provide feedback. More work? - yes. More expensive? - yes. Worth it? - yes. A proposed change that gets a "thumbs up" can be moved into production; a proposed change that needs refinement can be further tested without risking upsetting your user base which is, after all, your income source.


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## corazon (Jan 17, 2006)

I agree with bucky. These guys spend a lot of their time and effort to keep this place running. Keep in mind that we don't pay to come here but I also am not so keen on these types of ads either and don't think it's fair that some will have more ads than others.  I think it will discourage newbies and maybe some oldies too.  

That said, last night I figured out how to close the ad (I think).  At the top right hand corner of the ad it says something like "continue with socialnetwork," click that and it should let you into dc. It worked for me, hope it works for you guys!


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## texasgirl (Jan 17, 2006)

I really think that the banners and ads that are a permanent on the pages is better. It's there if you want to see it, but, not in the way of getting to DC.
Most sites that I have gone to that say, if you register, you will have fewer or no ads, rarely will I register, if I'm there just to find one quick answer for something, I'll go back to google and find another site that doesn't make me register.


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