Disabling in-text ads on Neowin

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

I almost always keep the front page open for the recent community activity box. But that doesn't mean I value the front page more than the forums, even though the front page is open most of the time.

Why don't you use the spy?

Also, the "vocal minority" would almost certainly vote the same way as the entire community. From what I can see, it is an unbiased sample. There is no correlation between front page lovers and people who are vocal.

Not true, a poll of this type will probably have self-selection bias (although that article is pretty crap)

[ccuk]

Well we have the reviews by members for members and essential guides forums. A few times I have ported these over to the main page and I should probably be doing that more often, because I read a great review on the HTC Desire a few days ago (it had been up for a couple of months already). But another problem here is considering the fact that when members get around to doing a review of something, often enough it will have been out a while, and we'll only end up seeing "old news" type responses in the comments. It's very difficult to keep people happy, because of those sort of responses it sort of gives us the feeling of "why do I bother?" too.

Going back to news, often enough authors will point to a discussion thread going on in the forums with a particular news topic, which involves the community and offers a new reader the perspective of our members too.

I totally get that... However one musn't lose sight of that fact that there will likely still be a large percentile that haven't seen a review of X Y Z product, and also not all reviews are made equal. Some are too short, with little of the information people actually wanted.

In terms of the editorial I was thinking along the lines of MVC contribution, or just member contribution in general answering questions or providing tips in for example 5 areas. "How do I enable X" for Linux, "how do I protect Y" for windows etc something to digest on a sunday at home surfing when there is very little news. Just an idea.

[Steven P. Administrators]

@surrealvortex Ah I dunno, until a couple of weeks ago it was impossible to see any news articles from the forums unless you went into the full spy, there was no news feeds drop down menu like we had before January of this year, and on the news page, to the right of the very first news article there is a list of latest forum posts?

So it seems we do a better job of displaying forum content (the themebar promotion of the giveaway, links to the forums from main too) than we do the news content on the forums.

We have a lot more space to promote stuff in the news page because of the fixed width style and sidebar, on forums if we added a sidebar, I'd simply go on holiday (for a month or so) and let someone else respond the the criticism it will get :p

I think you mean you'd prefer to see a PHPNuke type system where forum posts are displayed like news summaries? I'm not sure that would even work!

[surrealvortex]

Why don't you use the spy?

I really don't know. Habit maybe. I should start using that.

Not true, a poll of this type will probably have self-selection bias (although that article is pretty crap)

The wiki entry just made my head spin. I think I understood it somewhat, but don't see how it is applicable here. Can you please elaborate??

[Steven P. Administrators]

In terms of the editorial I was thinking along the lines of MVC contribution, or just member contribution in general answering questions or providing tips in for example 5 areas. "How do I enable X" for Linux, "how do I protect Y" for windows etc something to digest on a sunday at home surfing when there is very little news. Just an idea.

Well thats what the forums are for really, coupled with a decent search system, at least thats the intention.

Breaking off certain bits and putting them on the main page for weekend reading is a good idea, and it's been a while since I did round-ups and member articles/reviews stuff on main, but yeah that was what I used to do, and will again.

[Dapen]

Actually I run a community of 250,000 odd active users daily. We do quite well and I have a great concept of how much things cost as I pay the bills at the end of each month. And yes I know that the site runs a custom theme and that worked out great didn't it? (How many days was the site down before reverting back to the old theme? - I think it was 3-4 ?), but I digress.

That makes you Bruce All Mighty!

I say cut the fat and go back to copy and pasting or just have volunteer moderators who can propel back page stories to the front page.

You really have no idea what you're talking about, go back to copy and paste news? Wow, that would be a major step back for Neowin. It's always better to rewrite your news, for SEO and being professional.

[ccuk]

Well thats what the forums are for really, coupled with a decent search system, at least thats the intention.

Breaking off certain bits and putting them on the main page for weekend reading is a good idea, and it's been a while since I did round-ups and member articles/reviews stuff on main, but yeah that was what I used to do, and will again.

Totally agreed... I was just thinking of a way of trying to bridge the forum and front page collaberation. At the moment it feels very "us" and "them". I don't look at the front page much as there isn't anything that particularly interests me, but a roundup of very interesting tips, tricks or info is something I would personally love to see. It would also be fairly straight forward for you guys to write as forum members would pretty much write the content, it just needs "tidying".

I see the forums as a great place to ask receive / give help. And the front page as a means to provide a little of that to the masses. They do something similar on TUAW.

Anyway I have said my piece... I hope what I have said isn't taken as some sort of mindless attack. It is all merely intended as personal opinion to try and help improve aspects of what neowin has to offer.

[CentralDogma]

I actually like to propose scaling back of themes. I know they probably take a lot of effort, but if the coders are being paid for them, why not have them work on something else for the money. We seem to get theme very often and we already have several, I think it?s wasted effort when most people just stick to the default. You have talented coder that could do other things.

[surrealvortex]

@Neobond

If you add a sidebar to the forums, it will just make me cry. I understood why the front page has to be fixed size, but a part of me dies every time I see those empty bars at the sides of my widescreen.

Yes, you don't have much leading from the forums to the front page, but considering most of the people land up on the front page initially, that is ok, I think.

I don't think news summaries will work either. Off the top of my head, a row of criteria that lead to further criteria and finally display forum content that match all the listed criteria? Just as an example, check out fanfiction.net's search. Type in something in the search bar and press enter. In the results page, on the right hand side, you should see a "narrow results" bar.

The criteria, of course, will have to be modified to suit this site's contents. Maybe forum posts have to be tagged like the front page news articles are. Of course, this is just a spur of the moment example. I will think a bit more and try to offer a better solution. I hope the other members also think about this and try to come up with something new.

[Vice]

Also I just want to put some constructive criticism here, The reason I don't use Neowins main page for news is because it isn't updated frequently enough or fast enough. I understand that you want higher quality on the front page, but because you've stopped copy and pasting the news is now very slow. I can get up to the minute news from Google News, Digg.com, Reddit. All just copy and paste, but I prefer that because it's instant. It's fast. Sometimes I've seen stuff that only gets covered on Neowin 24-48 hours after it's been posted elsewhere. And you know how fast the back page news moves on this site alone.

I suggest you at-least make the front more relevant by being able to move stories from the Back Page to the front Page in sort of like a mini-post. Ones that don't open up in to a new page on the home page, like status alerts with a link back to the forum post. At-least that way the front page can have a mix of high quality articles with up to the minute updates. That would make the front page relevant for me.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Isn't rewriting other peoples news just plagiarism anyway? :)

That depends, you have the source that breaks a story (we do that too on occasion) and then the majority of others reporting it and crediting the source, which is what we do.

Before we copied over a paragraph or two and put in a "source link", completely different to what happens now.

We didn't get invited to BBC Breakfast and World Service for plagiarizing someone else's work a few months back.

[Vice]

Sorry but I removed that post to add something more constructive than a dig that I felt was unwarranted. Apologies.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Also I just want to put some constructive criticism here, The reason I don't use Neowins main page for news is because it isn't updated frequently enough or fast enough. I understand that you want higher quality on the front page, but because you've stopped copy and pasting the news is now very slow. I can get up to the minute news from Google News, Digg.com, Reddit. All just copy and paste, but I prefer that because it's instant. It's fast. Sometimes I've seen stuff that only gets covered on Neowin 24-48 hours after it's been posted elsewhere. And you know how fast the back page news moves on this site alone.

I suggest you at-least make the front more relevant by being able to move stories from the Back Page to the front Page in sort of like a mini-post. Ones that don't open up in to a new page on the home page, like status alerts with a link back to the forum post. At-least that way the front page can have a mix of high quality articles with up to the minute updates. That would make the front page relevant for me.

I think I have an idea that might work and give you what you and I want, C/P can be done, only if done correctly.. if we were able to do a sort of mini-spy feed type system on main with headlines (so it doesn't get all the focus, but can move quicker). Then we'll be able to keep our original articles that move slower, and less frequently plus have a feed system that has a sort of "Around the Web" feel to it. (Y)

[surrealvortex]

Anyway, I am off to bed. Will check your reply tomorrow, Neobond. Drat, I keep typing Neobong.

[Vice]

I think I have an idea that might work and give you what you and I want, C/P can be done, only if done correctly.. if we were able to do a sort of mini-spy feed type system on main with headlines (so it doesn't get all the focus, but can move quicker). Then we'll be able to keep our original articles that move slower, and less frequently plus have a feed system that has a sort of "Around the Web" feel to it. (Y)

If there was a minispy on the front page that continued to update with new stories as they broke I would keep the front page open 24.7 :laugh:

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Have a look at the OSnews.com front page - they have just what was suggested: Their own articles, and a sidebar with articles linked from the web.

[Simon Veteran]

We used to have that, called "Around the Web," but it never got any responses or views from members. That resulted in no one ever posting news into it, and so we ended up scrapping it altogether with Atlas.

I've got an idea to take the ideas suggested here into account, though - copy and paste is perfectly fine on the forums, and we should have a way to quickly promote those to the front page, without taking hits away from our own version that might be posted later. If we ensure that copy and paste stays on the forums, and original stuff still gets onto the front page, we would ensure that Neowin keeps getting hits, too.

[Varemenos]

Or get Noscript for firefox and block "intellitxt.com"

[Singh400]

This made me lol...

And to pre-empt some questions. Yes it is IE6. And no I don't use it by choice. No I can't upgrade manually. No I can't use another browser. Yes this is at work. And yes I realise that they are behind in the times.

[CentralDogma]

This made me lol...

And to pre-empt some questions. Yes it is IE6. And no I don't use it by choice. No I can't upgrade manually. No I can't use another browser. Yes this is at work. And yes I realise that they are behind in the times.

Dude, that's IE6, you should upgrade!

I kid, I kid

[Wannes]

I will be honest, I've disabled the in-text advertising even though I used to say I'll never disable advertising. My AdBlock is still green for Neowin - allowing advertisements - but I just feel that the in-text advertising was bothering the fluency of reading an article. Sorry but someday, when I have more time to spend on the site, like I used to, I'll buy myself a subscription.

[Kondrath]

I haven't disabled the in-text adds but it seems they have all disappeared regardless. I can't see them anywhere... :unsure:

[Steven P. Administrators]

Yeah the first few days was a test phase, they should start appearing shortly with real advertisers, better targeting :)

[Duality]

Voted that I disabled them, that I agree Neowin needs ads to survive, and that I whitelist Neowin entirely.

[Kondrath]

Yeah the first few days was a test phase, they should start appearing shortly with real advertisers, better targeting :)

Oh okay, cool.

I don't really mind them at all. If you accidentally hover over one, you get a quick "pop up" add, but it goes away within a few seconds... no big deal :p