tech: A possible alternative to ads?

Subject: A possible alternative to ads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 06:38 AM

Max,

Would it be possible to set up a two-tiered membership - Free with Ads and/or Paid For Ads-Free? I am thinking, as in other websites I've been to...pay a consistent amount per month or by the year in membership fee and be spared seeing the ads and/or the long loading of ads as one posts throughout the threads.

I keep getting the following, among many others, whenever I post:

400 Bad Request
Request cannot be handled by the server.

Reason: Connection with Host: header containing unknown local host name "googleads.g.doubleclick.net". Received on IP address 173.15.169.153, which is not bound to any virtual server. Cannot proceed.

If I refresh that, I then get a page full of html. Refresh again, same thing. If I back out of there, I can usually get back to the page I was on. Also, many, many times in the past couple of days, I send a post on, wait for it to show up only to find it didn't take and often backtracking to find it was eaten up, thus having to write it, again.

Another thing I have been having trouble with is posting, hitting submit and having something completely different come up. For instance, tonight I posted to a thread, after submitting and it seeming to take, it dumped me on my PMs page with no discernible connection. Also, any loading of the threads, postings, etc. have been very slow and, sometimes incorrect.

These kinds of things seem to be happening more often in the past couple of weeks. I have scanned for virus on my PC, as well as run the usual programs, i.e. spybot, etc. plus defragged, rearranged files to save space, dumped all personal data including cookies, personal history, browsing history, etc. And, I have downloaded and am using the latest version of Firefox 3.6.2.

Anyway, like I do with Colorado Public Radio and a couple of others, I for one would gladly set-up an automatic monthly payment to Mudcat which would remedy some of the above, very frustrating problems.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: A possible alternative to ads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 11:58 AM

No thoughts from anyone else on this?

Subject: RE: A possible alternative to ads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 12:17 PM

A clarification: I didn't mean this to be only for Max to post to..I'd encourage anyone to post if they like the idea, have had any of the problems, etc. Thanks!

Subject: RE: A possible alternative to ads?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 12:19 PM

The delay loading a thread with any number of posts IS aggravated by the delay in loading the adverts ! A Two Tier Site would have MY approval !

Subject: RE: A possible alternative to ads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 12:21 PM

Thanks, that's the way I feel, too.

I just clicked on the congrats to jerry thread and got this:

304 Not modified
The document has not been modified, you can use your local copy.

Subject: RE: A possible alternative to ads?
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 12:27 PM

Why not block the adds? I have never seen ads on Mudacat because I use AdBlock Plus. Never (well, hardly) have problems and when I do it's not due to ads (or blocking them).

Subject: RE: A possible alternative to ads?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 01:44 PM

You can block the ads well enough already. For the rest it seems you're hoping to buy yourself less bugs. Doesn't work that way.

Subject: RE: A possible alternative to ads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 02:20 PM

I tried Firefox AdBlock and it seemed to make matters worse. Maybe it is bugs, but I've never experienced so many, so consistently, so often until recently, out of over ten years of being here.

Subject: RE: A possible alternative to ads?
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 02:27 PM

Max has said repeatedly that he does not want to go that route.... I think it would change the basic 'feel' of the place more than you realize.

All *I* wish for is a less intrusive placement of certain ads. There are times when I have had trouble clicking on a site navigation link because an ad was jammed in too tightly.

(and yes.. *I* know how to control ads, but at times I need to unblock them in order to get to YouTube and various stuff. There are several ways to deal with ads, javascript and pop-ups....but it's not always easy. The very newest browsers ....(Firefox and Opera, I mean) are creating newer & better ways to toggle preferences easily)

Subject: RE: A possible alternative to ads?
From: Maryrrf
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 02:29 PM

I don't bother to block the ads and I haven't had any problem viewing threads.

Subject: RE: tech: A possible alternative to ads?
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 02:52 PM

Although I have a general antipathy toward ads, if they aren't too obtrusive and they help pay the bills, I have no particular problem with them. What I really resent (to the point of wanting to kill something!) is when a web site makes me sit and wait while it loads all the ads before it lets me see what I went there looking for—and then slaps a pop-up ad right on top of what I'm trying to read! And—I DO have a pop-up blocker up and running, but they seem to be constantly developing new and skullduggerous ways of getting around pop-up blockers.

I haven't had any problem with the ads on Mudcat, at least that I've noticed. Actually, I find some of the ads a bit amusing. For example, on the thread on Ann Coulter, one of the ads had a picture of Ann Coulter, as usual, trying to smile sweetly, but with eyes like a rattlesnake.

But the one that had me snorting my coffee out of my nose appeared on both the same-sex marriage thread and the Ghana making homosexuality a capital offense thread. These threads drew some pretty vociferous anti-gay rhetoric, and there at the top of the thread was an ad for a gay dating agency!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: tech: A possible alternative to ads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 07:09 PM

I reinstalled AdBlocker, so I see how it goes.

...when a web site makes me sit and wait while it loads all the ads before it lets me see what I went there looking for...

That's what I've been experiencing on Mudcat, though not a pop-up...just the interminable delay as amazon etc. loads the ads. Maybe with the blocker that won't happen.

BillD, I thought this might be a little different in that people would have a choice of whether to pay to not deal with the ads or stay the way it is for their browsing. I guess with the blocker it seems to be moot...oh well, thanks, all!

Subject: RE: tech: A possible alternative to ads?
From: Max
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 08:10 PM

My end goal is to have no ads for membership. We're close.

Subject: RE: tech: A possible alternative to ads?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 02:58 AM

Would it be possible to set up a two-tiered membership ……..

and that's exactly what you would end up with.

How long would it be before those chipping into the pot would be requesting special privileges. After all, he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Even if there were no special privileges, the conspiracy theorists would soon believe that they did exist. There's enough dispute and argument, to the point of paranoia, about roles of the mods. the presence of Guests on Mudcat without introducing a new level of pseudo-class distinction where the wealthy can get round the annoyances that the hoi-polloi have to put up with.

DC

Subject: RE: tech: A possible alternative to ads?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 10:10 AM

I keep getting the following, among many others, whenever I post:

400 Bad Request
Request cannot be handled by the server.

Reason: Connection with Host: header containing unknown local host name "googleads.g.doubleclick.net". Received on IP address 173.15.169.153, which is not bound to any virtual server. Cannot proceed.

I have not had anything like that. Knock wood.

* * * *

Another thing I have been having trouble with is posting, hitting submit and having something completely different come up.

Now, that is familiar. Maybe once a week I'll get an anomalous connection that I didn't ask for, usually if not always a site I have contacted in the past. I don't know whether that happens elsewhere than Mudcat or not; haven't thought in detail about what led up to it.

Come to think of it, having read what I quoted, I don't recall that the appearance of the "furrin site" occurred upon my submitting a Mudcat post, so I may be talking about something other than what you are.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: tech: A possible alternative to ads?
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 11:18 AM

Like Maryrrf I have had no problems at all. As for the ads, unless someone mentions them, I don't even consciously notice them. I have selective attention, I guess.

Subject: RE: tech: A possible alternative to ads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 11:40 AM

Thanks, Max.

Other sites which I have been on which offer a pay-no-ads option do not result in any kind of carping for "special privileges" etc. It's not even a concern. Of course Mudcat is unlike any other site on the net, but i would hope folks would be mature enough to not be so petty. Also, I am far from "wealthy." I was thinking in terms of the "widow's mite" 5-10 bucks per month or a yearly payment with a small discount for paying it all at once ala public radio and television do with their memberships.

Again, thanks, Max. I'll shut up now.:-)

Subject: RE: tech: A possible alternative to ads?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 11:45 AM

A thing to think about is - would setting up a paid membership system on Mudcat cause business tax implications for Max?

I for one am not having issues with the ads. But then I have a snazzy new laptop with windows 7 and MacAfee paid for version and pretty decent BT broadband so I am happy camper (she says as she blows smugly on her fingernails).