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Post by
JamesKilton
That is unacceptable. There was nothing warning me of such a thing, there was no way of me knowing that the page is now a full page onclick ad. It's deceptive, and doesn't belong anywhere near this site.
Oh, it's unacceptable? Must've been your mistake since you're the web master.
Oh, you're not? Well then, you're the site moderator.
No? Ahh, then you must be bankrolling the operation.
You aren't paying for it? You mean this is a free site? Then I guess you'll need to deal with your palsy that apparently makes you spasmodically click on the giant ad that turns your mouse pointer into a hand - or go to a different site.
Seriously
people - why don't we bitch and moan a little about an advertisement? Jeebus Harold Crossed, it's a wonder that anyone bothers doing anything for free anymore on the Internet; if I were in charge of this shebang, comments such as these would've had me yank this thing down so fast it would leave your little advertise-fuddled head spinning.
If you don't like it, then say so
once
and leave it at that -
or go someplace else
.
Thanks for not reading and posting what you
think
I'm saying instead of responding to what I
am
saying.
I'm fine with the advertisement. I understand the need for them and I think this one is tasteful, if maybe a little loud.
I'm not ok with the full body onclick implementation.
I'd also like to say that if you
don't
care, why are you even bothering posting here? Such posts do nothing but feed flames and don't get anything constructive done. If you have something as an argument or a debate, please proceed, otherwise you're just spewing crap into an already muddled stream.
Post by
Seregon
Everyone is giving their honest opinion and they should be allowed to do so without getting flamed by moderators and administrators. Now, users, if you can't handle the ad, just avoid the main site for two lousy days or take your business elsewhere.
Post by
pelf
Okay, my bookmark for wowhead no longer goes to
www.wowhead.com
, it goes to these forums.
Ugly ugly ugly.
By the time you took the trouble to do this, it has been removed. Moreover, install the Firefox search plugin and you don't have to ever see the front page at all anyway.
Post by
Miyari
I just wanted to point out that it takes more time to post here bitching about the advertisement than it does to simply close a new tab.
That being said, if that dinosaur means I still have a job and the site still rocks for a day longer - more power to it. It's not
that
big of a deal and doesn't interrupt site use or functionality in any way - you could easily and quickly just navigate to a category and do your searching from there, or download the
Firefox Plugin
if you're awesome and downloaded
Firefox3
today. I would rather hope you guys appreciate that the dinosaur is all we had to do in order to keep the site running longer. Don't worry, it will all be over soon and you guys will safely be able to access wowhead.com without getting terrified of a jpeg.
I have a firm belief that most of the same people who are all up in arms about this will be the first to boycott any sort of paid incentive program we would ever release over the mentality that everything we do should be free and if it's not we're "selling out" or not catering to the community. People take too much for granted. :(
Also,
Jurassic Wristguards
.
Post by
JayRay
Fact:
The ad makes the site look unprofessional.
Thats all I am saying.
Post by
Seregon
Don't worry, it will all be over soon and you guys will safely be able to access wowhead.com without getting terrified of a jpeg.
Mocking faithful members won't help your image either. I understand that it's just for two days and it will keep the site up, but come on! At least act professional when people are giving their thoughts.
Post by
6505
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
23009
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
JayRay
Fact:
Miyari makes this site's staff look unprofessional.
Post by
Miyari
I'm not trying to mock anybody, if anything I was making a joke - this has seriously gotten out of hand and I would have hoped that the intended light tone of my post would have been at least calming. Sorry it didn't. I'm just trying to approach this from a rational and realistic perspective, completely besides the point of my being any sort of administration. We have absolutely no problem with constructive criticism (it is, after all, why this forum technically exists) and I suppose I should apologize if users felt that any part of my comments were made to be negative or insulting to the Wowhead user community. That has never been our intent, and as Malgayne said before - this was the compromise we were able to come to to accept this campaign while making it as unintrusive as possible for our community. I know saying, "It could be worse." isn't exactly the best response to the negative criticism the campaign has received but I hope you will put yourselves in our shoes for a moment and realize that this site doesn't run itself for free, and some sacrifices do need to be made every once in a while. I'm really sorry that people are so quick and willing to turn on us, despite the constant work we do on the site making improvements daily to contribute to the user's overall experience.
Also, as stated before - we have something big coming up very soon that should make up for this temporary distraction!
Post by
Lonny
I just wanted to point out that it takes more time to post here bitching about the advertisement than it does to simply close a new tab.
That being said, if that dinosaur means I still have a job and the site still rocks for a day longer - more power to it. It's not
that
big of a deal and doesn't interrupt site use or functionality in any way - you could easily and quickly just navigate to a category and do your searching from there, or download the
Firefox Plugin
if you're awesome and downloaded
Firefox3
today. I would rather hope you guys appreciate that the dinosaur is all we had to do in order to keep the site running longer. Don't worry, it will all be over soon and you guys will safely be able to access wowhead.com without getting terrified of a jpeg.
I have a firm belief that most of the same people who are all up in arms about this will be the first to boycott any sort of paid incentive program we would ever release over the mentality that everything we do should be free and if it's not we're "selling out" or not catering to the community. People take too much for granted. :(
Also,
Jurassic Wristguards
.
I use wowhead from internet connections that are extremely slow. Having this huge ad on the frontpage means I will not longer be able to quickly load the site. I understand you're doing what you think is right, but I will not be returning to your site due to this. I will be going to one of your competitor sites who has a more streamlined look. Not everyone is running broadband 24/7/365.
Also, I don't buy into your "not selling out" crap anyway. You guys just sold the site to another company in the last fiscal year. It's the new company that's trying to make money off of it, no doubt. There are other WoW database sites that have been in operation for longer than wowhead, and has not had to resort to these types of advertisiting nightmares.
Also bitching at your users to stop whining seems pretty arrogant to me.
EDIT: Also, I like saying also a lot.
While I agree that every service has to satisfy the user, in some cases the user can adapt instead of being such stubborn and ungrateful to the service owner.
Instead of blaming the system, and bashing the staff and anything that you can throw a lemon on, you better calm down and think how can you resolve the problem.
Nowadays both
Firefox
and
Internet Explorer 7
offers searching provider which you can customize, add and install for your convenience which also makes the searching much more easier (straight from the browser).
So having a slow internet connection shouldn't be a problem to you now.
I keep reading the posts here, and half if not more of the users here mentioning the revenue of WoWHead, what's bothering you more, their income or the actual advertisement ?
Arrogant or not, he's trying to be reasonable with you guys and yet you refuse to listen, how about judging him and its staff in the scale of merit ? after all they're doing a great job.
If that's what it takes to have WoWHead a functional service, and this service gains income which supports it and its crew so be it, why not ? they worked for it isn't ? they deserve it and more.
As a software developer and consultant (which I am for over 10 years) I think that WoWHead does look profesional both from user perspective and UI, so for these of you whining about it, please be quiet.
So please guys give them a break, you can find millions reasons and arguments against them right now, but you fail to estimate the good work they are doing and still doing for you as a free of charge service.
Post by
xaratherus
Also bitching at your users to stop whining seems pretty arrogant to me.
Also bitching at the providers of a free service about changes that make the service more financially feasible for them seems pretty arrogant to me.
And bitching at people who are bitching at providers of a free service about changes that make the service more financially feasible for them (that's me!) makes me arrogant too - but I'm okay with that. :)
Post by
cudgel
I haven't read the entire thread. My first reaction to the dinosaur was surprise; I liked it less than the 2.4 patch graphic.
That said, I have no intention of using anything other than Wowhead, and I certainly do not begrudge you the advertising revenue. To me, the thing that really stood out was the stark difference between the usual site's clean, elegant, Google-esque design, and the obtrusive ugliness of what I'll call "Jurassic Wowhead". That difference is shocking to someone not expecting it.
Still, I say keep up the good work. This site has made me a much better player, and I appreciate all the hard work.
Thanks!
PS: The fact that some of you actually get *paid* to do this makes me totally jealous. :)
Post by
125668
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Arador
I know saying, "It could be worse." isn't exactly the best response to the negative criticism the campaign has received but I hope you will put yourselves in our shoes for a moment and realize that this site doesn't run itself for free, and some sacrifices do need to be made every once in a while. I'm really sorry that people are so quick and willing to turn on us, despite the constant work we do on the site making improvements daily to contribute to the user's overall experience.
Nobody is going to feel sorry for your position. Most fansites are paid out of private pockets, while your livelihood gets paid for by this site. Which means, you get to do what you love, AND get paid for it. Most people go their entire lives trying to be that lucky.
I've offered plenty of constructive feedback in this thread, offering half a dozen alternatives to intrusive front page ads, but other than a statement of disbelief by Malgayne the feedback has fallen on deaf ears. This leads me to believe that alternative options weren't really explored, making the "we had to in order to pay the bills" argument seem rather contrived.
If your financial situation is as dire as you say, then the least you could do is post a message on the forums asking for financial support via donations, and informing the community of the need to resort to more intrusive ads if need be. Instead you post the ad first and then tell people to deal with it. Unprofessional indeed.
Post by
Malgayne
I am VERY sorry if I came off as caustic, or sarcastic, or contemptuous of you guys. I am listening very carefully to the feedback we get here. I admit that the amount of complaints we received surprised me, but I hope I have not given the impression that I am ignoring you, or that I don't care what you think.
I hear constantly that you can't please all of the people all of the time, but it still bothers me when even one user is unhappy. This is the reason why I'm in here, trying to defend my decision when I should have been listening and making notes so we can make more informed decisions in the future. I guess I just got caught off guard by the amount and the vehemence of the complaints, and I got defensive rather than simply taking your feedback into account. I apologize for that.
Let me be clear. I hear you. I didn't realize this was such a sensitive issue, or as Arador says I would have tried to broach the idea in advance. But I have very clearly heard the voice of the people on this one. It seems likely to me that a site skin will run on Wowhead again in the future, and I would ask you guys to understand if and when it does happen. But I will do everything within my power to make sure that any future skins are less aggressive (and ideally better-looking) than this one.
Post by
Seregon
I really appreciate the fact that you guys take your time to respond the posts here, and I think I also should apologize for my behavior. I realize that I shouldn't go around expecting professional treatment whilst not acting professional myself.
As far as the ad goes, it's now taken off and I really hope we can see this thread die, and the issue forgotten. At least I will be more understandable and forthcoming about temporary site skins in the future.
No hard feelings.
Post by
125410
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
59222
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
159774
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
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