This has to be a joke

[katherine]

To address the OP's opinion, it's not for a stream of revenue, as Adam made clear when the fee was first put into place. Rather, it's to discourage "junk" advertisements from flooding the board.

So on the one hand we get rid of the 'junk' advertising. Fine.

On the other hand every post that we make, that includes keywords like Se.do or Go.daddy, are unnecessarily littered with forum-generated affiliate links for these services - and it's not just these two particular keywords that are subject to 'smart rewriting'. Other keywords include ser.ver hos.ting + at least a few others I think.
I currently see 3 banners while posting this, so it's not like the forum is undermonetized.

To put it differently, trash was thrown into the street and comes back through the windows.
IMO.

 

[Theo]

As I said before, when I need to enter words like Sedo or GoDaddy (these are unedited) I use a Greek omicron, such as Sedο / GοDaddy (these are edited) in order to fool the automatic parser

 

[dcristo]

As I said before, when I need to enter words like Sedo or GoDaddy (these are unedited) I use a Greek omicron, such as Sedο / GοDaddy (these are edited) in order to fool the automatic parser

Thats a bit deceptive don't you think? You are suggesting there is a Greek affiliation with Sedo / GoDaddy. I didn't know these companies liked lamb that much. jokes jokes

 

[grcorp]

So on the one hand we get rid of the 'junk' advertising. Fine.

On the other hand every post that we make, that includes keywords like Se.do or Go.daddy, are unnecessarily littered with forum-generated affiliate links for these services - and it's not just these two particular keywords that are subject to 'smart rewriting'. Other keywords include ser.ver hos.ting + at least a few others I think.
I currently see 3 banners while posting this, so it's not like the forum is undermonetized.

To put it differently, trash was thrown into the street and comes back through the windows.
IMO.

I never said this forum is undermonetized. It is not ethical for me to publicly make statements based on Adam's numbers which he keeps private, but based on membership sales, and what the banner ads go for, this forum has no shortage of moneymaking avenues.

I'm just saying the fee is a deterrent to those who feel the need to post freely, thus flooding the boards with advertising.

It's like the difference between the newspaper classifieds and craigslist. On Craigslist, you see a lot of junk postings. Because it costs $0 to post it there. But in the newspaper, where it costs money to put an ad, it makes sure that those who are publishing one, are at the very least, half serious about it.

 

[Theo]

Thats a bit deceptive don't you think? You are suggesting there is a Greek affiliation with Sedo / GoDaddy. I didn't know these companies liked lamb that much. jokes jokes

In case you didn't know, a Greek is the father of DNS But ancient Greeks invented pizza as well. Pizza is the favorite domainer food!

 

[grcorp]

Thats a bit deceptive don't you think? You are suggesting there is a Greek affiliation with Sedo / GoDaddy. I didn't know these companies liked lamb that much. jokes jokes

Way to make me crave souvlaki. No, really. I'm craving souvlaki. Damn it. :smilewinkgrin:

 

[dcristo]

In case you didn't know, a Greek is the father of DNS But ancient Greeks invented pizza as well. Pizza is the favorite domainer food!

Pizza or pita bread? Neapolitans invented what you'd call the modern pizza. At least its widely accepted they did. My Dad is from that region. It was also Italians who introduced pizza to America. I was going to say you must have got your facts from wikipedia because the site routinely gets it wrong, but in this case they didn't.

 

[ImageAuthors]

Maybe I'm naive. We are talking about how the words "GoDaddy" and "Sedo" on DNForum automatically become links, correct? To me this seems very unobtrusive and innocuous. I guess I'm unclear, even after reading the posts above, why this frustrates people, since it takes up no additional space and takes nothing away from them. But clearly it DOES frustrate people, and I don't want to discount that. Would anybody like to clarify this for me? Simply because I'm curious about your viewpoint ...

 

[Theo]

Pizza or pita bread? Neapolitans invented what you'd call the modern pizza. At least its widely accepted they did. My Dad is from that region. It was also Italians who introduced pizza to America. I was going to say you must have got your facts from wikipedia because the site routinely gets it wrong, but in this case they didn't.

Pizza, not pita bread. Which reminds me: Greeks don't eat pita bread in Greece, other than as gyros and souvlaki wraps. Pita as a bread substitute is middle eastern.

Naples (Neapolis) was a Greek colony. So was the entire Sicily and south Italy. Google "Magna Graecia". Marseilles in France was also founded by Greek colonists. Opa!

Maybe I'm naive. We are talking about how the words "GoDaddy" and "Sedo" on DNForum automatically become links, correct? To me this seems very unobtrusive and innocuous. I guess I'm unclear, even after reading the posts above, why this frustrates people, since it takes up no additional space and takes nothing away from them. But clearly it DOES frustrate people, and I don't want to discount that. Would anybody like to clarify this for me? Simply because I'm curious about your viewpoint ...

It's unobtrusive until you want to post a link containing these words, then your own link will break at the beginning of the word and the affiliate link kicks in.

 

[VirtualT]

everytime you see a rewritten link, click on it a few times, id say 20 will be enough

 

[damitssam]

This kind of stuff is the very reason why I don't use forums anymore except to sell domains. Back in the day it was a fun place where everyone shared info.... and I learned a lot when I was a newbie.

Fact is once you pay your membership fee, we are essentially "non-revenue" generators, thus DNF has no incentive to give us any more benefits... besides us flocking to a new forum...

 

[tetrapak]

I see a lot of forums on the web that don't do this. My personal favorite is Skyscrapercity.com (it's a much larger forum than DNF). The only revenue source they have is Adsense, to be able to maintain the massive server costs. Other than that nothing. Jan, the owner is aware of the importance of free user generated content. If the owner would need to pay for such amount of content, he would go bankrupt. That's the very reason why members should be so much respected by forum owner(s). Here at DNF I feel the opposite. I have no urge to post anything useful anymore, and I will definitely not until things change (if ever).

 

[woofard]

Maybe I'm ignorant here, but how much could he (Adam) actually be making on these ridiculous links? I know this is a forum with heavy traffic and there's money in traffic numbers, but wouldn't the reason to keep these links by now be something other than money? Could it really be that much money to ignore all these members unhappy with it or is there another reason it's still here?