Too many offers/requests ???

[projo]

Under the impression that HHO was starting to look like the want-ads I just did a quick count of the requests/offers returned with "New Posts". Well I just counted the ones on the first page of results. 20 out of 25 threads were offer/request related. One person had 7 ads in 6 days (I only spot checked).

These ads are starting to affect my enjoyment of the hide out. I don't have a suggestion, unless it is possible to have an additional "New Posts" type button that does not include offers/requests. This for people who have come to the pub for a more relaxed read.

[Chicken]

I don't have a suggestion, unless it is possible to have an additional "New Posts" type button that does not include offers/requests.
That is possible. You may (or may not) have noticed that the 'New Posts' link has changed a few times, but is back to how it was. That's temporary. It was reverted back as the drop down menu was producing java script errors and I have to figure out why.

The question becomes, how to lay all that out so that it's not overly confusing (e.g. New Posts, New Posts w/o Ads, Daily Posts (1-7 days choice), Daily Posts w/o Ads, etc.) - in other words, it's possible, just as it's possible for your cell phone company to offer 100 plans, but we have to keep in mind what will work also.

[ldcdc]

I don't have a solution either, but I will agree that the ad threads are somewhat annoying. I use the "New posts" too and I find myself "doing slalom" between ad threads. :)

One person had 7 ads in 6 days (I only spot checked).That's rather abusive IMHO.

[Adam228]

Well you could always put the ad section in a private area of the forums, and have some kind of sign up to gain access (thereby searchability)

Obviously this is a pain for Staff to have to add people, and something automated would have to be done.

I imagine most webhosting companies that come here and advertise (the same people that post...) would object to that because there offers would not be indexed by search engines, and some users may never know Host Hide Out has any offers/requests at all...

So that was really just a really long way of saying live with it lol

[Chicken]

I don't think limiting access would be the answer. To the question asked...
...it is possible to have an additional "New Posts" type button that does not include offers/requests.
The answer is yes, however it would have to be done so that it isn't just overly confusing. The other issue is that the ads *are* new posts. I can understand that people may not be interested in reading them, but I'm not entirely sure about offering a way to view new posts without them. Technically, it can be done.

There's a few things I'm milling over to make things more balanced, but I haven't decided on anything just yet, and this (and next) month have so much going on. Even though I don't think "a private area of the forums" is the solution, I'm taking it all in and it's good to have out-of-th-box suggestions and comments.

[projo]

I'm back.

I would not complain if "new posts" continue to return ads. It is surely not worth swapping the minor frustration for another. Advertising is part of the business and I admit that I have responded to ads (taken out accounts) even when not looking.

Maybe one day the forum software will allow each member to define what the "new posts" button means on an individual basis. Maybe even what the home page looks like. Instead of the current home page you could go directly to the search results of your choice. I normaly hit "new posts" as soon as the browser allows in any event. And bypassing the initial page could even reduce the server load.

Just thinking.

gary

[Adam228]

lol well you could just go straight to

http://www.hosthideout.com/search.php?do=getnew

Instead of http://www.hosthideout.com/ :P

[projo]

lol well you could just go straight to

http://www.hosthideout.com/search.php?do=getnew

Instead of http://www.hosthideout.com/ :P
That works. My link currently goes to
http://hosthideout.com/search.php?action=getdaily
which stopped working in the recent past. Version update??
Time to change it again.
gary

[Chicken]

Yeah, the version change made that invalid. The new version of that would be:

http://hosthideout.com/search.php?do=getdaily

-which you can expand to:

http://hosthideout.com/search.php?do=getdaily&days=3

-and I can post how to remove certain forums from the results so you could create a URL which returns exactly what you want. The info is upstairs though, so I'll watch a bit o' football and bring it down in a short bit.

[ldcdc]

Jan, don't take it personally. For what is worth, HHO is a great place for the tightly knit community it has. WHT is great because it is big, has lots of activity and answers to questions are readily available.

Fact is that newbies (inclusing kids) are more welcome in smaller places, like HHO, than they are in big ones. If any users get a lot of unwarranted bashing at WHT, they are the newbies (as in newly registered users). There are reasons for that, but let's not get into details.

Back to the topic:

IMO the problem is not necessarily how to eliminate the ads threads from the "New posts" feature, but that too much advertising, like the case mentioned by the OP, is very close to the practice of spamming.

[projo]

there is a place for people like you... Hi Jon, have a late night? Oh, I remember those days.

[gaiahost]

heh sorry more like late new years :-P

Oh and jan lol :duel: no... just no... i know your going to say "blah blah blah" but once again just remember i was the one who held on anz support.... not you. :-P