What Else Would You Like To See On Phoronix This Spring?

[Michael]

Another issue I have to agree with, especially the floating adds that screw up your Broswers operation. I understand the need for ads, but there is no justification for the pop up and floating adds. All they really do is put Phoronix in very poor light.

As said already in earlier post: "Ads like that aren't supposed to happen. When totally irrelevant ads appear, they are blocked. I don't get to see/approve every ad out there. When I see a bogus ad myself I can block the URL but otherwise I rely upon people like you who see these bogus ads (mostly in non-US countries) to let me know their URL so I can block them."

[wizard69]

I try to disable my adblocker and click on your ads from times to times but I'm really not having a good time browsing Phoronix with ads. They slow down my Firefox to a crawl and some (read: way too many) of them are distracting and/or targetting idiots. I wouldn't click on some of those even if you paid me to.

Ads that screw up your browser are the worst offenders and frankly I don't like them at all. As you say why would you even bother supporting a company that targets idiots. Personally I avoid all pop up ads and will not click on them.

[Luke]

I see a two-level program as the future here

I don't have the resources until the ad blocking is disabled. I've already shown that when there's very fruitful ad campaigns I write more interesting content.

Ad supported models as a primary business model are not going to last here or anywhere due to the behavior of the large advertising companies, which comments here show forcing more and more poeple to use adblockers and security browsers. It is my belief that adblocking will soon become the norm throughout the Internet, for nearly all users, due to the behavior of the major adservers and the fallout from the NSA scandals. As a result, I expect that a lot of the major adserving companies will either go belly-up or be forced to seriously reduce what they pay. I also expect to see some of the major ad-funded commercial services like Youtube get into serious trouble as revenues plummet. Some may not make it.

I would advise Phoronix to get ahead of this wave before Michael gets swamped by it. Best bet might be to say "money talks" when it comes to deciding what is researched or benchmarked next. Each proposed major project would be crowdfunded like "open source hardware." Some would make it, some would not. This would become the dominent revenue generator as ad revenues tailed off. Manufacturers, users, or anyone else could contribute, before a project got the green light it would have to pay its share of all Phoronix expenses, Michael's income included. If no revenue comes in, Michael "goes on strike," as anyone has the right to do, and NO articles are written until funded.

If the ad companies drive the whole Internet to block them, obviously something else must be found.

One final point: When machines must be protected, a lot of people here do have junk machines sitting around. Is it worth the time in terms of Phoronix revenue to periodically fire up a junk machine on a default live USB installer with no adblocking, connect to the site, click a few ads and pages, then shut down? Due to hardware fingerprinting (clock skew, etc), that's what it takes to permit 3ed party adservers unrestricted access without endangering your main machine these days. I've got an old Pentium 4 I can use for this when I get spare time if it would pay more than a few cents to Michael.

[Michael]

Is it worth the time in terms of Phoronix revenue to periodically fire up a junk machine on a default live USB installer with no adblocking, connect to the site, click a few ads and pages, then shut down?

Click ads isn't even important... Paid per impression.

[wizard69]

I disagree completely.

Again, that isn't possible to write less articles and just put more polishing into articles... Not until there's less AdBlockers, more high quality Linux advertisements available, more premium subscribers, etc.

At the rate you are going here you are encouraging people to use adblockers. Today I'm getting two to three unwanted adds per page view that are the same damned thing I see on every other page view. Beyond that your pop ups and floating adds play hell with people's browsers.

It will come to the point where people will realize there is little content to be had and just say screw it, I will go someplace else or just turn on the ad lockers to reject everything. Content is what makes the embedded ads barable, if the the content is fluff and I just dismissed multiple adds to read it I'm not going to be a happy camper. I'm already skipping numerous articles because I don't want to deal with the floating crap.

I really think you have worked yourself into a situation where you think your only choice is to keep doing the same thing you have always done. Maybe you are right but I'm pretty sure experimentation with new ideas and approaches is worth a try.

On top of all of that take a day off once a week!! It might refresh your mind and change your perspective some.

[wizard69]

Embedded more ads in the content pages.

If you are getting paid by impression why not embedded the ads into the web page content instead of using the pop ups and floating ads? The problem isn't the ads themselves, I understand the need to make money to support the site, the problem is the pop ups and floating crap which plays hell with most browsers. Hell interleave every posting in the forums with an add for all I care, as long as the ads don't screw up my system I'm not bothered. I just take real offense to these pop ups and floaters that cause my system performance issues and usability issues.

[Michael]

If you are getting paid by impression why not embedded the ads into the web page content instead of using the pop ups and floating ads? The problem isn't the ads themselves, I understand the need to make money to support the site, the problem is the pop ups and floating crap which plays hell with most browsers. Hell interleave every posting in the forums with an add for all I care, as long as the ads don't screw up my system I'm not bothered. I just take real offense to these pop ups and floaters that cause my system performance issues and usability issues.

My only tags are the standard ones but not pop-ups / floating ones... those ones end up getting inserted without my control by some advertisers that will hide them in JS, etc.

[wizard69]

I probably shouldn't ask but what does the NSA have to do with this?

... It is my belief that adblocking will soon become the norm throughout the Internet, for nearly all users, due to the behavior of the major adservers and the fallout from the NSA scandals. As a result, I expect that a lot of the major adserving companies will either go belly-up or be forced to seriously reduce what they pay. I also expect to see some of the major ad-funded commercial services like Youtube get into serious trouble as revenues plummet. Some may not make it.

....

I have to agree with the idea that this non-sense with ads won't go on forever, way to much money gets paid out for any economic benefit gained. So people's earnings from those ads will decline. However what does this have to do with the NSA?

Honestly I see getting paid by impression going out the window because most of those impressions generate no business at all. Really all that is accomplished is a waste of bandwidth.

[wizard69]

My only tags are the standard ones but not pop-ups / floating ones... those ones end up getting inserted without my control by some advertisers that will hide them in JS, etc.

Maybe you need to talk to those advertisers. Some of those floaters are pretty bad when it comes to performance and usability on a machine.

[Krysto]

More ARM stuff.