Why the extra adverts?

[Craig]

Mar 24, 2016 18:13:47 GMT -8 blitzen said:

Mar 24, 2016 18:01:13 GMT -8 Matt said:

I think the ad-free program is a good one, but I do have a suggestion that may improve it

I think you should be allowed to purchase pageviews in bulk and have them Not end at the end of the month, just pageviews that can be used whenever. Personally it makes no sense to me that the ad-free ends at the end of the month even if you haven't used the pageviews

This is exactly how I feel about it. If you're paying for a set number of page views you should get that set number. Otherwise it can be considered false advertising/misleading if it stops your ad-free before your page views run out.

But you are not paying for 50,000 pageviews, per se, you are paying for the calendar month.  The adfree runs on a per calender month basis, on a tiered system, so it's $8 for upto 50,000 pageviews.

[Matt]

Mar 25, 2016 2:25:56 GMT -8 Craig said:

Mar 24, 2016 18:13:47 GMT -8 blitzen said:

This is exactly how I feel about it. If you're paying for a set number of page views you should get that set number. Otherwise it can be considered false advertising/misleading if it stops your ad-free before your page views run out.

But you are not paying for 50,000 pageviews, per se, you are paying for the calendar month.  The adfree runs on a per calender month basis, on a tiered system, so it's $8 for upto 50,000 pageviews.

Yes but even if you purchase the one-time ad-free it still only runs for the calendar month.

[Michael]

Mar 24, 2016 17:52:15 GMT -8 blitzen said:

Atm, you have to view desktop mode in order to moderate as the moderation functions on mobile view are very limited, so it's not so simple as telling a person to go on mobile view only. Likewise for members, you can't do bold or any of that stuff so easily on mobile view unless you're willing to figure out where all the symbols are in your keyboard (be it touch or physical on a mobile).

I'm well aware of what other sites do, but you're not them.

Some of the ads are intrusive, especially flashing ones and auto-play ones. I saw another auto play one today but when I checked back after finding out what the buttons I had to press was it had stopped so I didn't get a chance to report it. You have income from various sources, not just adverts, and seem to be able to pay full time staff so I don't think your earnings are low, especially when you're charging 50 bucks to set up someones forum if they so choose it (even though all the information on how to do so is free on here).

And I only have 7 members on my board. It's hardly going to break your bank is it if some of them use ad block? Plus you have millions of dead forums showing ad impressions to guests, then there's the millions of forums that are very active that will be getting lots of ad impressions. There's a reason people use it and unfortunately you can't force someone not to use it. Complain to the ad-block creators if it's that much of a problem. You should just go back to the 2 ads and charge more for advertising impressions. Hell, you could get loads of impressions just by having ads shown on this forum; the user base on this board is huge.

Even if you don't remove that third ad, the least you can do is just change it to a standard square one. By allowing video based and animated ones you'll be making more work load for yourself via the reports. Seems a waste of time to allow those ads through.

Lastly, ad-free is only available to those who can a) afford it and b) want to have money wasted when the month ends but the impressions haven't. 

If you're looking for moderate functions then you can easily switch between the two views, again if you're concerned about bandwidth then spend as little time on desktop view as possible. Regardless of this v6 will bring you the ability to do this at any screen size you want. The mobile WYSIWYG will be just as full featured on mobile as it is on your full size desktop as home as well.

If you see an ad that is intrusive or violates one of our ad-policies, report it to us. Unlike other companies we have an open forum where we discuss issues with users openly and we're always doing our best to meet customer demands. We do offer setup calls for $50. This is a premium option that isn't targeted at those who want to spend the time reading the information here (for free). The people who purchase the setup call want it done for them as a convenience. One of our talented support staff does a one-on-one screenshare with the customer and walks them through the basic functions of a forum and answers any and all questions they may have about our service and how to make their forum successful or fit their needs. Again, this is a convenience, this isn't for everyone! Just like having someone wash your car for you as opposed to doing it yourself in your driveway. Setup calls are far more popular on Forums.net where businesses want some questions answered quickly and their forum set up quickly so that they can go about using it for whatever they desire.

I wasn't referring to your members specifically, but more as a representation of our total userbase. Your argument of "well I'm just one person, it won't hurt them" is the same argument that people use to steal from stores. It's theft, plain and simple. Whatever line you want to use to justify that is fine with me because at the end of the day, I'm not going to make a huge impact no matter what I say. You need to make that moral decision yourself. 

You should just go back to the 2 ads and charge more for advertising impressions.

 
This isn't how online advertising works. We need to fill advertising spots and we don't always get to pick "yeah we only want these super high value impressions". In a perfect world that would be true, but that isn't the one we live in. If you want to discuss the subtle nuances of how online advertising works, fill rate, CPM, etc. feel free to PM me.

We keep support ad-free as we feel that customers shouldn't have to look at ads while they're getting support. No other reason. We pay to keep this forum ad-free for our users and do so happily. We aren't trying to milk every last dollar out of each of you. When our customers are successful and happy, so are we.

When you pay for a 50,000 pageview pack of ad free you're paying for a month of ad-free for your forum. You are not paying for 50,000 pageviews. The point of the 50,000 pageviews is that covers a full months usage of pageviews for a lot of forums. If you're using more than 50,000 then the month will cost you more depending on how many you go up to. Again pageviews is just how we measure activity in relation to that amount of time (a month).

Bottom line to all of this is that if you feel that we're somehow scamming you or our advertisements are absurdly over the top or that our support is garbage or whatever, I wholeheartedly encourage you to check out our competition. I firmly believe having been in this industry for the last 4+ years that we are very reasonably priced, use unobtrusive advertising (and work hard to keep it that way) and have the best customer service of any free forum host on the web. With v6 around the corner the best is only going to get better.

[Matt]

Michael
I love PB and I never said that your support was bad, you guys have the best support of any forum provider I've seen.
All I'm saying is that is it possible that in the future an option could be considered to purchase a package of pageviews and have them run for as long as it takes to use them, is this something that could be considered in the future?

You guys are the best, I would never go to anyone else for forums, It's just a suggestion I have for ad-free

[Michael]

Mar 25, 2016 12:08:23 GMT -8 Matt said:

Michael
I love PB and I never said that your support was bad, you guys have the best support of any forum provider I've seen.
All I'm saying is that is it possible that in the future an option could be considered to purchase a package of pageviews and have them run for as long as it takes to use them, is this something that could be considered in the future?

You guys are the best, I would never go to anyone else for forums, It's just a suggestion I have for ad-free

We've already entertained this exact idea. I forget if I was the one to suggest it but it sounds like something I'd come up with. We're not exactly sure where we're going to take the direction ad-free is going but we're definitely investigating some new possibilities for the future. Likely with or post v6 launch. 

[Matt]

Mar 25, 2016 14:01:54 GMT -8 Michael said:

Mar 25, 2016 12:08:23 GMT -8 Matt said:

Michael
I love PB and I never said that your support was bad, you guys have the best support of any forum provider I've seen.
All I'm saying is that is it possible that in the future an option could be considered to purchase a package of pageviews and have them run for as long as it takes to use them, is this something that could be considered in the future?

You guys are the best, I would never go to anyone else for forums, It's just a suggestion I have for ad-free

We've already entertained this exact idea. I forget if I was the one to suggest it but it sounds like something I'd come up with. We're not exactly sure where we're going to take the direction ad-free is going but we're definitely investigating some new possibilities for the future. Likely with or post v6 launch. 

Thanks for letting me know about this! Yes some different options would possibly make me consider purchasing ad-free

[blitzen]

Tooting your own horn isn't going to persuade me you are value for money. Nor do I know of any support forum for free forum software that has a section dedicated to people praising them. I'm sorry but your praise board just reeks of arrogance and self applauding. If I would have seen when I first tried Proboards I would have stayed clear of the software. I don't think any company representatives should make grandiose claims about their company unless they have the evidence to back it up.

There's only a few reasons for me staying with pb. Otherwise I would use the competition.

And if you sell something as 50k pv per month you have to honour that statement. In the UK you would be breaking Trading Standards laws. Don't know what the USA has as equivalent. Either do ad free on a monthly basis with no limit on views or do it by a set limit on views. You can't have both without the consumer loosing out.

Several people in this thread have even said that's the problem they have with ad free. So it seems you are cutting your nose off to spite your face. So there's another option to make money. You would get more purchases of ad free if you made it fair to consumers.

Also calling your userbase that uses ad blockers thieves is insulting and rude. They are not thieving anything from you. If so the ad blockers would be against the law. You can't steal what isn't even there to take. As someone representing Proboards your comments reflect badly on PB. You're supposed to be impartial. If I phoned up a call centre and the operator accused me of being a thief I would take it to their boss or consumer protection services.

I understand how advertising works. You choose the charges you set per impression unless you are using a third party like Google adwords. I have used adwords myself before.

And as I said, the ads sometimes stop before we can report. Plus it's impossible to report the mobile redirects as you don't get any chance to screenshot the redirect. I had one happen a earlier.

The 50 dollars for setup is a waste of money for free boards as there is no guarantee the board will even get lots of members. Even businesses can't guarantee it will be used but they ten to have more money to burn than random people looking to run a community.

It's all well and good talking about v6 but that's not here yet and probably won't be for a good while. So fix things in the present and worry about v6 when it's in beta.

[Boy_Wonder]

Let me wade in here - it would NOT be against the UK trading standards do you want to know why?

When you SELECT to purchase ad free on a one time payment the screen shows in the "When to apply" period the dates it will run.

Ergo you enter into a contract when you purchase the one off 50k package that this will ONLY run between a set date.

prntscr.com/ak5vdd < just incase you need visual proof.

Therefore proboards isn't "scamming" you. It's blatantly right there in your face "this will only apply to this month, between these dates"

[blitzen]

It is against trading standards to label any product you sell with misleading information. Ergo, it would be illegal as it's not giving what it says initially. Fine print don't matter. If someone sold washing powder call turnswhitesbright and it didn't that's against trading standards.

Your screenshot even shows you buying 50k page views. As I said, you cannot have both as it simply doesn't work. There will always be unused pageviews or parts of the month left over when the pv run out. So the consumer is either not getting the month they paid for or the pageviews they paid for. So yes, it can be seen as a scam. It's not that hard to see the problem with it.

[Boy_Wonder]

ACtualy my screenshot shows me buying 50k pageviews to be applied within a set period. It does not say ANYWHERE that those 50k must be honoured by proboards. It states the following:

Ad-free type: One time Payment

Ad-free Pageviews: 50,000
Ad-free pageviews will be added to the admin panel for use and application in batches of 50,000. For example purchasing 150,000 would give 3 50,000 to the admin area (No where does this say you will be GIVEN all 50,000)

WHEN TO APPLY
March 26-March 31

Note the LARGER text. This tells you EXACTLY what period it will apply in. There is no misleading information. The blurb below the Ad-free pageviews does not state 50,000 pageviews will be honoured, it merely states that they only place ad-free pageviews in batches of 50k. Hint, I've studied trading standards law, there is no foul play.

IF on the other hand I deign to select monthly subscription it gives me a TOTALLY different view 


prntscr.com/ak6elh

Where oh look it gives me a pro-rata'd amount of $1.60 due to the time and pageviews as well as allowing me to enable over draft that would then charge me for any pageviews OVER the 50k giving me a full month if need be

[blitzen]

Your screen shot still backs up what I said. Simply by selling you a set number they are supposed to honour that, likewise with a month. But as I already pointed out they cannot honour both as it doesn't work. I don't know why you defend them so. It's obvious to several in this topic that ad free is not implemented fairly or sensibly.

You can repeat it till your fingertips are numb. Doesn't make what I said any less true.

If you truly studied it you'd know the ad free is misleading to the average consumer. A consumer will always lose out unless Proboards revamps their ad free offerings to allow one or the other. Providing both deliberately causes confusion and makes little sense.

Oh and the average small forum won't get anywhere near 50k in a month. So they pay for ad free and end up with loads of leftover impressions. It would make more sense to sell impressions only to save money for them and give consumers what they pay for. Currently people are paying more than they should for most forums thus lining pbs pockets.

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

But some mobile phone companies that offer no contracts have a set amount of "x" minutes for a certain period ~ and not all will rollover those minutes not used into the next payment period.

Some will; some don't.

Neither are right or wrong. It's the plans they offer and you can either accept their terms or not.

[Boy_Wonder]

Mar 26, 2016 0:18:47 GMT -8 blitzen said:

Your screen shot still backs up what I said. Simply by selling you a set number they are supposed to honour that, likewise with a month. But as I already pointed out they cannot honour both as it doesn't work. I don't know why you defend them so. It's obvious to several in this topic that ad free is not implemented fairly or sensibly.

You can repeat it till your fingertips are numb. Doesn't make what I said any less true.

If you truly studied it you'd know the ad free is misleading to the average consumer. A consumer will always lose out unless Proboards revamps their ad free offerings to allow one or the other. Providing both deliberately causes confusion and makes little sense.

Oh and the average small forum won't get anywhere near 50k in a month. So they pay for ad free and end up with loads of leftover impressions. It would make more sense to sell impressions only to save money for them and give consumers what they pay for. Currently people are paying more than they should for most forums thus lining pbs pockets.

The consumer loses out if the consumer doesn't read. Proboards does NOT state that they are doing anything OTHER then offering batches of pageviews in 50k a month. This is a minimum. They do not -have- to honour it as that's not what they say on one off. Also no it doesn't provide confusion unless the consumer does not READ. I understand PERFECTLY what proboards are offering, and I have always understood this. Also most my forums average at least 50k pageviews a month other then ones I'm only just starting!

Mar 26, 2016 0:27:27 GMT -8 ♥ ℒʊ√ ♥ said:

But some mobile phone companies that offer no contracts have a set amount of "x" minutes for a certain period ~ and not all will rollover those minutes not used into the next payment period.

Some will; some don't.

Neither are right or wrong. It's the plans they offer and you can either accept their terms or not.

As luv says I've got a contract with three

I'm offered 600minutes
4gb internet
unlimited texts

Regardless of if I use my 600 minutes and 4gb internet in a month they don't roll it over. That is how much I have as maximum to use each month. If I go over it I have to pay (and that's expensive)

[blitzen]

Mar 26, 2016 0:27:27 GMT -8 ♥ ℒʊ√ ♥ said:

But some mobile phone companies that offer no contracts have a set amount of "x" minutes for a certain period ~ and not all will rollover those minutes not used into the next payment period.

Some will; some don't.

Neither are right or wrong. It's the plans they offer and you can either accept their terms or not.

Then they're just as bad. And also a bit different to pageviews.

A consumer is more likely to use a set number of call minutes in a month than they are page views on a small forum.

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

Minutes, pageviews are alike.

It's the amount of product offered by a company and used by the consumer for a set period of time.

There's nothing bad about it. It's their terms and consumers understand that. It's the consumers choice whether to sign on or not.