The dictaphone (BE/GTS/...)

[Phoenix the II]

Originally Posted by Kabutee

Thanks for the tip : I got rid of the writing.com ads blocking problem today.

Should work on the story soon ! But meanwhile, have fun guys

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeee

[JBird]

We can always adopt an orphaned thread in the BE Addventure.

(This is Minute Man, by the way )

[Kabutee]

Well, no need for this if you want to go on : adding on an existing story still work perfectly !

Your additions were great by the way. And you draw too ? Lucky you !

[JBird]

Originally Posted by Kabutee

Your additions were great by the way. And you draw too ? Lucky you !

Thanks. Too bad I don't draw as much as I would like.

[Kabutee]

And looks like writing.com found a new way to spam with the "shut down your ad blocker" even with the previous JS filter.

Dammit, I understand the point, but I don't think it's really useful in the end : it probably makes more users flee that unactivate their adblocker (especially when you see the kind of ads/ads providers they have on their website).

Still, I'm back writing.

[JBird]

I'm not inherently against advertisement, since it's how most websites pay the bills. But to have ads that practically invade the browser is asking for them to be blocked. And Writing.com's ads make me want to take a shower with my PC. It's even more frustrating to deal with on my iPhone because certain ads will force open the app store.

[Phoenix the II]

Originally Posted by Kabutee

And looks like writing.com found a new way to spam with the "shut down your ad blocker" even with the previous JS filter.

Dammit, I understand the point, but I don't think it's really useful in the end : it probably makes more users flee that unactivate their adblocker (especially when you see the kind of ads/ads providers they have on their website).

Still, I'm back writing.

I don't see any anti adblock warnings...? Where you're seeing it? I can probably find out whats happening and find another filter for it agian

[Alisonprime]

Yeah I'm getting them too and now having to wait in order to access the stories. I loved this site and I had been a member for so so long. Supported them with my adblock turned off until the ads started to become raunchy and made me feel....turned off from the website.

I was about to pay for my sub there just cause I felt guilty until the new adblock warning came up and basically said "either turn this off and see a dude in a speedo all the time during your viewing or fork over 20 dollars bitch."

I then had the displeasure of reading up on the forum and seeing Storymasters responses to everyone's critiques and him deleting posts and going from a calm collected moderator to a cruel and horrible dictator. I then thought "Is this the type of behavior I want to support with my 20 dollars. This man has no love for the community or its people. He just wishes to get money money money. Forget supporting this site"

I have deleted the bookmarks to my favorite stories. I'm done with writing.com. I even wrote a few chapters in a few stories which got high praise. I was about ready to give into the demand until I saw how he responded to critique and legitimate complaints. If you are not able to handle criticism then don't run a website based on writing which is the number one source for critique in the world for the longest time.

*End of Rant*

[geno13]

I even saw a thread on Metamorphose that was discussing Storymaster's adblock rampage and he actually came over as a guest and naturally acted rude while defending himself and then demanded the thread be deleted.

[Kabutee]

Here comes the big post !

Phoenix > Well, it's exactly a before (you click on any chapter, and here you have a pop up saying "Please, disable your adblocker" and then you have to wait 5 seconds to read the chapter... even with the filter on ! He must have found a way to bypass it with another script.

JBird > A shower with the computer, yup. I felt like it too ! Urgh, my eyes...

Alison > I would have no problem either with the ads if they were "correct". I laughed at your "dude in a speedo" thing : it's exactly this. I'm like "I'm okay with adds, not with having my eyes basically being raped at every single page". And it's not one ad a page : it's at least three. And no, they're not trying to sell me shoes or shirts. I know we're in the erotica section, but well, doesn't make us dumb.

Geno13 > Yep, looks like the guy is trying to explain to the whole world why they're wrong.

In a way, he's right : not using ad blockers was in the users policy of Writing.com since the beginning. And he needs money to run the website. So, his website, his policy. But there are three things here :

- Still, there is a subtle difference between "Ads" and "Ads everywhere so shitty you can barely look at your screen". You can't shit on someone's head because your policy says "You have to accept me being around". So, yep, people then conjure the power of the holy adblocker. You mess up, we mess up.

- I like the message trying to make you pay : "Basic Membership for $19.95 per year ($1.67 per month) is mostly ad-free and does allow use of ad blockers." Yeah, sure, I'm going to pay for mostly something. What if I pay and then have the speedo guy still there ? Sure not, my good sir.

- "Community" is the word written everywhere on the website. Sure, the guy behind the website is still the boss, but the problem with communities is that... there is a community. And people aren't bots : they won't accept everything.

Maybe the guy has a bad business model in the end : free to play games understood that long ago, as they mostly (uhuh) stopped with the adds. Their new policy is : gather as many people as you can for free (not using points like "You use the server ressources, you pay") so a very small number of them will spend a lot of money in there because they like what's done here (and the ciommunity is big and lives) and wants to buy stuff from the game.

Users ARE a "ressource" to say it with ugly words. The more you have, even free ones, the more you can attract "whales" (the codename of the mobile industry for people spending a lot of money in their free to play games) and make money. You can use ads too, sure, but it's only a little "plus" as it is really hard to earn anything just with them.

So trying to earn money with ads is the hardest way. And trying to invade people screen with them is the best way to make them flee. And stop writing. And diminish the community size, and the chances of people spending money in (just one people paying for a basic memebership is worth thousands and thousands of views of a page full of ads) is just commiting online suicide.

So, I don't know, the guy behind the site is ranting about "You're not happy, then you go", so the question is : is there another website providing quite similar services ?

[vincent_richter]

Looks like they might've cleaned up - no bad ads on my latest check. Maybe someone finally talked to an attorney?

[Phoenix the II]

Ok, took out my shotgun:

1. Install extension to allow custom user scripts:

Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir.../greasemonkey/
Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...mpobfkfo?hl=en

2. Install my shotgun: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...463585.user.js (Changed to dropbox as userscripts.org seems to be failing to work properly at the moment...)

3. ???
4. Profit, Have no whiny site anymore!


Edit: Ugh, seems greasemonkey/tampermonkey don't like installing the script... Fixing that, please wait a bit the above should work...

Edit2: Fixed that, using a dropbox link for the userscript now...