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| Swed Thu 14th Jun 2007 00:37
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Originally posted by Sketty:
I think it was hinted that there were more changes afoot:
non-pro
no more than 5 images/day
no more than 2MB/image
ah i see so we will be paying for storage space next?
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| Pueo PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 02:31
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I've tested it. It appears the adblock plug-in extention for Firefox effectively banishes the google ads.
Adblock or Adblock Plus should be effective:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
Also you may want the Adblock filterset extention. It gives adblock a regularly updated set of ads to remove:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1136
Of course blocking the ads is a little beyond the subject. Just because I don't see the ad doesn't mean it isn't there. It's the principle of the thing. Pros should never see ads no matter what browser or software they've got installed.
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| LittleOurkie PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 03:27
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The 5 images per day will be no real problem, but that 2mb per image limit if implemented will be a deal killer for me.....Gone with the wind.........
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| Kaska Thu 14th Jun 2007 08:30
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I've just noticed something about this whole issue and I thought I'd share it with you here.
Internet websites are about visitors, people, traffic, being known... fotothing is just that. It was bought by a commercial company, they invested money in it and even if they didn't intend to make much money directly, it is still about money. Visitors, users, members, page views... it's money.
adding ads on PRO members pages stirred the pot quite a lot, and got them what they wanted in some ways. Whether it will last, it's something they don't know but they do count on us to be angry and to react and to check the site even more frequently and visit others pages. The whole protest gave them just that.
Check alexa.com for traffic graph, in the last few days they got higher ranking than it the last 3 months: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=fotothing.com/&url=fotothing.com/
The only thing that would really hurt them would be if all the pro's would stop visiting, uploading the pictures and simply care about the site, but for that we are way to close community, we met our friends here, we like many other members, we come for them so inspite the anger we'll still be comming, or maybe because of the anger we'll come even more often just to check if anything changed...
this is my own reflection on the subject.
My own pro membership is about to expire, I know I'll not renew but I think I'll stay for the people I met here and because I like it here.
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| stuboy Thu 14th Jun 2007 09:37
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Originally posted by Kaska:
it is still about money.
Of course it is, I don't think anyone is as stupid to think it isn't.
I've nothing against them trying to make money, without money the site wouldn't last.
None of us go to work without wanting to be paid for it, we've all got bills to pay.
If they don't get enough income from people paying to use the site they have to look at other ways to bring the money in.
All the people saying they are not going to go PRO or renew their PRO isn't doing this cause any good.
Everybody is too busy telling Fotothing what they shouldn't do (me included) but no-one has come up with a real idea of how they can help them make this a viable site .
I do however think it was wrong of them to place ads on PRO's without telling them.
After all we were told we wouldn't get any & we PAID not to have any.
We all have the right to shout about it ...... But, saying "I'm leaving", "I'm not going to renew my PRO" ??????
So, let's have some realistic ideas for them instead of just complaining about things we can't answer ourselves :-)
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| jceca PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 12:56
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Originally posted by Kaska:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=fotothing.com/&url=fotothing.com/
Fotothing.com users come from these countries:
United Kingdom 13.5%
Iran 13.5%
United States 9.9%
Poland 6.2%
Brazil 5.4%
other ...
1st place UK and iran !!!!!!!!
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| Pueo PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 13:00
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Originally posted by stuboy:
So, let's have some realistic ideas for them instead of just complaining about things we can't answer ourselves :-)
Hmm how about corporate sponsored challenges? (This week's Challenge is "McBurgles"! Take the best picture of this theme and win a coupon!) Or selling Fotothing branded items? Or selling users prints from the uploaded photos?
Or maybe they could give photo printed T-shirts to challenge winners with all of ADFN's various brands/websites being advertised on the back. Sure we'd be walking billboards but we'd also be winners!
Well I dunno, I doubt the overhead for this site can be THAT high. Google ads alone pay for all sorts of sites to run and then some. I mean really if plentyoffish.com can take on dating mega-site match.com with one guy at them helm and be run largely out of this guy's spare bedroom, how much can Fotothing really take to run? Markus Frind, who runs plentyoffish.com without subscriptions, says the site brings in between $5 million and $10 million a year using just advertising.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/biz/index.php?ntid=136791&ntpid=2
Maybe it works differently in the UK than it does in Canada but if Frind can get that kind of leverage from his site, I doubt Fotothing can be that bad off. Granted FT probably has more storage space and bandwidth costs to deal with than "plenty of fish" does. Even so, I could be wrong but it appears to me that putting ads on Fotothing Pros sounds more like greed than need. I doubt it should take more than $416 thousand dollars a month to run Fotothing.
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| Sketty PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 13:08
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Originally posted by stuboy:
Everybody is too busy telling Fotothing what they shouldn't do (me included) but no-one has come up with a real idea of how they can help them make this a viable site . Why should we? It's their company and they get paid/pay themselves to sort out their own trouble. I didn't ask my customers how to make money when I had my own business; you go to business school to learn that and heck, I didn't need no steeeeenkin business school to tell me that I actually needed to get off my arse and open my shop earlier/not to slope off when I felt like it to make money.
'sides, they haven't asked for any suggestions and they probably could care less what their customers can come up with. They are big boys after all.....
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| Deguisse Thu 14th Jun 2007 13:14
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I'd Mention ideas but, I have mentioned a few other things here and i was ignored and two or three posts later someone else says same thing and it is "you are right!!"
I get totally ignored. so to hell with it.
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| megmet PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 13:23
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Originally posted by stuboy:
Everybody is too busy telling Fotothing what they shouldn't do (me included) but no-one has come up with a real idea of how they can help them make this a viable site .
OK Stu, I agree with you so here is my idea for what its worth.....
Firstly with the free accounts....put a time limit on of say three months, after that the choice should be to either pay or have your IP address blocked.
The incentive of becoming a Pro member should be restored for all with immediate effect… (just say your sorry you were wrong fotothing), there should absolutely not be any Ads…Googles or anybody else’s for that matter!
The price of Pro membership should be no more than $25, this is the going rate for most sites, anything above this is just greed and is counter productive.
Lots of people would like to pay for the use of this site but are not able to contribute larger amounts, but if the cost is kept at a reasonable amount far more will be able and willing to pay..........
It’s a no brainer….more people willing to pay = more site income = no need for unwanted Ads…!!!!!!
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| garynumber1cleaner Thu 14th Jun 2007 13:32
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Originally posted by jceca:
Fotothing.com users come from these countries:
United Kingdom 13.5%
Iran 13.5%
United States 9.9%
Poland 6.2%
Brazil 5.4%
other ...
1st place UK and iran !!!!!!!!
I see Stuboys country are out of the top 6 ... are they in the top 10 I wonder ?
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| Deguisse Thu 14th Jun 2007 13:35
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Originally posted by Deguisse:
Deguisse
Sun 10th Jun 2007 12:48 GMT
They would make more moneys if they just lowered the price for a "pro" membership.
or create multiple levels of pro. Give people a choice.
low level pro (at 1/3 the normal price) 10 uploads a day
mid level pro (at 2/3 the normal price) 30 uploads a day, etc. etc.
the thing i do not like with Google ads are that they advertise the "Competition"
is that really a wise thing to do?????
I mentioned pretty much same thing 4 days ago.
it appears to me that I am not a "pro" so what i say means nothing.
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| garynumber1cleaner Thu 14th Jun 2007 13:42
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Originally posted by megmet:
Firstly with the free accounts....put a time limit on of say three months, after that the choice should be to either pay or have your IP address blocked.
you trying to get rid of me meg ? ;-)
Originally posted by megmet:
The price of Pro membership should be no more than $25, this is the going rate for most sites, anything above this is just greed and is counter productive.
How about make it a full membership site with adds on forum home pages / FT home page but no adds on any members page ... charge all members £10.00 each per year, and that way FT will still get revenue from advertisers and happy members with no adds all equal and all paying £10.00 x 135,600 members. Any Pro who has paid already just renews when there current membership expires ?
And FT could also look into supplying FT Type mugs/T-shirts with peoples fav pictures printed on them via ft ?
£10.00 x 136,500 = problem solved ... nice yearly turnover ...would they need any adds ?
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| jceca PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 13:54
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my country is NOT on the paying list ...
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| garynumber1cleaner Thu 14th Jun 2007 14:02
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Originally posted by jceca:
dont know ?
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| ButterflyShutterfly Thu 14th Jun 2007 14:37
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Is an ad free site really what people pay for? For me, I was more interested in being able to upload more pictures, have unlimited messages and be able to have more than 40 comments on a picture. That was the inspiration for me to have a pro membership and what I paid for. The ads ... well, I agree that while it really was a breach of contract on the part of FT to put them on pro members pages when they weren't supposed to... I honestly did not even notice them until all this stuff happened and brought the ads to my attention.
This site is awesome despite all the bickering over some silly little ads. I think FT does a great job of keeping the site online and running smoothly. If you think about how much you paid for a pro membership and break it down into how much time is spent on this site...I think you would find it's mere pennies...I see it went up to $5 a month...anyway... if it's something you really love, then paying a few bucks to support it isn't that bad. If FT needs the ads to stay alive then so be it. I think everyone would be sad if the site went bankrupt and ceased to exist due to lack of money. The money doesn't just come from the sky, they have to get it somewhere. Look up how much it would cost to store pictures online somewhere else...and you might see that FT is a pretty good deal. The ads here are not obtrusive pop ups or flashing spinning crazy things... besides, the firefox ad on will elminate those google ads if they bother people that much.
Anyway...that's my $.02...I don't think this issue is something everyone should get so worked up about.
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| jomoud PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 14:39
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Originally posted by jceca:
Fotothing.com users come from these countries:
United Kingdom 13.5%
Iran 13.5%
United States 9.9%
Poland 6.2%
Brazil 5.4%
other ...
I know at least 2 are from Canada:):):)
one is me:):)
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| jomoud PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 14:41
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Originally posted by jceca:
Fotothing.com users come from these countries:
United Kingdom 13.5%
Iran 13.5%
United States 9.9%
Poland 6.2%
Brazil 5.4%
other ...
I know at least 2 are from Canada:):):)
one is me:):)
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| jomoud PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 14:46
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Fotothing.com users come from these countries:
United Kingdom13.5%Iran13.5%United States9.9%Poland6.2%Brazil5.4%
More...
United Kingdom13.5%Iran13.5%United States9.9%Poland6.2%Brazil5.4%Serbia and Montenegro5.2%India2.5%Hungary2.5%Canada2.2%Hong Kong2.0%Finland1.7%Portugal1.7%Austria1.7%Sweden1.5%Czech Republic1.5%Singapore1.5%Peru1.2%Lithuania1.2%Thailand1.2%Germany1.2%United Arab Emirates1.2%Russia1.0%Italy1.0%Greece1.0%China1.0%Other countries17.5%
Less...
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| jomoud PRO Thu 14th Jun 2007 14:50
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Where people go when on Fotothing.com:
fotothing.com - 721095%
devserv.fotothing.co592319m - 2%
forum.fotothing.com - 762148214%
Other websites - 1%
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173,285 members
2,597,200 photos
6,996,353 comments
