Video Ads

[Anonymous]

jeff's gone daily mail.
But Jeff's also gotta live

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh boy...these pop up ads might finally cure me of my DCUM time. If these new ads stay, I don't think I can.
Sorry, Jeff.

I am sorry to say it but it doesn't really mater. Either DCUM dies because users go away or DCUM dies because it is not worth our while to run it at current revenue levels.

I do not want to see DCUM go away. What I'm going to do, and I hope it helps you somehow, is I am going to start actually looking at the ads and if they interest me at all I'll click on them. Up until now I have literally never done that once, I am very good at ignoring ads completely. Well, there was that one TEMU ad with the men's underwear with a huge penis pocket on the front, I found that hard to ignore.

I'm not really sure how these ads make money for anyone though because I assume everybody just ignores them all. Am I wrong about that?

I feel the same. I purposely clicked on Keanu’s birthday and let it run while I walked out of the room. I’ll do that when I’m taking a break if it helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe people are being so mean...just saying they don't care if site is shut down because they are slightly inconvenienced.

Not what people are saying. And I’m the one pushing a pay to remove ads option. Reality is DCUM is a relax and unwind in the evening or relax for a 10 minute (okay 20 minute) coffee break guilty pleasure. There is no relax, enjoy, unwind if the ads are so distracting you can’t focus on the content.

I’ve been using DCUM for my kids K through college lifecycle. It has value. And a large part of the value is Jeff’s willingness to take the time to moderate well. I’m willing to chip in— by viewing static ads or by subscription, or some other creative way Jeff can find. But, all Jeff’s careful moderation is pointless if the ads are so distracting I can’t concentrate enough to read the content. In the end, DCUM is a product that I support. And will continue to support. Unless it goes the way of Twitter and becomes me wading through annoying stuff to find what I want. In that case, the product no longer has value.

[Anonymous]

I came here to complain about the ads, but it's already well covered.

I don't have a problem with ads, but why does it have mess with the DCUM experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly it’s so annoying & disruptive that it makes me want to close out of DCUM entirely & spend less time on it. Once I close the ad window, then another one pops up as soon as open a new topic/thread.

Yes, this. I exclusively visit DCUM on mobile and it’s now functionally impossible to do that because the video ads drain the battery so quickly. That just means I won’t be visiting the site.

Yes! My office doesn’t have WiFi (federal agency. Don’t ask for a rationale. There probably isn’t one). The cellular running the constant ads doesn’t work.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for explaining the work involved to take payments. But... it may be worth it (of course this is making a big assumption you have the time for it). Based on your guesses on how many users would pay, how much would you need to charge a month or year for ad-free?

Who knows, you may come out quite ahead by doing so.. depends on how many are willing to pay and your costs.

I don't think a huge number would be willing to pay. Consider that only about 40% of our users are returning users. The drive-by users who find us via Google and come to read one thread that was in their search results won't be interested. Of the 40% who are returning users, I would be surprised if even 10% would be willing to pay.

I think you’re wrong. I know many of your repeat users. They are here for a reason. General parenting forums may be common, but the local stuff is unique to this site. And while you may roll your eyes at the FCPS or AAP or college admissions out of the DMV forums, DCUM is the only place I’ve found with good, accurate information and the ability to post anonymously and thus be honest. DCUM was how I knew to appeal a kid into AAP with an WISC test. It’s how I made it through having a kid apply to and survive TJ. It’s how I got any reliable info about schools reopening during COVID. And my kid was probably only accepted at her college because the DCUM hive mind said again and again that NOVA girls with borderline admit GPAs got a huge bump if they went ED. And they were right. She was admitted. Higher performing peers were locked out in RD.

As far as I can tell, there are health and diet sites, parenting sites, career sites and politics sites. But there are no other sites with decent hyper local info. That’s valuable, because navigating local schools, college admissions, real estate, federal government/worker issues in the DMV is complicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another here who would be willing to pay for an ad-free experience--even if it's a donation system that results in some footing the bill for other users.

+1. It’s basically the NPR model. Twice a year, they interrupt your commute and are generally annoying. And many of us remember that ad free high quality content has value and renew our membership. And there are free riders. Which doesn’t really bother me because when I was a dirt poor law student, I was a free rider. And because NPR has value for me, so I’m okay paying something to keep it going. And to end the annoying fundraisers.

If subscription doesn’t work then maybe do what NPR does. Print some clever, quirky merch that people want to be given away at various sponsorship levels. A tote bag at $35, socks at $50, a t-shirt at $75 , a hoodie at $100. Or whatever. Enter everyone who donates into a raffle for a grand prize that costs you nothing but annoyance. Like, the winner gets to choose any topic (except NSFW) and you will host a trial forum on it for six months. So, they get a Disney forum or gymnastics forum or Royals forum or pro wrestling forum or Russian folklore forum and you’ll give it six months to generate traffic or die. I’d chip in anyway. I’d do so enthusiastically for a pair of clever socks and the chance to make you try out at legal issues forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for explaining the work involved to take payments. But... it may be worth it (of course this is making a big assumption you have the time for it). Based on your guesses on how many users would pay, how much would you need to charge a month or year for ad-free?

Who knows, you may come out quite ahead by doing so.. depends on how many are willing to pay and your costs.

I don't think a huge number would be willing to pay. Consider that only about 40% of our users are returning users. The drive-by users who find us via Google and come to read one thread that was in their search results won't be interested. Of the 40% who are returning users, I would be surprised if even 10% would be willing to pay.

I think you’re wrong. I know many of your repeat users. They are here for a reason. General parenting forums may be common, but the local stuff is unique to this site. And while you may roll your eyes at the FCPS or AAP or college admissions out of the DMV forums, DCUM is the only place I’ve found with good, accurate information and the ability to post anonymously and thus be honest. DCUM was how I knew to appeal a kid into AAP with an WISC test. It’s how I made it through having a kid apply to and survive TJ. It’s how I got any reliable info about schools reopening during COVID. And my kid was probably only accepted at her college because the DCUM hive mind said again and again that NOVA girls with borderline admit GPAs got a huge bump if they went ED. And they were right. She was admitted. Higher performing peers were locked out in RD.

As far as I can tell, there are health and diet sites, parenting sites, career sites and politics sites. But there are no other sites with decent hyper local info. That’s valuable, because navigating local schools, college admissions, real estate, federal government/worker issues in the DMV is complicated.

Well said and totally agree.

[Anonymous]

I vote for #3 -- don't love the videos, but can live with it.
I surf DCUM on a laptop, so the videos take up maybe 20 % of the screen. I just scroll around it. No big deal.
I don't know what DCUM is like with the videos if I was on here using my phone.

I figure that it will be like that time a few years back when Jeff changed the title of the "getting older" forum on here. People pouted and protested for about six months, then got over it.

[Anonymous]

Please, the giant Keanu Reeves propaganda ad that stalks you around the page is just creepy.

[jsteele]

I've turned the ads off on all pages except the main forum listing. Clearly the system is not working correctly since no ads appear to be displaying but only the Keanu Reeves video. I'll probably start turning the ads on for more bags if/when things start working as expected.

[Anonymous]

Another +1 to trying the NPR model (or something like that) - I really value this site and get a lot from it - would be happy to chip in a few times a year to avoid the new ad system.

[Anonymous]

Videos are tolerable EXCEPT for the ones that follow you as your scroll down until you x out of them. If they end up on each post it might be the one thing that finally breaks my DCUM addiction. I hate having to x out of ads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another +1 to trying the NPR model (or something like that) - I really value this site and get a lot from it - would be happy to chip in a few times a year to avoid the new ad system.

I would also chip in. I would not pay to register though. I like the full anonymity of this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another here who would be willing to pay for an ad-free experience--even if it's a donation system that results in some footing the bill for other users.

+1. It’s basically the NPR model. Twice a year, they interrupt your commute and are generally annoying. And many of us remember that ad free high quality content has value and renew our membership. And there are free riders. Which doesn’t really bother me because when I was a dirt poor law student, I was a free rider. And because NPR has value for me, so I’m okay paying something to keep it going. And to end the annoying fundraisers.

If subscription doesn’t work then maybe do what NPR does. Print some clever, quirky merch that people want to be given away at various sponsorship levels. A tote bag at $35, socks at $50, a t-shirt at $75 , a hoodie at $100. Or whatever. Enter everyone who donates into a raffle for a grand prize that costs you nothing but annoyance. Like, the winner gets to choose any topic (except NSFW) and you will host a trial forum on it for six months. So, they get a Disney forum or gymnastics forum or Royals forum or pro wrestling forum or Russian folklore forum and you’ll give it six months to generate traffic or die. I’d chip in anyway. I’d do so enthusiastically for a pair of clever socks and the chance to make you try out at legal issues forum.

This is probably the best thing I"ve read on here. I would do this. For me the only real value DCUM has is that you can get information that is local. A lot of the other stuff can be found in plenty of other places. Want to move to McLean and argue if it's better than Arlington? This is your place. Is St Alban's better than Potomac? How likely is your kid to get in? Is Foust a useless bleep?

I'll donate.