darkSpyro

1. It's a hobby but also is a responsibility when the site gets as big as it does. And since he has enough time to regularly update Skylanders news he should also be able to have time to respond to suggestions. The fact that he doesn't means he doesn't give a **** about us.

2. You must also remember how big this site is in terms of the Spyro and Skylanders fanbases. He may not make a huge profit margin, but I doubt he's losing money on it. I agree that affiliate credit is a good idea for him should he be only making up costs, though I have a feeling he's already done so.

3. You gave me an ultimatum in an earlier post saying that he should pull the plug meaning no darkSpyro. Though that may be going far, I still stand that he should either start to do his job or give it to someone who will.

4. This site is nearly 10 years old and I'm extremely doubtful that there were many Spyro sites/forums at the time, let alone ones that had detailed walkthroughs. Dark didn't have much competition upon making the site, and when Skylanders came around this site was among the first to go into that field. Nowadays there are more sites competing for attention in this field and dS is arguably at the top. Me making a site myself will not work not only because there are many other sites related to Spyro or Skylanders, but people will want to stick with established and familiar sites such as this one.

Maybe that's why Dark doesn't bother. Because he knows that there's very little that can touch his site. Still, I see that as poor reasoning on his part and he shouldn't laze about just because his site is the most popular.

1) We'll just have to agree-to-disagree on this one. I don't think it's fair to force someone into responsibility though. Just because more folks are visiting the site, I don't think that means dark should have to spend more time on the site.

2) But I also know how big AdBlocking software is (even more so when it comes to technology-based sites) and I know how little one makes from unobtrusive banner ads. I would be very surprised if dark's even making enough on this site to buy a Skylander or two every month. But, again, only he knows - so it's moot to try and discuss this one way or the other.

3) My comment was tongue-in-cheek. I don't want the site to close and I don't think anyone here really does - but the idea that dark shouldn't be allowed to run the site that he put so much into (even if it was just the early years) is wholly unfair and unreasonable.

4) "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." This site is popular for a reason. As far as there being more competition out there - sure... but there's also a lot more fans out there. I strongly feel the Spyro/Skylanders community could really use a strong fan-site aside from this one. There's a couple of one-off sites that focus on news, but there's not really any good fan-interaction sites out there besides this one - and there's no good Buy/Sell/Trade site that's focused on connecting fans - which is something I feel our community really needs. But, with all that said, I'm not suggesting you go it alone. There are a handful of folks here who have expressed similar opinions to yours - why not team up with a few of them and put together a site? I'm being sincere when I say this. If you fail, you've lost nothing and gained some learning experience on the behind-the-scenes of running a website that might help you better understand dark and how to purpose things to him. If you succeed, folks would have the choice of another site to visit *and* it might help encourage dark to make this site better (competition and all). It's a win-win for everyone.

1. In this case, more time = time at all. He barely gives time to begin with.

2. A lot of kids that go on this site may not be aware of adblock, or some people will acknowledge the problems with adblock for user-generated material including this and have it off.

3. I only ask he spend more time or at least get someone that can. It's been made very clear last year that he can appoint someone else as admin alongside him so he should maybe do that for someone that is both active and capable.

4. Perhaps it's something worth looking into in the future (whether it will be about Skylanders I don't know, as my interest in Skylanders already peaked at the release of the first game and has been declining since) but I and others would still appreciate it if the admin here acknowledged suggestions and responded to a handful every once in a while. It shouldn't be hard to say "no and here's why".

Kids not being aware of Adblocking software doesn't mean their parent's aren't. In fact, parents are a prime group for using it to protect their kids from scrupulous ads and such. With more and more people moving to tiered data plans, folks are installing Adblocking software just to keep their data usage down.

As for responding to suggestions... you have read dark's signature, right?

More and more kids are getting their own computers, laptops, or smartphones/tablets to use. Their parents won't always be snooping on it and putting software like adblock onto it. And of course some parents might not be tech savvy and know what adblock is at all.

Oh that's a Futurama reference and you know it.

Quote: CAV

More and more kids are getting their own computers, laptops, or smartphones/tablets to use. Their parents won't always be snooping on it and putting software like adblock onto it. And of course some parents might not be tech savvy and know what adblock is at all.

True on both accounts - but the stats don't lie.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ka...is-on-the-rise/

Adblocking software is going to change the internet as we know it.
Although, personally, I still want to sell a system to ISPs where ads are intercepted and replaced with ISP ads, giving them the money and cheating the content providers. That would bring amazing changes to the internet.

Adblock is a different conversation entirely and if you want to talk about it, by all means make a thread in Idle Chatter or S&N (the latter might give you less serious responses though) and we can continue there.

Adblock is only a part of the conversation due to the claim that running this website is a "job" that dark gets "paid" for. I've seen no evidence of this and when asked about it, you mentioned ad revenue. If you're going to open a topic for discussion, then let folks discuss it. If you want to retract the claim that this is a "job" that "pays", then we can curb the talk about how the payments actually work.

Look, since this topic already changed to the subject of ads, is it just on my end or are there pop-up video ads on the site now? 'Cause I saw McDonald's ads that took up the screen and had sound when I opened tabs to check a few topics. They just started now. Is it because I'm using an iPad?

Among other things, it's making the forum a pain to navigate, because pages now load more slowly, and exiting the ad is a pain on an iPad because of how that kind of thing works on it.

Quote: Arc of Archives

Look, since this topic already changed to the subject of ads, is it just on my end or are there pop-up video ads on the site now? 'Cause I saw McDonald's ads that took up the screen and had sound when I opened tabs to check a few topics. They just started now. Is it because I'm using an iPad?

Among other things, it's making the forum a pain to navigate, because pages now load more slowly, and exiting the ad is a pain on an iPad because of how that kind of thing works on it.

Which is yet another reason why users turn to Adblock and the like.

Quote: UncleBob

Adblock is only a part of the conversation due to the claim that running this website is a "job" that dark gets "paid" for. I've seen no evidence of this and when asked about it, you mentioned ad revenue. If you're going to open a topic for discussion, then let folks discuss it. If you want to retract the claim that this is a "job" that "pays", then we can curb the talk about how the payments actually work.

I do not claim it to be a job nor do I claim that Dark earns enough to make a full living off of it. But I said that it's still something that he could receive ad revenue for.

Quote: UncleBob

Quote: Arc of Archives

Look, since this topic already changed to the subject of ads, is it just on my end or are there pop-up video ads on the site now? 'Cause I saw McDonald's ads that took up the screen and had sound when I opened tabs to check a few topics. They just started now. Is it because I'm using an iPad?

Among other things, it's making the forum a pain to navigate, because pages now load more slowly, and exiting the ad is a pain on an iPad because of how that kind of thing works on it.

Which is yet another reason why users turn to Adblock and the like.

IMO, the primary blame lies on whoever adds those annoying pop-up video ads in this case. Of course losing revenue from Adblock would lead to that, because then whoever puts in ads has to look for ways to make up for lost revenue- so blame lies in Adblockers too- but wouldn't making more annoying, prominent ads lead to even more users using Adblock after they're implimented? I believe that's the primary reason (along with fear of malicious ads) that you'd use an Adblocker. For the first time I'm actually considering using Adblock just for this site. I usually don't do it because ads on sidebars and the like really don't bother me anyway, so sites can have whatever they get with it from me, but a pop-up video ad combines the worst kinds of ads into one.

Quote: CAV

I do not claim it to be a job nor do I claim that Dark earns enough to make a full living off of it. But I said that it's still something that he could receive ad revenue for.

ORLY?

Quote: CAV

[...]the admin of this site doesn't want to do his own ****ing job.

Quote: CAV

[...]the admin here doesn't do his job?

Quote: CAV

[...]he should either start to do his job or give it to someone who will.

Quote: dark52

If you've encountered any popup ads on the site then please PM me specific details about them so that I can try to get them removed.

Come'on, dark... stop pretending like you care about the site.

Dark kinda just proved what I meant by not even addressing the rest of this topic and only focusing on something that came about late in it. Instead of mention anything about future suggestions, his performance, or anything of that ilk he talks about ads that, according to you Bob, most people here won't even see.
That is not a good admin.

Also I say job figuratively and you know it.

UncleBob, if dark.didn't care about the site he wouldn't have made it and be maintaining it. if you dont like how he runs it, leave.

Quote: CAV

Dark kinda just proved what I meant by not even addressing the rest of this topic and only focusing on something that came about late in it. Instead of mention anything about future suggestions, his performance, or anything of that ilk he talks about ads that, according to you Bob, most people here won't even see.
That is not a good admin.

Disagree. He doesn't have to justify his performance to you or anyone else. But, it's in his best interests to address issues with advertising on the site so that folks who use Adblock will whitelist his site.

Quote:

Also I say job figuratively and you know it.

So, if it's not a job, what is it that you think should require dark to give attention to this site?


Quote: Bravo101

UncleBob, if dark.didn't care about the site he wouldn't have made it and be maintaining it. if you dont like how he runs it, leave.

Wha? I think you're lost in this conversation. I'm defending dark.

Quote: UncleBob

Disagree. He doesn't have to justify his performance to you or anyone else. But, it's in his best interests to address issues with advertising on the site so that folks who use Adblock will whitelist his site.

So, if it's not a job, what is it that you think should require dark to give attention to this site?

As the owner of the site and the guy that runs this place for us members it's basic human decency to address these concerns. Ignoring everything in this topic except for those 3 or so posts about adblock is........well........insulting to members that just want this site to become better.

It's his site. He's the admin. It's a responsibility. That's what requires him to give it attention. I highly doubt if I had a site and then did **** all with it I would get away with it.

Quote: CAV

As the owner of the site and the guy that runs this place for us members it's basic human decency to address these concerns. Ignoring everything in this topic except for those 3 or so posts about adblock is........well........insulting to members that just want this site to become better.

It's his site. He's the admin. It's a responsibility. That's what requires him to give it attention. I highly doubt if I had a site and then did **** all with it I would get away with it.

"get away with it"? Wha? Do you think there's some kind of internet police that require a certain amount of interaction between web admins and site users or something?

You recognize that he already provides this site *for* us members. Exactly how much do you think he owes you? To what extent is he indebted to respond to your every whim?

I think you take what I say too literally.

When you have a site as popular and big as this one you have to make it run as best as possible, including listening to suggestions and the like. I've seen sites smaller than this one that pull this off better than Dark does. Imagine being on a big site/forum that's really popular and active but the staff team doesn't do anything and the admin never bothers to come out of the clouds of Olympus. It would eventually become a mess.

Here's the thing though - it's quite obvious that dark is reading the posts here. Just because he doesn't respond, it doesn't mean he's not listening. With that said, he doesn't have any obligation to respond to any particular quantity or style of posts here on the Suggestions forum or otherwise. To make demands and say stuff like "dark doesn't deserve to run his own site" really makes one come off as entitled. If I were dark, I wouldn't give those folks the time of day either.

But then what about the people that aren't like that and ask nicely?

It'd be *nice* if dark gave them a reply of some kind, but he doesn't *owe* it to them in any way, shape, or form. Not replying doesn't make him a bad administrator of the site - the site is running quite smoothly and is pretty glitch-free. That's what makes him a good administrator.

So being a good admin, with poor communication is a good thing?

"poor" is subjective.

Is it really.

Quote: onslaught

Quote: Mrmorrises

This topic has lost it.

I Litterly see bionicle on every day,

Relevant to what he said or the admin how?

I really wish that dark would start answering our PM's.

Quote: UncleBob

As with you, I'll try to shorten my response.
4) You mention not wanting to invest the time/money into a site that is likely to fall flat on its own face... and that's completely understandable. But that's also EXACTLY what dark did. Every challenge you or anyone else would face in creating a new site were the exact same challenges that dark faced when he created this site (I'm guessing. Maybe dark is really English Royalty and has all the free time in the world and bags full of British Pounds to sit upon).

Well yeah, everyone knows Dark52 is Prince Harry.

On topic though, any admin who invests the time to make and :darklanders: and :darkpokemon: is awesome enough for me.