10-20-2005, 08:45 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Vibrant Media and Thoughts Media Partner Up: IntelliTXT
In the never-ending drive to keep Thoughts Media alive and thriving, I look and all sorts of revenue opportunities. I probably get contacted three or four times a week by companies wanting to put everything from full-page Flash ads on this site, to selling magazine subscriptions, to pop-ups, to spyware-laden toolbars. I turn down 99% of the companies that contact me, because the integrity of this site is very important to me. I hate it when I go to a Web site and I feel like they're trying to trick me by blending the content with the ads so deeply that I can't tell the difference. I try to strike the balance between revenue generating options that are needed for survival, while still respecting my visitors and giving them the information they want. It's not always easy to maintain that balance, but I've decided to partner with Vibrant Media for a few reasons.
You've probably all seen IntelliTXT from Vibrant Media - they're those keywords that are double-underlined and on a lot of sites and forums. They only react if you hover your mouse cursor over them or click, so if you're not interested they're easy enough to ignore. When we first launched IntelliTXT on Pocket PC Thoughts, we had a few complaints from people who dragged their mouse cursor along while they were reading. And there were some people who just didn't like seeing the ads mixed with the content. Others liked them because they liked being able to access a context-sensitive ad if they saw a keyword that they were interested in.
I believe I've found a good balance: if you don't mind seeing the ads, just by letting them load you're financially helping this site. If you click on them, even better. If you don't want to see them again, you can turn them off by hovering over one of them and clicking on the What's This link (see image). That will take you to an explanation page, and at the bottom of that page there's a link that says "Click here to disable." That link will drop a cookie on your computer (remember, cookies are not spyware) and you won't see any further IntelliTXT on this site. If you want to see them again, you can go back and click on that same link again. If you're a subscriber and turned off all ads because of this, you can turn general ads back on and turn IntelliTXT off. Or you can leave it all on. ;-)
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10-20-2005, 09:01 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 498
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I personally dislike the Intellitxt junk and will add it to any content blocker available (natively in Firefox, for example). I've found that most delays in loading a site are due to the time it takes for the page to connect to the intellitxt servers. It's just one of the things that I find extremely annoying. I've personally decided to not go back to sites because of technology like this. I understand the need for revenue, but I really hate this kind of technology (nearly as much as those darn popup ads). But luckily I'm a subscriber, and I thank you for the ability to selectively turn off the intellitxt ads and leave the others in place.
Edit: I don't see where I can selectively turn off the Intellitxt stuff yet. The ads are still an all or none type thing. Am I missing something?
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10-20-2005, 09:07 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by applejosh
But luckily I'm a subscriber, and I thank you for the ability to selectively turn off the intellitxt ads and leave the others in place.
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And that's the reason why I hope no one will complain about this change, because they can turn if off if they want to. ;-)
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10-20-2005, 09:11 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 498
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I was editing as you were replying. I don't see where Intellitxt can be specifically turned off. I still just have the all or none ad thing. Am I missing something?
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10-20-2005, 09:15 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by applejosh
I was editing as you were replying. I don't see where Intellitxt can be specifically turned off. I still just have the all or none ad thing. Am I missing something?
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Please read my 3rd paragraph and follow the instructions - you need to go to the Vibrant Media site via the "What's This" link of an IntelliTXT item, then you click the link at the bottom of the page, and it drops a cookie which will turn off IntelliTXT for you. Nice and easy! It's not tied into the subscriber benefits, which means everyone can turn it off, subscriber or not (though I do hope most people will leave it on).
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10-20-2005, 09:20 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 444
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Thanks Jason,
Not necessarily for this particular "feature" you are enabling on your site for members but when I see your posts relating to your content, particularly when you are addressing members concerns, it makes it obvious, to me, that you do take comments, suggestions, and criticisms from your members seriously and you put forth the effort to accommodate the wishes of your members. :way to go:
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10-20-2005, 09:41 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mark Kenepp
Not necessarily for this particular "feature" you are enabling on your site for members but when I see your posts relating to your content, particularly when you are addressing members concerns, it makes it obvious, to me, that you do take comments, suggestions, and criticisms from your members seriously and you put forth the effort to accommodate the wishes of your members. :way to go:
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You're welcome Mark. I don't expect anyone to thank me for putting IntelliTXT in the forums (I was hesitant for a long time), but this is a step up from where we were a week ago. We had switched over to a service called Kontera, which was basically identical to IntelliTXT from the user's point of view, but I didn't have the option to let people opt out, so this is overall a more user-friendly solution because for the people that REALLY hate it, they can opt out. Myself, I like it because on other sites I've found some interesting stuff related to keywords that I've been interested in.
At any rate, if I were independently wealthy and could do Thoughts Media for fun, I'd have a cluster of four monster servers, and nary an ad on ANY site. But until someone sends me a winning lottery ticket, that probably won't happen. ;-)
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10-20-2005, 10:35 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 498
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Oh, you expect me to read? 
Well, that doesn't help me as I clear out ALL cookies on a regular basis (whether they are considered spyware or not, I just don't like being tracked across websites any more than necessary). In Firefox, it clears it out every time I exit.
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10-20-2005, 10:37 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by applejosh
Well, that doesn't help me as I clear out ALL cookies on a regular basis (whether they are considered spyware or not, I just don't like being tracked across websites any more than necessary). In Firefox, it clears it out every time I exit.
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Then I'm afraid your cookie paranoia trumps my ability to give you a good option. Sorry. :? (unless you can "white list" certain cookies)
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10-20-2005, 11:31 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 87
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Quote:
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Originally Posted by applejosh
Well, that doesn't help me as I clear out ALL cookies on a regular basis (whether they are considered spyware or not, I just don't like being tracked across websites any more than necessary). In Firefox, it clears it out every time I exit.
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Then I'm afraid your cookie paranoia trumps my ability to give you a good option. Sorry. :? (unless you can "white list" certain cookies) |
Go into your cookies folder and "read only" the one cookie for the ad disablement. As long as your browser doesn't have a panic attack when you try to delete cookies then you should be fine.
If you do try my advice, let me know if it works! 
<edit> Other sites have went with the text linkvertisements... however this is the first one who actually said how you can remove them on the site if they annoy you. I bet the ad company themselves has had that feature all along however knowledge is power... and without that knowledge, you are powerless to those ads. However, I'm happy because you let us know about our options and kept the control in the user's hands. </edit>
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