New Banner UP.

[valerielundberg]

For your information. Donna and Adam arent the owners of neo. Doug is. So he can do as he pleases. So thats why donna and adam havent done anything to stop these ads. They work under Doug`s authority x.x

I'm aware,he bought most of the company it in what....late 1999 was it?

The whole conversation was about Mr. Dohring from the start. *points to posts above*

Or were you talking to someone else? *embarassed grin*

[Quiguki Beauty]

Just for the record, I have ZERO problems with Adam, Donna, and Snarkie. They are the ones giving me hope. Some of the hardest working people I've seen, and it's obvious they care about the players. They're the ray of sunshine in all this.

I ditto that.

[Witch King]

I wish Neopets was the way it used to be as well. It used to have a more personal feeling about it then it does today.

I agree with what Valeri said about Adam, Donna and Snarkie.

This is my shortest resposne yet. But I'm sure I'll have a another long one soon enough.

[vinylraven]

For your information. Donna and Adam arent the owners of neo. Doug is. So he can do as he pleases. So thats why donna and adam havent done anything to stop these ads. They work under Doug`s authority x.x

yeah, i know. that's probably why there have been so many drastic changes. adam has come here and made it known he doesn't have control of the ads. i used to think that they did. i love neo though, now that i realize the whole situation i am going to keep supporting them (them being the original creators) as long as possible.

[sciencetv]

I think you're right. It's just odd because it's such a major shift and it's happened so quickly. I mean, the article I quoted was from August. Sometime within the past four months, Dohring threw his (by all accounts) highly successsful "immersive advertising only" strategy out the window and decided to go with horrible banner ads as well? Why? What happened? And are these ads really making him more money than his previous strategy?

I'm also wondering why he's not more worried about this. Here's a paragraph from that same article I quoted before:

If there's any marketing Neopets.com that may raise an eyebrow from the children's privacy watchdogs, it's the e-mail marketing offers that riddle the site registration process. Several auto-checked boxes promise marketing e-mails, which begs the question of whether the site's young audience is savvy enough to understand the full implications of an opt-in.

If the children's privacy watchdogs are worried about opt-in forms, won't they throw a fit at this spyware, these tracking cookies, and the unsuitable ads? Let's hope so.

I wonder if the Neopets marketing team will trumpet their new banner ad strategy in their press kit like they did immersive advertising. For some reason, I doubt it.

Exactly. Pump and Dump. Make all the money while you can through advertising while the place is at it's peak...and take the cash and run.

I think that's why he's not worried. I think he knows exactly what this is doing to the site, but as long as the clickthoughs are guaranteed by large visitor number of the site...and banners get seen a lot (and add in refreshing statistics the banners make a full cycle...like...why not add in an avatar you have to refresh for *cough* space faerie* wheeze* or a new BD challenger so those banners get a full rotation?)

Make it hard, make it fast, get the cash and out in a dash.

Seems very typical, and the kids are going to be the ones who pay the price. But there is very little business ethics anymore in the corporate world these days...even when it comes to kids.

Seems like, sadly, this is what's happening to Neopets.

Now that we have so horribly large banners, it looks like Dohring is using the 'Pump and Dump' economic strategy you explained.

Ever since around 01/02, Dohring's been gloating about his 'Immersive Advertising'. I haven't seen a new one of those in at least 3 months, not including the rampant games if they count. Since 01, Dohring's been saying there would never be any banner ads or pop-ups on Neopets. Now, we have giant banners, some of that have spyware/adware, another one of the no-gos that Dohring's said that would never happen. Cash grab, I say. I do feel that Dohring may be pumping out the last fivety or so million dollars from Neopets before it gets sent to the dot com graveyard.

Yeah. Notice how all this happened in only around a month? And how much are they making out of this?

Yeah, the users will pay the price for this cash grab that may be happening...

When the TCG and Plushies came out, I said Fine, I mean, how bad can it be, and really, all we have is the games and sponsors. Then when the Sloth Plot was canceled, I got angry. Now, it seems it won't be long before everything is Economic based. Meerca Chase? No, Mcdonalds Burger Chase.

Think if that happened. At this rate, that'll happen.

[Kitten]

Perhaps... just... perhaps I am strange.
I just don't care about this. It's not that I no longer care about Neopets, but the banner to me is an inconvenience causing a slight move of the scroll button on my mouse. Nothing more.
I don't honestly care about the new banner. It doesn't affect me for better or for good. And I am completely indifferent to it.

But that... I do believe... is just me.

It doesn't bother me either. Scroll down, WOW it's gone!! I can live with it. I have adblock anyway, so yes.

[valerielundberg]

Seems like, sadly, this is what's happening to Neopets.

Now that we have so horribly large banners, it looks like Dohring is using the 'Pump and Dump' economic strategy you explained.

Ever since around 01/02, Dohring's been gloating about his 'Immersive Advertising'. I haven't seen a new one of those in at least 3 months, not including the rampant games if they count. Since 01, Dohring's been saying there would never be any banner ads or pop-ups on Neopets. Now, we have giant banners, some of that have spyware/adware, another one of the no-gos that Dohring's said that would never happen. Cash grab, I say. I do feel that Dohring may be pumping out the last fivety or so million dollars from Neopets before it gets sent to the dot com graveyard.

Yeah. Notice how all this happened in only around a month? And how much are they making out of this?

Yeah, the users will pay the price for this cash grab that may be happening...

When the TCG and Plushies came out, I said Fine, I mean, how bad can it be, and really, all we have is the games and sponsors. Then when the Sloth Plot was canceled, I got angry. Now, it seems it won't be long before everything is Economic based. Meerca Chase? No, Mcdonalds Burger Chase.

Think if that happened. At this rate, that'll happen.

Sure...the signs are there.

Large Banners.

Paid Memberships.

Lots of refreshing needed for clicks.

Placement of the username next to the Bannerzilla so you can't avoid seeing it.

Need to purchase real life merchandise to gain advantages in the game. (I.e:: Space faerie avatar, coco roller codes...)

Even down to adding "stuff" to the sidebar, yet more marketing, and more in your face....

It all seems very small at first, but in reality, when you add it all together the writing is on the wall. The site is being "bled" for it's cash value.

Last edited by valerielundberg on Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Mxytdvc]

Mine just switched back to the old banner.....weird.

Did yours?

[valerielundberg]

Mine just switched back to the old banner.....weird.

Did yours?

Nope...Bannerzilla is still alive and kicking for me.

[Lady Night]

I'm not really all that bothered by the ads myself; sometimes they DO direct my attention to a game I meant to go play or something like that. VERY rarely do I use real life product banners on ANY site. I mean, why buy it off the net when I can go 5 miles down the road and get it instantly from Wal-Mart.

I'm happy they at least took the banner off the userlookup pages. They didn't HAVE to do that you know it was quite nice of them to think about us, and one of the few places we can be original on Neo.

All is all I have to give it about a 7 out of 10.

[Witch King]

Due time...Due time...

PPT will stay here while Neopets goes down because Adam/Donna/Rest of TNT will be here telling us their new plans for a new site. Then we'll all begin all over again.

[everconfused]

Or, DD will get what he and the other higher ups want, decide to move on and Adam and Donna will get to actually take back over and run the site completely again. Now that would be a win/win situation!

I mean, it IS their "baby", and I'm sure they'd love to do some things differently and they are cognizant of alot of the problems, complaints and worries of the long time players. They also know what works and what's good.

I can dream, can't I?

[Xizer]

Suggestion for Adam: Put the ads in an iFrame instead of using this DIV code. iFrames can be blocked with Firefox. Thusly, when the ad iFrame is blocked, it will move up the page and remove the ad as well as the blank space.

[mercurius]

Suggestion for Adam: Put the ads in an iFrame instead of using this DIV code. iFrames can be blocked with Firefox. Thusly, when the ad iFrame is blocked, it will move up the page and remove the ad as well as the blank space.

Good idea!!! Am I the only one who loves this? The way this banner is situated, I can block everything! The white space is still there, but Adam said he was working on that. With everything blocked, everything loads faster actually.

[Witch King]

I think I have decided after this War and Advent Calendar to leave Neopets all in all. They are not worth my time if they do not listen to what we have to say, after all WE do pay them by using their site, playing their sponsor games and signing up for things.

Figure I might hoard some codestones and faeries with my money after the war if I ever come back, they'll be worth something I'm sure.

If anyone wishes to talk to me, you can email me at mailto:Char9er@gmail.com though I imagine I will continue to post here during the duration of the advent calendar and war.