Forced viewing of threads, what do you think?

[Frank Bruno]

Did you guys just notice that you were forced to view a thread before you could continue viewing the thread that you were already on?

This is a feature that Allan can implement any time that he wants.

What do you think about this?

I think it's a very powerful feature that can keep us updated on new changes to the forum without wondering if we missed something that has recently changed or has become new.

I'm wondering what you guys think about this form of traffic diversion here on the warrior forum?

Frank Bruno

[Kate Anderson]

I think it's great, especially when new forum rules are created or existing ones updated. That way, it eliminates those people who will screw around and then claim not to have known better

I actually went off looking for the vb mod for it. I used to use something similar but it would only direct a forum member to the thread itself, rather than allowing us to feature a personal note.. Really cool.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Great for buying a sold ad through the forum. That way everybody has to
view it at least one time when logging in after the ad is placed.

What do you think? And if so, what would you pay for such an ad?

[garyv]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Great for buying a sold ad through the forum. That way everybody has to
view it at least one time when logging in after the ad is placed.

What do you think? And if so, what would you pay for such an ad?

I think that if it wasn't used too excessively, that it would be great. And it could probably fetch a high asking price, depending on how long it ran.

[admin]

At this point all I can say about it is that it smokes sending a PM to everyone.

On the old forum at least 70% of the PM's went unread. And they still were very powerful.

I agree with Kate, for news and updates this can't be beat. There's no getting around it.

[Frank Bruno]

Yeah my mind is spinning from what you could do with this feature.

Steve thats an awesome idea and I would support the use of "forced viewing" as a form of advertising here on the warrior forum only if it was used sparingly.

I'd be interested to hear everybody else's feedback on this as well.

Frank Bruno

[Michael Mayo]

Hi Frank,

I almost had a Heart Attack...lol

I was thinking What did I do .

Have a Great Day!
Michael

[Neil Morgan]

Steve thats an awesome idea and I would support the use of "forced viewing" as a form of advertising here on the warrior forum only if it was used sparingly.

Mm, did that feel like a test Allen was doing there?

More power to him!

Cheers,

Neil

[DougBarger]

Yes it is awesome and really brings that "This just in" or "Up to the Minute" type feel and keeps us in the know.

Very cool.

[Frank Bruno]

Well it took about 10 seconds for Alan to realize this completely smokes PM'ing users to get their attention.

I bet his mind is spinning what he can do with this to. LOL

Frank Bruno

[Jason Zalesky]

Originally Posted by Michael Mayo

Hi Frank,

I almost had a Heart Attack...lol

I was thinking What did I do .

Have a Great Day!
Michael

Haha I thought I did something wrong also lol.

[Aaron Moser]

I just posted something and got redirected to that message. At first I thought I had posted something against the rules that got caught by a filter or something.

Then I realized what it was and thought it was pretty cool.

I like it!

[EDIT] - Same here Michael

[Neil Morgan]

I just thought of a new feature for ARP4!

Thank you Warrior Forum!

[Frank Bruno]

Originally Posted by Michael Mayo

Hi Frank,

I almost had a Heart Attack...lol

I was thinking What did I do .

Have a Great Day!
Michael

That was my first thought too, I thought I did something wrong lol

See what you did Alan! You might give some of these elders here heart attacks (not you Michael) lol

Frank Bruno

[Mark Brian]

LOL me too, I thought I'm gonna be banned or something..

[NoBoss]

I found your re-direct helpfully newsworthy.

But please...don't force someones ad on us.

Thank you,
...Doug

[Angela V. Edwards]

Yeah, that's a great feature. As long as it's not used excessively (and I know Allen wouldn't do that), it's really a good tool.

[Floyd Fisher]

As long as it's not overrused, it can be a very helpful feature.

Allen, promise me we won't see a ton of ads touting Cuba as a vacation destination, ok?

[Neil Morgan]

I think the occasional ad would be fine.

Maybe a couple per day.

Allen has bills to pay, like all of us.

[IMChick]

Alan Rules!

After I got past the shock of thinking it was something I did...

I realized what this new toy actually can do--huge potential there.

How do I put something like this on my own forums? Where do I get it?

[Jesus Perez]

I'm actually very happy Allen posted the ad. I never noticed the release of that forum.

[Ricter]

I don't like it one bit.

[Frank Donovan]

It's so much better than PMs because even non-members get the message!

I was aware of that forum, but always assumed it was just meant for programmers and designers so it's great to hear that content providers are included too.

Frank

[Stacie Bennett]

I really like it! Especially the one today. I had no idea that forum was there. And it was very timely, as my partner and I were talking about hiring a new coder just this morning, lol.

Definitely beats the PMs.

[WritingMadwoman]

Originally Posted by Tom Borowski

Isn't it funny, almost all of us first thought we did something wrong, me included

Not me! I thought it was a super-duper-top-secret-coded message from the Monkey God straight to little old me. "Hey Wendy, would you be interested in being the WF Ambassador for Foreign Relations?" "Hey Wendy, here's a little $25,000 bonus just for being a valued member..." I couldn't click fast enough!

And then I find out that it wasn't just sent to me but everyone. I feel so let down now, so ... ordinary. *sigh*

Cool feature though. LOL!

Wendy

[SusanUSA]

I am okay with it, but it caused my system to crash and so I never saw it.

[reapr]

If is a fantastic idea I love it!

Well my initial reaction was ut oh what did I do now.

There are so many possibilities with this feature.

[admin]

Originally Posted by NoBoss

I found your re-direct helpfully newsworthy.

But please...don't force someones ad on us.

Thank you,
...Doug

It will be used in the exact same way as on the old forum with the PM's. I don't think anyone ever got mad about those, except for the occasional new person asking why I was spamming them :-)

If you still remember the old forum, I "might" have sent two PM's a month. Some months not even that.

[Louis Raven]

Allen, is that feature for members only or do guests HAVE to view?

Just thinking it may stop Google seeing ALL the content aswell.

Louis

[Tracy Yates]

When I first saw it I went "WTH???", then I read it and thought, "Well now, isn't that clever!"

I think it's pretty cool to get a forum wide message broadcast. Especially when it's something important.

If someone, and I know Allen won't do this, were to abuse it and just plaster you with ad after ad every time you came to the forum, that would definitely suck. But used properly, I think it's terrific.


Tracy

[Neil Morgan]

Just thinking it may stop Google seeing ALL the content aswell.

Good call Louis.

I tested this by logging out of the forum. When I tried to view the forum index, I got the message again.

So there's the answer.

Cheers,

Neil

[Sami]

I don't think you guys are paying attention.

It is popular to say "yeah great ... in case I miss something"

The whole point of a forum is for us to choose what topics we want info on and avoid that which doesn't interest us. This turns the whole thing upside down.

I have been trying to analyse my traffic and back track to the posts that are referring visitors to my sites. But I can't get past the forced viewing coz it doesn't cookie me and so the next time I try to get back to that thread I am still forced to view that same irrelevant thread ... and it doesn't cache my intended target page, after I have viewed the message.

My only chance is to manually find my way to that thread - not good. My time is precious like everyone elses.

There is also a misconception about forced viewing VS PM.

This is not a substitue for PM. "We" cannot use this to inform others of whatever. This only works for Allen and the Admins.

I guess critical changes to the rules etc could be publcisied in this way. But as it stands without a "one-time" cookie it is a bit brutal and a right royal pain.

A pop-over (with a one time cookie) could also just as easily inform you of events and still let you see your target page.

Another option is a message/news section (that hides/displays using CSS) at the top of any page you want land on first. Again if you're not interested you can skip past the message.

Sami

[Michael Oksa]

Originally Posted by admin

It will be used in the exact same way as on the old forum with the PM's. I don't think anyone ever got mad about those, except for the occasional new person asking why I was spamming them :-)

If you still remember the old forum, I "might" have sent two PM's a month. Some months not even that.

Nice feature. Glad to see it would be like the WF1.0, the suggestion that a "few times per day" was okay with someone had me nervous. That would border on intrusive, IMHO.

But, now the problem is...how can you make the WF better? I keep thinking each new feature is the icing on the cake - then you go and bake another cake!

All the best,
Michael

[jjpmarketing]

@STEVEN W.

I was right there with you... after my heart attack stopped of course. I saw that question about the feature... and first thing that came to mind was... where can I get this feature? Is it built into vBulletin?

That would be an awesome format to announce a JV or Product Launch.

Of course... Lucky me... when I was working on my WSO is when this notice popped up. Scared me to death. I was like, "What the &*## was wrong with my WSO?" I wasn't doing anything wrong...

This would be really useful of notifying users of any rule changes... or contests...

Think how much a once per week ad would cost on that notification tool. Allen could run an auction for it. I'm sure it would fetch a pretty penny.

[Thomas Belknap]

Originally Posted by Sami

I don't think you guys are paying attention.

It is popular to say "yeah great ... in case I miss something"

The whole point of a forum is for us to choose what topics we want info on and avoid that which doesn't interest us. This turns the whole thing upside down.

I have been trying to analyse my traffic and back track to the posts that are referring visitors to my sites. But I can't get past the forced viewing coz it doesn't cookie me and so the next time I try to get back to that thread I am still forced to view that same irrelevant thread ... and it doesn't cache my intended target page, after I have viewed the message.

My only chance is to manually find my way to that thread - not good. My time is precious like everyone elses.

There is also a misconception about forced viewing VS PM.

This is not a substitue for PM. "We" cannot use this to inform others of whatever. This only works for Allen and the Admins.

I guess critical changes to the rules etc could be publcisied in this way. But as it stands without a "one-time" cookie it is a bit brutal and a right royal pain.

A pop-over (with a one time cookie) could also just as easily inform you of events and still let you see your target page.

Another option is a message/news section (that hides/displays using CSS) at the top of any page you want land on first. Again if you're not interested you can skip past the message.

Sami

Sami, you are forgetting who owns the forum. We hardly ever get pms from Allen. He could have monetized this site a heck of a lot more than he has. He doesn't because that is just the guy he is. Honestly, there isn't a lot of boards out there like that.

I know a lot of people making a lot of money off this forum. A lot of businesses have been created off this forum. My business got kicked off because of this forum as well. So if I have to read a post that Allen thinks is necessary, or read about a product that Allen thinks would be of interest to me then so be it. I am always interested in what Allen as to say because I want to learn from people that are doing well in this business.

For some reason, I knew there would be a post about this before I even finished reading the thread that was brought to our attention. It seems everyone has something to complain about every day. Sometimes I don't even bother logging in because of all the negatively.

It seems you're getting traffic and probably making sales from this website. Just tell Allen thanks for funding and keeping up the site for you. Leave it at that.


This is not a democracy. Personally, I think that is one hell of an attention grabber. I loved it. You should be thankful Allen controls it and not me. I would direct you to pictures of Kevin Riley.

[Chri5123]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Great for buying a sold ad through the forum. That way everybody has to
view it at least one time when logging in after the ad is placed.

What do you think? And if so, what would you pay for such an ad?

Steven,

That is an awesome idea!

For this forum and an ad like that I have no idea what the price would be, maybe a little over my budget!

However these is a lot you can do with a paid ad that good!

Chris

[Michael Oksa]

Originally Posted by RealGem

I didn't notice, but did we have the option to NOT click the link?

Because I clicked it out of curiosity, but I won't from now on. If I'm forced to, it's nice knowing ya.

LOL. Yeah, I think you're forced to. Small price to pay for all the good we all derive from the forum.

If being required to click 1, 2, 3 or maybe even 5 times a month is too much for you, then it was "nice knowing ya", too.

~Michael

[Tim Franklin]

Neat that,

I was a little concerned at first, thought I had done something wrong and was afraid to press the button for fear of seeing a message saying,

Good Bye...

But I was pleasantly surprised, cool idea...

[PaulGee]

This would be a great way to remind people of the rules - especially spamming as it would seem some people do this regardless. It certainly doesn't bother me having to click to gain access as I've learned a hell of a lot since I joined this forum and the War Room. There's information here that I haven't seen anywhere else - priceless advice which I devour with anticipation.

[Michael Oksa]

Originally Posted by RealGem

Someone said twice a day!

I think that would get on my nerves too. I would probably still stick around, but I can understand how you feel. That would be a bit much, but it hasn't happened, so I can only respond to what I've seen.

I hope it doesn't get to that point and you are able to keep hanging around.

~Michael

[Michael Tracey]

Allen has said 2 or 3 times a month max

At that level nobody should have reason to claim when you consider what you get out of this forum

Michael

[Michele Miller]

I haven't seen it while using the forum, but while doing a search on a search engine today I saw the keywords I was looking for and a thread to the warrior forum, so I clicked on it... I saw the forced thread thing, clicked on it, but then I couldn't get to the thread I wanted to read, so I just clicked off.

Michele

[Pete Lauder]

We'd all like to use that kind of power.

Allen hasn't flooded us before, so I see no reason why he sould now.

It's a great feature, in the right hands.

Pete Lauder

[Ben Roy]

Hate it. 'nuff said.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Michael Tracey

Allen has said 2 or 3 times a month max

At that level nobody should have reason to claim when you consider what you get out of this forum

Michael

Michael, as much as this forum has done for me, Allen could force me to
read a thread a day for all I care.

It's a small price to pay for the greatest free education you'll ever find
anywhere.

[Jeremy Kelsall]

I don't think it will work for any link....

I won't be convinced until he tests it on a link with something I'm selling lol

All kidding aside, I think it is a great feature to keep us all up to date on changes and parts of the forum that we might be missing.

[tommygadget]

Here I was looking for a Clockwork Orange reference...
Yes, I thought I was special and/or did something wrong. Oh well...

TomG.

[enrich]

I find it extremely irritating (to say the least). I dont like to be forced to view a thread. It should be my decision whether I want to view it or not.

A PM or a big unmissable text link at the top of the forum would have been better.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by enrich

I find it extremely irritating (to say the least). I dont like to be forced to view a thread. It should be my decision whether I want to view it or not.

A PM or a big unmissable text link at the top of the forum would have been better.

No, you just want all the benefits of the forum without having to give
anything back in return.

How long does it take to click the link and then click one more link to
navigate away from the thread you're being "forced" to read?

Or maybe you'd prefer Allen went back to making this a paid membership
forum.

I'm sure you'd enjoy that a lot more.

[tommygadget]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

No, you just want all the benefits of the forum without having to give
anything back in return.

How long does it take to click the link and then click one more link to
navigate away from the thread you're being "forced" to read?

Or maybe you'd prefer Allen went back to making this a paid membership
forum.

I'm sure you'd enjoy that a lot more.

Yes, but that whooping siren playing is a little bit irritating.

TomG.