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An Open Letter to DiS.

29 votes
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by justanothersheeldz

Dear DiS,

I notice that this is not the first thread on the adverts or the first thread on the clicking away from the text box, or even the first thread on the tab key problem, but I feel that it really has became a serious problem and as such needs an open dialog. (1)

I use two computers in my time on DiS - One of my own, which I have Firefox installed and Adblocker to block pop up adverts. I also post in Work, and I have no such luxury having to deal with vanilla IE6.0 (2). This means that while in my normal environment I don't see the adverts or any of the refreshing, I do experience it at a high level when I in work.

The problem is this; I come to this site to read and discuss, amongst (3) other things music, and funnily enough, I listen to music when I am here in the back ground. I can't be doing with an intrusive advert that starts to play music over my playlist, forcing me to listen to who ever is paying the electricity bills. It is annoying. I understand that there is a "Rollover Advert" and that is fine by me, but this Santogold advert is taking the piss out of Micheal.

Secondly, (4) the refreshing problem is something that I can't believe still exists. I am typing this message, and every time you see (x) with a number, that is 1 time the cursor has jumped away from writing the thread.

I would like to know if you guys (5) who are running the site know of the problems and are ignoring them, know of the problems but can't do anything about them, or at least, tell us that there is a fix on the way.

Not only is it pissing me off, I am sure the advertising clients won't be too happy that their adverts are being (6) represented by disappointment and hate due to technical difficulties.

Yours,
justanothersheeldz

PS. 6 fucking times is a new record!

justanothersheeldz | 14 May '08, 08:30 | Send note | Report this | Reply

i'm not seeing / hearing a single thing.

My computer has been Santogold-proofed


^ this


I have no idea what you mean about the second point.

but regarding the first one, just don't use DiS at work. Nothing that exciting happens, shirley?


When writing on a reply, you can't press tab to go to the reply bit sometimes. Like right now.

(Grr.)

And the apge refreshes constantly for something to do with the adverts restarting.

I think I laid too much on the sound - I am most pissed off at the refreshing thing.


yeah

but then you'd have to put up with the nightshift


I don't get it

I don't use Adblocker and the adverts aren't an issue for me?

And I'm sure that there is a reason for it so I'm not going to get too pissy but the refresh thing is REALLY annoying.


i dont get sound on this pc :D

work says no to sound


^This

But I must say that the refreshing and the adverts are both annoying.


I don't have sound at school, except on the laptops luckily

but now, at home, it's annoying me so much.


I don't like to harp on about stuff that's already been discussed

but can I add the position of the login/message notification bar and music board subject list.

One of the main reasons why this site has grown so big is the community that it has built up (through hard work from Sean et al, granted) but it seems to be pushing this aspect of the site out of importance by putting it in a place which is unviewable by most browsers when the screen first loads.

All this for what looks like an attempt to get more self-promotion and ad space. It's quite frustrating.


it's impossible to see when you have new messages!

seeing as a large part of why I (and I assume amny others) come on here is for the community aspect, it seems massively counter-intuitive...


I really hope it is

I hate complaining about a website that people are obviously putting hard work into but this is the first change that has really frustrated me.


the whole community aspect of the site has been sidelined

you can't see the community posts any more without scrolling and before that they did away with the social ones and restricted it to music threads.

Whatever, it's Sean's site and I'm sure he's making these decisions about site layout based on a desire to improve it. He's made it obvious many times in the past that he doesn't appreciate the social chat at all and if he could turn back the clock I'm sure he'd never have made a social forum. As for the music posts, I'm not sure what the aim is in marginalising them, but I'm sure there's some business logic behind it.

I can take the hint and as such I'm posting less.

The only problem is that when DiS becomes a site about writing rather than community it becomes a significantly worse site than others.


i don't think

it's hard to understand why they removed the social board from the sidebar!


No

because basically it would be filled with "Santogold" right now :S

But marginalising the login bar and music forum posts is ignoring the factors that made this site what it is if you ask me.


no it isn't

but in some senses I think you've just got to take the rough with the smooth


i wish Gordon Brown

would refer to his detractors as Animal Collective-loving sexists. politics would be SO amazing.


:D

george pringle for home sec!


Mick Hucknall and Rupert Murdich

would be th shadowy advisers that just lurk in the background.


you're wrong

i love the social board, i just hate to admit it. it's one of the most inspiring products of the web age and the incredible bigh, low and gutter-brow of it is astounding and an active historical document. don't get me wrong, if you all thought 'the establishment' loved you, you'd have nothing to push against.


^all of this.

Sorry DiS.
Thanks for not being slow anymore though.


the site is becoming more and more tacky and unusable

and I think it is quite risky as it is creating the potential for another site to swoop in and trigger a mass exodus. I dont see the need for these horrible adverts, dis did ok with normal ones for years and without as massive readership figures of today


GOLD!


All of them?

Good call


I think all the threads are a good thing

hopefully the mass expression of frustration will be noticed


I totally agree with all of this.

The silly thing about the roll over adverts is where they are placed! If you accidentally scroll over it it opens up right over the menus at the top so you then can't click on 'community'/'reveiws' etc.

Just stick it at the side or something.

Oh, and I know it's been discussed to death, but if an advert says 'scroll over to play' and I don't scroll it, then I don't epect to play over what ever i'm listening to!


Not sure if this would work

But if you really really want to avoid the Santogold ad, can't you still access the forums from The Lipster? I think it all runs on the same database or something.

http://www.thelipster.com/articles/3292941


plus, if you go on The Lipster

you can read articles about Dallas and Lydia Lunch.

(is there really a demographic that likes both?!?!)


That is very interesting, if a bit backward.

If we are started taking the numbers and adding the to the lipster it might break DiS though.

Also, the Lipster looks pretty interesting design wise.


im posting from the lipster

its nice over here


How do you find the boards on Lipster?

I click on community and nothing is displayed to choose


You can't

but you can view the threads.


I'm on Mac Safari

and haven't noticed any of this.


What happens on a Mac Safari?

Do you see old G4s in their natural habitat and stuff?


Yep

they gallop across the screen. Maybe that's why I haven't noticed the ads


That is not the point.

Look at the market percentages of Browsers and you are in the minority of the minorities.


Hmm.

I have the volume off so it's not affecting me. The refreshing thing is a bit annoying though; one moment I'm typing a reply and the next I've got a chuffing huge Field Day advert in my face. What? Oh great, now Notting Hill Arts club has just popped up. I'm lucky enough to be in a priviledged position where no bugger can see my screen so I don't have to minimise it anymore, but I can see how this would make regular users who have to keep their DiS window tiny at work annoyed.

Also, this auto refresh thingy, with some kind of weird combo, seems to make me hit 'post reply' before I'm ready sometimes...no?

I agree with the general consensus above re: hiding the music and social community away from the front interface of the site. It's not encouraging long-term users to stick around - bearing in mind tons of them have left recently anyway.


big huge +1


i full endorse this thread

dis is really starting to p!ss me off.
it's like a big 'phuck you' to loyal users of the site


what he said ^

I concur


*she


?

?


sophia is female!

she has boobs and everything!


Another thing,

The constant refreshing means that the back button doesn't work properly because it just takes you back to the last ad refresh.
Also very annoying.


^yep

and typing in the form field whuilst it's refreshing removes the curser from the form field for typing...meaning no words are coming out unless i re-click in the field.

(this just happened 3 times whilst i posted this).

problems at work, no problems on mac


see other thread regarding this

also the Santogold ad has now been fixed, it was never meant to to autoplay.