Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

jacquesmattheij.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 242 posts

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#151

Post by jacquesm »

tkaemming wrote: post #120
bpatrianakos wrote: post #44

I have to disagree even as someone relying on Disqus in a few different ways. First off, they did provide notice. I received an email about this at all the addresses I have an account under. Maybe the the author didn't and that sucks but this seems like an edge case and he is one of the exceptions, not the rule. Second, you can turn this feature off which brings me to my next point. Even if they do decide to change t…

It's a shame that comments like this one repudiating several of the details in the original article can't be viewed at the location of the originating post. Instead, everyone who reads the article in the future will have an one-sided impression of the situation (unless the author edits the post based on the points brought up in this thread) due to the lack of comments.

I'll add a link to the HN discussion.

edit: ok link added at the bottom of the article. I hope that helps, I figured out belatedly that this may have been your way of making a joke but it is a useful addition so thank you for the hint.

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#152

Post by tinkmasterflash »

rocky1138 wrote: post #93
tinkmasterflash wrote: post #46

I wouldn't know, I've redirected all the disqus hostnames to 127.0.0.1 This has saved me the bandwidth otherwise wasted on ppl's idiotic quips and now, ads.

A great idea. Can you paste your list here? I'd like to add it to my hosts file.

sure,

127.0.0.1 disqus.com

127.0.0.1 www.disqus.com

127.0.0.1 mediadcn.disqus.com

127.0.0.1 parsley.com

I also use a slightly modified hosts file from here:

http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/

it does a pretty good job of cutting out the crap but I had to add things to get rid of any facebook links, disqus links, etc...

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#153

Post by callahad »

danielha wrote: post #147
callahad wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> advertising (we call it Promoted Discovery) Oh, come on, you guys are better than this.

Do you mean the name? We refer to it as advertising pretty openly. That's what it is.

It's a euphemism, and it feels strange to have euphemisms for your standard business practices.

Note that the screenshot in Jacques' post shows that he's done a search for "advertising" on his page. None of the text matched. Labeling ads as "Recommended Content" seems quite dishonest.

Edit / Aside: I do generally hold Disqus in high esteem, and I sincerely appreciate your willingness to dive into this discussion. I believe Disqus has faltered, but I don't mean to lay that critique at your personal doorstep.

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#154

Post by danielha »

callahad wrote: post #153
danielha wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean the name? We refer to it as advertising pretty openly. That's what it is.

It's a euphemism, and it feels strange to have euphemisms for your standard business practices. Note that the screenshot in Jacques' post shows that he's done a search for "advertising" on his page. None of the text matched. Labeling ads as "Recommended Content" seems quite dishonest. Edit / Aside: I do generally hold Disqus in high esteem, and I sincerely appreciate your willingness to dive into this discussion. I b…

Got it. If the question is about how clear it is to users, then yes that's important and something that we've adjusted along the way. We're going to continue making changes as we learn from feedback.

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#155

Post by glfomfn »

They are obviously not a charity company and its totally understandable the need to make revenue. However, when i sign up for a service and i am asked to link to an external JavaScript file, i expect that file to do as advertised, i can understand the functionality changing a bit without me being notified but not when they do such drastic changes, in that case they should either go with an 'opt-in' option or disable there commenting system until i approve that i am okay with this new functionality. For all those that say 'you can stop using them if you don't like what they do', of course you can but there 'malicious' code still rendered on my webpages right? As an example, what if tomorrow they added 'functionality' to there widget and they started forcing pop ups, would that be okay? There is a certain level of trust needed towards a company that wants me to link some external code on my website that they can change at any given time, actions like that destroy said trust.

Here is the thing, if they done it the proper way i am sure most people wouldn't opt-in, if you are running a website that makes a revenue from ads, you probably already have all the ads your webpage can 'support', if you are running a website as a hobby you probably aren't interested to make any sort of revenue so you would rather not have the ads. Its way more profitable for them to just force there way in, specially if they see that there users don't care.

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#156

Post by fooey »

danielha wrote: post #147
callahad wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> advertising (we call it Promoted Discovery) Oh, come on, you guys are better than this.

Do you mean the name? We refer to it as advertising pretty openly. That's what it is.

I believe the issue is you say "Recommended Content" rather than "Ads by Disqus" which, obviously, infers that the site is recommending something they are not.

Saying "Ads by Disqus" will probably annihilate your clickthrough, but you have to make a choice between cashing in, or keeping your partners happy.

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#157

Post by jacquesm »

danielha wrote: post #148
jacquesm wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me when I enabled that setting, and explain why you make it seem as if I recommend certain products and services. On another note do you realize that you make it seem as if I endorse stealth advertising? Please quit the marketing speak, it makes me itchy. And I have opted out, as the blog post details.

What marketing speak? This is how I talk and I'm an awful marketer.

You are ignoring two items and concentrating on the least relevant third.

The marking speak is where you say:

"When new users sign up, they also are introduced to what Promoted Discovery is and have the choice to configure it."

Let me re-write that for you:

"When new users sign up, we explain to them that we have a revenue sharing advertising program with links that look like content."

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#158

Post by miker64 »

bpatrianakos wrote: post #135
ryguytilidie wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The thing is we're all using the service for free and on top of it they're willing to share revenue with users. I mean we can't just expect every free service to never monetize. " This is one of the problems with some, and mostly the ad based, modern startups, and it seems like most are taking the lead from Facebook here, but the problem is basically that companies create a product that provides value, as Disqus doe…

That's not totally true. They don't just decide to start putting ads up because one day they woke up and thought "holy shit, we have a billion users! how are we going to support this? Quick! Pull out the ads!". It's more like they intend to monetize in the future no matter what but the only thing stopping them is adoption. They need users to adopt the service first before its even monetizeable. I'm sure if ads or wha…

If you intend to monetize, perhaps it might be best not to do it in a way that alienates or upsets your user base. That's the take away we should be looking at. Not that Ads are bad, not that monetization is bad, but:

If you want a service to grow and to be profitable you need to be aware of how your shift from growing the user base to monetizing the user base doesn't lose the user base.

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#159

Post by BYK »

jacquesm wrote: post #99
natasham25 wrote: post #70

I didn't notice this happening on my blog either until a friend notified me. When I looked at my blog post, the ad space was just filled with my own blog posts, so I thought it was cool, since users will be referred to other articles I wrote. However, for everyone else, those slots were ads and links to blog posts outside my blog. I disabled the feature right away. I have my own ways of making money without Disqus he…

> My problem is that it was opt-out, not opt-in, from the start, and they tried to deceive bloggers further by making sure we don't see the ads when we look at our own pages. If true that is a lot nastier than it seemed so far.

And that is of course not true, probably just a coincidence.

Re: Disqus bait and switch, now with ads

#160

Post by uptown »

jacquesm wrote: post #20
shortformblog wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever the case, you can turn it off: http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/666278#disco...

It should have defaulted to 'off'. You can break trust exactly once.

"You can break trust exactly once."

That's nonsense.

Post reply on HN