Site usability and ads

[g_wittigmd@yahoo.com]

Hi there. I used to frequent this site and posted some particularly in the printing forum. Still lots of great stuff here. I fell off the grid when I got into oil painting, but after resuscitating my Canon iPF pro-2000 printer this week I'm back into printing so I figured I'd check back in.

I am immediately struck by how obnoxious and intrusive the digital ads are, floating up into my view-space and refusing to be dismissed. I found it so annoying for a site that requires paid membership that I wanted to post a comment....but I find that sending an e-mail to the site directors requires me to cough up my e-mail account information.

This simply strikes me as bad manners, as impolite, hostile to users. I guess it's just me, a grumpy old guy.

Here endeth my rant.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

I could not agree more.

Although it does seem that these *EXTREMELY ANNOYING* popup banner ads do go away after you log in.

But if whoever is running this site these days (with what appears to be the absolute minimum amount of effort I might add), thinks that these annoying popup banner ads, will attract more casual visitors to become paying members on Lula, or to click through them to spend their money, then they really have lost the plot completely, in my humble opinion.

Here endeth my rant also..

Dave

[josh.reichmann]

Hey, you (both) have my attention, and perhaps I can mitigate the frustration/grumps. The ads go away with the 1$ a month subscription which is reasonable, seeing as the site still has lots of free articles without a subscription and needs to survive.

Ads are annoying. I agree; those may go in the future as they yield almost no return and suck. But the subscription seems fair and the only way for us to run. Additionally, we are (after 2.5 years) close to adding a personal gallery / unique to each user site space with lots of cool features.

Sorry that your email is required for this; there is no way around that.  You can indeed post a comment without membership. If you're encountering difficulties commenting, just drop a message to our tech support.

Josh

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

OK Josh and thanks for that.

Yes I know I am old and grumpy and prone to the occasional rant or outburst at the slightest thing changing, but my love for this site, or at least for what it used to be only a few years ago, is what drove this my latest rant.

So yes, please feel free to knock my socks off with some amazing new stuff, as I could really do with something like that happening to me right now.

Dave

[jemadsen]

Except for the "editorial advertising" I would call the recent article on the Phase One XT camera.

Also new articles these past 5 months - almost half a years subscription - has been close to zero. Rediscovery after rediscovery but nothing new.

I dont even recall the Leica M11 has even been mentioned. That would never had happend in Michaels (or Kevin Rabers) time. They were both too pleased with "the good stuff" (including Alpa / Phase One) and also enough respectful to the subscribers.