Unhallowed Triad/Unrest - moved from Test by SOE - Page 70

LFG · 12-17-2007, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kwoung

Well, I hope that helps clear some stuff up, I still believe a good part of your personal motivation is to drive up the flames, as that drives up the revenues.. and who doesn't need a few more bills in their wallet. You would be a stupid businessperson not to. Nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about there. The only reason I do not run ads on eq2test is because most of the ads available from Google are for plat sellers and Testers have real issues with that (and they do not offer plats on Test.. heh). If I am wrong and you are not motivated by your pocketbook, then please accept my apologies

Kwoung, thank you for your thoughtful response.

To your point above, the reason I don't use Google ads is the same as yours: because I cannot adequately filter out the RMT ads, and the possibility of those ads is not acceptable to the majority of users on this site. I have now gone through 6 different ad agencies. I've found 3 types of ad agencies:

1. Ones like Google that don't allow you to prescreen the ads to the point you will be guaranteed to never get a RMT ad - these are not acceptable to me at any price.

2. High paying ad agencies that also cause great problems - the highest paying ads are those that show too much skin and advertise condoms, adult sites, casinos, etc., and/or deliver malware with ads that makes users' virus checkers go off. These are also not acceptable at any price, because people freak out, it ends up taking my full time to deal with it, and it isn't worth the money.

3. Low paying advertisers that have the benefit of zero possibility of RMT ads and also include zero malware and viruses with the ads they deliver.

We use type #3. Unfortunately, this type only covers operation expenses on the site, and doesn't provide any profit. Really, type #2 pays 5 to 10 times higher than type #3, but it just isn't worth the hassle of the complaints, plus then users stop using the site and we start losing that ad revenue based on lost users.

So this site is run as a not for profit venture, I'm simply a hobbyist and am not making a profit on this. Anything I get extra is given away in site contests.

My motivation in starting this thread was to bring something to the public attention that I considered outrageous. Obviously, a lot of people agreed with me about that. I didn't start this thread with any thought to personal gain.

I'm personally satisfied that SOE corrected the mistake it made to the maximum extent that mistake can feasibly be corrected. They couldn't have completely corrected the mistake without rolling back Unrest. I think that would have gone too far, and I'm personally satisfied with the fact that the moved characters were wiped on Unrest. I'm not sure it would be feasible to do much more than that.

I think SOE has learned a great lesson from all this. I don't believe we'll be seeing anything like this again in the future.

And most of all, I personally feel like my goal in starting this thread has been accomplished.

Thanks again for your response.

LFG · 12-17-2007, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agnar

I did get my first Private Message from Echgar. What a sweet person.

I actually send Echgar PMs on the official site every now and then seeking his advice. What amazes me about him is how well he's able to hold his temper regardless of what's being thrown at him. I wish I could do that, it's always been one of my greatest character defects.

LFG · 12-17-2007, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EtoilePB

The story's starting to appear elsewhere on the web now, it seems. My bf linked me the Massively.com story, mostly accurate, and something from earlier in the thread caught my attention, and I went to look -- someone dropped the story to Slashdot over the weekend, it looks like, although it's just in the Firehose.

Woot, massively.com has called this a "threadnaught" lol.

SOE caught red-handed: EQ2 Player / Dev relationship breached ethical boundaries - Massively

I love this pic they posted also:

cyanbane · 12-17-2007, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFG

Kwoung, thank you for your thoughtful response.

To your point above, the reason I don't use Google ads is the same as yours: because I cannot adequately filter out the RMT ads, and the possibility of those ads is not acceptable to the majority of users on this site. I have now gone through 6 different ad agencies. I've found 3 types of ad agencies:

1. Ones like Google that don't allow you to prescreen the ads to the point you will be guaranteed to never get a RMT ad - these are not acceptable to me at any price.

2. High paying ad agencies that also cause great problems - the highest paying ads are those that show too much skin and advertise condoms, adult sites, casinos, etc., and/or deliver malware with ads that makes users' virus checkers go off. These are also not acceptable at any price, because people freak out, it ends up taking my full time to deal with it, and it isn't worth the money.

3. Low paying advertisers that have the benefit of zero possibility of RMT ads and also include zero malware and viruses with the ads they deliver.

We use type #3. Unfortunately, this type only covers operation expenses on the site, and doesn't provide any profit. Really, type #2 pays 5 to 10 times higher than type #3, but it just isn't worth the hassle of the complaints, plus then users stop using the site and we start losing that ad revenue based on lost users.

So this site is run as a not for profit venture, I'm simply a hobbyist and am not making a profit on this. Anything I get extra is given away in site contests.

My motivation in starting this thread was to bring something to the public attention that I considered outrageous. Obviously, a lot of people agreed with me about that. I didn't start this thread with any thought to personal gain.

I'm personally satisfied that SOE corrected the mistake it made to the maximum extent that mistake can feasibly be corrected. They couldn't have completely corrected the mistake without rolling back Unrest. I think that would have gone too far, and I'm personally satisfied with the fact that the moved characters were wiped on Unrest. I'm not sure it would be feasible to do much more than that.

I think SOE has learned a great lesson from all this. I don't believe we'll be seeing anything like this again in the future.

And most of all, I personally feel like my goal in starting this thread has been accomplished.

Thanks again for your response.

You mean you guys actually make enough to pay your bills on a fan site?

LFG · 12-17-2007, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cyanbane

You mean you guys actually make enough to pay your bills on a fan site?

Aye, thanks to our users.

EtoilePB · 12-17-2007, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by progrocker69

[Quote's Kirstie's "Wahoo 75% XP!!!111one!!" post]

Can I get a side order of who-gives-a-shit with that?

I don't see people coming back in droves because of that extra 25% xp.

I'm just glad I wasn't personally affected by this but I can imagine how those people who were must be feeling about now.

You know the really fun part? How they're INSTANTLY deleting any replies in that thread that aren't 100% positive. I can count at least 8 that have vanished and all but one were quite tame.

Wow.

Kelenvor · 12-17-2007, 10:16 PM

I'm just curious. Did anyone at Sony actually get in trouble for this? As in, write up, talk down, warning etc. I'm asking because of their public post. They acted like it wasn't a big deal and they could of given a shit. They just removed them to shut us up.

Did it make any kind of impact at SOE?

Suru · 12-17-2007, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EtoilePB

You know the really fun part? How they're INSTANTLY deleting any replies in that thread that aren't 100% positive. I can count at least 8 that have vanished and all but one were quite tame.

Wow.

I noticed the same on the bonus exp post had 5 replies went back after a while to see how the test people were liking the idea down to one reply.

80 pages of pissed off people with nice piles of vomit from those invovled showing just the sort of people SOE values deleting posts is just so childish but then i guess so is a guilt trip instead of an appology.

Kyrsten · 12-17-2007, 10:49 PM

I posted that I was looking forward to leveling up and then transferring to live, that post lasted about 5 minutes.

EtoilePB · 12-17-2007, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyrsten

I posted that I was looking forward to leveling up and then transferring to live, that post lasted about 5 minutes.

I actually have a screenshot of that one. And another one taken about four minutes later where it doesn't exist anymore.

I don't know why, exactly, except that I'm cranky and bitter and feel like hoarding evidence of who-knows-what.