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A humble request
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A humble request

jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

Hello Everyone,

As you may or may not know, in January 2020 I purchased Low End Talk and Low End Box from ColoCrossing/Deluxe. Shortly after making the purchase I embarked on a significant effort to listen to the community, discuss the state of things with our moderators and get to work improving things https://lowendbox.com/blog/what-do-you-want-to-see-on-low-end-box-share-your-opinion (see thread on Low End Box, plus Facebook and all of the numerous conversations on Discord, email and in DM).

We've made big progress over the last 8 weeks, from removing most of the advertising on both websites, upgrading the hosting platform and moving it away from the famous cluster, updating all the back end software, adding plugins and modules to make the website work better and offer more features, and a very long list of bug fixes, including fixing the long hated mobile version view bug. You can review the entire list of fixes, improvements and changes here: https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/163043/leb-let-improvements-feedback/p1

The work isn't done though, and I keep hustling each day to make our community better, restoring it to its former glory.

On the Low End Box front I am writing most of the content now, and what isn't written by me I am reviewing prior to publishing. The goal is to improve the quality and variety of what gets published on Low End Box. I am also contacting numerous larger hosting providers and discussing the possibility of featuring LEB exclusive offers.

I've also reached out to dozens of old members on Low End Talk to establish a dialog and work to bring them back to a more involved and active role. A big thanks for the contributions of our moderators/administrators both in the past and now.

So, given all of the above progress, I am humbly requesting that our community consider white listing Low End Box and Low End Talk from your ad blockers. The website is ad supported, as you know we removed more than half the ads over the past two months. The financial support provided by the ads that remain are critical to making sure we can stay online and produce content people are interested in.

I hope everyone will consider helping us out with this.

Either way, thanks to all of you for being part of our community.

Thanked by 2Daniel15 chiccorosso
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Comments

  • I'll give the answer you deserve. No way in hell would i or should any community members support you financially after everything that's happened with cc that you were apart of.

  • armandorgarmandorg Member, Host Rep

    As a person who has years in this community, 4 as i do recall [not much eh?], really looking forward on bringing this forum/place at its feet!

    Good luck [ though i'm not deactivating my ad blocker ].

  • cazrzcazrz Member

    Lets give another chance to @jbilloh. Anyway many providers makes sales here. Let's support the providers as well as this site. There are also providers who makes mistakes and comes back doing it the right way. Only corona virus is inhuman.

    Until now there are many providers that adds their promo on the Offers section. Every post you make, every time you load this site, every thread you read, all cost money.

    It is just like having covid-19, going to the hospital, and the doctor says, we can't give you the test kit because you cant afford.

  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    james50a said: I'll give the answer you deserve. No way in hell would i or should any community members support you financially after everything that's happened with cc that you were apart of.

    I am sorry you feel that way. Hope you'll reconsider in the future. If you would like to talk to me directly I'm always available via DM. Send me a message.

    armandorg said: As a person who has years in this community, 4 as i do recall [not much eh?], really looking forward on bringing this forum/place at its feet!

    Good luck [ though i'm not deactivating my ad blocker ].

    Many thanks to you!

    cazrz said: Lets give another chance to @jbilloh. Anyway many providers makes sales here. Let's support the providers as well as this site. There are also providers who makes mistakes and comes back doing it the right way. Only corona virus is inhuman.

    Thanks so much for your support.

  • PulsedMediaPulsedMedia Member, Patron Provider

    Consider adding patreon or membership function as a revenue source.

    For example 1$ a month gives you ad free experience and supporter flair. 5$ a month gives you silver supporter flair, 10$ a month gold supporter flair, 20$ a month platinum.
    If any other perks above ad free, it has to be something which does not mess with content or other people's experience (ie. no freedom to spam new offer every day, or skipping the usual offer rules!). In essence, it only gives you bragging rights :)

    WHT used to get revenue by sticky or highlighted offer threads, that's somewhat unobtrusive as well, consider this option as well - but seriously do not let it get spammy. Say maximum 2 sticky and 2 highlights at any given time in either of the offer categories.

    To get more viewers, on top of thread next to bookmark icon similarly sized icons for share on twitter or facebook - you'll get tons more visitors here that way.

    Regardless, whatever you choose, user experience should be #1. Ruin UX and it'll be a ghost town real fast.

    Thanked by 1armandorg
  • If you need money , then ask @cociu I'm sure he will very generous to give you some :smile:

    Thanked by 1MrH
  • pikepike Veteran

    Okay ublock is off now, but Privacy Badger stays on.

  • Disabled ublock on let now. Hope the improvements continue.

    But, if I feel the ads are annoying, will enable again.

  • LeeLee Veteran
    edited March 2020

    I will give you credit for having done some of the things asked albeit they took longer than expected. Still don't want to see the LEB offers being fed into this forum though.

    I have unblocked, for now on LET, not removing the block on LEB though.

  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    PulsedMedia said: For example 1$ a month gives you ad free experience and supporter flair. 5$ a month gives you silver supporter flair, 10$ a month gold supporter flair, 20$ a month platinum.

    If any other perks above ad free, it has to be something which does not mess with content or other people's experience (ie. no freedom to spam new offer every day, or skipping the usual offer rules!). In essence, it only gives you bragging rights

    Thanks for the idea, I had not considered something like this.

    PulsedMedia said: WHT used to get revenue by sticky or highlighted offer threads, that's somewhat unobtrusive as well, consider this option as well - but seriously do not let it get spammy. Say maximum 2 sticky and 2 highlights at any given time in either of the offer categories.

    I know WHT used to make buckets of money from this approach but it also caused the offer section to get really difficult to navigate as an end user. I have been focused on making LET and LEB easier to use and cleaner.

    PulsedMedia said: To get more viewers, on top of thread next to bookmark icon similarly sized icons for share on twitter or facebook - you'll get tons more visitors here that way.

    Are you familiar with a Vanilla plugin that does this and isn't broken? Would love any suggestions. I just fixed the social share feature on LEB a few days ago.

    PulsedMedia said: Regardless, whatever you choose, user experience should be #1. Ruin UX and it'll be a ghost town real fast.

    I agree 100%. That's why we removed the bulk of the ads among all the other changes.

    pike said: Okay ublock is off now, but Privacy Badger stays on.

    Thank you!

    niceboy said: Disabled ublock on let now. Hope the improvements continue.

    But, if I feel the ads are annoying, will enable again.

    Thank you very much. As you know all of our ads are provided via BuySellAds and almost all of the them are tech based and pertinent.

    Lee said: I will give you credit for having done some of the things asked albeit they took longer than expected. Still don't want to see the LEB offers being fed into this forum though.

    I have unblocked, for now.

    Thanks I appreciate that!

  • hzrhzr Member
    edited March 2020

    I would whitelist if the borderline-malicious scripting is removed and only text/image based ads are served, directly. Without the aggressive cross site tracking attempts.

    Unfortunately on a high latency connection it's not so much the ads but the tracking scripts that are making thousands of connections repeatedly.

    Edit: Yep, it's the tracking scripts. 2 minutes to finish loading, 5 seconds otherwise.

    For adroll alone, much less bsa, onetag, rmtag, perfectaudience:
    image

  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    @hzr said:
    I would whitelist if the borderline-malicious scripting is removed and only text/image based ads are served, directly. Without the aggressive cross site tracking attempts.

    Unfortunately on a high latency connection it's not so much the ads but the tracking scripts that are making thousands of connections repeatedly.

    Send me a DM about what you mean. We only use BuySellAds for advertising so I am not following. Other than that there is code for Google Analytics but that should be it.

  • I haven't used adblock for the past 2 years - I've just stopped visiting websites with intrusive ads. Regarding tracking, I'm currently testing firefox containers once again.

    Lets make LET great again!

  • hzrhzr Member
    edited March 2020

    jbiloh said: Send me a DM about what you mean. We only use BuySellAds for advertising so I am not following. Other than that there is code for Google Analytics but that should be it.

    Sent

  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    luissousa said: I haven't used adblock for the past 2 years - I've just stopped visiting websites with intrusive ads. Regarding tracking, I'm currently testing firefox containers once again.

    Lets make LET great again!

    I suppose that means that you don't think our ads are intrusive. :)

  • Come on guys don't be so egotistical. The owner of the forum is trying to keep it all afloat in these thought times and perhaps make a bit of profit (I see nothing wrong with the latter).
    I am pretty sure that many of us have in some way or another benefited from the forum. Personally I have found providers at LET and made some pretty good deals in the past that made me a decent amount of money. Many of you also benefited from free advertisement in the forum in one way or another or at least learned some industry insights.
    I have seen many decent free services going away in the past due to lack of funding.
    Just image that LET and LEB are gone one day ... where would most of the independent hosts advertise? EIG sponsored affiliate sites at $150 USD commission per sale or maybe adwords at $10 USD per click or maybe the overly censored WHT?
    Let's all show some support to LET if we do not want to loose it. Seeing a few ads is no big deal.
    Besides who doesn't make mistakes?
    Good luck @jbiloh3

    P.S. Whitelisted.

  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran
    edited March 2020

    preslavl said: Let's all show some support to LET if we do not want to loose it. Seeing a few ads is no big deal.
    Besides who doesn't make mistakes?
    Good luck @jbiloh

    P.S. Whitelisted.

    Thank you very much. We appreciate it sincerely.

  • Disabled adblocker. Glad to be able to help out. Keep up the good work and keep them offers coming.

  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    t0ny0 said: Disabled adblocker. Glad to be able to help out. Keep up the good work and keep them offers coming.

    Woot, thank you!

  • Disabled adblocker for LET and LEB.

  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    PhilTechie said: Disabled adblocker for LET and LEB.

    Thanks Phil, I appreciate that.

  • Are the ads paid on a per view basis?

    Thanked by 2Falzo bugrakoc
  • Shot2Shot2 Member

    @james50a said:
    I'll give the answer you deserve. No way in hell would i or should any community members support you financially after everything that's happened with cc that you were apart of.

    "Congrats on your last post"

    (jk)

    Thanked by 1TimboJones
  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    @boernd said:
    Are the ads paid on a per view basis?

    No, it's a flat rate per spot per month. It's pretty affordable.

  • jbiloh said: January 2020 I purchased Low End Talk and Low End Box from ColoCrossing/Deluxe.

    jbiloh said: June 2020 I sold Low End Talk and Low End Box to ColoCrossing/Deluxe.

  • MrHMrH Member

    No

    Thanked by 1james50a
  • gksgks Member

    While my adblocker still on, I have blocked LEB website as whole due to my experience as victim to two providers. I would rather wait another year of time to ensure that quality of LEB hosts to improve. Good luck to you, I am sure LET is on right direction.

    Thanked by 1james50a
  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    Francisco

    Thanked by 2alexvolk SplitIce
  • ExonHostExonHost Member, Host Rep

    Is this offer still applicable? :expressionless:

    I got this email last January.

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    @ExonHost said:

    Is this offer still applicable? :expressionless:

    I got this email last January.

    So wait.

    LEB was posting that Chris' offers in the past few months, and didn't disclose it?

    Francisco

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