FlyerTalk Forums - Supporting FT / Slow Banners

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Supporting FT / Slow Banners

Hi,

I find great value in FT and would like to support the ongoing operation of the site. I'm running Firefox 24.0 on a Mac running OS X 10.8.5. I'm OK with banner ads, but I find that every time I turn off ....... Pro, the FT banner ads are very slow to load. Well not all of them, maybe 15% of them. But I'm on the site often enough that I really don't want to wait patiently.

Personally, I'd rather send $5 (or whatever) in Paypal funds to the FT overlords than patiently watch a page load a banner ad. Have others expressed this concern?

Quote:

Originally Posted by aBroadAbroad (Post 21619626)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium_subscription.php

Don't even bother (see below).

Quote:

Originally Posted by boberonicus (Post 21619399)

Personally, I'd rather send $5 (or whatever) in Paypal funds to the FT overlords than patiently watch a page load a banner ad. Have others expressed this concern?

Of course others have, since 2010, just to be precise.

Check out these two existing threads for all the answers:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...t-premium.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...g-premium.html

What happened to FT Premium in a nutshell (from January 2012):

Quote:

Originally Posted by IBobi (Post 17839100)

In the coming year, FlyerTalk will be rolling out a brand new array of Premium subscription services to its members; until that time, any members who have a current, up-to-date subscription -- or had their subscription lapse in 2011/12 -- will be offered the ads-free browsing and larger PM box benefits for free. <snip>

When we begin offering paid Premium services in 2012, this free benefit period will end.

I will have an ETA on this soon;

Latest update (March 2013):

Quote:

Originally Posted by IBobi (Post 20480172)

I don't have an ETA on the new Premium features & pricing as yet

How about this?

Create an email address: [email protected] (10 minutes)
Open a Paypal account for that email address associated with a bank account (20 minutes)
Create a well worded post that solicits donations and includes a paypal link (30 minute).
Post the sticky on top of every forum for three days a month. (15 minutes / month)

No premium features needed. Watch the money roll in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by boberonicus (Post 21638718)

How about this?

Create an email address: [email protected] (10 minutes)
Open a Paypal account for that email address associated with a bank account (20 minutes)
Create a well worded post that solicits donations and includes a paypal link (30 minute).
Post the sticky on top of every forum for three days a month. (15 minutes / month)

No premium features needed. Watch the money roll in.

It does seem so easy, doesn't it?

And it's been suggested before:

Quote:

Originally Posted by FriendlySkies (Post 17796220)

We all know that FlyerTalk was not affiliated with InsideFlyer.. I believe the question that we're all wanting to know is Why couldn't you have setup a paypal account, and then manually updated our accounts when we paid you?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dovster (Post 17328445)

How about if IB spends five minutes opening a PayPal account and then gives a year's worth of the premium service to anyone who sends in $12?

Quote:

Originally Posted by cblaisd (Post 21526925)

One would think that in twenty-five months (!) this could have occurred. Especially since, as noted in that thread, a Paypal account could be set up in a day.

I really appreciate the helpfulness of the IB staff, but this is just utterly puzzling.

And it remains puzzling; one response says:

Quote:

Originally Posted by IBobi (Post 17793493)

The facility for linking payments to services simply does not exist at present, since FlyerTalk is a free website.

Do not understand this comment :confused:

Quote:

The previous arrangement was through a subscription to InsideFlyer, which as you know is not affiliated with FlyerTalk.

I hope you'll find the temporary solution more elegant and to your liking anyway -- even though it is taking some time.

Note that that promised "temporary solution" (whatever that means) was 21 months ago.

Another response says:

Quote:

Originally Posted by IBobi (Post 16972538)

We are in the process of putting together an even better Premium package that will include Ad-Free browsing. Stay tuned!

However, note that that was twenty-six months ago!

I like and appreciate the IB staff, but I simply do not get why this so difficult and why there is such silence about this.

Quote:

larger PM box benefits

Well, this explains why my PM inbox, which (last time I checked) had plenty of space, is now overflowing. :eek:

FWIW, the Firefox ....... add-in works so well, that I didn't otherwise know my premium subscription to FT had expired!

cblaisd, that was the best laugh of the day. Thanks for posting all of those quotes.

Robert

So, since the hold up seems be nothing to do with technical obstacles, it presumably has everything to do with...? Extremely lucrative Google AdChoice revenues? Apathy? Laziness? What?

Count me among those who would love to have a premium subscription-based membership option. I surf exclusively on an iPad and since the FT app is utter garbage, to the point of being virtually useless, my participation is solely via the website. However, no matter which browser I use (Safari, Chrome, Mercury, Atomic), with or without an ad blocker enabled, the FlyerTalk website functions poorly under even the most optimal conditions. And the fuctionality issues are all related to ad serving.

Has IB even tried to calculate how much revenue it is losing to blockers? I don't know what fraction of that lost revenue could be captured through a paid subscription program, but I doubt I'm the only one who'd prefer to pay than rely on an ad blocker. I'm sure I've seen others say they value FT's content enough to want to help support the product financially. But, at the end of the day, I do what I'm forced to do in order to avoid having my device resources bogged down by ads.

Should this issue/request/suggestion/complaint be formally put to TalkBoard for official discussion?

If so, what's the process?

Quote:

Originally Posted by aBroadAbroad (Post 21655119)

Should this issue/request/suggestion/complaint be formally put to TalkBoard for official discussion?

I don't think TalkBoard has any saying in FT Premium. You probably should take to Carol, our Community Director, if you want to discuss this matter further, given the unwillingness and/or incapability of IB to roll it out after so many months/years of wait. @:-)

@lin821... Why wouldn't this be a TB issue? From your linked page...

Quote:

SECTION 2: MISSION

A. The FlyerTalk TalkBoard exists to:

i. Represent the interests of the FlyerTalk membership at large to the FlyerTalk Host.
ii. Act as a representative body for the FlyerTalk membership.
iii. Serve in an advisory capacity to the FlyerTalk Host.
iv. Provide feedback to the FlyerTalk Host with regard to the management of FlyerTalk.

B. The TalkBoard accomplishes this by:

i. Prioritizing recommendations on product/service enhancements for FlyerTalk.
ii. Responding to action requests from the FlyerTalk Host for issues/situations that fall outside the scope of established policies, procedures, organization and universe of FlyerTalk’s forums.
iii. Responding to requests from posters with regard to requests for and enquires about enhancements and changes to the structure, organization and universe of FlyerTalk’s forums.
iv. Ensuring on-going feedback between the FlyerTalk Host and its posters.
v. Providing input on and reaction to FlyerTalk upgrades, plug-ins and other changes.
vi. Periodically reviewing FlyerTalk's Terms of Service (TOS) to ensure they best serve and protect FlyerTalk and its posters.

I was not suggesting TB has any decision making authority. My thought was that TB might be able to articulate members' concerns to IB in a way that adds some greater sense of urgency to the matter than it currently enjoys.

If I'm mistaken that's fine. I just think that it makes sense to try to escalate the issue with IB.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aBroadAbroad (Post 21655390)

I just think that it makes sense to try to escalate the issue with IB.

(bolding mine)

There's no better person than Carol to achieve that, imho.

In terms of "greater sense of urgency to the matter" of members' concern, I believe IB already knows it for years. You do know this is not the 1st thread that discussed FT premium, or lack of, since IB bought FT, don't you?