What were you guys thinking, seriously?

[supafrey]

"Hrms.. how can we make our ads EVEN MORE obtrusive, and yet again make poker look as shticky, tacky and degenerate as possible? ...

...

BY JOVE WE'VE GOT IT MAN! FLASHING BANNER ADS AND LAME CARTOON HEADERS!"


you win, thp. you win.

[Fat Tony]

You know it is possible to say you don't like something without being a complete ass about it. This is an excellent example of why you are always butting heads with the staff. Not so much for the message, but for how it's delivered.

[supafrey]

Allright.

Your flashing banner ads are obtrusive and tacky.
The top icon/picture looks shticky and unprofessional.
Your site is starting to look more and more like the main page for thepokerforum.com. This is unfortunate and making this look more and more like a page that is trying to capitalize on shticky mom and pop gamblors than the valuable and informative resource it is.

[supafrey]

I... i feel like a whore.

[Fat Tony]

Look on the bright side....now we can all get along. They say the whore-like feeling goes away as time passes.

[vyni]

Without getting into the obvious regarding the manner and attitude... his point is valid no matter how poor his means of communication. Would you expect anything less from supa? Sid and I knew that post was coming before he even made it. Surprise surprise.

tbh, I agree with part of what he's trying to say. I'm not fond of the current cosmetic state of thp but accept that it is better than what it was.

At this point, it's more about the framework and function of the site to me: this update to thp includes some massive code and structure changes.

Cosmetics for thp from this point on are as simple as a skin. The overall appearance and layout of site can be changed at will with far greater ease. The logo seen above for thp atm was a temp that simply hasnt been replaced yet. We discussed this the other day and agree it's extremely inappropriate and outright donkish. It will be removed/replaced very very soon.

As to banner placement: look around. There's less banners on the site now than there were on the old design. The issue I'm sure is with the placement of the ads. They're more prominent now, demanding the users attention. Everyone hates banners. I really hate banners too, but rather than whine I take the simple measures to remove them locally. If someone doesn't want to see banners there are easy means to block them. That's all I'll say on the subject as it contradicts whats in the best interest of the site. Banners are a reality that users have to accept on the larger scale at some point: affiliates and advertisers are what fund 99% of the sites today. You just can't have one without the other.


Back to point. The cosmetic state of thp will change again shortly: either we'll clean up this design, or completely revert back to how things were. This isn't something that will be determined by feedback: feedback is desired and very important as we continue forward, but right now we need see how the new design will impact thps search positions. The search engines, and our keyword positions, are very fragile. Any negative impact in those areas will result in an almost immediate rollback for sure.