Blog piece: Ads, Supporters, Endorsements and Bandwidth Throttling

[starfire42]

Just wanted to say thanks for keeping us up to date with this kind of thing. It makes users feel more like part of a communal effort, and less like a commodity or a leech.

 

As for the new plans, I think its a great idea. I especially like the idea of side-skin ads. I tried unblocking ads here for a while, but the placement of them felt like they were covering up the column headers on many pages (they really weren't, it just felt that way because they're mashed in so tight around the column headers). I'm glad I'll be able to support the site again even though I can't afford a membership right now.

 

[jesserevis]

Wouldn't an extension like 'ghostery', make it harder to track if users have ads disabled or not?

 

I know its relatively commonplace for people to use that in addition to an adblock extension.

[ledmack]

I find it great that you are keeping things fresh! As always thank you for your loyalty to your members! NEXUS 4 LIFE

[awesonymous]

google search "add block". it block ads from most sites (including nexus) in the chrome browser. So, we don't see ads and the nexus team still gets their money, it's a win win! :D

[Aedred]

21crescendo

 

I think, in consideration with how endorsements will work, the one hour limit on endorsement is a pretty good idea. It gives me a reasonable amount of time to play with a mod and see if I really want to stick with it. Usually, in my case, it can take months before I've decided to endorse something, given how long some mod makers take to release things. I remember one mod in particular for Oblivion, that I finally decided was worth endorsing after a whole year. Some of these mods come a really long way after their initial inception.

 

(I just thought of something. I don't know how practical it would be, but what if we had a checkbox or something in our downloads lists, next to each mod we download that indicates whether or not we're using each of the mods we download? The duration of the checkbox statuses might give extra data on the mod download to endorsement ratio.)

 

As for the adblock portions of the article, I'm pretty much putting myself on the spotlight by saying that I do use it to block ads and I do care about security. It's not a matter of IF you're machine is going to be infected, but WHEN. I've learned that the hard way over the years and each time it happens, I become more paranoid.

 

A big thanks, Dark0ne, for all these really detailed posts on how things are coming along with the site. I think this community is awesome ^_^

Edited February 16, 2013 by Aedred

[PrinceofDisgrace]

Robin

 

I'll begin by openly declaring I don't see your ads, and I am none too keen to start allowing their garbage even though I wish to enable an excellent site to survive.

 

I have been and remain interested in premium membership, however the problem remains...Paypal. Sorry but I won't use it. Dodgy as ****. I realise its benefits for you, I just have no intention of trusting them with anything to do with my money, much the same as how won't buy DLC through Valve.

 

So it seems we're at an impasse. I want to give you money but not in the current two ways. I'm interested in what the staff response is.

Edited February 16, 2013 by PrinceofDisgrace

[jacktthompson]

Interesting article. You have obviously put some thought into this. Perhaps the endorsement to download ratio can be improved by providing better real time reminders (in the profile page or tracked files interface) of what the user has downloaded, to enable them to rate their downloads with a positive or neutral response, much like acknowledging when a message has been read. So that the downloaded files will get the same prominent location in the user profile page as messages and ability to hide a download rating notification will only be granted when the user has responded with positive or neutral rating.

I also suggest a better mod summary interface to allow users to see when a mod has been updated. It would be great to also have the ability to remove the lengthy articles from the tracked files stream on the front page and provide a view that only shows when the main file has been changed, for example.

Sometimes it takes me a while to endorse a mod, even to the point of Nexus forgetting I have downloaded the mod after a couple months. So I periodically go through my hundreds of mods in Wrye Bash and try to endorse all the ones I am still using and happy with.

Keep up the great work!

Edited February 17, 2013 by jacktthompson

[odinriko]

Well your article got at least one person to unblock your ads.

[jacktthompson]

A well written mobile app with a good interface to the site may also be a good way to monetize traffic, as users seem less resistant to ads on mobile platforms than on desktop/laptop platforms.

 

If you are redoing the endorsement interface, in addition to positive and neutral response, I suggest a "too buggy to use" response because many mods are great ideas but poorly written.

Thanks!

[lotherius]

So...... with these changes, will there actually be upgrades to the servers so users are technically NOT throttled can get a decent download rate? I've been sitting here trying to download a 120mb pack for the last TWO DAYS and it keeps stopping/stalling/giving errors due to low transfer rate. I *thought* it was my connection, so I rebooted routers, etc... Then I tried a download of something else from another site, and it shot right up to full speed. Apparently it is *only* Nexus that's having this problem.

 

I've seen it go fast, but for the last two days, I'm lucky to get 10-20 kb/s, and have to stick to tiny mods/updates.. anything big just stalls stalls stalls stalls stalls.

 

I would use a decent download manager, rather than NMM, but Nexus sites see fit to block access through such programs as JDownloader... which wouldn't be a problem if NMM didn't keep aborting the download.

Edited February 17, 2013 by lotherius