Life In 19x19

I noticed at the bottom of http://www.usgo.org there are a bunch of advert links. How long have they been there? Surprised somebody hasn't had a hissy fit over those

While I don't care about ads per se, these links look pretty shady. Might even be the result of a hack.

See here: http://www.usgo.org/news/2010/06/aga-we ... vertising/

Frankly, I think the ads could be positioned better. Nobody is going to see or click them when they're at the bottom of the page like that. I can understand the AGA doesn't want to bother readers - but in my opinion the ads should at least go somewhere noticeable.

They do look like an SEO hack (links to get better results on Google). I don't think the AGA would have accepted adds for things like that.

Indeed. "Download movies"? That's piracy. I can't see how an organisation like the AGA can justify getting income for adverts like that. Let's hope those ads are indeed the result of a hack. That might also explain the strange positioning. We are noticing the ads now, but a webmaster might still overlook them for quite some time.

There was a blurb in the eJournal (or maybe I saw it in the minutes?) about how there was going to be some experimentation in placing unobtrusive (paid) ads on the usgo.org website.

While these ads are indeed unobtrusive (I didn't even notice them while looking for them at first), I have to agree that they're pretty sketchy. If I recall, the AGA was reserving the right to not post ads it didn't wish to; I hope whoever is in charge of that will use that power a little more liberally, right now it looks like a blurb from a spam email.

I do appreciate that they're trying to find additional revenue sources, though.

I hope I can provide some insight into these ads for everyone.

Last summer at congress the question was brought before the board and after discussion they approved the placement of adverts on the aga website. After working with a couple vendors we accepted one, the other fell out, who is currently giving us money for the links you see. The contract the AGA has with this company has allowed us to pre-screen the links for anything offensive or tasteless.

This is not a SEO hack at all. The company asked that the ads be placed in this position.

Hushfield wrote: "Download movies"? That's piracy.

This site was approved by those in charge. If you would like to complain please send an email to president@usgo.org.

Please let me know if you have any other questions regarding ads on usgo.org.

vash3g wrote:I hope I can provide some insight into these ads for everyone.

Last summer at congress the question was brought before the board and after discussion they approved the placement of adverts on the aga website. After working with a couple vendors we accepted one, the other fell out, who is currently giving us money for the links you see. The contract the AGA has with this company has allowed us to pre-screen the links for anything offensive or tasteless.

This is not a SEO hack at all. The company asked that the ads be placed in this position.

Hushfield wrote: "Download movies"? That's piracy.

This site was approved by those in charge. If you would like to complain please send an email to president@usgo.org.

Please let me know if you have any other questions regarding ads on usgo.org.

It _is_ an SEO hack. That you're being paid for it is I guess some reward for hosting ads for things that have nothing to do with your site, and that are, for some, just plain embarrassing. (Pirated movies; why not porn?)

The thing is, you don't get enough hits to get any kind of serious ads. So you're stuck with the dregs. It makes you look like a bunch of losers.

More to the point, is anybody else having problems connecting to usgo.org? I've been trying all day.

Best wishes.

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/usgo.org. It's down.

Dusk Eagle wrote:http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/usgo.org. It's down.

Dusk Eagle! Oh my God! That site is likely to be the biggest thing I'll discover about the internet this year. It's awesome! I have no more words to describe the sheer uhm, awesomeness. And, yes: I tried to check some of the links on the site but it was down.

There's a backup site as well.

kirkmc wrote:It _is_ an SEO hack. That you're being paid for it is I guess some reward for hosting ads for things that have nothing to do with your site, and that are, for some, just plain embarrassing. (Pirated movies; why not porn?)

The thing is, you don't get enough hits to get any kind of serious ads. So you're stuck with the dregs. It makes you look like a bunch of losers.

Thanks! I'll make sure to tell everyone our site sucks in the future.

vash3g wrote:

kirkmc wrote:It _is_ an SEO hack. That you're being paid for it is I guess some reward for hosting ads for things that have nothing to do with your site, and that are, for some, just plain embarrassing. (Pirated movies; why not porn?)

The thing is, you don't get enough hits to get any kind of serious ads. So you're stuck with the dregs. It makes you look like a bunch of losers.

Thanks! I'll make sure to tell everyone our site sucks in the future.

You're the ones who chose to put ads like that on the site. It's embarrassing to stoop to that level. If you need the money that bad, use Google ads; at least you won't get ads for piracy. Instead of having an attitude, think perhaps of the way people perceive the site...

Hey, let's be fair. Vash3g is the webmaster, not the president or the board; the instruction to put the ads on came from higher up, if I understand correctly. You're b****ing at the wrong person. Well, maybe you didn't mean him in particular-- but it did sound that way on first reading. Let's not piss off our webmaster...

(I believe I've already said I agree that the ads look bad/out of place and I hope the decision to put them there will be modified or rescinded)