Ads and other junk in admin

[Jay Talbot]

Will you please remove the ads and junk from the admin? Fine if you
want a donate button or something, but ads are annoying. For now, i'm
working on removing them myself.

[Jay Talbot]

Wow.... Not even a reply....

[RavanH]

You are completely free to do what you like to the code, it is GPL
after all.

Besides, most of that 'junk' is relevant resource linking and active
support questions which might be just usefull to some. If not for you,
that's fine too.

> Wow.... Not even a reply....

Sorry to see you are so impatient. If this was a support question I
would have jumped to answer but since you seem to only complain about
a page you should only have to see once or twice anyway, I am not
inclined to make much haste ;)

[Jay Talbot]

On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 4:12 AM, RavanH <ravan...@gmail.com> wrote:

You are completely free to do what you like to the code, it is GPL
after all.

Besides, most of that 'junk' is relevant resource linking and active
support questions which might be just usefull to some. If not for you,
that's fine too.

No, some of the 'junk' I'm talking about are the affiliate and click-through commission links placed there not by my choice. No where is there mention of these links in the documentation and there's no way I see to disable or change them other than taking them out of, or replacing them in the code. What bothers me the most is the "» Get Skype, call free!" link is a click-though, and that goes on every one of my pages. It's fine if you want to monetize your own blog, but please don't try and monetize mine without my consent.
 

> Wow.... Not even a reply....

Sorry to see you are so impatient. If this was a support question I
would have jumped to answer but since you seem to only complain about
a page you should only have to see once or twice anyway, I am not
inclined to make much haste ;)

Of course you're not going to 'make much haste' when it's something you don't really want to address to begin with. Part of being a developer is dealing with complaints just as much as dealing with other support requests, so get over it. ;)

So now, as a support request: How might I disable/remove/replace the click-through and affiliate links without messing with the code? If there is no way, then I would like to request such features be put in place and there be a statement that such links exist at the install or download point.

Thank you,
Jay

[RavanH]

> No, some of the 'junk' I'm talking about are the affiliate and click-through
> commission links placed there not by my choice. No where is there mention of
> these links in the documentation and there's no way I see to disable or
> change them other than taking them out of, or replacing them in the code.

They are placed there by my choice but if you want them out of the
options page, (again) you are completely free to do so. I am only a
bit intrigued why you would insist on them being taken out form a
private page you will rarely have to visit anyway... Are you afraid of
catching something? Or maybe that you mistakingly ckick such an ad and
then continue to buy something for yourself that I might get a little
profit from? It is my work after all that you are using for FREE here.

> What bothers me the most is the "» Get Skype, call free!" link is a
> click-though, and that goes on every one of my pages. It's fine if you want
> to monetize your own blog, but please don't try and monetize mine without my
> consent.

There is an option called "Use Download Skype now! link" on the
Settings > Skype Status page (sorry you will have to go and visit it
again and risk seeing an ad AGAIN!) that will disable the link below
each button. OR you can set the "Link URL:" (just below that) to
either "Skype download page" or "Skype main page". Easy isn't it?

An alternative would be to get your own affiliate account (see those
handy resource links in the sidebar!) and set "Link URL:" to
"Custom..." and paste your own affiliate code in the field all the way
at the bottom. That way only YOU will benefit from visitors that
download Skype form your blog... Sounds better?

> Of course you're not going to 'make much haste' when it's something you
> don't really want to address to begin with. Part of being a developer is
> dealing with complaints just as much as dealing with other support requests,
> so get over it. ;)

Wow, you call me a DEVELOPER but deny me the right to scrape some
benefits from my work??? Are you really expecting people to work for
you without any return at all? And you expect them to respond within
ONE day to your calling? Sorry to be the one to inform you that you
are dreaming. Wake up man... Or better: get over yourself?

> So now, as a support request: How might I disable/remove/replace the
> click-through and affiliate links without messing with the code? If there is
> no way, then I would like to request such features be put in place and there
> be a statement that such links exist at the install or download point.

There IS a message about the Get Skype link because I do not want to
force it upon everybody. Hit the question mark after "Link URL:" and
read instructions there.

If you drop me a small donation (see Paypal link in sidebar
again :D ), I might consider to make it optional to remove back-end
commercial messages too ;)

[Jay Talbot]

On Sun, May 10, 2009 at 5:31 PM, RavanH <ravan...@gmail.com> wrote:

> No, some of the 'junk' I'm talking about are the affiliate and click-through
> commission links placed there not by my choice. No where is there mention of
> these links in the documentation and there's no way I see to disable or
> change them other than taking them out of, or replacing them in the code.

They are placed there by my choice but if you want them out of the
options page, (again) you are completely free to do so. I am only a
bit intrigued why you would insist on them being taken out form a
private page you will rarely have to visit anyway... Are you afraid of
catching something? Or maybe that you mistakingly ckick such an ad and
then continue to buy something for yourself that I might get a little
profit from? It is my work after all that you are using for FREE here.

It clutters the page, and very unattractive to me. Also, I don't need another host, as I'm sure most others on this list don't. The ads don't target the correct audience in my honest opinion. I'm hardly using it for free, since I took the time to go in and remove the ads and the affiliate links myself. Releasing this open source was your choice, not mine. If you want to make money, why not charge for premium support?
 

> What bothers me the most is the "» Get Skype, call free!" link is a
> click-though, and that goes on every one of my pages. It's fine if you want
> to monetize your own blog, but please don't try and monetize mine without my
> consent.

There is an option called "Use Download Skype now! link" on the
Settings > Skype Status page (sorry you will have to go and visit it
again and risk seeing an ad AGAIN!) that will disable the link below
each button. OR you can set the "Link URL:" (just below that) to
either "Skype download page" or "Skype main page". Easy isn't it?

Ok, so noted. Thank you.
 

An alternative would be to get your own affiliate account (see those
handy resource links in the sidebar!) and set "Link URL:" to
"Custom..." and paste your own affiliate code in the field all the way
at the bottom. That way only YOU will benefit from visitors that
download Skype form your blog... Sounds better?

I don't have an affiliate account with anyone. Sure, I have a couple of google text ads, but I wouldn't try and include those in anything I'd write.

> Of course you're not going to 'make much haste' when it's something you
> don't really want to address to begin with. Part of being a developer is
> dealing with complaints just as much as dealing with other support requests,
> so get over it. ;)

Wow, you call me a DEVELOPER but deny me the right to scrape some
benefits from my work??? Are you really expecting people to work for
you without any return at all? And you expect them to respond within
ONE day to your calling? Sorry to be the one to inform you that you
are dreaming. Wake up man... Or better: get over yourself?

Oh, I'm sorry, I mistakenly thought you were doing it for your own satisfaction like most OSFS developers. I guess I was wrong.

> So now, as a support request: How might I disable/remove/replace the
> click-through and affiliate links without messing with the code? If there is
> no way, then I would like to request such features be put in place and there
> be a statement that such links exist at the install or download point.

There IS a message about the Get Skype link because I do not want to
force it upon everybody. Hit the question mark after "Link URL:" and
read instructions there.

Heh, it's less than conspicuous.

If you drop me a small donation (see Paypal link in sidebar
again :D ), I might consider to make it optional to remove back-end
commercial messages too ;)

I would, if I had a job and a source of income of my own. Unfortunately, the job market where I live is dry at the moment. Of course, after insulting me, I'm not so sure I would if I had the money.

Jay

[RavanH]

Jay,

Premium support? I doubt I would have seen any benefit from that
approach at all. Besides, the plugin is simply just perfect as it is
and needs no suppport, haha ;) Just kidding there, but to be serious,
most problems are Skype or webhost related and I could not give any
support for that even if I wanted too. Charging for help that consists
of 'please contact your hosting provider' or 'see the skype suport
forums' would not be something to stand for.

I am sorry you feel insulted but then - if you really are so easily
insulted - I would like to suggest you choose your tone and wording
more carefully to begin with. You might also reconsider some
presumptions you seem to live with about open source in general and
the motivation of 'most' developers who choose to release some of
their work under the GPL licence.

Like me, you do not have a regular job right now (as I understand it)
so you might appreciate any little revenue that comes your way. You
have Google Ads on you site but state you would not include those with
anything you write (I presume you write at least *something* on you
website, no? ;) ) But then, why not benefit just that little bit from
anybody than will download Skype because of your 'Get Skype' link on
your website too? Becoming an affiliate is not so difficult... Maybe
becoming a Spype Prime advisor would be something for you so you get
some benefit from answering Skype calls from your website visitors?
See http://directory.skype.com/en/skypeprime/advisor/ for more
details.

I take your point about the Get Skype link text in my plugin and make
it more obvious.

Good luck with your endeavors in life,
Allard


On 11 mei, 02:03, Jay Talbot <jay.tal...@gmail.com> wrote:

[astraina]

Ahoj

Neviem, prečo mi posielaš tieto emaily??,

 

-----Povodna sprava-----
Od: RavanH <ravan...@gmail.com>
Prijata: 12.05.2009 10:33
Pre: WP Skype Online Status <wp-skype-on...@googlegroups.com>
Predmet: Re: Ads and other relevant resource links in admin