cultshock

Yeah really, that's pretty well what they are saying at this point. What a joke.

William Fuld

Russian meddling.

kefrank

Judging by the broken English of the "press release" that was posted, I don't think the marketing people at that company have any native English speakers. If I was the IB sales team, I'd be embarrassed to take money for something so unprofessional - not to mention the standing ethical questions about the product itself.

William Fuld

Watch the video. In Russia dvds rip you!

mzupeman2

I certainly hope so.

I've written for this site for something like 12 years now and really haven't complained... but this is the first time I've truly been disturbed by something I've seen on the main page.

I certainly appreciate and understand that a site needs to pull revenue and that it's getting harder and harder as time goes for any site, but this method of advertising, while good for short term gain, is only going to cost the site in the long run.

DVDTalk's design is being dwarfed by the competition, and I don't think that's much of a secret. However, the people that continue to come here and read our content do so because they genuinely enjoy said content and know we aren't bought and paid for... it comes across in most the writing here, I believe.

Posting something like this on the main page sends the opposite message, and in the worst possible way.

This site up until this point has been about physical media, so posting an ad for software that allows you to rip DVD's seems to fly in the face of that. As others have mentioned, conversation about this sort of thing isn't even allowed on the forums, so when you're posting those advertisements up there and then restricting conversation about it in general, you're sending mixed messages. It's also very unbecoming because it tells the people who frequent here, "We'll take the money and we don't care if it's consistent with our community guidelines."

That's... not a good look to have.

But I'm not a dude who runs a website, so I don't understand all the ins and outs and how necessary this all is. However, for the sake of keeping this kind and constructive, can I offer some suggestions?

One - Try not to post stuff that you wouldn't want people to discuss on the actual forum. That's clearly not fair. "Oh, but it's allowed if you pay us money" isn't a way to position yourself with the people who come here... because they'll stop coming if that's how they see things are going to be run.

Two - If you HAVE to post these kinds of ads right at the top of the main page like that, then there should perhaps be some standards. The ad itself is written poorly. If someone submits something that looks like a poorly written Facebook wall post, IB should probably tell them to spruce it up so it looks more professional or something. Or, maybe IB should be tasked with 'transforming' the phrasing so that it CAN look professional. What the advertiser has provided in this case is rubbish.

Three - It's typical for television stations or radio stations to say the ads they run do not reflect the opinions of said stations, and does not imply endorsement of those viewpoints. Hell, we even see this on DVD's when there's warnings about whatever's being discussed on the supplemental material. However, the fact of the matter is that perception is reality, and when this kind of thing gets posted so prominently on the site, people are going to walk away with the opinion that DVDTalk does, indeed, endorse those products... at least when you put it in the direct article feed, anyway. Maybe make a different style banner that really screams 'this is an advertisement' instead of trying to squeak it out as another post by the site?

I really have nothing else to add at the moment, except that I love DVDTalk from the bottom of my heart. One thing I'd really love for it to do is refrain from reeking of desperation. Seeing these kinds of ads featured, regardless of how they've pitched or written or reflect against community guidelines, only signals to everyone paying attention that there's vultures in the sky. That's ultimately a deterrent, and that's the last thing we need. Let's continue to foster this community as a COMMUNITY instead of just a potential money machine. But driving the community away... what will that accomplish?

Abob Teff

If you you aren’t buying, you’re the product.

Thank you DVDTalk for joining the cesspool mentality of social media ... “the community we have built is really just a platform (when it comes to money and possibly being regulated)”.

Oddly enough, I started experiencing the pop up highjacks again today. Are they really highjacks or is IB selling that as an advertising revenue stream now? Before you answer that, are you sure?

It’s hard to believe some of us have spent nearly 20 years here, but it says something about the community. It seems as if IB just gets in its own way ... especially when your project teams/workgroups don’t communicate with each other.

PM me if you’d like to bring in an organizational development consultant to help you fix some of those process breakdowns.

kefrank

+1000 to everything in mzupeman2's post. Very well-stated!

Kurt D

Thirded. The poor grammar in the advertisement reflects poorly on the website. I guess we had a pretty good run. Last one to leave, remember to turn the lights off.

Abob Teff

IBJoel

Abob, the hijacks are definitely NOT sold as ads by our team. They're the result of ad networks not properly vetting the ads they let in. Which, given that these ad networks handle hundreds, if not thousands of sites throughout the internet, I can understand. All instances of redirects are reported to both our business and tech teams.

mspmms

I appreciate you taking heat on this by directly answering questions here - I have sent you an PM on another forum issue, if you could please let me know you have recieved it.

Abob Teff

Appreciate the answer Joel, thank you! (And they have stopped today.)

mzupeman2

To be fair, I don’t think those sort of ads are the fault of IB. I leave adblock permanently on in my iphone because those sort of things seem to pop up fairly often no matter where I go otherwise. Adblock rendered this a non issue, at least for me.

But I’m not a bit tech guy as far as this stuff is concerned so, grain of salt and all.

Dan

This is only tangentially related to this topic, but I was hoping an admin could chime in to see if this is a-ok, or against forum rules.

Preface: In the past, many folks have discussed using old firmware on their DVD and Blu-ray players and computer drives in order to keep certain features of those players enabled. This is because later firmware releases removed these features (I'm talking about things like ISO playback, MKV playback, region locking, etc.). This was all fair game on this forum, according to my memory.

Today: There are computer disc drives that are not specifically labeled as "UHD" drives, but can in fact read the contents of UHD discs. Newer firmware for these drives has unfortunately disabled this capability, but there are methods for reverting to old official firmware. I think this is an interesting discussion and may be useful to the folks at DVD Talk, but I don't want to cross any unforeseen lines regarding copy protection or any of that stuff.

My question is, if I start a thread about these "UHD friendly" drives and how to revert to old firmware, is this against the rules as written? It is worth nothing that this does NOT bypass any sort of copy protection (if a user makes a copy using these drives, the files are still encrypted); it simply allows the user to see the contents of the disc, just like a DVD or Blu-ray, or even a UHD disc on an official UHD drive.

IBJoel

Very good question. To be honest with you, I don't know enough about the tech involved, so I'll confer with some others.

Dan

Thanks! I'd appreciate it.

I know it's a grey area, which is why I'm asking before starting the thread in the appropriate sub-forum.

And again: NO copy protection is being bypassed to my knowledge. That would still require purchased software (that we can't discuss here anyway). This is only about firmware that allows disc contents to be seen. If I'm able to start the thread, I'll try to make this as clear as possible in the OP so people know what they can and cannot discuss.

cultshock

As far as I know, as long as the DMCA isn't being violated (and it doesn't seem to be in your case) it should be ok, as long as it isn't illegal in some other obscure way. But IMO, if you own a drive and want to put older firmware (from the original manufacturer) on it, I don't see why it shouldn't be legal (and therefore should be allowed to talk about here). But these days who knows?

IBJoel

Dan, double-checked and you should be good.

Norm de Plume

WinX Ripper, promoted by DVD Talk, is a good one, but I think DVDFab is probably the best of the lot. It's the most reliable and user-friendly, and rips both BDs and DVDs.

kefrank

Prepare to be banned. But IB really hopes you bought a copy of WinX Ripper on your way out.

cultshock

Banned!*




*unless you are willing to pay the bribe, er I mean "advertising fee" on behalf of DVDFab**


** DVDFab is pretty good.

Norm de Plume

IBJoel

Closing, as the Advertising process has been explained.