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Threshold · 12-31-2005, 12:38 AM

Sacac, seriously, can you please understand and accept that this is a traffic exchange? It is unfair to sites who send very little traffic to get their own list where they are shown more prominently. They aren't the sites that BRING the traffic. Why should they get special treatment. It doesn't matter if its 1 out of 3 lists, 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 3. It still goes against the nature of a traffic exchange.

As for "forcing someone to dig through pages of muds", come on. That's cake. You can easily select genres or other 20 MUD blocks right at the top, and that alone narrows things down so much that you get muds with very few votes on the front page. Anyone looking for a new mud has absolutely NO DIFFICULTY finding variety.

The truth of the matter, if you'd be willing to admit it, is that you (and many others) want to figure out some way- any way- to get less popular muds a more prominent location for where their mud gets listed. Such people want a mud that has not EARNED the prominence, by sending traffic, to get the prominent spot anyway.

Let me put it this way. *I* wouldn't even bother voting for my own mud every day if I had to enter some annoying code. I find having to do that sort of thing just more trouble than its worth. That's why I don't bother voting for my own MUD on TMC. It isn't that it takes a huge amount of time or anything. It is just that the value of a single vote is pretty small, compared with the annoyance factor of reading one of those obfuscated graphics and then typing in the letters.

It is just like the concept behind coupons. Companies that give coupons do so for two main reasons: the first is marketing, but the second is more interesting. They know that some people are willing to pay more for the exact same product. But they also know they can't have two prices for the same product, or else the people who pay the higher price will feel cheated. Thus, they give out coupons in newspapers, coupon books, etc. How does this work? The people who value their time more, and think it isn't worth their time to bother with clipping coupons, storing them, organizing them, remembering to bring them, etc. pay a higher price. People who value their time less, do all the things necessary to use coupons, and pay less. Voila! The seller just sold the product for 2 different prices, depending on how much the customer values his or her time.

I think any sort of obfuscated graphic with a letter code would dramatically reduce the amount of traffic to TMS. Not just bot traffic, but real traffic. That is antithetical to the goals of a traffic exchange site. You do not do things that REDUCE traffic. That would be Bad ™.

Then why don't these muds just remove themselves from the list entirely, if they aren't benefitting?

The fact is, smaller games benefit a lot more, by percentage, than larger games with more players. The more popular games are risking their own players every time they encourage people to come here to vote. They are willingly exposing their players to lots of other games. The reward is higher placement on the list, which they hope will attract at least as many NEW players to replace those they lose by showing them all the other games that exist out there.

Why should small games get artificial, preferential placement when they haven't sent the traffic or risked the players that all the other games have?

12-31-2005, 12:38 AM	#75
Threshold Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Home MUD: Threshold RPG Posts: 1,260	Sacac, seriously, can you please understand and accept that this is a traffic exchange? It is unfair to sites who send very little traffic to get their own list where they are shown more prominently. They aren't the sites that BRING the traffic. Why should they get special treatment. It doesn't matter if its 1 out of 3 lists, 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 3. It still goes against the nature of a traffic exchange. As for "forcing someone to dig through pages of muds", come on. That's cake. You can easily select genres or other 20 MUD blocks right at the top, and that alone narrows things down so much that you get muds with very few votes on the front page. Anyone looking for a new mud has absolutely NO DIFFICULTY finding variety. The truth of the matter, if you'd be willing to admit it, is that you (and many others) want to figure out some way- any way- to get less popular muds a more prominent location for where their mud gets listed. Such people want a mud that has not EARNED the prominence, by sending traffic, to get the prominent spot anyway. Let me put it this way. I wouldn't even bother voting for my own mud every day if I had to enter some annoying code. I find having to do that sort of thing just more trouble than its worth. That's why I don't bother voting for my own MUD on TMC. It isn't that it takes a huge amount of time or anything. It is just that the value of a single vote is pretty small, compared with the annoyance factor of reading one of those obfuscated graphics and then typing in the letters. It is just like the concept behind coupons. Companies that give coupons do so for two main reasons: the first is marketing, but the second is more interesting. They know that some people are willing to pay more for the exact same product. But they also know they can't have two prices for the same product, or else the people who pay the higher price will feel cheated. Thus, they give out coupons in newspapers, coupon books, etc. How does this work? The people who value their time more, and think it isn't worth their time to bother with clipping coupons, storing them, organizing them, remembering to bring them, etc. pay a higher price. People who value their time less, do all the things necessary to use coupons, and pay less. Voila! The seller just sold the product for 2 different prices, depending on how much the customer values his or her time. I think any sort of obfuscated graphic with a letter code would dramatically reduce the amount of traffic to TMS. Not just bot traffic, but real traffic. That is antithetical to the goals of a traffic exchange site. You do not do things that REDUCE traffic. That would be Bad ™. Then why don't these muds just remove themselves from the list entirely, if they aren't benefitting? The fact is, smaller games benefit a lot more, by percentage, than larger games with more players. The more popular games are risking their own players every time they encourage people to come here to vote. They are willingly exposing their players to lots of other games. The reward is higher placement on the list, which they hope will attract at least as many NEW players to replace those they lose by showing them all the other games that exist out there. Why should small games get artificial, preferential placement when they haven't sent the traffic or risked the players that all the other games have?