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Shaking My Head

November 20th, 2014 at 06:12 am

Has anyone else noticed that the majority of the articles being posted on the home page are not about finances at all anymore? And that a huge majority of them are just downright...vapid? There used to be some really good articles, stuff that you could actually learn from about saving money or investing or using what you have, etc. I mean, one of the articles is about how sexist the new Barbie book is. Yes, it is, and that's important, but what does it have to do with personal finance?

Or the article about the new word of the year added to the Oxford Dictionary. I don't know. What is being put up is getting ridiculous. Content for content's sake is...well, almost as bad as rolling ads that chase you around the page. I expect better.

/rant

Posted in Off on a Tangent | 13 Comments »

13 Responses to “Shaking My Head”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    November 20th, 2014 at 02:24 pm 1416493459
    1416493459

    Yep I have noticed. I'm sure the point is to get traffic here. However, it does stoop to a lower level than I would prefer!

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    November 20th, 2014 at 07:03 pm 1416510188
    1416510188

    There seem to have been a lot of changes here this last year made just to get traffic here. Obtrusive ads, dumb articles, forced surveys on dumb articles...I guess I just expect better from this site.

  3. rachel021406 Says:
    November 20th, 2014 at 08:25 pm 1416515146
    1416515146

    I agree.

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    November 21st, 2014 at 01:07 am 1416532023
    1416532023

    Yep, I have noticed that as well.

  5. ironicone Says:
    November 21st, 2014 at 09:35 pm 1416605741
    1416605741

    I am a little sick of "Is this store open on a holiday posts."

  6. jeffrey Says:
    November 21st, 2014 at 09:58 pm 1416607116
    1416607116

    100% my fault and you can blame me directly. It was a matter of keeping the site open or not. I made the executive decision to sacrifice the blog/articles section to keep the forums and this area alive and well. it was either do that or let the entire site die. I don't really like it, but after trying all types of stuff for a couple of years without resorting to it, we failed. Feel free to flog me for that decision all you want as I deserve it.

  7. creditcardfree Says:
    November 21st, 2014 at 10:21 pm 1416608460
    1416608460

    Jeffrey, I appreciate you telling us. And if it does come down to the site being open or not, I can completely understand your decision. If there is ever a time where the site needs to close, would you give us regular writers a heads up? We all have a lot of history stored here.

  8. jeffrey Says:
    November 21st, 2014 at 11:01 pm 1416610902
    1416610902

    @creditcardfree The plan is to not have the site ever close, but if it ever came to that (which we never plan to have happen), rest assured we would give all of you a heads up months in advance.

  9. LuckyRobin Says:
    November 21st, 2014 at 11:52 pm 1416613939
    1416613939

    I suppose it is better than not having this site at all, so I will try to get over my irritation, Jeffrey. And there will be no flogging! Big Grin I do appreciate the site so much, which is why I grumble when the standards aren't as high, because I remember when they were. That Barbie article just really set me off. Honestly, I'd rather pay a modest yearly fee to help keep the site going as it used to be than have off topic articles and in-my-face ads encouraging me to buy $40,000 vehicles or to apply for credit cards or otherwise try to get me further into debt. I know not everyone would agree, but having been here as many years as I have, it is how I feel.

  10. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    November 22nd, 2014 at 12:01 am 1416614475
    1416614475

    @Jeffrey - Thanks for letting us know about that. I'm with LR - I'd be happy to pay a small yearly fee to keep this site going. Nearly ten years here ... don't know what I'd do without it. (even though I am not here as much recently)

  11. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    November 22nd, 2014 at 12:03 am 1416614598
    1416614598

    What about a donation button or something?

  12. jeffrey Says:
    November 22nd, 2014 at 05:30 am 1416634240
    1416634240

    It really is a Catch 22 without a good solution. I do appreciate all of you wanting to help out, but we considered that and it just wouldn't work with what needs to be done. The problem is that the site isn't competing against just other blogs as it was when we first started. We're now competing against news outlets and major media who have a large staff of writers. This in combination with changes of what types of sites Google finds "good" for search engine results means that in order to stay relevant, there needs to be 2-3 articles minimum posted a day. It just isn't possible for me to do that all by myself with all the other things I do, so I have to pay others to write. In order for me to pay, the articles they write need to bring in enough traffic to at least pay for themselves. The articles that do that aren't the type of articles I was writing in the past. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the jist of situation.

    I realize the current solution isn't close to being a perfect one, but it puts us in a position where the site as a whole is earning enough that we don't have to worry. I went ahead and pulled the main blog from showing up in the member blogs as it has been (I should have done that when I made the decision) so those titles won't bother you unless you go to the front page or the articles page and seek them out yourselves.

    Again, my apologies for what is currently going on, but that's 100% on me and my decision. We hope we can figure out something that is a bit more appealing to both us and you going forward, but for now it's what we feel needs to be done to keep the entire site whole. I appreciate all of your here and I'm more than happy to answer any questions you have.

  13. LuckyRobin Says:
    November 22nd, 2014 at 09:44 pm 1416692646
    1416692646

    Thanks, Jeffrey. It helps to know the reasons why for things. I know you have to do what is best for the business end of things. That's just reality.

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