Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

[raja]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

Surprised that people have complained about going off-site to read the full articles. It's not like you have to drive to another bookstore, it's just one click. I prefer a short snippet of the essence of the article, and a link to the full thing if I want to read all of it.

I agree with zoog. Also, if you middle click the link, it opens up a new tab, so you don't have to lose your place on iTulip.

[raja]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

As suggested, I implemented the Firefox Flashblocker and NoScript. Now I don't see the referenced articles . . . . Also, I can't use the Smilies, Add Quote or Add Link buttons when writing a post . . . . (picture an unhappy face here).

[Charles Mackay]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

As suggested, I implemented the Firefox Flashblocker and NoScript. Now I don't see the referenced articles . . . . Also, I can't use the Smilies, Add Quote or Add Link buttons when writing a post . . . . (picture an unhappy face here).

raja, I found the extension noscript but where did you get Flashblocker?

[FRED]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

As suggested, I implemented the Firefox Flashblocker and NoScript. Now I don't see the referenced articles . . . . Also, I can't use the Smilies, Add Quote or Add Link buttons when writing a post . . . . (picture an unhappy face here).

Ok, so click on the S icon on the bottom right corner of the page. Turn on the scripts you enabled: itulip.com, etc.

[FRED]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

raja, I found the extension noscript but where did you get Flashblocker?

BTW, if you use Flashblocker you can't see the YouTube and other videos.

[jk]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

adblock plus is simpler and avoids the problems mentioned here. noscript and flashblocker may be overkill for most users.

may i also recommend tabmix plus. whenever i click on an itulip link it automatically opens another tab for the link. also try colorful tabs [as long as i've digressed this far].

[zoog]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

Ok, so click on the S icon on the bottom right corner of the page. Turn on the scripts you enabled: itulip.com, etc.

I feel like there's something wrong about discussing ad-blocking browser plugins on a website that's trying to find an acceptable way to display advertisements to help defray the cost of running the site.:eek: But I don't feel bad enough to disable my ad-blocker...;)

I use the Adblock extension for Firefox, along with the Filterset.G Updater which periodically sends out an updated block list. It handles Flash ads as well as bitmaps, and in my experience covers at least 95%, and that may be conservative. You can add your own custom filters if needed. It does not interfere with YouTube or the blog posting tools (emoticons, add link, etc).

The Google/Amazon links-in-posts ads really bugged me, so I'm glad to see those gone. (It is funny though that I didn't really notice the absence... humans seem more likely to complain than to praise.) The Mochila ads (with the Adblock running) just look like pale yellow one-line boxes with the words "Sponsored Links" on the right.

Remember back when Al Gore invented the internet (:rolleyes::p) and it was going to be this free resource available to everyone in the world? Nothing is ever really free. Running a website with the kinds of traffic loads that iTulip sees must be quite expensive. It seems like more and more websites are turning to a subscription model, but to entice people to subscribe, you have to offer at least some content for free, and I doubt there will ever be enough subscribers to offset the costs of running the free side of the site.

I think it is a problem of managing expectations. Those of us who've been on the web for quite a while (and I certainly was not amongst the first, but it's been about a decade now) remember when there were no advertisements to speak of, and only porn sites were demanding payment for access. But corporate America and the advertising agencies finally realized the potential for a new advertising medium, and in their usual lack of restraint, they flooded the internet with more ads than anyone could handle. As people became somewhat desensitized to static images, they moved to animated GIFs, and then on to Flash animations and windows that cover up the text you're trying to read, etc. They've made us all so annoyed, we long for the "good old days". If they had jumped on web advertising in the earliest days, we'd probably accept it more easily, just like we accepted radio and TV ads. (Well, those who watch "live" TV, anyway.:p)

[raja]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

raja, I found the extension noscript but where did you get Flashblocker?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433

However, I disabled Flashblocker and NoScript and now use Adblocker plus, per jk's recommendation.
It works well

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

Not so much running ads to generate revenue as running news stories and commenting on them in the iTulip News with AntiSpin way. Readers have complained about having to go off to other sites to read the story we're writing about. This way we can print the whole article. The downside is the ads. Frankly, I liked tipping the cow over... but that's just me.

Who is "me"? If me is one of the four Freds, I thought one of them wrote he was going to sign his personal comments "by Fred."

[jk]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

Who is "me"? If me is one of the four Freds, I thought one of them wrote he was going to sign his personal comments "by Fred."

that was some other fred. this reminds me of a [true] story i read about a woman who accused a fellow member of her multiple personality disorder therapy group of rape. his defense was that another of her personalities had consented.

[Andreuccio]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

I agree with zoog. Also, if you middle click the link, it opens up a new tab, so you don't have to lose your place on iTulip.

I always right click and then "open in new window" so I don't lose my place. I end up with 20 open windows. That's one reason I make sure I have lots of RAM.

[Andreuccio]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

Oh, and I agree with Zoog, too. In fact, I think it may be better the old way. If I'm only moderately interested in something, I get the executive summary. If I'm more interested, I can click to read the whole article.

[touchring]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

I always right click and then "open in new window" so I don't lose my place. I end up with 20 open windows. That's one reason I make sure I have lots of RAM.

Use IE7 or firefox, select "open new tab". ;)

[Andreuccio]

Re: Weak Dollar Policy hits US trade partners, recession nears

Use IE7 or firefox, select "open new tab". ;)

I do use Firefox at home. I don't really like the tabs. I prefer new windows. It's easier for me to find stuff.