....with these pop-up ads?

Every so often when I left click to go to another post or thread, instead of getting where I wanted to go I see this full page advertising something. Just now it was the "Fly R/C" magazine. Saw the first issue, was somewhat underwhelmed, and moved on. I have no desire to re-visit it.

I thought one of the guarantees made before the change-over was no obnoxious advertising??? And no pop-ups in particular?

I dunno what the accepted definition of "pop-up" is, but I click the mouse and there it is. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck.....

Steve

You can go to your settings and set the adds to 100. You will only see one every 100 views.

I must be good, I haven't seen one yet - WAIT was that one? nope

It's a full-page ad, not a pop-up. A pop-up is an advertisement that opens a new browser window. A variation on that is a pop-under, which opens a new browser behind the one you're currently using. Those are often designed to disguise the source of the ad.

RCU's full-page ads don't bother me. They surprised me the first time I saw one, because I expecteded to see the topic I clicked on. It was for a product that didn't interest me, so I just click "Skip Ad" up in the upper right-hand corner. It took me about 5 seconds total, which isn't enough to phase me.

You can change the frequency of the ads from the 1 in 25 page views that it defaults to up to 1 in 100 page views. That's 1% of the page views, which doesn't strike me a unreasonable. Being a Platinum Member I could turn them off, but I've left them set at 1 in 25. I've seen some good deals in RCU's advertising before, so it's worth it to me to see them.

For what it's worth, the reason pop-ups are so scorned is that they were abused by so many sites. You'd get browser windows blooming all over the desktop, and you just couldn't stop them. That sort of crap is obnoxious.

Well, its like I said in another thread...At least its an ad for R/C products and not Viagra or some online dating service!

<<...not a pop-up...>>

Right; and the definition of "is" is...

Whatever. I find it obnoxious, but I suppose I'll get over it.

And I'll add another comment or two. While the new site is rather "busy", overall it is just as easy to use as the old one; no problems there. But what happened to PMs? Is it there and I'm just not seeing it?

However, you guys have, whatver the REAL motivation for it was, made it damned difficult to do any business.

1. I am NOT giving out my credit card number on an internet line. Please don't tell me how "safe" it is; I know better.

2. Even if I was so inclined, the procedure is a bit cumbersome. Some of us are not very computer-literate, and struggle with these things.

I know you don't want to hear all this, and have banned/deleted others in the past for making similar negative comments. I don't care. But I find myself needing a certain type of engine; one that I'm sure was available in the old Swap Shop data base. And I could have found it without having to plow through a bunch of non-related stuff, one page at a time.

I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have bought/sold stuff on internet forums. But in the past, I could always count on RCU for a quick and easy ad, to sell or buy. And if I was looking for something, I could find it quickly.

All of that is no longer the case. Pity...

Steve

Sorry to hear that. I won't try to convince you about the credit card thing. that is a lost cause on you I can see. we do take checks and soon paypal this week if that makes it more comfortable.

Regarding this supposed "banning" of members. Some members felt they were banned on launch however they actually had login issues. I've seen users I never heard of claim they were banned from RCU for this or that. Not true. If a guy cannot login he assumes he is banned.

Stats: 121 users banned from RCU to date. 114 of them before the new launch ever happened. Take that number and figure out the % based on 65,000 members. I'd say it isn't too bad. These numbers include fraudelent traders, trolls and downright nasty spammers or hackers.

I do have to agree with Steve regarding the classifieds. The old "Forums" based ads were definitely much easier to review than the current arrangement. I've found that I almost don't bother looking at the ads anymore, or the auctions for that matter.

I've bought quite a bit from the RCU ads in the past, but don't foresee buying as much in the future. It's too time consuming wading through the junk and the $1000 ARF's.
Dennis-

same stuff is being listed for sale as was in the old RCU by the same members. the commercial filter is coming so you can set a preference to see or not see them (or view combined).

We added views today to the classifieds and a "reduced" icon so you know a guy bumped his add by 10% or more. The 2 major differences now are that we have thumbnails which lots of guys wanted. If you don't want thumbs we can make it a user pref but I must know how many don't want them to show. I love them and those I've spoken to so far love them.

The last "change" is simply the categories. Had we not done this RCU would have 50 extra sale forums right now. I have had members knocking on my window for months to add this sale forum and that sale forum. The granular detail they want got more intense as we grew. You would have ended up looking through another 50 forums. Now you can pick main topics and view anything under it in one shot OR search like never before. Search by location which you cannot do in a forum. 2 reasons I built RCU are right there. Let users upload pictures unlike the old RCO quote "email me for pictures" since they didn't allow upload. Next I wanted search by location so I could find local buyers first to avoid shipping headaches. Can't do that with a forum. We have it now.

I can't change everyone set in their ways but wal-mart, amazon, yahoo, ebay and any major site organizes things this way because it is powerful for buyers and sellers. Our hobby never had anything more than a forum so that is what we all (myself) got used to. After you spend awhile in our classifieds/auctions you may find it isn't so mind bending to figure it all out. If the general public can deal with amazon.com (go to www.amazon.com and after the floating ad loads...) and click electronics and find your way around there. If you think RCU is confusing forget amazon. To me Amazon is easy. RCU is easy. Both take a little time to get used to but so do forums. It took me a few days to figure out the whole RCO thing (after waiting 10 minutes for pages to load).

I've heard some say "I"ll just go to ebay and sell". Cool...their smart. Go to ebay and pay twice what you would here. Everybody loves to pay double, right?

I am happy to say that our signups are at record levels since launch and the real modelers are coming. Those not set in the "old" way find nothing wrong with the format. The question is can those set in the ways of old figure out how to use these powerful tools or is that just some uncanny ability of the average citizen who surprisingly can figure out how to wade the ever complicated waters of amazon, RCU & ebay. Time will tell As I have said...I have faith the modeling community. Some still have faith in me and others don't seem to. That is fine. RCU started out with everybody doubting the site as well as me. Nothing I'm unfamiliar with.

Well Marc you know I feel the same as the guys above. It was very easy to find what I wanted to buy before because it WAS set up similar to ebay it is not now to few listings per page I see engines listed in airplane section as well as props electrical acc etc. I somone would make sure the listings are in the proper catagories it would help.WE need a moderator to go through and move them accordingly.
Also as I have requested we need more catagories to narrow down the choices on the vast amount of goodies we need for our hobbies is there a good reason we cant have the same ones we had before? It seemed to me to be a very good system before that is now slightly confusing and cumbersome to find what I need and I dont wanna "search" because I find things that I did not know I wanted inside catagories. Now I have to know EXACTLY what to look for or I wont find it.

I, for one, didn't say that the classified section was "mind-bending"; it is just disorganized, from my perspective.

So what about PMs? I had a couple pop up when I logged on this morning (that's one pop-up feature I don't mind), but I'll be darn if I can find the button to click on to post one.

I'm sure its there, but...

Steve

steve,

there should be a large Send Private message at the top and bottom of the Inbox. When viewing a PM the reply is on the bottom. We will redesign this a bit in the coming weeks to make it more intutive.

easysport - if you click "Airplanes" you can see everything in airplanes. If you then drill down to Aerobatic & 3D you see everyything in there (including all its subcategories). You can browse this way. If you find you need to go more specific like "glow" you have the option to drill down to the next level. This lets you "browse" or you can pinpoint something. Also the search feature blows away any forum tool for finding what you want. Coming are watch list triggers. Need a Saito 72? Just add it to your list and whenever somebody posts a "Saito 72" you get an email notify with a link directly to the ad.

If you have suggestions for other categories or ways of classifying do suggest them.

We have brought in moderators to keep the categories accurate. They will begin to clean up the misclassifications that exist.

Still don't see what you're talking about, but I did find the "PM" on the bottom of each post's box. I tried it a minute ago and was told that "Your PM has been successfully delivered."

Good enough...

Steve

Glad to hear the catagories will be cleaned up and placed in the proper catagories. I stll think some additional catagiries should be added especiall the "under $30" catagories always like browsing it for goodies

Just for reference...try this and lmk if ok:

Go to MarketPlace and click the search button (or if dynamic header menu is enabled go to Marketplace -> Search ).

The in the price range boxes put range of $0 to $30

Leave everything else blank and don't touch or change anything.

Click search.

All items under $30 come up.

If you want just airplane stuff just highlight that option on the search page. If you want to limit to state or region you could do that as well in this search.

Please try it and report back the results. It should give you a full listing. Also if you wanted to view up to $40 or $50 you could do that as well.

Yes but it doesnt give poster a place to put it in guys know the forum and it was always chock full of goodies just a place to put stuff they wanted to get rid of.It was the "Bargain bin" of RCU and miss I it

Any other users want a "Bargain Bin" category?

Bargin Bin Yes and a few more like retracts. I agree you pay twice much on Ebay but the coverage is 15 times as much because of the advertisement they have used over the years. I have a friend running 2 auctions on the same exact items (but different) and Ebay is winning. I hope this site continues to meet the needs of everyone and I hope your auction ideal is a winner. But both have there place around the net. I use Rc Universe to fiind quality and I use Ebay to find mostly junk. The difference, most people on this web site are felow modelers and Ebay gets everyone in the blue moon and then some. I have sold on both and some items I list on ebay because it simply brings more for that type of item and herew I sell my bbuilt stuff that I care where the item goes.

Steve, at the top right of every page where it says "MY FORUMS", "FAQ", etc, you'll see an icon next to "SEARCH" that says "INBOX". Click on it and you'll go right to the Private Message page.

Regarding ebay..yes it does cost 2x as much as RCU but we hope to bring to serious modelers the ability to trade person to person for less money and be in front of a wide audience of serious RC enthusiasts.

Rome won't be built in a day but it will get built

RCadmin said "sign-ups are at record levels since launch and that real modelers
are coming."

Real modelers? I don't understand that phrase, what does it mean? I hope that when they do get here I won't find out I'm not a modeler! Gosh, that would mean I've
wasted about half a century of my life and god knows how many balsa trees!

grampaws like you and me are what he is referring to... although there are a couple whippersnappers runnin round here that are pretty good too....i just wish i could fly better myself.....i got the concept down but between my eyes and nerves....my flyin kinda sucors sometimes...[8D]

I was referring to guys/gals who are seriously into the hobby. Not the passer by who goes into sharper image or KB toys or ebay and buys a 2 channel park flyer and flies or crashes and then goes on with his life.

Not the guy who goes into radio shack to buy a consumer electric truck/car and plays around with it for a few hours or rarely then goes on with his life.

I'm talking about modelers who have a serious long term passion for the hobby. That other auction site as many know has lots of the "consumer" stuff piled into their listings. RCU wants to be the alternative where serious modelers can trade without sifting through 1000's of cheap products targeted at "joe average".

The reason I brought this up is because people sometimes say "ebay has all these people..." Well it all depends on what products and people you are interested in trading. That is where the difference is. We decided to charge 50% of ebay's prices to make selling more affordable to the "real" hobby enthusiasts.

Mr. RCadmin,

I find your comments to be very condescending. You seem extremely arogant and so sure that your way is the correct way. I also do not like the ads poping up when I select a thread or thread continuation. Your page is already full of ads as is. The old RCU was pretty good. You seem intent on milking it for all its add potential. Registrations may be record now, but I dare say defections will be record too, as soon as people get tired of the adds.


Over to Flightlines for me.