Tamriel Trade Center no longer works... unless if you disable ad-blocker

Rishikesa108

This request is unacceptable.
Yes, I can see advertising.
No I don't want to share my data.
NO I 'DON'T WANT TO BE FORCED TO SHARE MY DATA

Danikat

Rishikesa108 wrote: »

This request is unacceptable.
Yes, I can see advertising.
No I don't want to share my data.
NO I 'DON'T WANT TO BE FORCED TO SHARE MY DATA

Isn't that just a standard cookie notification? All legitimate websites have had them for a few years now.

If you don't want to share your data just pick 'manage options' and disable the 'legitimate interest' ones (the ones which require opt-in are disabled by default).

Rishikesa108

Danikat wrote: »

Rishikesa108 wrote: »

This request is unacceptable.
Yes, I can see advertising.
No I don't want to share my data.
NO I 'DON'T WANT TO BE FORCED TO SHARE MY DATA

Isn't that just a standard cookie notification? All legitimate websites have had them for a few years now.

If you don't want to share your data just pick 'manage options' and disable the 'legitimate interest' ones (the ones which require opt-in are disabled by default).

The result is... no access on site

Rishikesa108

IMHO... Cookies are one thing, personal data another.
Tell me if I'm wrong

Gandalf_72

Danikat wrote: »

Rishikesa108 wrote: »

This request is unacceptable.
Yes, I can see advertising.
No I don't want to share my data.
NO I 'DON'T WANT TO BE FORCED TO SHARE MY DATA

Isn't that just a standard cookie notification? All legitimate websites have had them for a few years now.

If you don't want to share your data just pick 'manage options' and disable the 'legitimate interest' ones (the ones which require opt-in are disabled by default).

I don't think so:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

In my humble opinion, "cookies" and "your personal data" are very different!

Nestor

The ads on this site are unobtrusive. I dont get any Pop Ups after I whitelisted the site.

Dont understand people not wanting to pay the low cost for using this site, which is simply ignoring the ads. Compare that to the time you would need to spend shopping for prices.

Rishikesa108

Nestor wrote: »

The ads on this site are unobtrusive. I dont get any Pop Ups after I whitelisted the site.

Dont understand people not wanting to pay the low cost for using this site, which is simply ignoring the ads. Compare that to the time you would need to spend shopping for prices.

I have whitelisted the site.
Then I've been asked to share my personal data.
Now I cannot access the site anymore. It is in my Adblock whitelist... it is not enough....

Pevey

cyx54tc wrote: »

Alright it feels like I need to explain the situation here a bit. So I started TTC 7 years ago, built an addon + website for everyone to use for FREE. I have quit the game for more than 4 years already but I am still maintaining the site using lots of my free time.

The business model is simple. People uses the addon to collect data and the website's ad revenue will keep the whole project going. From day 1 I already knew people are using ad blockers and the percentage is not low. But I wanted to believe in people, I wanted to believe people will help the project they really love so I did not force ads for the past 7 years.

I have tried like 5 different banners to explain the situation and the need for Ad revenue to keep the project alive. But 7 years past and the result was pretty disappointing. Percentage of ad block users went up significantly and the number of people who donated was less than 0.02% of the entire user base.

The donation I have collected over the course of the past 7 years was just barely able to pay for 2 years of the server's cost. If everyone was using adblocker it will mean that I would have paid 5 figures out of my own pocket in additional to all the free time I have spend to maintain and develop this project.

Based on the growth rate of adblock users I will probably have to shutdown the entire project in about 2 years from now. So there are only 2 options before me if I do not want that to happen

1. Force ads on everyone and allow people to sub for ad free content
2. I start selling the data by offering premium(paid) customers access to real time API when a cheap item is made available.

I do not like the level of P2W #2 brings even though it will probably yield me much higher revenue compared to #1

It was a hard decision but something has to be done. Prior to turning the anti-ad block wall on I further reduced the ad load (slider is lowered to about 20% mark) and made the change so that you will never see more than 2 ads on your screen (1 for smaller screen) and there are at most 3 ads per page (2 for small screen). Full page ads are set to about <1% chance of appearing. Regular users shouldn't see the full screen ad more than once per day.

So please. I am not asking for too much. Having some ads on your screen is not the end of world but no ads will be the end of TTC.

There is a third option that from my point of view would have been preferable.

A lot of people, myself included, will not whitelist a site ever for security reasons. This includes even on sites I manage. As the site owner, you opt into an ad network. You have no control over whether those ads contain exploits, and that has been an attack vector in the past. It is simply never worth it to disable an adblocker, no matter how much you like the site and the dev and want to help support it.

The paid option of seeing deals before others is not a great idea, as you already decided. It might even get the attention of zos and cause them to stop looking the other way when it comes to TTC.

But there is also the concept a lot of similar data-driven sites use, and that is rate-limiting.

Step 1: Make everyone create an account and be logged in to do a search.

Step 2: Free-tier accounts get a limited number of searches per day. This keeps very casual users interested in TTC so that sellers still bother to run the client and keep the data useful.

Step 3: Users who are probably the majority of your traffic right now, who F5 continuously to scoop up deals, would have to pay for Premium access to keep doing that. Something minimal would probably still generate more revenue than the ads.

Just my thoughts. I used to use TTC in the past occasionally. I will not going forward due to the recent changes. Over time, I will probably forget about it.

cyx54tc

kevkj wrote: »

@cyx54tc Is there any way on your side to prevent popup ads? I'm grateful for the service you provide and have happily whitelisted ttc, but the full page popups are annoying.

Yes I do. The full screen ad allows for one less banner to be shown and the rate is tuned to less than 1% chance of showing. I think thats a good trade off for most people. Unfortunately i do not have the ability to set it per user. its either all or nothing.

cyx54tc

Danikat wrote: »

Any suggestions for what to do if I'm not using an add blocker (not just on TTC, I don't have one at all) but can't use TTC because when I search for an item it just gets to the 'checking for adblock' step then sits there indefinitely, never actually loading the page?

It's doing it in both Firefox and Chrome, neither have any addons or anything installed, so I'm not sure what I could do to get it working, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Can you try to follow the FAQ section and see if it helps? Feel free to email me if not.

cyx54tc

Rishikesa108 wrote: »

I've disabled my adblock. Now I have this issue.

But TTC website asked me to share my personal data, also for third parts. It was not a choice, clearly.
I have removed all flags, and now I cannot access TTC website anymore.
I disabled my adblock. That wasn't enough for the author...
What do you want ?
My personal data to share around ????????

Thats...Google's GDPR thingy. Im gonna turn that off for now since its causing trouble for lots of ppl.

cyx54tc

Rishikesa108 wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

Rishikesa108 wrote: »

This request is unacceptable.
Yes, I can see advertising.
No I don't want to share my data.
NO I 'DON'T WANT TO BE FORCED TO SHARE MY DATA

Isn't that just a standard cookie notification? All legitimate websites have had them for a few years now.

If you don't want to share your data just pick 'manage options' and disable the 'legitimate interest' ones (the ones which require opt-in are disabled by default).

The result is... no access on site

Can you clear cache and try again?

FlopsyPrince

Pepegrillos wrote: »

This is a good opportunity for people like @Alcast or other content creators to get their own version of the addon/site up running, without gigantic adds advertising for gold selling websites.

You ignore the fact that it is just the addon, it is the central database.

Why ZOS doesn't just provide this in game is the true problem.

Another thread they are banning ads for another service (YT and another) in player names, yet they don't solve the problem of knowing market prices and location of items now.

This should be part of the game and this problem would go away.

Neither Alcast nor anyone else can fix this without significant infrastructure in place.

cyx54tc

Pevey wrote: »

cyx54tc wrote: »

Alright it feels like I need to explain the situation here a bit. So I started TTC 7 years ago, built an addon + website for everyone to use for FREE. I have quit the game for more than 4 years already but I am still maintaining the site using lots of my free time.

The business model is simple. People uses the addon to collect data and the website's ad revenue will keep the whole project going. From day 1 I already knew people are using ad blockers and the percentage is not low. But I wanted to believe in people, I wanted to believe people will help the project they really love so I did not force ads for the past 7 years.

I have tried like 5 different banners to explain the situation and the need for Ad revenue to keep the project alive. But 7 years past and the result was pretty disappointing. Percentage of ad block users went up significantly and the number of people who donated was less than 0.02% of the entire user base.

The donation I have collected over the course of the past 7 years was just barely able to pay for 2 years of the server's cost. If everyone was using adblocker it will mean that I would have paid 5 figures out of my own pocket in additional to all the free time I have spend to maintain and develop this project.

Based on the growth rate of adblock users I will probably have to shutdown the entire project in about 2 years from now. So there are only 2 options before me if I do not want that to happen

1. Force ads on everyone and allow people to sub for ad free content
2. I start selling the data by offering premium(paid) customers access to real time API when a cheap item is made available.

I do not like the level of P2W #2 brings even though it will probably yield me much higher revenue compared to #1

It was a hard decision but something has to be done. Prior to turning the anti-ad block wall on I further reduced the ad load (slider is lowered to about 20% mark) and made the change so that you will never see more than 2 ads on your screen (1 for smaller screen) and there are at most 3 ads per page (2 for small screen). Full page ads are set to about <1% chance of appearing. Regular users shouldn't see the full screen ad more than once per day.

So please. I am not asking for too much. Having some ads on your screen is not the end of world but no ads will be the end of TTC.

There is a third option that from my point of view would have been preferable.

A lot of people, myself included, will not whitelist a site ever for security reasons. This includes even on sites I manage. As the site owner, you opt into an ad network. You have no control over whether those ads contain exploits, and that has been an attack vector in the past. It is simply never worth it to disable an adblocker, no matter how much you like the site and the dev and want to help support it.

The paid option of seeing deals before others is not a great idea, as you already decided. It might even get the attention of zos and cause them to stop looking the other way when it comes to TTC.

But there is also the concept a lot of similar data-driven sites use, and that is rate-limiting.

Step 1: Make everyone create an account and be logged in to do a search.

Step 2: Free-tier accounts get a limited number of searches per day. This keeps very casual users interested in TTC so that sellers still bother to run the client and keep the data useful.

Step 3: Users who are probably the majority of your traffic right now, who F5 continuously to scoop up deals, would have to pay for Premium access to keep doing that. Something minimal would probably still generate more revenue than the ads.

Just my thoughts. I used to use TTC in the past occasionally. I will not going forward due to the recent changes. Over time, I will probably forget about it.

I thought about this before. The main challenge is that I have no way to stop people from registering 100 accounts and never pay for the premium fee. IP based limit aren't gonna work either due to the use of VPN.

Not sure how the sites you saw manage it but the ones i have encounter all requires that you provide some sort of government issued ID or credit card before allowing you to activate the account.

FlopsyPrince

Danikat wrote: »

Any suggestions for what to do if I'm not using an add blocker (not just on TTC, I don't have one at all) but can't use TTC because when I search for an item it just gets to the 'checking for adblock' step then sits there indefinitely, never actually loading the page?

It's doing it in both Firefox and Chrome, neither have any addons or anything installed, so I'm not sure what I could do to get it working, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

I am running Chrome with AdBlockPlus. I have no problems. Just for reference.

FlopsyPrince

GrizzlyTank wrote: »

Forced adds are always an issue.

Don't use the site then.

Pevey

cyx54tc wrote: »

Pevey wrote: »

cyx54tc wrote: »

Alright it feels like I need to explain the situation here a bit. So I started TTC 7 years ago, built an addon + website for everyone to use for FREE. I have quit the game for more than 4 years already but I am still maintaining the site using lots of my free time.

The business model is simple. People uses the addon to collect data and the website's ad revenue will keep the whole project going. From day 1 I already knew people are using ad blockers and the percentage is not low. But I wanted to believe in people, I wanted to believe people will help the project they really love so I did not force ads for the past 7 years.

I have tried like 5 different banners to explain the situation and the need for Ad revenue to keep the project alive. But 7 years past and the result was pretty disappointing. Percentage of ad block users went up significantly and the number of people who donated was less than 0.02% of the entire user base.

The donation I have collected over the course of the past 7 years was just barely able to pay for 2 years of the server's cost. If everyone was using adblocker it will mean that I would have paid 5 figures out of my own pocket in additional to all the free time I have spend to maintain and develop this project.

Based on the growth rate of adblock users I will probably have to shutdown the entire project in about 2 years from now. So there are only 2 options before me if I do not want that to happen

1. Force ads on everyone and allow people to sub for ad free content
2. I start selling the data by offering premium(paid) customers access to real time API when a cheap item is made available.

I do not like the level of P2W #2 brings even though it will probably yield me much higher revenue compared to #1

It was a hard decision but something has to be done. Prior to turning the anti-ad block wall on I further reduced the ad load (slider is lowered to about 20% mark) and made the change so that you will never see more than 2 ads on your screen (1 for smaller screen) and there are at most 3 ads per page (2 for small screen). Full page ads are set to about <1% chance of appearing. Regular users shouldn't see the full screen ad more than once per day.

So please. I am not asking for too much. Having some ads on your screen is not the end of world but no ads will be the end of TTC.

There is a third option that from my point of view would have been preferable.

A lot of people, myself included, will not whitelist a site ever for security reasons. This includes even on sites I manage. As the site owner, you opt into an ad network. You have no control over whether those ads contain exploits, and that has been an attack vector in the past. It is simply never worth it to disable an adblocker, no matter how much you like the site and the dev and want to help support it.

The paid option of seeing deals before others is not a great idea, as you already decided. It might even get the attention of zos and cause them to stop looking the other way when it comes to TTC.

But there is also the concept a lot of similar data-driven sites use, and that is rate-limiting.

Step 1: Make everyone create an account and be logged in to do a search.

Step 2: Free-tier accounts get a limited number of searches per day. This keeps very casual users interested in TTC so that sellers still bother to run the client and keep the data useful.

Step 3: Users who are probably the majority of your traffic right now, who F5 continuously to scoop up deals, would have to pay for Premium access to keep doing that. Something minimal would probably still generate more revenue than the ads.

Just my thoughts. I used to use TTC in the past occasionally. I will not going forward due to the recent changes. Over time, I will probably forget about it.

I thought about this before. The main challenge is that I have no way to stop people from registering 100 accounts and never pay for the premium fee. IP based limit aren't gonna work either due to the use of VPN.

Not sure how the sites you saw manage it but the ones i have encounter all requires that you provide some sort of government issued ID or credit card before allowing you to activate the account.

That's really not necessary. Look to the Nexus sites for a good example that has been highly successful. If you make free account inconvenient enough, the serious users that are consuming all the resources will cough up a little money for convenience.

EDIT: You could also think of other Premium features, like Saved searches, search all saved queries at once, see a list of the guild that occupies each guild store npc and the history of that over time. Basically anything that falls short of giving access to data that non-premium users don't have access to would probably be fine with the majority of people using TTC.

Danikat

cyx54tc wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

Any suggestions for what to do if I'm not using an add blocker (not just on TTC, I don't have one at all) but can't use TTC because when I search for an item it just gets to the 'checking for adblock' step then sits there indefinitely, never actually loading the page?

It's doing it in both Firefox and Chrome, neither have any addons or anything installed, so I'm not sure what I could do to get it working, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Can you try to follow the FAQ section and see if it helps? Feel free to email me if not.

It's working again this morning, without me doing anything, so I think it must have been the GDPR thing that was causing problems for me as well.

Vaoh

I’m on console and don’t use this, but I feel like it just needs to be said that @cyx54tc is amazing for so putting so much work into this add-on / site for the community.

It’s about money now - advertisements are going to generate the revenue needed for the site to keep running. The alternative is that everything gets shuts down.

Dagoth_Rac

I have had TTC whitelisted in AdBlock for years and never had any problems. But it was hanging on the "checking for adblocker..." process now. I was able to get around this by going into NoScript and setting a custom rule to only allow doubleclick.net from TTC.com. It is working now in FireFox. I trust Mr. Chen, but I do hate having to trust doubleclick.net...

GrizzlyTank

Vaoh wrote: »

The alternative is that everything gets shuts down.

The alternative should have been a better marketplace in-game. Rather than this messy archaic system that forces you to rely on a 3rd party site, or spend an hour looking through the npc with the least inflated price.

danno8

Pepegrillos wrote: »

This is a good opportunity for people like @Alcast or other content creators to get their own version of the addon/site up running, without gigantic adds advertising for gold selling websites.

Pevey wrote: »

cyx54tc wrote: »

Pevey wrote: »

cyx54tc wrote: »

Alright it feels like I need to explain the situation here a bit. So I started TTC 7 years ago, built an addon + website for everyone to use for FREE. I have quit the game for more than 4 years already but I am still maintaining the site using lots of my free time.

The business model is simple. People uses the addon to collect data and the website's ad revenue will keep the whole project going. From day 1 I already knew people are using ad blockers and the percentage is not low. But I wanted to believe in people, I wanted to believe people will help the project they really love so I did not force ads for the past 7 years.

I have tried like 5 different banners to explain the situation and the need for Ad revenue to keep the project alive. But 7 years past and the result was pretty disappointing. Percentage of ad block users went up significantly and the number of people who donated was less than 0.02% of the entire user base.

The donation I have collected over the course of the past 7 years was just barely able to pay for 2 years of the server's cost. If everyone was using adblocker it will mean that I would have paid 5 figures out of my own pocket in additional to all the free time I have spend to maintain and develop this project.

Based on the growth rate of adblock users I will probably have to shutdown the entire project in about 2 years from now. So there are only 2 options before me if I do not want that to happen

1. Force ads on everyone and allow people to sub for ad free content
2. I start selling the data by offering premium(paid) customers access to real time API when a cheap item is made available.

I do not like the level of P2W #2 brings even though it will probably yield me much higher revenue compared to #1

It was a hard decision but something has to be done. Prior to turning the anti-ad block wall on I further reduced the ad load (slider is lowered to about 20% mark) and made the change so that you will never see more than 2 ads on your screen (1 for smaller screen) and there are at most 3 ads per page (2 for small screen). Full page ads are set to about <1% chance of appearing. Regular users shouldn't see the full screen ad more than once per day.

So please. I am not asking for too much. Having some ads on your screen is not the end of world but no ads will be the end of TTC.

There is a third option that from my point of view would have been preferable.

A lot of people, myself included, will not whitelist a site ever for security reasons. This includes even on sites I manage. As the site owner, you opt into an ad network. You have no control over whether those ads contain exploits, and that has been an attack vector in the past. It is simply never worth it to disable an adblocker, no matter how much you like the site and the dev and want to help support it.

The paid option of seeing deals before others is not a great idea, as you already decided. It might even get the attention of zos and cause them to stop looking the other way when it comes to TTC.

But there is also the concept a lot of similar data-driven sites use, and that is rate-limiting.

Step 1: Make everyone create an account and be logged in to do a search.

Step 2: Free-tier accounts get a limited number of searches per day. This keeps very casual users interested in TTC so that sellers still bother to run the client and keep the data useful.

Step 3: Users who are probably the majority of your traffic right now, who F5 continuously to scoop up deals, would have to pay for Premium access to keep doing that. Something minimal would probably still generate more revenue than the ads.

Just my thoughts. I used to use TTC in the past occasionally. I will not going forward due to the recent changes. Over time, I will probably forget about it.

I thought about this before. The main challenge is that I have no way to stop people from registering 100 accounts and never pay for the premium fee. IP based limit aren't gonna work either due to the use of VPN.

Not sure how the sites you saw manage it but the ones i have encounter all requires that you provide some sort of government issued ID or credit card before allowing you to activate the account.

That's really not necessary. Look to the Nexus sites for a good example that has been highly successful. If you make free account inconvenient enough, the serious users that are consuming all the resources will cough up a little money for convenience.

EDIT: You could also think of other Premium features, like Saved searches, search all saved queries at once, see a list of the guild that occupies each guild store npc and the history of that over time. Basically anything that falls short of giving access to data that non-premium users don't have access to would probably be fine with the majority of people using TTC.

While your suggestions are probably welcome, the fact is that he has his metrics on who uses the site and how often. My guess is that 99% of users use the site for a couple searches then don't use it again for a week, while the heavy searches are few and far between.

freespirit

I have no problem with adverts, I did however have an issue with the GDPR notice because turning off any of the toggles within that then caused the TTC Website not to function like others above have mentioned. If you just consented to everything then the site worked, if you delved deeper and de-activated anything that had a toggle, the site then just gave the spinning "checking for adblock" message.

Thank you @cyx54tc for disabling that, I am now a happy bunny again!

Sauerkrautbaum

cyx54tc wrote: »

[...] So there are only 2 options before me if I do not want that to happen

1. Force ads on everyone and allow people to sub for ad free content
2. I start selling the data by offering premium(paid) customers access to real time API when a cheap item is made available.

I do not like the level of P2W #2 brings even though it will probably yield me much higher revenue compared to #1

[...] So please. I am not asking for too much. Having some ads on your screen is not the end of world but no ads will be the end of TTC.

Forced ads (and it's data share) are not an option for me.
I'll need to live without the webside now. Unfortunatly there isn't another marktplace system in eso.

Personally, I'd be fine with #2 if the "premium" experience would include the ad consumers (next to the paid users).
Ad-free users simply would not get listenings as early. They can be alerted to enable ads to see them.

Watch to Support > Watch to Win > Watch to Use (especially for a crucial MMO aspect like a marketplace)

troomar

cyx54tc wrote: »

Alright it feels like I need to explain the situation here a bit. So I started TTC 7 years ago, built an addon + website for everyone to use for FREE. I have quit the game for more than 4 years already but I am still maintaining the site using lots of my free time.

The business model is simple. People uses the addon to collect data and the website's ad revenue will keep the whole project going. From day 1 I already knew people are using ad blockers and the percentage is not low. But I wanted to believe in people, I wanted to believe people will help the project they really love so I did not force ads for the past 7 years.

I have tried like 5 different banners to explain the situation and the need for Ad revenue to keep the project alive. But 7 years past and the result was pretty disappointing. Percentage of ad block users went up significantly and the number of people who donated was less than 0.02% of the entire user base.

The donation I have collected over the course of the past 7 years was just barely able to pay for 2 years of the server's cost. If everyone was using adblocker it will mean that I would have paid 5 figures out of my own pocket in additional to all the free time I have spend to maintain and develop this project.

Based on the growth rate of adblock users I will probably have to shutdown the entire project in about 2 years from now. So there are only 2 options before me if I do not want that to happen

1. Force ads on everyone and allow people to sub for ad free content
2. I start selling the data by offering premium(paid) customers access to real time API when a cheap item is made available.

I do not like the level of P2W #2 brings even though it will probably yield me much higher revenue compared to #1

It was a hard decision but something has to be done. Prior to turning the anti-ad block wall on I further reduced the ad load (slider is lowered to about 20% mark) and made the change so that you will never see more than 2 ads on your screen (1 for smaller screen) and there are at most 3 ads per page (2 for small screen). Full page ads are set to about <1% chance of appearing. Regular users shouldn't see the full screen ad more than once per day.

So please. I am not asking for too much. Having some ads on your screen is not the end of world but no ads will be the end of TTC.

Well, you quit the game 4 years ago, yet you decided to keep updating the add-on and keep running your website. And now you're crying and trying to make us believe this is all altruistic act, while all the tracking scripts are silently running in the background.

I wish you moved on, closed the site and let the trading system in the game be the way it was intended.

BenevolentBowd

RaikaNA wrote: »

BenevolentBowd wrote: »

Heh, I initially turned on an adblocker because I use my own site and the ad company would reduce my income a little bit each month for my views. That's when I noticed the TTC message.

As a content creator with a website, I was intrigued by the addition of TTC's adblocker notice.

Ads are a great way for people to support your site for free. Unfortunately, the ad services really push more ads and more visible ads to be profitable. I've been frustrated with my limited control over the selection of ads and number of ads that appear on my site. I more or less have to turn the ad load slider down.

I find it a juggling act. When a site's revenue is dependent on ads, the more people using ad blockers, the less money you get. If you don't meet the ad services threshold totals for the month, you don't get any revenue until you do.

It's good to see that TTC is looking at alternatives. I'd hate to see the site go away.

I don't mind supporting the site with casual clicks and there, but I expect the webmaster to have full control over what gets put in the ads... It is the webmaster's responsibility to protect their visitors. lack of control is alarming to me... especially since I've dealt with having both virus and tons of malware in the past. It's a pain in the ass cleaning your hard drive and making sure that it's free of viruses and malwares.

There are some controls available like categories of ads and which ad networks can show ads on your site. The lack of control I was referring to is volume of ads that ad company code can inject into the pages when it senses you are are getting higher traffic.

I periodically review ads that will appear on my site looking for suspicious stuff like pictures that don't match URL's and ESO gold sellers. However, I don't think this is a common practice.

ixthUA

Without TTC there are 2 alternatives.
1. No AH, a lot of people who rely on it will quit.
2. Official AH, so resellers will inflate prices to the moon, since ESO allows reselling.

maxjapank

troomar wrote: »

cyx54tc wrote: »

Alright it feels like I need to explain the situation here a bit. So I started TTC 7 years ago, built an addon + website for everyone to use for FREE. I have quit the game for more than 4 years already but I am still maintaining the site using lots of my free time.

The business model is simple. People uses the addon to collect data and the website's ad revenue will keep the whole project going. From day 1 I already knew people are using ad blockers and the percentage is not low. But I wanted to believe in people, I wanted to believe people will help the project they really love so I did not force ads for the past 7 years.

I have tried like 5 different banners to explain the situation and the need for Ad revenue to keep the project alive. But 7 years past and the result was pretty disappointing. Percentage of ad block users went up significantly and the number of people who donated was less than 0.02% of the entire user base.

The donation I have collected over the course of the past 7 years was just barely able to pay for 2 years of the server's cost. If everyone was using adblocker it will mean that I would have paid 5 figures out of my own pocket in additional to all the free time I have spend to maintain and develop this project.

Based on the growth rate of adblock users I will probably have to shutdown the entire project in about 2 years from now. So there are only 2 options before me if I do not want that to happen

1. Force ads on everyone and allow people to sub for ad free content
2. I start selling the data by offering premium(paid) customers access to real time API when a cheap item is made available.

I do not like the level of P2W #2 brings even though it will probably yield me much higher revenue compared to #1

It was a hard decision but something has to be done. Prior to turning the anti-ad block wall on I further reduced the ad load (slider is lowered to about 20% mark) and made the change so that you will never see more than 2 ads on your screen (1 for smaller screen) and there are at most 3 ads per page (2 for small screen). Full page ads are set to about <1% chance of appearing. Regular users shouldn't see the full screen ad more than once per day.

So please. I am not asking for too much. Having some ads on your screen is not the end of world but no ads will be the end of TTC.

Well, you quit the game 4 years ago, yet you decided to keep updating the add-on and keep running your website. And now you're crying and trying to make us believe this is all altruistic act, while all the tracking scripts are silently running in the background.

I wish you moved on, closed the site and let the trading system in the game be the way it was intended.

My goodness. If you aren’t happy with someone providing a service, then don’t use it. Things aren’t free. They take money and time to setup and maintain. The entitlement from some in this thread is beyond ridiculous.

Sauerkrautbaum

Sauerkrautbaum wrote: »

Forced ads (and it's data share) are not an option for me.
I'll need to live without the webside now. Unfortunatly there isn't another marktplace system in eso.
Personally, I'd be fine with #2 if the "premium" experience would include the ad consumers (next to the paid users).
Ad-free users simply would not get listenings as early. They can be alerted to enable ads to see them.
Watch to Support > Watch to Win > Watch to Use (especially for a crucial MMO aspect like a marketplace)

maxjapank wrote: »

troomar wrote: »

Well, you quit the game 4 years ago, yet you decided to keep updating the add-on and keep running your website. And now you're crying and trying to make us believe this is all altruistic act, while all the tracking scripts are silently running in the background. I wish you moved on, closed the site and let the trading system in the game be the way it was intended.

My goodness. If you aren’t happy with someone providing a service, then don’t use it. Things aren’t free. They take money and time to setup and maintain. The entitlement from some in this thread is beyond ridiculous.

Got to agree and add on this. Even though I'm also against the forced ads, I'm not supporting statements like toomar's.
Running a site like TTC just does require money. It would be a shame if it's a money machine, but I believe and hope it's not.

Since I'm not supporting TTC's forced ads (I've enabled some none-google ads on some sites), I'll need to stop using the website as a result. This is a huge let down, since having a marketplace is an essential part of playing ESO.

I can understand if people are mad about it.
I'm mad myself, but I hope I'll stay objective and constructive. Consider me a supporter once the forced ads have ended.

Want more ideas? Sure: You could add a support button or a message ingame or to the .exe statating something like
"Can't run TTC without your help! Please supporting me."🠒[link]. A good and honest communication can change a lot.

ESO has a large & active community. We can help you if you call out. We care about a healthy marketplace.
I'm sure that you'd find a successor, if you wish to continue without ESO and TTC. We apprechiate what you created.

Talk to us. But don't force ads on us.
It is a big deal for some!

Dolgubon

Sauerkrautbaum wrote: »

ESO has a large & active community. We can help you if you call out. We care about a healthy marketplace.
I'm sure that you'd find a successor, if you wish to continue without ESO and TTC. We apprechiate what you created.

Pepegrillos wrote: »

This is a good opportunity for people like @Alcast or other content creators to get their own version of the addon/site up running, without gigantic adds advertising for gold selling websites.

On the face of it, this is a great idea. But there are a lot of problems with it. For one, you're asking Alcast or whoever to pay their own money to host the website, and the servers required. Even given his current website it's going to be extra cost to host the search engine. Also a new Hoster would need the programming knowledge to keep it up and running. (or pay someone, most likely) They would need to be reasonably trusted - after all, TTC has an .exe and you do not want a random person coming in to modify that. And they'd need to be willing to commit their time to set it up, learn about it, and then maintain it. It's a very difficult ask.