New feature: Recommended Articles

[Janet H]

We wanted to let you know about the new links at the bottom of the home page of the forum and some cool news.

Over the years as FRF has grown, some additional websites have joined the Social Knowledge (parent company) family. Most are RV and recreation related and include some amazing resources. RV Park Reviews.com and iRV2.com are a couple of my personal favorites. Recently RV Life Magazine joined the party and now at the bottom of the page you will see links to articles that may be of interest.

You'll have to scroll to the bottom of the page to find them. If you find them interesting scroll often, if not we understand and have placed them so they won't be disruptive to regular forum browsing. RVlife is a venerable publication and we are excited to add this resource. Articles cover a variety of topics including maintenance, travel and both new a vintage RVs. Happy surfing.

[ependydad]

I think the issue is that their location now isn't "placed them so they won't be disruptive to regular forum browsing". They're placed directly between 2 pieces of related functionality- the thread and a reply box.

I've also failed to see the relationship between the "you may also like" and the topic/thread at hand. Are they random? Or is there some kind of contextual programming going on?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Janet H]

Originally Posted by ependydad

Are they random? Or is there some kind of contextual programming going on?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They are random.

Last year RV Life ceased print publication and moved to a web based platform. It's has been published since 1986 and along with much of the print magazine industry was suffering from ad budgets moving online. Rather than let the brand die we are evolving RV Life to an online magazine with plans to roll out season print publications (ie. annual or bi-annual instead of monthly). The RV Life website simply does not get the traffic needed to sustain the team of writers (RVers) who create the content. That's why cross promoting the articles here on FRF and our sister sites made sense. The articles are really quite good and we would like to preserve this resource.

In the coming weeks we'll look for ways FRF members can customize their viewing preferences a bit to improve surfing and this might be included in this change. In the meantime we've reduced the height of the block (halving it) for those logged in and continue to get this dialed in.

[Andy R]

Originally Posted by ependydad

I've also failed to see the relationship between the "you may also like" and the topic/thread at hand. Are they random? Or is there some kind of contextual programming going on?

These ads were modeled after similar layouts that are common on many blogs and news sites. I call these images with titles "tiles" (just my name for them). They seemed to be popular and nice looking with the thumbnails so we decided to give them a go to see if we could promote the articles on RV Life.

The text was taken from Yahoo figuring they probably thought about how to label things.



There is not any logic at this time to try and contextually match articles. The feed of articles are pulled from the last 16 published and rotated randomly hoping that would give us enough variety and keep things fresh.

If we can find a solution to match the content more contextually then we would be delighted. We have considered using tags but the article archives (decades worth) are not consistently tagged.

We will keep our ears open for ideas on how to do that as we want to surface the best content for our readers.

Originally Posted by ependydad

I think the issue is that their location now isn't "placed them so they won't be disruptive to regular forum browsing". They're placed directly between 2 pieces of related functionality- the thread and a reply box.

These were placed in places where they would seen. We are exploring options to allow users to turn them off if they don't like them.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by Andy R

These ads were modeled after similar layouts that are common on many blogs and news sites. I call these images with titles "tiles" (just my name for them). They seemed to be popular and nice looking with the thumbnails so we decided to give them a go to see if we could promote the articles on RV Life.



The text was taken from Yahoo figuring they probably thought about how to label things.



Attachment 104934



There is not any logic at this time to try and contextually match articles. The feed of articles are pulled from the last 16 published and rotated randomly hoping that would give us enough variety and keep things fresh.

So, I think the tiles and your example match my instinctual/established feelings towards them: the last one in your example is something about nude celebs. The presentation style and the fact that they're wholly unrelated to the thread (except for being RVing related) evokes feelings of scuzzy clickbait experiences in the past (where these spots are used for paid placements).

I hear and understand what you're trying to accomplish, but for me- they have negative connotations. I do hope that you proceed with the user having the ability to control them.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by Janet H

They are random.



Last year RV Life ceased print publication and moved to a web based platform. It's has been published since 1986 and along with much of the print magazine industry was suffering from ad budgets moving online. Rather than let the brand die we are evolving RV Life to an online magazine with plans to roll out season print publications (ie. annual or bi-annual instead of monthly). The RV Life website simply does not get the traffic needed to sustain the team of writers (RVers) who create the content. That's why cross promoting the articles here on FRF and our sister sites made sense. The articles are really quite good and we would like to preserve this resource.



In the coming weeks we'll look for ways FRF members can customize their viewing preferences a bit to improve surfing and this might be included in this change. In the meantime we've reduced the height of the block (halving it) for those logged in and continue to get this dialed in.

So, I am reading into what you've written- but what I hear is that you're essentially doing this for SEO reasons. Link to the articles from other established sites and thusly increase your search engine rankings. If that was the reason, I think the placement and styling could have been less intrusive.

I like the idea of them being smaller, but still fundamentally dislike the fact that they're between the post content and the quick reply area.

[Andy R]

Originally Posted by ependydad

So, I am reading into what you've written- but what I hear is that you're essentially doing this for SEO reasons. Link to the articles from other established sites and thusly increase your search engine rankings. If that was the reason, I think the placement and styling could have been less intrusive.

It's not for SEO at all. It's called content marketing and we are trying to showcasing the articles from RV Life Magazine here on the forums. The intent is to get readers here to go over there and read the articles, not for ranking higher. That's why they are placed where people see them.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by Andy R

It's not for SEO at all. It's called content marketing and we are trying to showcasing the articles from RV Life Magazine here on the forums. The intent is to get readers here to go over there and read the articles, not for ranking higher. That's why they are placed where people see them.

Makes sense.

[doc73]

To read these articles, does it require a subscription to rv life? Or are they free to view?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[B and B]

I have no problem with the Banner ad or the one above the latest topic.

The ads between the post and replay are unnecessary and despite the helpful nature intended have nothing to do with FRF or the Forest River Brands. I and seeing ads for Leisure Travel Vans as well!! Next there will be a bunch of fake arrows hiding among real links for people top get redirects on.

Make your money with Banner ads folks!

I have read some of these RV Life things i need to know. They are advertorial in the nature of the writing and like so much web content has no depth at all, much like F$X News for example. Just skim the surface and provide nothing valuable.

Please reverse this action and place a real lower level Banner ad for something i might use like RV dealers our supplies

If you are targeting ads please leave american ads of no relevance to Canadians off the site. I am waiting for a Trump or Hilary ad to pop up next.

[themounties]

I'm glad you posted this cause I thought I had been logged out or worse.

[Bama Rambler]

I find it very disruptive in it's current location. Hopefully it'll get moved or we'll get the option to turn them off. If they were right below the quick reply box it wouldn't be nearly so disruptive.

[Andy R]

Originally Posted by doc73

To read these articles, does it require a subscription to rv life? Or are they free to view?

No, the online version of RV Life is free for everyone.

Originally Posted by Bama Rambler

I find it very disruptive in it's current location. Hopefully it'll get moved or we'll get the option to turn them off.

We are working on a solution to allow people to opt--out. Look for more details in the next few weeks.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by Bama Rambler

I find it very disruptive in it's current location.

Agreed. At a minimum, I'd love to see it moved BELOW the Quick Reply button.

[aceinspp]

Originally Posted by Bama Rambler

I find it very disruptive in it's current location. Hopefully it'll get moved or we'll get the option to turn them off. If they were right below the quick reply box it wouldn't be nearly so disruptive.

X 3 Later RJD

[BandJCarm]

All ads are disruptive. That is their purpose. And all ads are obnoxious.

Just MHO.

[doc73]

They might be disruptive and obnoxious but they help keep this site up and running. All this stuff costs money.. Kinda like that dump station thread. I am sure the FRF owners would love to get rid of all ad revenues to keep us happier... That will just be $10 / month or $100/ year to have access to what has become a community of a great wealth of knowledge and mostly good folks.

I do not see the ads on my phone, I blocked them on my laptop.. The new "you may also like" ones are there but I guess I do not care. Just scroll a bit further down now.

[ependydad]

If anyone uses Google Chrome, I just figured out that I can use an extension called Stylebot and was able to hide the block entirely. Let me know if you want to know how.

[doc73]

Yeah, it can be done pretty easy. I'll give them a chance to see what happens.

[Sharon455]

I'm not sure, but I think the problem I am having this morning might be the new ads. I currently have 5 tabs open with FF forum topics (all initially opened from the emailed summary of new topics.) Every single one of those tabs has a spinning icon to indicate the page is still loading, yet every page is fully loaded. Visually, it is quite distracting.