Is the Integration of PhysOrg.com Links a Bug or Intentional Feature?

[Vanadium 50]

Is the recent appearance of PhysOrg.com links in mid-thread a bug or a feature?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

We are proud to have entered in a content sharing partnership with PhysOrg.Com

They will be delivering relevant news stories to PF. There are 14 forums that will receive unique stories and the rest draw from a general science pool. IE biology gets biology stories. In return we are sending PhysOrg.Com links to some of our discussions. We are confident this is a win-win.

 

[mgb_phys]

It's now working properly in Opera. It was showing just the logo with no links and occasionally stretching the box for the logo all the way down the page.

 

[Norman]

I think this is a big mistake. It is quite annoying to see a post under an initial thread in the Physics sections about family planning... It is intrusive that it appears as a post in a thread with absolutely no relevant information. I hope it does not stay in its current implementation.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I think this is a big mistake. It is quite annoying to see a post under an initial thread in the Physics sections about family planning... It is intrusive that it appears as a post in a thread with absolutely no relevant information. I hope it does not stay in its current implementation.

Thank you for your opinion. We will continue to tweak things in order to optimize usefulness.

update: all physics forums now show physics news stories

 

[symbolipoint]

The placement of those posts is not suitable in several of the boards. A better placement may be at the top of some of the boards or forum sections.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

The placement of those posts is not suitable in several of the boards. A better placement may be at the top of some of the boards or forum sections.

Can you further explain what you mean by "not suitable"?

 

[dx]

I too feel it is a strange place to put it.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Gold members forget there are ads at the top of the forums

 

[negitron]

I think this is a big mistake. It is quite annoying to see a post under an initial thread in the Physics sections about family planning... It is intrusive that it appears as a post in a thread with absolutely no relevant information. I hope it does not stay in its current implementation.

It took me less than half a day to get used to it; it's very easy to distinguish the links from a normal post once you get used to them. In any case, I don't know what Greg feels like doing, but it would be trivially easy to change the border or background color or something if people are that easily confused about it.

 

[Redbelly98]

If it helps Greg pay the bills, I'm for it. I too found it pretty easy to get used to, and it's always in the same place (after 1st post of a thread).

 

[phyzmatix]

If it helps Greg pay the bills, I'm for it.

I agree. Also, in a week's time, it'll be as if it's always been there.

 

[Borg]

I was confused the first couple of times because it looked like people had signatures with advertisements.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

If it helps Greg pay the bills, I'm for it. I too found it pretty easy to get used to, and it's always in the same place (after 1st post of a thread).

They aren't ads News stories from a partner site.

I was confused the first couple of times because it looked like people had signatures with advertisements.

I will look into ways of distinguishing them better. But at the same time I don't want it distracting.

 

[Danger]

It weirded me out the first couple of times, since I thought that some unnamed used had sneaked in spam. Now I'm used to it, and I think that it's a great idea.
Scientific American, now this. What the hell's next; are we going into partnership with NASA?

 

[humanino]

I support PF and Greg in all their decisions :!)
Let's try it before deciding whether it was a good decision.

 

[berkeman]

I have to say that I'm starting to like it. Some of the articles in the links are darned interesting. The one about Smart Power Grid security was an eye-opener!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I should also mention the feeds are updated every hour.

 

[dlgoff]

https://www.physicsforums.com/misc/physorg1.gif
This is how their logo looks in my firefox. Should it be cut like this?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

https://www.physicsforums.com/misc/physorg1.gif
This is how their logo looks in my firefox. Should it be cut like this?

yes, it's from the website

 

[negitron]

I will look into ways of distinguishing them better. But at the same time I don't want it distracting.

I was thinking something like this, perhaps:

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/5497/phys.jpg

 

[dlgoff]

yes, it's from the website

Okay I see. But on their site they have the "PHYSORG.Com" below the cut.

 

[negitron]

Here's a link to the actual logo, as extracted from their CSS stylesheet:

http://www.physorg.com/tmpl/default/img/logo.gif

 

[qntty]

could you make an option to disable it? perhaps it could be a gold-member feature.

 

[sylas]

I would prefer it to be located outside of the stream of the thread. The current position is distracting. I propose it be prominent, but plainly distinct from the thread of actual discussion. Here's my suggestion:

Cheers -- sylas

 

[GDogg]

In return we are sending PhysOrg.Com links to some of our discussions. We are confident this is a win-win.

I hope we don't get the kind of comments they get in their articles with that...

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

could you make an option to disable it? perhaps it could be a gold-member feature.

I will be adding a "hide" option next week.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Thanks, Greg. I'd rather see it once than not at all, but I'd rather see it not at all over zillions of times. As it stands today, it's like a pesky kid tugging at your sleeve saying, "Have you read this article yet? How about now? How about now?"

 

[fluidistic]

I would prefer it to be located outside of the stream of the thread. The current position is distracting. I propose it be prominent, but plainly distinct from the thread of actual discussion. Here's my suggestion:

Cheers -- sylas

In my opinion it would be better at the bottom of the page. So that you can easily read a new thread without scrolling down if the post is short. It would also be noticed at the bottom anyway so I think it's a good place to it.

 

[arildno]

I'm still in the grumble-mumble stage about this..

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

News Bit
http://www.physorg.com/help/whats-new/

 

[tiny-tim]

different appearance?

It took me less than half a day to get used to it; it's very easy to distinguish the links from a normal post once you get used to them. In any case, I don't know what Greg feels like doing, but it would be trivially easy to change the border or background color or something if people are that easily confused about it.

I was thinking something like http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/5497/phys.jpg" , perhaps

I agree, I'd prefer it to look substantially different.

The simplest method would be to put the whole text in the physics.org corporate colour, which I think is dark purple (and could the top line be centred?), something like …

PhysOrg.com http://www.physorg.com/" :​

>> Magnetic Measurements Question Assumptions About High-Tc Superconductors
>> Future tech on show at 36th SIGGRAPH
>> What Hit Jupiter?​

Also, the link is to the homepage, so why are the linked words "science news" instead of "PhysOrg.com"? … perhaps …

Science News from http://www.physorg.com/" :​

>> Magnetic Measurements Question Assumptions About High-Tc Superconductors
>> Future tech on show at 36th SIGGRAPH
>> What Hit Jupiter?​

or even …

Science News from

:​

>> Magnetic Measurements Question Assumptions About High-Tc Superconductors
>> Future tech on show at 36th SIGGRAPH
>> What Hit Jupiter?​

 

[GeorginaS]

I think it's a terrific partnership with a blending of two great ideas. They're complimentary sites, for certain. It takes a bit of getting accustomed to the second post in each thread not being part of the discussion, but truly, it's not a big distraction. And some of the articles are interesting. Plus, it may attract some new faces here, which, I'm assuming, is always welcome.

I vote (assuming I get a vote, that is ) that it's a clever partnership.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Tiny, I like the middle suggestion. I'll look into it.

 

[tiny-tim]

different appearance?

Tiny, I like the middle suggestion. I'll look into it.

ooh, Greg, you've done it already!

that was quick! ​

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

ooh, Greg, you've done it already!

that was quick! ​

some of it

 

[Redbelly98]

Minor quibble about style: it looks kind of silly for Saturn's southern hemisphere to be lopped off for no apparent reason. This only looks sensible if there is some text right below the logo:

. [PLAIN]https://www.physicsforums.com/misc/physorg1.gif
PhysOrg.com... instead of:

PhysOrg.com
. [PLAIN]https://www.physicsforums.com/misc/physorg1.gif

(It looks better when the background color matches the logo, of course.)

EDIT: this looks better I think:

 

[Moonbear]

I don't like having it plunked inside threads. It's distracting, and looks like an advertisement. I don't see any relevance of the links to the threads I'm reading (for example, in all the threads I open right now, one of the links is to something about Nissan vehicles). And it's ugly.

 

[berkeman]

I don't see any relevance of the links to the threads I'm reading (for example, in all the threads I open right now, one of the links is to something about Nissan vehicles). And it's ugly.

Which forum was that in Moonbear? At least in the EE forum and some of the others I frequent, the links appear pretty interesting:

PhysOrg.com
physics news on PhysOrg.com

>> Dark Energy From the Ground Up: Make Way for BigBOSS
>> Physicists to study attractive and repulsive forces crucial in designing nano-machines
>> LHC to run at 3.5 TeV for early part of 2009-2010 run rising later

 

[berkeman]

And from the Posted Science Jobs forum:

science news on PhysOrg.com

>> Cut marks on bone suggest burial rituals of Early Britons
>> Researchers propose ambitious new strategies for AIDS vaccine research
>> Gov't reassures schools on staying open with flu

 

[berkeman]

And from Intro Physics in Homework Help:

science news on PhysOrg.com

>> Psychologists say longer lives can still lead to happier golden years
>> Two lines account for most human embryonic stem cell research
>> Model suggests how life's code emerged from primordial soup

Okay, Greg, I need to change my answer now. I'm spending too much time reading those links! As if I didn't already spend too much time here!

 

[Moonbear]

I guess it was just the links at the time I commented.

I'd actually be more likely to check out some of those links if the links were placed someplace other than the second post in every thread. At that point, I'm interested in reading the thread I opened, not haring off to some other site to read an article about something unrelated to the thread.

Since they've appeared, I'm noticing some other odd things with the site...not sure if it's related or not. For example, sometimes a button will appear as text instead of as a button (i.e., "Quick reply to this message" is often displayed instead of the quick reply button on the first post of a page) and up on the top border of the page, I see "image" at the end of the bar that has the quick links on it, and then it overruns the right side of the screen.

If we have to put up with the links to some other site within the threads, can they be at the end of the thread, so you only run into them when you're done reading a current thread? Maybe that would be less distracting and more likely to inspire someone to visit the other site?

 

[NeoDevin]

Since they've appeared, I'm noticing some other odd things with the site...not sure if it's related or not. For example, sometimes a button will appear as text instead of as a button (i.e., "Quick reply to this message" is often displayed instead of the quick reply button on the first post of a page) and up on the top border of the page, I see "image" at the end of the bar that has the quick links on it, and then it overruns the right side of the screen.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=328997"

 

[NeoDevin]

I think there should be a "show once" option, and a "hide" option. I'm sure many people here already subscribe to the RSS feed at physorg, and it doesn't provide any benefit to see the links again, with fewer details.

 

[Moonbear]

I think there should be a "show once" option, and a "hide" option. I'm sure many people here already subscribe to the RSS feed at physorg, and it doesn't provide any benefit to see the links again, with fewer details.

That would be nice. I probably wouldn't be bothered as much if I just saw the links in the first thread I opened on a visit to the site, or a particular forum, and then had them go away once I'd seen it for that session. Seeing the same thing repeated in every thread is feeling like more of a reason to purposely avoid going to that other site...I'm not fond of being beaten over the head repeatedly with information I was capable of reading the first time. And, it seems others here are simply learning to ignore the ads for physorg entirely.

 

[Kurdt]

One of the main reasons this has happened, please remember, is to give PhysicsForums a lot of exposure on another site. Since the site is dedicated to science news, we may get a lot more quality discussions and threads from new members on the forum. its a small price to pay if you don't like the ads.

 

[fluidistic]

One of the main reasons this has happened, please remember, is to give PhysicsForums a lot of exposure on another site. Since the site is dedicated to science news, we may get a lot more quality discussions and threads from new members on the forum. its a small price to pay if you don't like the ads.

Ok. I'm getting used now to the physorg.com links in all threads, but even though the links are generally interesting for me it might not be true for all.
I wonder, why don't we do the same as we do with Scientific American new articles? I mean, the physorg.com "adds" in the first page instead of in each thread right under the first post.
I read all Scientific American entries and I might do the same for phyorg.com even if their links does not appear in each thread.

 

[Vanadium 50]

. its a small price to pay if you don't like the ads.

True. But remember, some people have paid real money to receive no ads. They may not be happy with interpreting "no ads" as "only those ads that we think are really, really important."

Personally, I think the idea is good, but would prefer a less intrusive implementation.

 

[sylas]

I read all Scientific American entries and I might do the same for phyorg.com even if their links does not appear in each thread.

I agree. They don't belong INSIDE the thread. To one side, or above, or below, anything. Not in the middle of the thread, between posts.

 

[Moonbear]

True. But remember, some people have paid real money to receive no ads.

Exactly. Honestly, I'd rather have the little text ads back at the top of the page than these things interrupting threads. It's far more obnoxious than the little google ads at the top. What's the point of people contributing to get rid of ads if they still get their threads interrupted with ads for another site?