By now, most of you know that this site made some adjustments to this site so that if you rate pictures too fast, you'll get the "sorry, you're rating too fast -- ignored!" message. While most people are used to it by now and some people prefer it this way, others are still peeved by this course of action because for a lot of people this is their main avenue of earning points for leveling purposes. We have been told that with so many people rating at an expeditiously fast pace due to the "EZ Rate" pics that many members have, the server slows down the site and the powers to be slowed down the time intervals allowed between rates to compensate and allow the server to catch up. I for one disagree with this explanation and will offer my reasons for such.
I first suspected there were ulterior motives involved when the picture rates were slowed down AND the Secret Admirer game was introduced. My first thought was that if they were hurting for server speed and slowed down the picture rates because of such, why introduce a new option that would bog down the server? I again suspected something was going on when right after the slowdown of the picture rates went into effect, the figure this site has on the top of each page showing how many members online increased significantly. My opinion was that if so many people were upset about changing the rating speed, the number of people would obviously drop by at least a little. I decided to do a little investigating and my finding were, at the very least, eye opening. I am about to share them with you.
Some background is in order. When I was on my fact finding mission, I found a web site call Alexa.com. This site is a database showing web traffic statistics such as traffic history, reach, rank, etc. for various other sites on the internet. This is not unlike the Nielson ratings for television or Arbitron rankings for radio. When I researched Fubar on Alexa.com, I found that traffic has been on a steady downward trend the past few months. Below are links for a couple of graphs that shows the traffic trends for Fubar:
Link-
http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss321/chinagrove2009/dailyreachyear.jpg
To explain what reach is, according to Alexa, reach “measures the number of users. Reach is typically expressed as the percentage of all internet users who visit a given site. So, for example, if a site like yahoo.com has a reach of 28%, this means that of all global internet users measured by Alexa, 28% of them visit yahoo.com.”
Link-
http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss321/chinagrove2009/trafficdailytrafficrank.jpg
Ranking is a bit more self explanatory but in short, it’s a combined measure of page views and users(reach).
As you can see, traffic to Fubar peaked in February and again in July, but since has gone down and lately has been at best, stagnant. This meant less money for this website since less traffic means less money. To answer this challenge, Fubar introduced a new tool that members could purchase to aid them in leveling-the Auto 11’s. With the Auto 11’s, members can level faster and the site has a new source of revenue. For all concerned, a win-win situation. This happened around September-October and if you’ll notice on the above charts, that is when there was a slight spike in traffic. This worked for a while. However, there was little to no growth in traffic since and Fubar needed to find a way to increase revenue to make up for the shortfall in traffic. How could this be done? Slow down the picture rates.
Think about it. Since it now takes almost twice as long to rate a given amount of pictures, people will be on this site almost twice as long. The longer amount of time a person is on Fubar, the more opportunity one has to make cash purchases. As for the Auto 11’s, since one gets approximately half the points during an Auto 11 as before, they’d have to purchase two times as much to level as they did before. Also, take a look at the Happy Hour bookings. A lot more people are purchasing more than one Happy Hour at a time because now, they get half the points as before because of the slow picture rates.
Right now, you’re probably wondering what does web traffic have to do with this site needing added revenue. One word-FuMall. The sponsors and advertisers in the FuMall pay Fubar based on how much traffic the sponsors get by way of traffic from Fubar. The more traffic there is, the more money that is made. More reach, more money. The higher the ranking, the more money that is made. It’s all about the money folks and we are the cash cow.
Some of you might say that since they slowed down the picture rates, the number of people shown online has increased and according to the above charts, there is an upward trend in traffic since they did slow down the picture rates. To this I say you’re correct. Nevertheless, one has to look deeper into the numbers and trends to find an explanation. As for the number online, back in September-October I remember the number online as being in the 55,000-60,000 range (if you think I’m wrong on this number, please let me know). The number online as of 9:30 pm CST on February 19 is 69,907. The question that begs to be answered is why has the number they show to be online increased since September but traffic to this site has decreased since then(according to the above charts)? The only thing I can think of, but is pure speculation is that the numbers are inflated. I don’t know much about running a website or servers and such but I do know that any number can be entered where it says how many are actually online. So if there are only 20,000 that are actually online, one can type in 40,000, 60,000, whatever. You’re probably thinking that even if that’s true, then explain the little spike in traffic since they slowed down the picture rates on February 1. Very simple-if you remember when all this started and people kept getting the error message, we didn’t know what was going on. We were told to clear out our browsers cache and cookies. Well, when one deletes the cookies from their browser and visits a website they go to on a regular basis, the site will add a new cookie to replace the old one, thus showing up on the site as new and increased traffic. I do have to admit that this is a well thought out “dog and pony show” for the sponsors and it puts a nice spin to make a bad situation appear good.
I understand after explaining all this some might say “if you don’t like this site or support this site, then go someplace else.” First of all, such an attitude is characteristic of one who gives up easily and accepts things at face value. I am neither. If I don’t think something is right, I will speak up on said issue and thus, the reason I wrote this blog. Second, never did I say I didn’t like this site. My argument is that if one really cared about this website, then that person should not accept the slow ratings so easily. If I didn’t like Fubar and didn’t support it, I wouldn’t have bought a VIP plus some of the amenities this site offers and would have quit coming here a long time ago. I do like this site and most of the people who are also part of the Fubar family. I also like the truth and therein lies the problem. I detest being misled by certain individuals on this site and the charade that was put before us to justify the picture ratings fiasco. I dislike not being told the whole truth from the beginning. I find it reprehensible that Fubar.com possesses the attitude that our (the customer) opinions do not matter and if we don’t like it, tough. I firmly believe that if this site was completely honest with us from the beginning and told us the truth, then most people would have understood the dilemma that Fubar faced and would have been more receptive with the picture ratings being slowed down. Unfortunately, that choice was not made. Fubar chose to go the path of subterfuge and deception.
The issue that lies before me now is whether Fubar will force me to delete this blog under threat of deleting my account. While this site does have this right, does it mean by Fubar exercising this right that I have made valid points in my argument? Does it mean that by threatening to delete my account or outright deleting my account altogether, that I’m “hitting a little close to home” and this site doesn’t want anyone to “stir up the pot”? Does it mean that by wanting me to delete this blog that there is some truth to what I have written? My response would have to be that if this blog is pure fiction, then there is nothing to worry about and I would not be asked to delete this blog. Stay tuned.
One final note-the opinions expressed in this blog are mine and mine only.
