Functionality of Devshed forums degrading quickly

Yeah, it's only my personal opinion, but I have to say that I think Devshed is going the wrong way in terms of usability and interaction design of the website.

First of all I do not like the way this Igrip (or what is it) search function tricks you into clicking google ads! I understand the need to make money and I appreciate it, but making everything look like the Google ads sucks. We all know that advertisements should always clearly identify themselves as such. With the new search that obviously isn't so.

There are now three or four different layouts with different navigations when going from the homepage (layout1) to the searchpage (layout 2), to the search results (layout 3) to the thread (layout 4 or 5 depending how you got to the thread). When browsing the threads normally there is a different displaying of the threads. The hyrarchy of th threads is different depending on whether you searched for a thread or browsed for one.

All very confusing and directly in conflict with the basic principle of website design, which summarises itself as: "Don't make the user think!".

Devshed is my favorite source for information and said again, I fully appreciate the need to make money, but let it not sacrifice the usability, because that is penny wise, pound foolish, since people will turn away in the long run.

Just my two cents,.
Gurt

just curious how are you tricked into clicking a google add? when I search I see all the adds on the right hand side and all the posts on the left, so I just click the stuff on the left. how are they getting me to click the ads?

Hmmm.. doubted if I should actually respond to your post, but hey...I'll assume you really question this , so let's elaborate on this a bit more.

You probably noticed how font size, font color, header color and structure of the provided search results exactly match the standard format of the Google ads. Let's assume for sake of argument, (and because it makes sense) that Igrep adapted it's design to match the standard Google format, and not the other way around (Google adapting it's standard ad design to Igrep's search look and feel.). So why would Igrep want to make sure that it's search result look exactly the same as the Google ads on the right side, if they are not interested in making money by letting you click on them (which is why they are integrated in first the place)?

Because it looks good? Yeah right!...

ya and is there anything wrong with it? I wouldn't call it tricking you to click it, it's more like sutilely hiding it. but I think most people know the difference and for those that don't well clicking the ads doesn't hurt them any. besides devshed needs to make money right? they are a busness after all

Ha ha ha ha, don't often hear such useless arguments :

No it doesn't hurt, it's just bloody annoying if you think you're going somewhere else!

Spam doesn't hurt does it? It's just bloody annoying.
Popups don't hurt do they? They are just bloody annoying.
Pop-unders idem
etceteras

MAN! Whatever. I see now how you got so many posts

Cheers,
Gurt

Heh, maybe you should look into his post history before making
comments like that...

And please, show us these links that tricked you into clicking on
them. I'm yet to find a link on Dev Shed that took me somewhere
other than where I was expecting...

The argument he used said enough. No look at any posting history necessary.

example: http://www.igrep.com/search.php?sea...=login%20script

Funny, how the ads on the right look exactly the same as the search result. Funny how it doesn't mention that they are Google ads, while normally that is always mentioned. errrrr..... Google must have imitated the look and feel of Igrep, they must have liked it so much!

What do people not understand about the idea of camouflage? Usually it is used to make people believe that something is not what it seems. Hence the idea to trick people into thinking it being something else, thereby in this case having them click on it, only to find out it was not what they wanted to see.

Yes I know that nobody is putting a gun against your head to make you click those links, but this is one step away from the next type of camouflaged advertising where advertisers buy keywords on a website (duh... the website has to make money) and have those keywords automatically linked to their own page as soon as anyone uses that keyword. So links in the text look exactly like useful links to relevant content, but unfortunately they link to the page of the advertisers. (was Google itself not working on something like this?)

Example (not very unlikely to happen in the future):
I recently read a book on website development that showed good examples of using records in mysql databases bla yada yada...

Useful links or not? That must become pretty annoying when you are looking for some useful information. Sure, nobody forces you to click on the links, and sure, as soon as you know that it is being used that way, you don't click on them, and so what if you click and get somewhere else.

Another two cents. Don't spend them all in one place!

Gurt

lol, actually, the devshed archive is already doing this:

random example: http://forums.devshed.com/archive/t...Python-in-China

just to point out the obvious all the links on the right DO SHOW THE ADDRESS THEY ARE LINKING TO, since igrep ONLY searches the devshed network you can easily see that they aren't linking to any of the sites here

also since the forums here are free I highly doubt you'd have search results turn up that show a price.


wtf is that suppose to mean? that I post just stupid stuff to get a higher post count? come on dude, I've been here since 2001 and have less posts then some people who've joined in 2004, I don't post just for posting sake, I post to help or when I think something should be posted.

I'd like to screw up your currency and add my two pence instead.
That is, that it doesn't particularly matter if they're Google ads. You can quite easily see they're links to off-site, commercial pages. If they interest you, go nuts, click away, earn Devshed money. I fail to see the problem. They link to exactly what they say they do, and they're at least vaguely related to your search.

Besides, most people will realise they're sponsored ads, and if they don't, they'll work it out pretty fast. People who don't... well they still get what they click on. I've even been known to - shock horror - voluntarily click on ads, if it's something I'm genuinely interested in and not an obnoxious 'OMG YOU'VE WON A BARREL OF STUPID!!!!1!!'. I fail to accept that unobtrusive ads are evil. Google, on the other hand, is. No, I don't have a point.

Hey, you forgot to quote my smiley!
Not sure what you mean with your second sentence.