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Penny auction advertising on MacRumors

Would you like to see penny auction ads disappear from Macrumors?

  • You betcha! Penny auction ads have no business here.

    Votes: 59 44.0%

  • Meh. I don't care one way or the other.

    Votes: 36 26.9%

  • Keep 'em. If MR pulled every ad that somebody didn't like ...

    Votes: 39 29.1%
  • Total voters
    134
Jazwire said:
Just curious do you take this approach with every website with PennyAuction ads? As they are literally on every major website on the net.
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I don't take this approach with any other site. I don't know any other site that actively encourages feedback as much as MR does.

Seems pretty think skinned and petty to get worked up over an ad , its not like it wasn't indecent/offensive language or hate filled.
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Then I conclude we have different tastes. The penny auction sites misrepresent their business dynamics. One of the sites has a comparison between themselves and EBay -- which is laughable. They are gambling sites.

Just angers me, that people try to bully MR staff around.
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That didn't happen. Go back and look at message #1 in this thread, and then look at the response from Doctor Q in message #4. Question asked; response received. No bullying.

Why do we need a poll?
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No specific reason. Did you find it taxing to participate in the poll?

BTW: your interpretation of the poll results reveals your bias. No credible statistician would ever agree with your interpretation. Your claim reminded me of one of the great little books of all time, How to Lie with Statistics, first published in 1954.

If the MR staff absolutely feels they should be blocked they will block them.
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Not exactly. Go look at message #4: the MR staff asks us to display the advertisement and provide the URL to objectionable ads.

They dont need people who are freeloaders (including myself, I dont pay either) telling them how to run their site.
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That did not happen here, Jazwire. I asked the admins what their policy was WRT penny auction advertisements, and they told me. I have no idea what you mean by "freeloaders".

The irony of your complaint is that you seem to be the one who is telling the MR staff how to run their site:

Jazwire said:
I dont see the problem with the ads.
Dont like the ads, donate to remove them, if not keep your opinions to yourself and let them run their business.
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As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Even though our ads come from an ad service, site visitors' opinions of MacRumors will reflect the ads they have to look at. If an ad pops out and covers the news stories I wouldn't blame them for not sticking around. It's reasonable to assume that for every helpful user who lets us know about an ad problem there are other annoyed users who didn't bother complaining to us.

If a user gets ripped off by a shady product or service advertised here, they will assign MacRumors some of the blame. We'd rather play it safe and eliminate ads for suspicious deals, even if we aren't in a position to evaluate what they advertise.

Ads pay the bills but we don't want to drive users away. In fact, pruning ads might actually keep people from leaving, thereby boosting ad income, so you would call it self-serving. However, the real reason we remove especially annoying ads is the reason we remove useless forum posts: to serve our members.
 
Today's Penny Auction ad #1 is here.

ipad_scam8.jpg
 
Doctor Q said:
If a user gets ripped off by a shady product or service advertised here, they will assign MacRumors some of the blame. We'd rather play it safe and eliminate ads for suspicious deals, even if we aren't in a position to evaluate what they advertise.

Ads pay the bills but we don't want to drive users away. In fact, pruning ads might actually keep people from leaving, thereby boosting ad income, so you would call it self-serving. However, the real reason we remove especially annoying ads is the reason we remove useless forum posts: to serve our members.
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This dynamic for mindful website owners is rather fascinating. A company that believes, "You can make money without doing evil" should make it easy for websites to exclude particular advertisers. Whack-a-mole should not be necessary.

I would love to hear analysis from someone who knew more about Google.
 
While I certainly agree with the OP that penny auctions are profitable for the operators, from the standpoint of the auction winner, they can indeed deliver a bargain. Of course this means the unsuccessful bidders have effectively thrown away their money, but this business model is no different from state-sponsored lotteries, on-line poker, or most of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or Monte Carlo. Some would even say stockbrokers offer the same proposition.

Accordingly there is no more reason for MacRumors to miss out on the advertising revenue spent by penny auction operators than to insist they reject ads for any other gambling activity.

I suppose MacRumors could post an advisory for the terminally naive, but I would think that very few penny auction patrons--like all gamblers--don't know very well what game they are playing.
 
Cartaphilus said:
While I certainly agree with the OP that penny auctions are profitable for the operators, from the standpoint of the auction winner, they can indeed deliver a bargain. Of course this means the unsuccessful bidders have effectively thrown away their money, but this business model is no different from state-sponsored lotteries, on-line poker, or most of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or Monte Carlo. Some would even say stockbrokers offer the same proposition.

Accordingly there is no more reason for MacRumors to miss out on the advertising revenue spent by penny auction operators than to insist they reject ads for any other gambling activity.

I suppose MacRumors could post an advisory for the terminally naive, but I would think that very few penny auction patrons--like all gamblers--don't know very well what game they are playing.
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Good points, but we've been removing them because they seem more misleading than, say, an ad for a casino, and because a number of site visitors have been concerned enough to contact us. We don't miss out since other ads take their place.
 
Applejuiced said:
If you sit there and try to chase and report all those "unapproved" to your standards ads you'd be there all day. I got better things to do with my life.
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Normally I'd be in complete agreement with you, but not in the case of ads for services that would be best described as predatory. Even worse, these ads predatory ads are looking to exploit the exact users who visit this site so I do think it's best to see them go.
 
Whack du jour

Today's quibids.com ad of the day. URL here.

ipad_scam11.jpg


This looks like the same smartsaversjournal.com URL noted a couple of days ago. Perhaps there are some different characters in the shriek URL.

smirking said:
Normally I'd be in complete agreement with you, but not in the case of ads for services that would be best described as predatory. Even worse, these ads predatory ads are looking to exploit the exact users who visit this site so I do think it's best to see them go.
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Agreed. The "journal" page that this ad links to seems to be deceptive. It appears to be an open discussion board (with 173 entries!), but only the first 14 are visible. There is no way to enter new comments, and no way to retrieve any of the others. The questions appear scripted: they are all softballs and there are no negative comments. The next question just happens to arrive after the "moderator" has answered the previous question. There are no other pages on the website. The "journal" doesn't pass the sniff test, and neither does the "auction" site it promotes.

Can we get Al Franken to drop the iPhone/Android hearings and summon these guys to DC instead? Please?
 
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Cartaphilus said:
While I certainly agree with the OP that penny auctions are profitable for the operators, from the standpoint of the auction winner, they can indeed deliver a bargain. Of course this means the unsuccessful bidders have effectively thrown away their money, but this business model is no different from state-sponsored lotteries, on-line poker, or most of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or Monte Carlo. Some would even say stockbrokers offer the same proposition.
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When I play the lottery, I know that I pay for a ticket, and if I lose, the money for the ticket is gone. If I go to a game casino, I know that I can win or lose. If I play poker, I know that I am playing against people who want to take my money.

These so-called "penny auction" sites just plainly lie. Claiming that people "buy" an iPad for $23.76 is a lie. "Buying" is a process where a potential buyer offers money, and the offer is either accepted and the goods provided for the purchase price, or the offer is rejected, and the potential buyer keeps all their money. An "auction" is the same thing, with the small practical difference that there are usually many offers to buy an item, and only one is accepted. When people who don't receive the goods lose their money, it isn't "buying".
 
gnasher729 said:
These so-called "penny auction" sites just plainly lie. Claiming that people "buy" an iPad for $23.76 is a lie. "Buying" is a process where a potential buyer offers money, and the offer is either accepted and the goods provided for the purchase price, or the offer is rejected, and the potential buyer keeps all their money. An "auction" is the same thing, with the small practical difference that there are usually many offers to buy an item, and only one is accepted. When people who don't receive the goods lose their money, it isn't "buying".
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I found an article about a class action lawsuit filed against quibids.com in December, 2010. The article contains a link to the lawsuit itself. The lawsuit text, article, and discussion are good for anyone who wants to understand the minutia of penny auctions and why some find them objectionable. I do love that ads from bidcactus.com and quibids.com appear on the article's page.

I know nothing of the status of the complaint.
 
The same bidcactus.com ad listed in message #42 continues to show up. Here is a link that the ad points to.
 
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