Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

[Feba]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

I don't see anyone attacking Alla's moderators, just Alla himself.

[eticket109]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

There was a huge thread on Alla about all this when the news broke almost a year ago. The owner said all this stuff back then. Why rehash it? A lot of people here don't really care about Alla anymore anyway. Personally I think they're about the 6th place I look if I need to know anything about FFXI.

[fastcart]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

There was a huge thread on Alla about all this when the news broke almost a year ago. The owner said all this stuff back then. Why rehash it? A lot of people here don't really care about Alla anymore anyway. Personally I think they're about the 6th place I look if I need to know anything about FFXI.

He did? Well, like I said, this was the first rebuttal I've heard.

[Nazo]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

I have some sympathy for his comments personally. While I understand people's distaste at having a major site like that owned by RMT I've never seen a single ad for RMT services on Alla. Admittedly I don't go there very often but that's because I don't like the site itself.
On the other hand, the wiki, FFXIAH, Somepage (by far the worst with those big attactive looking IGE banners), all feature ads for RMT companies yet I don't hear any calls for boycotting those. Personally I think advertising for RMT services on respected sites does far more damage than an RMT company owning a site as it implies a tacit approval of RMT and gives it an undeserved veneer of respectability.

[Feba]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

Nobody is singing the praises of somepage- they've had IGE banner ads up as long as i've known about them. Same as KI, they have an agreement with IGE to host those directly.

FFXIclopedia and FFXIAH both use google ads and it is difficult, ESPECIALLY when you consider the fact that Allakhazam is a full-time job for many of it's employees and a paying job for all of them, for any small time site to blacklist ALL of the many RMT ads google sponsors. However, I know for a fact that FFXIclopedia DOES make an attempt to block them when they are notified of them, and I'm sure FFXIAH does the same.


EDIT: oh, and also, sites that use Google ads might lead people to RMT, but the founder and CEO of IGE (and the parent company, RPG holdings or whatever) doesn't get a direct cut whenever someone donates to them, unlike alla. And yeah, before IGE bought allakhazam out, premium memberships were basically dressed up donations. Now they're just paying for a forum account.

[Wise Donkey]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

On the other hand, the wiki, FFXIAH, Somepage (by far the worst with those big attactive looking IGE banners), all feature ads for RMT companies yet I don't hear any calls for boycotting those.

Alla was always a place where they refused to place RMT ads, and stomped quickly on any RMT spam that popped up in their forums. The Mods and Alla himself always proclaimed their hate for RMT and how they would never allow it on their site. When the truth came out about this whole deal with ZAM/RPGHoldings/whatever, I think a lot of fans felt betrayed. Whether or not the other sites agree with RMT, they are upfront about their use of the ads as a necessary evil to fund their site which provides you a service. Alla didn't just sell his website, he sold his beliefs on RMT.

[Nazo]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

Alla was always a place where they refused to place RMT ads, and stomped quickly on any RMT spam that popped up in their forums. The Mods and Alla himself always proclaimed their hate for RMT and how they would never allow it on their site. When the truth came out about this whole deal with ZAM/RPGHoldings/whatever, I think a lot of fans felt betrayed. Whether or not the other sites agree with RMT, they are upfront about their use of the ads as a necessary evil to fund their site which provides you a service. Alla didn't just sell his website, he sold his beliefs on RMT.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm in no way defending his actions. The sale of a community site like that to the enemy is a despicable act, no 2 ways about it and I totally understand people feeling betrayed. But as I understand it the ethos of the site hasn't in anyway changed and there are still no RMT ads on it. So for IGE it's more of a diversification of revenues rather than an expansion of their RMT business. Unintentionally or not, any well-respected site that contains ads for RMT companies is doing more to promote gilsellers in FFXI than Alla in my book.

[Feba]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

And again, most well respected community sites don't. Unless you consider somepage or killvoid well respected... I mean, they're popular, but i've never seen anyone say "Killing Ifrit is so awesome!". Even KI's forum whores think it's crap.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

On the other hand, the wiki, FFXIAH, Somepage (by far the worst with those big attactive looking IGE banners), all feature ads for RMT companies yet I don't hear any calls for boycotting those. Personally I think advertising for RMT services on respected sites does far more damage than an RMT company owning a site as it implies a tacit approval of RMT and gives it an undeserved veneer of respectability.

Wiki, FFXIAH and this site use Google AdSense. What AdSense does is takes the most common subject on a forum, page or even a websearch and links an ad to the AdSense bar. What link shows up it what shows up. This is even how free linkshell forums stay free. Type in whatever you want on your LS forum and within seconds something related will pop-up in AdSense.

Its hard to control and you can't hope to blacklist it all. People might click the links (probably won't) and you can pretty much omit them from other parts of your site, but the ads have to be visible somewhere.

[Nazo]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

Sure I know how google ads work and my comments aren't in any way intended as a criticism of a site that uses them. I use some free forum software for my own ls forum that I run that has google ads on it and sadly I have no control at all over the ads that crop up there.

My point was that although people (justifiably perhaps) make a lot of noise about Alla's affiliation with IGE, if someone were to go there to look for information on FFXI they wouldn't at any point encounter anything that would encourage them to sell/buy gil or anything else against the TOS.

If the guy who runs Alla is trying to deny the link between them then that's a different matter I guess. If it is true I don't really see a lot of point in denying it.

[Mhurron]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

If the guy who runs Alla is trying to deny the link between them then that's a different matter I guess. If it is true I don't really see a lot of point in denying it.

He is. When it first finally came out, it was presented as Alla was sold to a company that just happened to also own IGE.

The truth is however, that the owner/founder of IGE created a company that could be used to buy up MMO related companies and sites and bring them all under one banner. The 'sale' of IGE was only on paper and only covered legal semantics.

[Feba]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

an Alla member is still creating content for an RMT organization and paying the founders of said company.

even if you post on alla without buying anything from them, by increasing their membership and thus increasing the chancesthat someone will get a premium account, in addition to ad revenue by ANYONE, you're still helping RMT.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

A lot of mention has been made about Alla never having one ad for RMTs. So what do we get instead? Ads for online dating sites, complete with scantily clad women in suggestive poses. I cringe when one of those ads shows up while I'm using the family PC and my wife is nearby.

I think I'd rather see IGE ads instead.

[Vyuru]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

Alla was always a place where they refused to place RMT ads, and stomped quickly on any RMT spam that popped up in their forums. The Mods and Alla himself always proclaimed their hate for RMT and how they would never allow it on their site. When the truth came out about this whole deal with ZAM/RPGHoldings/whatever, I think a lot of fans felt betrayed.

Well, not just that, but the premium accounts were always portrayed as "donate to help keep Allakhazam running by itself"

That and the whole seemingly coverup kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

[Skoal]

Re: Response from Allakhazam regarding IGE ownership

A lot of mention has been made about Alla never having one ad for RMTs. So what do we get instead? Ads for online dating sites, complete with scantily clad women in suggestive poses. I cringe when one of those ads shows up while I'm using the family PC and my wife is nearby.

I think I'd rather see IGE ads instead.

I forgot websites had ads until my roommate was browsing on IE instead of Firefox. Adblock had made my internet life so much easier.