Is this the wrong website?

Is this the wrong website?

Author
Discussion

john_r

Original Poster:

8,353 posts

270 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
quotequote all
Just went to the homepage to browse the classifieds... wow. Just wow. I actually thought I had gone to the wrong website!

Don't think I'll bother coming back.


slippery

14,093 posts

238 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
quotequote all
s.

Fidgits

17,202 posts

228 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
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I think I'll advertise my car for sale on pistonheads, oh wait, no I'll just sell it to WBAC..

Great marketing strategy...

... By WBAC

0a

23,879 posts

193 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
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I installed Adblock after the deeply distasteful smoking ads here and have never turned it off (there was no response from PH).

911Thrasher

2,573 posts

198 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
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How do we get back to the old front page?

bmthnick1981

5,310 posts

215 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
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Genuine lol - could the classifieds look any worse? Appalling.

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
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Websites aren't free to host and run - especially high-traffic ones like this. But they're free to use... I wonder how that circle gets squared...?

Don't like ads? Install an adblocker. The solution is on your hands.

_Batty_

12,268 posts

249 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
Websites aren't free to host and run - especially high-traffic ones like this. But they're free to use... I wonder how that circle gets squared...?

Don't like ads? Install an adblocker. The solution is on your hands.
No, but the classifieds hasn't been free for a long time. And for commercial users pay handsomely for using PH.
You can see why people might think it's a bit poor.

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
quotequote all
_Batty_ said:
You can see why people might think it's a bit poor.
I can see why people might whinge, yes, but that doesn't mean their whinge has the slightest grounds in reality.

NiceCupOfTea

25,280 posts

250 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
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It has really come to something when auto trader is my goto car classifieds website...

Council Baby

19,741 posts

189 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
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From someone who makes their money in Internet advertising can I suggest you find more innovative ways to make money than basically being brand raped to the point you don't know which website you're on?

I'm all for the funding of free websites but this just takes the piss, not even out of the users, out of your own brand values. Sell outs.

Driller

8,310 posts

277 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
I wonder how that circle gets squared...?
What in the name of English does that mean?

Totally agree with the comments re the horrible adverts.

Rouleur

7,015 posts

188 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
quotequote all
Gaz. said:
swerni said:
Absolutely st.

This place is going to the dogs


real shame
+1.
You know there's a problem when a mod agrees with a post like that! The advertising situation is just getting out of hand and put me off buying a car through PH; I used AT instead as it's far better.

The really unfortunate thing about the sorry state of PH these days is that none of the people in charge of running the site appears to give a toss. It's just getting gradually worse.

I'm sure that Kinky will be along shortly to tell us that we're free to leave, and then close the thread...

eybic

9,212 posts

173 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
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Sorry guys I've had patchy internet connection at home for a few days. I'm looking in to this and will get back to you ASAP.

Fidgits

17,202 posts

228 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
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NiceCupOfTea said:
It has really come to something when auto trader is my goto car classifieds website...
To be fair, autotrader went to the dogs a while ago.. Ebay does seem to be the best choice nowadays (as much as I hate myself for saying that)

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
quotequote all
Driller said:
TooMany2cvs said:
I wonder how that circle gets squared...?
What in the name of English does that mean?
It's a perfectly common idiom.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british...
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/square+the+cir...

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
Driller said:
TooMany2cvs said:
I wonder how that circle gets squared...?
What in the name of English does that mean?
It's a perfectly common idiom.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british...
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/square+the+cir...
Just change one letter and we have you!

Driller

8,310 posts

277 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
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I am chastened and bowed and stand corrected. First used by John Donne in 1624 apparently.


markmullen

15,877 posts

233 months

Monday 9th March 2015
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It's even better when, as a trade advertiser paying a not inconsiderable sum every month, you can barely read the form to submit a new advert to your trade account because of a bloody awful full page Toyota advert.

Sort it out guys, this is taking the piss.

JD PH

2,668 posts

116 months

Monday 9th March 2015
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Hi everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to comment on this thread - at the very least it demonstrates how strongly you feel about this situation, not to mention the passion that you all have for PistonHeads.

A few comments have alluded to the fact that no one here at PH seems to care any more - I can categorically tell you that simply isn't the case. We've worked hard to improve many aspects of PH, but there are obviously areas that still need some work. One of these is clearly the balance between the realities of successfully commercialising the website and maintaining the sense of community that has been built up over so many years. The fact that we're currently failing on this front is extremely frustrating (as I say, we definitely do care and we share your frustration). It is a balancing act, and it isn't easy. Fortunately we are already on the case and it is being addressed.

So, in no particular order here are some things to consider:

1) Despite the protestations by many of you, the analytics for the site don't tell the same story about the classifieds section. Our visitors to this area of the site are up nearly 40% year on year, and the number of cars for sale is up by over 50%, again year on year.

2) Even with this healthy level of traffic and stock, we agree ​we need to be continually ​improving the classifieds section. With this in mind our development team have been working hard to bring a vastly improved classifieds experience to you. Some of the improvements are due for release in April (in beta) and we'd happily take any feedback you may have on board once you've played with it. Like you we believe these amendments are over due, but it is not a simple thing and as such has taken time to get right.

3) With regards to the "We buy any car" campaigns I can understand why at first it may seem counter intuative to allow an advertiser that competes with our own business. But do you really think we'd allow it to continue if it was having a tangible negative impact on the classifieds? The simple fact is that there are clearly different types of people - some who like to sell their car privately on PH and some who take the route with companies like we buy any car. This is backed up by the fact that we buy any car have experienced a great deal of success with the campaign (despite as I previously mentioned it not impacting us). If we could have it our way we'd obviously prefer people to advertise on PH, but for some people that just isn't their cup of tea!


4) The look and feel of the we buy any car campaign is certainly not to many people's (including my) taste. Again this is a balancing act, but we are reviewing the tone and coverage of adverts that appear on PH, which should help the situation significantly. Many of you may have noticed that on the whole we now deliver relevant ads to you too, which is a step in the right direction. Rest assured we and our tech teams will keep working on this until we get it right.

I hope that this helps to reassure you that whilst (like every business ever) we don't get it right 100% of the time, we do care, we do want to get it right and we will get there. Meanwhile we'll continue to improve other areas of PH such as Search, PHTV, Events, the mobile experience etc etc.

Thanks for listening and apologies for the long reply!

Cheers

JD