Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby thatindianguy » Sat Sep 30, 2017 6:02 pm

I can get why they're struggling to make cash, people online hate the idea of paying for something they once got for free, and they hate the only other way the sites can make money, advertising with a burning passion.

I just don't see this working. I think it's pretty clear that none of us, the people who care enough about commenting regularly that we show up to a separate site to do it want to pay, and I doubt the casual readers Cracked has repeatedly said are it's main source of income as well as their real targets could possibly care enough.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby TrebliG07 » Sat Sep 30, 2017 6:47 pm

The upvoting (or downvoting) in the comments section was helpful in finding the fun stuff to talk or laugh about with other people. While no voting would make everyone equal in view time more or less, when there are lots of people commenting it makes it unrealistic.

I loved talking on Cracked for a long time, but their comment section made it harder when it changed (6 months ago? A year ago?) and even more so now. I really wanted to come back like I used to but I don't see that happening now:(

Perhaps this will fill the commenting hole in my life now! Anyone able to say how this compares to our forums of old?
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby cmsellers » Sat Sep 30, 2017 6:56 pm

David Wong on his attempts to steer Cracked into the ground.


I don't wanna hear another word.
I don't need your well-thought-out advice.
Though I thank you all for being kind,
I can make mistakes myself just fine.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby SilverMaple » Sat Sep 30, 2017 7:02 pm

Yeah, I'm all for supporting content that you enjoy, but would you believe that repeatedly insulting your most dedicated user base doesn't exactly make them feel inclined to throw money at you?

I haven't read Cracked for a while, besides going there once every couple months and picking and choosing 2 or 3 articles that look sort of interesting, partly because I'm not interested in the direction their content is going, partly because they're so hostile towards commenters. It's unfortunate, but they don't really have anyone to blame but themselves.

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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby iMURDAu » Sat Sep 30, 2017 8:14 pm

TrebliG07 wrote:Perhaps this will fill the commenting hole in my life now! Anyone able to say how this compares to our forums of old?


Here at TCS we're all about filling holes.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby Fun With Mr. Fudge » Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:51 pm

thatindianguy wrote: I think it's pretty clear that none of us, the people who care enough about commenting regularly that we show up to a separate site to do it want to pay, and I doubt the casual readers Cracked has repeatedly said are it's main source of income as well as their real targets could possibly care enough.


What if Cracked did something like a Christian Children's Fund commercial featuring Soren with a smudge of dirt on his face? For added effect he could make puppy dog eyes and shed a single tear. Then you'd hear: "For just $3 a month, the price of half a Starbucks coffee, you can feed a Cracked editor for a week." I don't know. Just spitballing.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby Absentia » Sat Sep 30, 2017 10:21 pm

If I had one to pour out, I'd pour one out for Cracked. The end is nigh.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby Bromo » Sun Oct 01, 2017 12:26 am

All good things must come to an end eventually.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby Kate » Sun Oct 01, 2017 2:57 am

FaceTheCitizen wrote:
Not until my "pay to upvote" scheme gets approved by the mod team.

Enjoy it while you can, freeloaders!

Don't be ridiculous, Face. We'd never do that.

We're obviously just going to implement pay-per-thumb downvotes.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby thedogknows » Sun Oct 01, 2017 4:42 pm

TrebliG07 wrote:The upvoting (or downvoting) in the comments section was helpful in finding the fun stuff to talk or laugh about with other people. While no voting would make everyone equal in view time more or less, when there are lots of people commenting it makes it unrealistic.

I loved talking on Cracked for a long time, but their comment section made it harder when it changed (6 months ago? A year ago?) and even more so now. I really wanted to come back like I used to but I don't see that happening now:(

Perhaps this will fill the commenting hole in my life now! Anyone able to say how this compares to our forums of old?


Yeah, that's exactly how I feel too. The upvote/downvote feature doesn't really seem to be useful unless everyone is able to use it because the whole point is giving community feedback. I don't think the change makes their comments section unusable per se (I actually remember back in the days of old when they hadn't even implemented voting), it just degrades readability for very little monetary reward, if the number of up votes on recent articles is any indication. And after all the negative attention from management to the commenters, the change feels much more like punishment than an earnest attempt to increase revenue.

And not to let out a torrent of complaints, but I also do feel that the articles are getting less diverse and more tenuous, like reallifegirl said. A couple months ago I tried to pitch an article about crazy stories from the history of math, and the feedback they gave me was simply that people probably wouldn't click on an article about math. I would be fine if they gave me feedback like "your language is too technical" or "you're too long winded" because I'm very much guilty of those sorts of things, but I think writing off an article simply by subject like that makes them miss out on a lot of good content. Also, I don't even think that their analysis is correct, since there are several Luke McKinney articles on the site about math that have 1,000,000+ views, while a lot of their more recent articles hover around 200,000. And I honestly didn't even like McKinney's writing style, but at least it added variety.

I guess we'll see where Cracked goes from here, but I don't have much hope now that their biggest draw in terms of views are their pictofact features that do their best to emulate a non-satirical version of clickhole.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby Crimson847 » Sun Oct 01, 2017 5:44 pm

Tbh, I see this as having more to do with the "ads for good content" model falling apart than with Cracked being superawfulmegafailcancerdeathaids. People seem to be viewing this completely divorced from the current context, where every major news outlet has a paywall, clickbait rules supreme, and media outlets of all stripes have been going down harder and faster than Bert's mom at a naval base.

Speaking as someone with an interest in writing for money as an avocation, I can't share the inevitable glee whenever Cracked has money problems any more than I could laugh at someone getting drowned by a tsunami while I'm standing right in its path.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby Marcuse » Sun Oct 01, 2017 5:51 pm

Tbh, I see this as having more to do with the "ads for good content" model falling apart than with Cracked being superawfulmegafailcancerdeathaids. People seem to be viewing this completely divorced from the current context, where every major news organization has a paywall now and media outlets of all stripes have been going down harder and faster than Bert's mom at a naval base.


I would be right there with you were it not for the fact that most other media outlets don't require a subscription to vote on comments, a move which is apparently specifically to monetise the commenting community which the site management has consistently denigrated and attacked. It's like a socialist government taxing financial services while claiming capitalism is evil and wrong: it reeks of self serving hypocrisy. I don't, in general, have a problem with subscription services for additional content (which ironically their higher price offer does contain) but I do take issue with cutting out previously free functions and charging for their use.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Sun Oct 01, 2017 7:31 pm

It always kind of felt to me that Wong just wanted Cracked to be more like our articles here, just paid and immersed in PWoT circlejerk. But unfortunately for him, an actual business came attached with it.
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby Taluun » Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:41 pm

thedogknows wrote:A couple months ago I tried to pitch an article about crazy stories from the history of math, and the feedback they gave me was simply that people probably wouldn't click on an article about math.


I want an article about math!
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Re: Cracked now requires a subscription to vote on comments

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:49 pm

Support Cracked By Becoming A Subscriber - Page 8 - Cracked-com Forums 10-1-2017 12-40-11 PM.png
Support Cracked By Becoming A Subscriber - Page 8 - Cracked-com Forums 10-1-2017 12-40-11 PM.png (17.96 KiB) Viewed 6542 times

Yeah, about that..........
I guess the comments section never existed.
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