On 3/30/07, Joe Evango <jjadeinc at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I wouldn't say it is useless, but it is definitely not as effective as it
> could be if there were a more welcoming environment on our pickup servers.
> I just completed a banner ad campaign this past month that seemed to draw in
> a decent amount of traffic but cost $50/month so I had to kill it after 1
> month.  One of the best services I have ever used was the premier listing
> package on download.com but that costs $100/month so I had to downgrade to
> the basic listing.  I am still running banner advertising on

Yikes that is expensive. Maybe put a Paypal donate button on your site
so other trekers with the money can donate towards a good cause? :)

> gamesites200.com  which has received 60 clicks this past month and also have
> two pay-per-click keyword campaigns running, one being on Google.  I have
> focused my efforts primarily on the Windows clients but still see 40-60
> click per month on the MacTrek and Paradise client links I have on my site.

Cool. In the past 2 months I have seen a LOT of newbies using bill's
XP 2006 client (especially v1.2). I noticed also that many of them
were from Europe.
I think having a European pickup server would help the Euro scene. In
the past there was almost always at least 1 Euro server up.

> I still see people trying to eject and trash talk on new players
> due to impatience and not many people willing to speak out against the
> people doing it.  Sometimes the abuse is due to mistaken identity, not
> realizing the player is new, sometimes not.  It isn't a huge part of the
> community that does this, but the people that do seem to have an incredible
> amount of free time to play so the impact they have on Netrek is extremely
> negative.  First impressions are lasting impressions.

I think there is only a handful of rather disturbed individuals who
legitimately harass others and more stern administrative action should
probably be taken against them, but for this to be successful to any
degree you need 1) very proactive server gods who can respond to an
issue fairly quickly 2) an improved security architecture on
authentication side and/or a better ban mechanism on the network
level.

Zach