More eFront gossip

[Steve_S]

OK I see, around 17,000 Thanks for the link on my own BB. DUH http://geekvillage.com/ubb/smile.gif

I ain't selling. I recently got an offer which at first glance looked like spam but then I could tell they had closely examined our operation. From a company which will remain nameless because they asked me to cloak untill they launch. Polite and business like. Outlandish first offer. No thank you. I'm not letting go of control. In fairness, the deal might be OK for others.

My points are to learn from the past, move on with other large implications like this stats issue, and continue to help each other with critical examinations, help, advice, and a very large dose of "due digilence"

We ain't seen the last of these types of deals which might work for you but don't work for me.




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Steve_S
Administrator/Owner/Webmaster/Tribal Chief/Janitor
Read what our Members think of geek/talk.
"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant." -Horace

[SSacobie]

What precisely was the controversy? eFront was not much smaller than eUniverse, which has consistently been in the top 15.

[singloon]

Originally posted by Czar:
Steve, there was an excellent discussion regarding the various web measurement firms and their methods posted to the Site Promotion forum last month:
http://geekvillage.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000505.html

hehe... Czar's taking over http://geekvillage.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

hmmm what happens when you given up your sites' stats to an adnetwork for media matrix and that network folds ? or the site leaves ?

Is it up to the network to notify media matrix ?



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[Czar]

What precisely was the controversy?

From article:

"Sam (Jain) would call companies all over the world, trying to get them to be our affiliates," Ziegler said. "Some of them wouldn't respond. He said, 'If they won't respond to me, they won't respond to anyone.' Sam took these and submitted them to Media Metrix and said they were affiliates."

http://geekvillage.com/ubb/frown.gif


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Czar

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[SSacobie]

Yeah, but they had plenty of visitors that they did own. While I now understand the controversy, I'm wondering why they weren't even in the top 500. Unless it was only after that when their impression numbers started going way up.

[hobbnet]

Well, I would have been glad to audit a company like that's stats. I actually applied to one of the
Big 5 firms, Deloitte & Touche, for an internship but sadly it did not work out.

I am just really glad quite a few of my friends did not decide to jump on the eFront train because a while back many of them were about to accept efront offers.

[This message has been edited by hobbnet (edited 04-30-2001).]

[Czar]

Just when you thought eFront's reputation couldn't be tarnished any further, former execs of the company have spoken out about Sam Jain's alleged deliberate falsification of documents submitted to Media Metrix in order to boost the network's ranking:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201...html?tag=tp_pr

It makes you wonder which sites he claimed control over, especially since he made offers to many members of this very BB.


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Czar

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[gbrott]

I thought we weren't allowed to mention that company in this forum????

This is probably one of the most fascinating stories of the past year, you couldn't write a better script.

[Steve_S]

Thanks for the post/link. Interesting stuff and the entire efront issue was very sad for honest webmasters who ran/run legal sites.

Having said that, their might be "blame" on the other side as in:

"Media Metrix is hardly the first media measurement company whose numbers have been challenged. The Nielsen ratings, which extrapolate TV viewership figures from a handful of families surveyed, have been criticized for years. (Nielsen, in conjunction with online research company NetRatings, also measures Web traffic in competition with Media Metrix, which merged last year with market researcher Jupiter Communications to become Jupiter Media Metrix.) "

How about some tighter audits from all these firms which provide stats. Maybe an independent group that audits them. Kinda like the big 8 accounting firms.

Perhaps I need a refresher course in how these firms handle their reports and where they get this data. Alexa ranks GV at around 5,000 something as per one of our member posts. Where do they get that number and how do they know it's accurate? Really, Iv'e never paid any attention to it but I probably should since people keep telling me it adds "value" to the site.



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Steve_S
Administrator/Owner/Webmaster/Tribal Chief/Janitor
Read what our Members think of geek/talk.
"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant." -Horace

[zMan]

CNET did an excellent job writting up the article!

I am not surprised that Sam Jain reported incorrect traffic figures to MediaMatrix on purpose, after all the things he has done to eFront employees, affiliates, business partners, etc.

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zMan

[Czar]

Steve, there was an excellent discussion regarding the various web measurement firms and their methods posted to the Site Promotion forum last month:
http://geekvillage.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000505.html

I also heard at about the same time (but have lost the link), that a consortium of advertisers and publishers are pushing for exactly the system that you suggested. That is, they're hoping to have one standard auditing agency oversee the measurement and reporting of web traffic in order to eliminate conflicting rankings, and the confusion still caused by the whole hit/pageview/unique issue.

The agency touted as the best equipped to perform this function was the same organization that oversees print auditing throughout America. I believe it was called ABC, but I could be mistaken.


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Czar

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