"Sponsorship is different from ads" therefore Paid users will see it

[ex_uniquewo]

In September 2006, brad was saying : sponsored "whatever" are ads. don't worry, we (at least most of us?) realize sponsorships are the same as ads. and we remember which account levels see ads and which don't. Paid users won't see sponsored stuff -- ignore the previous post. paid users won't ever see ads. that's why you paid, and we're not in the

Comments

Previous and current proposed solutions

[foxfirefey]

For me, the difference was the ad tracking in the sponsored mood theme. I figured that displaying the theme as it was was the journal choice, but that including the web bug or the ad links when a paid user was viewing was the thing that crossed the line.

The web bug and ad links, a " requirement from the sponsor so they can see their return on investment" turn the layout, which was chosen by the user, into part of an orchestrated ad campaign. Taking out the web bug and the ad links (replacing them by direct links to the site in question, ie feetwantout.com) if a paid user was viewing would mean that the paid user was no longer included in the advertising's calculated ROI, but would preserve the layout's aesthetics as chosen by the user. The advertiser would still have their logo shown and their site linked to. I considered that an acceptable compromise.

However, after deliberation, it was decided that the web bug didn't violate the guideline, and furthermore, "expected as this data is used to by both the advertiser and by us, to monitor the success of the feature". The focus is on providing the advertiser data on their ad campaign--even though the paid users aren't supposed to be seeing advertising. In short, paid users are being used to increase the perceived ROI to advertisers of sponsored layouts. I'm glad that kimmi8 took the idea to be considered, however, and do appreciate her interaction.

As for mood themes, they currently don't seem to be tracked by any third parties, so they don't fall under the web bug banner. I'd imagine that the way to solve this would be to display the sponsored mood theme if you were on the person's journal...but paid users would have the option to use their chosen mood theme on their friends pages in place of sponsored mood themes, but not the mood themes of other users.

That's fair because it does not affect the viewing of the journal of the person who chose the mood theme, but it prevents paid users from having to make the choice between seeing sponsored mood themes on their friends pages or seeing only their own mood theme on their friends pages, which seemed to be the biggest concern.