Hey Meh powers that be… Please stop trying to market t-shirts to me on the basis of poll answers. It is not appreciated. I opted out of marketing emails from Mediocritee, and I really do not want to opt out of the ones from Meh since I enjoy the daily Meh mails, but every time you send me ads in my email about t-shirts on Mediocritee because of something I answered in the polls, it makes me want to unsubscribe from all mailings since you don’t seem to offer a granular setting for this and I DO NOT WANT T-SHIRT ADS. The whole thing also makes me regret interacting with the polls.
Please cease.
@curtise Maybe it bothers me more than it should, but YES, I second the above emotions.
In this evening’s email:
Because you answered our February 13th 2022 poll:
Would you say you are more artistic or scienctific?
Artistic
Scientific
Neither (tell us more in the comments, please)
WE THINK
YOU’LL LOVE THIS!
@curtise@phendrick At first I found it rather creepy that they keep my poll answers for so long but then decided they are just more up front about what other companies are doing behind the scenes.
An opt out would be nice.
@callow The poll answers are kept forever, but it used to only be used so that you could go back to past polls for past deals and see what you voted for. It’s only recently that they started mining the Meh polls for ways to push shirts.
I can respect trying to cook up new ways to sell us stuff, but it kind of feels like Mercatalyst isn’t paying Meh as much attention anymore except as a data source.
@callow@curtise Meh can be creepy; other online sites can be even more creepy and intrusive. Though, I was disappointed to see that Meh/Mercatalyst had joined the network of shared trackers that show up everywhere nowadays, including on supposed “info” sites.
Wikipedia is not without its problems, but I support their non-ad model. I also tend to subscribe (pay) to other sites that are reasonably priced compared to their value, as perceived by me, unless they belong to the growing group who just tend to rub me wrong.
I assume that the subscriptions get these sites more revenue than their ads do (which is why they offer them), so I am sometimes surprised at how relatively low some of them set their prices at. I’ve never sold ads (heh), so have no realistic idea of what their revenue stream generated by a single user can add up to.
OTOH, many sites just price themselves out of my interest. Especially if I have low usage there. Maybe they should consider narrower tiers for the amount of usage you get versus your subscription plan. One such example is USA Today. I’d love to have extended access to their crosswords, but that is not worth $6 or so monthly to me, as compared to the free daily puzzles I can get there. And I don’t have much use for them other than their puzzles (which I don’t always have time for, anyway). IMO there are much better other sites for news/sports and I am not particularly a celebrity watcher (e.g., after my local news I can leave my TV channel set and watch Entertainment Tonight or click one over and watch Wheel of Fortune. 95% of the time, I switch, even though that is not nearly so mindless and interferes with my chores, such as meal prep.)
Octopi object to having their tentacles used as yarn for knitting, and they’re better suited to being used for a macrame project anyway. And socks knitted from octopi would bite your feet. So it’s definitely “Read with a dragon.”
And this is a photo of a favorite sweatshirt that gets me strange looks:
And yes, it is the sweatshirt that gets the strange looks. My story. Sticking.
Smoking that stuff again, eh Meh?
Buy an Irk plushie, Yes. Yes I would!
Knit with an octopus… I can get a cool custom-knitted garment, then make takoyaki later.
Hey Meh powers that be… Please stop trying to market t-shirts to me on the basis of poll answers. It is not appreciated. I opted out of marketing emails from Mediocritee, and I really do not want to opt out of the ones from Meh since I enjoy the daily Meh mails, but every time you send me ads in my email about t-shirts on Mediocritee because of something I answered in the polls, it makes me want to unsubscribe from all mailings since you don’t seem to offer a granular setting for this and I DO NOT WANT T-SHIRT ADS. The whole thing also makes me regret interacting with the polls.
Please cease.
@curtise Maybe it bothers me more than it should, but YES, I second the above emotions.
In this evening’s email:
@curtise @phendrick At first I found it rather creepy that they keep my poll answers for so long but then decided they are just more up front about what other companies are doing behind the scenes.
An opt out would be nice.
@callow The poll answers are kept forever, but it used to only be used so that you could go back to past polls for past deals and see what you voted for. It’s only recently that they started mining the Meh polls for ways to push shirts.
I can respect trying to cook up new ways to sell us stuff, but it kind of feels like Mercatalyst isn’t paying Meh as much attention anymore except as a data source.
@callow @curtise Meh can be creepy; other online sites can be even more creepy and intrusive. Though, I was disappointed to see that Meh/Mercatalyst had joined the network of shared trackers that show up everywhere nowadays, including on supposed “info” sites.
Wikipedia is not without its problems, but I support their non-ad model. I also tend to subscribe (pay) to other sites that are reasonably priced compared to their value, as perceived by me, unless they belong to the growing group who just tend to rub me wrong.
I assume that the subscriptions get these sites more revenue than their ads do (which is why they offer them), so I am sometimes surprised at how relatively low some of them set their prices at. I’ve never sold ads (heh), so have no realistic idea of what their revenue stream generated by a single user can add up to.
OTOH, many sites just price themselves out of my interest. Especially if I have low usage there. Maybe they should consider narrower tiers for the amount of usage you get versus your subscription plan. One such example is USA Today. I’d love to have extended access to their crosswords, but that is not worth $6 or so monthly to me, as compared to the free daily puzzles I can get there. And I don’t have much use for them other than their puzzles (which I don’t always have time for, anyway). IMO there are much better other sites for news/sports and I am not particularly a celebrity watcher (e.g., after my local news I can leave my TV channel set and watch Entertainment Tonight or click one over and watch Wheel of Fortune. 95% of the time, I switch, even though that is not nearly so mindless and interferes with my chores, such as meal prep.)
@callow @lljk Apparently, forum posts are also kept “forever”.
@curtise Absolutely 1,000 percent agree.
@lljk @phendrick I expect forum posts to last forever.
I don’t want to get emails promoting the teeshirts this survey is based on, so I’m not going to say! So there!
Dragon – no contest
And he loves coffee too
/image coffeedragon
wha?
Dance with an elephant
I’d rather make ramen with SPAM.
Sing with a rhino
Octopi object to having their tentacles used as yarn for knitting, and they’re better suited to being used for a macrame project anyway. And socks knitted from octopi would bite your feet. So it’s definitely “Read with a dragon.”
Laugh with a giraffe
And this is a photo of a favorite sweatshirt that gets me strange looks:
And yes, it is the sweatshirt that gets the strange looks. My story. Sticking.
I have read with a dragon before…so, that one.