I have been wondering for quite some time why the 'Referral Ad by Google' appearing almost without exception at the top right of this forum is "Bharat Matrimony: Looking For A Life Partner Who Works In The Same Company As Yours?" rather than being anything even remotely associated with software. Is it just on my browser? Am I living in a minute bubble of the broader OutlinerSoftware universe?

There may be no rational answer, I just thought I'd share my bewilderment.

alx

P.S. I have actually thought of an answer: that members of this forum have been psychographically qualified as grumpy antisocial people who would probably be at loss to talk about anything other than their job and to anyone other than a colleague from their own workplace.

I hate to be the one to tell you this, Alexander, but I suspect you may be the only one seeing that ad. At least, I don't recall ever seeing it when I've been logged in. Right now the referral ad I'm seeing is for Small Business Software Demos.

I like your grumpy, antisocial theory (until recently I was a confirmed bachelor, but I just became engaged at age 51), but it doesn't look like it is the case. Perhaps the ads are chosen by region.

I do laugh sometimes at the google ads that appear. I think whenever we talk about ECCO Pro the ads are for a brand of environmentally friendly footware or something.

Steve Z.

"but I just became engaged at age 51"

Congratulations Stephen!

Thank you, Francis!

Steve

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

... until recently I was a confirmed bachelor, but I just became engaged at age 51 ...

=================================================================

Perhaps I should post some guidelines for maintaining a happy marriage? It's worked for me (39+ years).

-c

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

I like your
grumpy, antisocial theory (until recently I was a confirmed bachelor, but I just
became engaged at age 51)...

Yes, many congratulations, Stephen.

I'm at a loss to talk about anything other than my work and productivity software. And only to people in my company ie myself. And occasionally to the far-flung souls here.

My interest in productivity software has absolutely nothing to do with my girlfriend breaking up with me...

In jest, though I think I did sign up here just after breaking up... Seeking order in a disordered world, perhaps.

Since we're well OT now: this just occurred to me (nb I'm absolutely not looking for a software obsessed "life partner": are there any female OutlinerSoftware lurkers out there? Why are all the active forum participants, as far as I can tell, male?

One other thing. I don't see any ads: I use Firefox with the Adblock extension. So, Alex, Bharat Matrimony is a revelation. Hmm - who gets the ad revenue? Just asking...

Ike

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

until recently I was a confirmed bachelor, but I just became engaged at age 51

Congratulations and all the best for your new life!!!

I do laugh sometimes at the google ads that appear. I think
whenever we talk about ECCO Pro the ads are for a brand of environmentally friendly
footware or something.

They are great shoes by the way :-) I bought a pair a couple of years ago in Holland and then spent the rest of the week walking up and down the Hague. I think they are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn.

Nevertheless, I have never seen an advert for them in this forum.

alx

P.S. On the other hand, the google algorithm seems to be responding (somehow): in this irrelevant thread, I just got an ad for business software.

Ike Washington wrote:

In jest, though I think I did sign up here just after breaking up...
Seeking order in a disordered world, perhaps.

I think that this quest has been behind anything I've ever been involved in, from Greenpeace to my marriage, including software. The way I've tried most of the information managers I've ever downloaded has been to build a model of my main life themes. The only one that even remotely satisfied me was Brainstorm, with its unlimited levels and ability to link multiple items in the most distant areas possible through its 'namesakes'.

Brainstorm failed me on the visual level, but it did help enormously with my focus, as one can see only one level at a time. On the other hand, something like Personal Brain or Connected Text could show just about anything visually, but woud terrorise me through its complexity when I chose to actually deal with it!

Not so off-topic after all, this thread.

alx

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Ike Washington wrote:
>In jest, though I think I did sign up here just after breaking
up...
>Seeking order in a disordered world, perhaps.

I think that this quest has
been behind anything I've ever been involved in...

Trying to trace the patterns in the data we accumulate... even if there isn't a pattern. Human condition and all that. Yes, I suppose that's pretty much what I've been trying to do. Useful sometimes to consider the wider context within which our software palaver goes on.

Ike

I stand corrected. The Bahrat Matriomony ad DID appear just now.

Thanks for the good wishes on my upcoming marriage. I'm not sure this event will bring order to my life -- at the moment it is bringing chaos, with the planning for combining two households into one (fortunately, her children are both adults), and dealing with putting an addition on my cottage to accomodate the two of us. When things feel a bit two overwhelming, I've gone to my newest software, Xmind, to try to regain control. And with some success.

Steve Z.

yes, congratulations Stephen!

Ike Washington wrote:

..... are there any female
OutlinerSoftware lurkers out there? Why are all the active forum participants, as
far as I can tell, male?

well Ike, you caught me - I admit to being a female lurker. I enjoy reading all your posts, picking up tips and hints and recognizing the odd name from other forums (zoot, ultra recall, etc.).

Why don't I post? Hard to say, I am not only female, but also from europe and I often wish I could use language in the same spirit of easy camaraderie as it is used in these forums. And besides, you guys have things well under control - when I feel compelled to say something (f.i. "must stick up for the females") then I will/do.

Hope that clears things up ;-)

Susanne

Susanne wrote:

yes, congratulations Stephen!

Susanne,

Thank you for the congratulations, and also thank you for saying hi. I'm glad that there are some women who are also interested in this topic. I've often wondered what it means -- if it means anything -- that this is such a male dominated forum. Probably a subject for a sociologist.

Steve Z.

I'll add my congratulations as well Stephen !

Susanne: your English usage is way better than mine

Back to the ads: I lost most of my knowhow in the field during years of not using the google services, but my guess is that a] the ads on the left side are relevant, as there are enough advertisers for this particular area and they are regular ads (pay per click).
The ads in the right top are set to be referral ads. Most advertisers use pay per click, only small number uses referral ads. Thus there are no relevant referral ads to server in the top right part, and Google chooses nearest match (like I see just now, titled "Software") or some kind of general ad that is known to work independently of the topic of the site (matrimony/dating). The only trouble is that it seems that Google isn't able to match geographically in this case. Or we are getting lots of lurkers from India :)

When I have Proxomitron turned on, I see no ads at all in this forum! :D

Susanne wrote:

Why don't I
post? Hard to say, I am not only female, but also from europe and I often wish I could use
language in the same spirit of easy camaraderie as it is used in these forums. And
besides, you guys have things well under control - when I feel compelled to say
something (f.i. "must stick up for the females") then I will/do.

Susanne, do keep on posting. And all you other lurkers out there too...

Thinking out loud in this off-topic thread...

It's fascinating to see how forums develop, the ways in which OutlinersSoftware is different from, say, DonationCoder. Different types taking part, different concerns, issues, budgets.

Always good for the health of a community to break down sameness to some extent. For example, I found the recent Mac posts informative, made me think again about whether I should stick with my PC software.

Don't want to make too big a deal of this - I'm not trolling here, but it's always good to be aware of the dangers of a "common sense" understanding arising as those with a shared background (in our case, I'd guess male, PC, N American, European etc...) gain the momentum to talk loudest and perhaps dominate the agenda.

True too for developers: the greater their diversity, the greater the choice for us. Imagine a software world with just Microsoft...

Ike