Standup Zone Forum

Stand Up Paddle => SUP General => Topic started by: ninja tuna on July 10, 2018, 02:58:51 PM

Title: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: ninja tuna on July 10, 2018, 02:58:51 PM
guess they are desperate for money.  All the good breaks now need to be paid to look at.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: TallDude on July 10, 2018, 03:44:16 PM
They won't get it from me. I can walk 2 minutes down the street and see my break with my own two eyes. No internet connection required.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: Bean on July 10, 2018, 05:34:16 PM
Surfchex and surfersview has my local spots covered
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: Night Wing on July 10, 2018, 05:39:57 PM
I'm lucky I live in the state of Texas where we have lots of streaming webcams of the beaches which are free. The city of Galveston has lots of them as well as the Bolivar Peninsula. Ditto for north and south Padre Island.

Texas Surf Reports has just implemented a "pay to see the surf" webcams, but the webcams are of poor quality. But sometimes these people outsmart themselves. They don't cover all of their bases so to speak. As an example. The Bob Hall Pier at Corpus Christi is now "fee based". Click on the link blow to see what I mean.

http://texassurfreports.com/reports/bob-hall-pier-corpus-christi/

But they don't cover their bases well. Click on the link below of the same Bob Hall Pier from the same people. It loads a little slow, but it will load and it is free.

https://stream.webcams.travel/1486829163

Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: surfcowboy on July 10, 2018, 07:58:10 PM
Personally I subscribe to the radical idea of payfor valuable data.

Music took a hit when people stopped paying for it. SUP industry went south when the money dried up. So I can't hate on them for charging.

Special note to those that hate sites tracking you. They have to do that so they can serve you ads. If they aren't ad supported there's far less reason to track and keep your data. So paid is good if you value privacy.

You pay dearly  for those "free" services.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: JEG on July 10, 2018, 08:03:43 PM
Yup very annoying when they try and grab the money for the information you seek.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: PonoBill on July 10, 2018, 08:45:52 PM
B. I. (before the internet) people actually expected to pay much more for information that wasn't nearly as good. Now everyone expects things to be free--and then they bitch about ads.

I've been paying for surf lies for a relatively long time. It's worthwhile to me. Costs a tiny fraction of what I used to pay for newspaper subscriptions that had nearly nothing I considered relevant.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: SaMoSUP on July 10, 2018, 09:52:09 PM

….So paid is good if you value privacy....


Not necessarily. They still track you but with even more accuracy since it's a registered account. Yes as a paid member you get ad free streaming cams. However, they still serve you banner ads outside of the video player so there's still tracking unless you browse in incognito mode.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: surfcowboy on July 10, 2018, 11:01:50 PM
As a technology consultant and owner of a software company I know exactly what and how they are tracking. But my point is more about the lessened need for Surfline to become a data reseller, like FB and Google. Those companies make their money by serving you ads exclusively (for the most part.) They spend far less on data harvesting etc. It was never about friends or search.

If you wanna go deep, let's do it. But really, at a level appropriate for a surfing forum, this is the premise. Perhaps no one here is more aware of the tracking going on... I make my living with those companies (as do a few more folks on this forum who we won't mention.)

This isn't some secret cabal in a dark tower. It's just a bunch of guys trying to sell you stuff. You probably know a few of them.

Surfline is worth every penny in my useless opinion.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: Califoilia on July 11, 2018, 12:10:27 AM
I've been paying for surf lies for a relatively long time. It's worthwhile to me.
Yep, as do I, and worthwhile for myself also. Just I'd pay a subscription here at the SUZ so I wouldn't have to see all those f'n annoying changing flashing ads on that were always on the left side of my screen that are seizure inducing worthy.

I'm amazed that anyone would think that flashing "Hammer", "Jammer", "Stoke"....and someone else the same paddle, foil, guy on a surfboard...over, and over, and over again changing every 2 freakin' seconds 24/7/365 is going to get someone to jump right up to call in an order, instead of wanting to claw their eyes out, and speed read so they can scroll down the page to get that crap out of their eyes. But apparently is more worried about the ol' mighty dollar, than the stoke, and well-being of their fellow "friends" in their boards in water and on the board here.

JMO naturally, but because of it, won't ever buy from one, and won't buy again from the other as long as they feel their intrusiveness is what's really wanted, and enjoyed by any here...or at least not by one.

If there was a pay-to-view here to get rid of that garbage from my screen, I'd be way more than happy to pay it...dang nearly at any cost now, after having them flash in the corner of my eye the whole f'n time it took to write this.  :o >:(
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: Badger on July 11, 2018, 03:19:24 AM
I've never bothered with Surfline.

MSW, SwellInfo and Surf-Forecast.com are just as good and there are plenty of local cams where I am.

.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: SaMoSUP on July 11, 2018, 04:56:23 AM
Cowboy I've worked in ad tech and big media for 20 years so I also know exactly what and how they are tracking. I've been on the buy and sell side of the ad business and on both direct and programmatic channels. I've also partnered with the leading audience data providers (Experian, FB, Google, Oracle, Polk etc).

So no need to go deep here. We can talk shop when I see you out on the water sometime. Where have you been btw? Bring that foil to Sunset.

My point was to your statement about...paid is good if you value privacy. It sounds presumptive that if you have a paid subscription to a site then they don't track you because they don't serve you ads. Not necessarily true. Surfline receives revenue from subscriptions, ads, data. So there is definitely tracking going on even if you're a premium member. If not for the purpose of ad targeting then perhaps for site optimization.

Also keep in mind that the premium membership only suppresses the ads from the live streaming cams. I believe they still serve banner ads on other parts of the page whether premium or not. Even if there are no visible ads served there's likely a tracking pixel they use for analytics.


Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: jpeter on July 11, 2018, 01:24:24 PM
Happy to have less folks looking at the surfline cam at my local.  Not certain it has a huge affect, but having the cam sure doesn't make things less crowded.  I am not a member.   JP
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: surfcowboy on July 11, 2018, 06:55:08 PM
Oh sh$t Samo, one more thing to geek out about. ;)

Man, I've had a run of travel and health stuff that's kept me sporadically surfing. Also been hitting further north but yes, as soon as this thing it patched I'll bring it to the cove for sure.

And no illusions but I'm not as worried about sites tracking me as "platforms." Thanks for pressing me to clarify that as I hadn't articulated it that way. Surfline has my data, I get it. But I think there's less ability (and need) to obsessively gather data on a single subscriber based site, compared to what Facebook can do for instance. But I may be completely off base on that.

I'm also basing that on the fact that they took over a year to roll out a site redesign on a site that's basically a home page and a two other template pages so I guess I don't fear their data mining skills as much. 🤣😂🤣
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: OUTSIDEWAVE on July 20, 2018, 03:22:37 PM
like bill said before the internet.... proably most of here   remember  deciding "to go for  it " with no ide of th econditions.   sometimes it was victory at sea  some times it was good but  that anticipatory  feeling of coming round the bend  to see the surf !!!!
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: SUPcheat on July 20, 2018, 03:45:35 PM
Problem is, the forecasts and the cams have a mismatch at least half the time.  Seeing what is going on is, sadly, so much better.

I also listen to music while watching the cams full screen, very relaxing, so there's the atmosphere to consider.

Also, if i meander up the coast, I can sometimes narcissistically gaze at myself flubbing and diddling around on the camera re-run.  When I don't wear my impact vest, I don't look so much like Mr. Potatoehead with a paddle.

Of course, if you have one of those buddies that walk to Privates or PP or 41st Street and carpet-bomb e-mail their buddies on their cell phones after checking things out, you are in luck.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: SUPcheat on July 21, 2018, 11:28:35 AM
Like today.  Waves, finally, after months of flats and slushers seemingly forever.


BUT, it's also Yahoos-ville with the fleas everywhere and body counts increasing.  Can't see that on a surf report.

I might go to the gym instead today rather than get run down, or play dodge if I can even get a wave.
Title: Re: Surfline making everything premium now.
Post by: Badger on July 21, 2018, 01:16:21 PM
That is a crazy amount of kelp outside. I'm glad we don't have that on the east coast.

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