IconBuffet | Free Icons, Stock Icons, Custom Icon Design

aaroncampbell on May 18, 2007

Nice. The Deck definitely has an impressive list of clients.

tamashii on May 18, 2007

I was wondering how long it would be before IB was part of The Deck. Way to go!

Winnopeg on May 18, 2007

I literally dropped my phone when I saw the new ads. Congrats!

Novak on May 18, 2007

Will VIPs have to see the deck? One of the pros I was paying for was not seeing the Google ads...

fuseunderground on May 18, 2007

I think it's a cool network, and the adverts are relevant to most people here, but do we have to have them on the profile page? I'm just not enjoying that intrusion. everywhere else is fine with me though.

josh on May 18, 2007

Part of our deal with the Deck is that we'll run the ads on all of our pages — a potential downside for those who prefer an ad-free setup. The upside is that I think we'll all agree that these ads are a million times better looking than Adsense blocks.

Side thought: Deals like these allow us to spend even more time creating free delivery icons. We haven't worked ourselves out of client work yet, but we're on our way. Stuff like this helps us pay the bills. And we'll do our best to keep it as unobtrusive and natural as possible.

anti on May 18, 2007

Hopefully they are still working on it. For me, it is superimposed right over my friends.

brandy on May 18, 2007

Is that why there's a gray box that says "Ads via the Deck" strangely overlapping the "Get updates with RSS" box while I read this very blog? :P

josh on May 18, 2007

Yep, we're still working to iron out the kinks. Thanks for bearing with us.

Novak on May 18, 2007

I think we all realize ads are a necessary evil when you're running a free service this popular. I'll try not whining about the placement too much...but it is kind of annoying right there under the badges. IMHO, right about the points (or vip or chef badge) on the profile page would be a better location. (Similar to where it is on the posts...not so annoying there.)

Luckybeitia on May 18, 2007

Funny I just saw this. Blinksale anyone? =D

josh on May 18, 2007

@Novak — Yep, you're right. We're gonna move some things around to make it purdier. Give us a few minutes to grab some lunch (I'm starving), then we'll get it fixed for ya!

Shalla on May 18, 2007

Very nice. The Deck is one of the great ad things on the 'net. I'm actually interested in their ads :)

Hoshichan on May 18, 2007

Kick butt, just saw you in the list!! Congratulations, that's a GREAT ad network, one to be proud to belong to. :D

wotan on May 18, 2007

Congratulations for a place on the Olymp :-)

daveamun on May 18, 2007

@Josh: Is Friday really the right day to introduce something new? Are the wives/girlfriends gonna be able to get you away from your computers this weekend? ;-}

Hoshichan on May 18, 2007

(daveamun has a good point. Poor IB Chefs. ;)

josh on May 18, 2007

@daveamun — we take our risks. I have to make a trip to IKEA tomorrow. If the site goes down, and I get lost in Scandinavian Furnitureville, that might spell THE END for IconBuffet.

justG on May 18, 2007

I've never seen such positive community response to the addition of ads. This is going to make me re-think renewing VIP next month. Like Novak initially said, I am paying to not see ads. First I took issue with Authentic Jobs being a "value-added service" instead of "advertising" and IB said no, sorry, we meant no Google ads. Okay, fine. But now the Google ads are gone for everyone, and nothing about the new ads can cause them to be mistaken for anything but straight-forward advertising. I can appreciate that this helps you pay your bills, but really, you should've considered your VIPs and excluded them when you made your deal.

My opinion's probably pretty unpopular, and that's okay. It might change, depending on the ads' presentation, and that's okay too. I still think that I get $6/mo. worth of entertainment and pixels and community from this site, so I'm not saying for sure that you've lost a subscriber, just that this new development gives me pause. Hope y'don't mind my saying so.

josh on May 18, 2007

@justG — I totally and completely understand your sentiments. I figured we'd probably catch some flak for this. It is definitely something we weighed, and it's something we'll have to live with for a while at least.

While I've never really made a huge deal about this publicly, a large part about us building out the IconBuffet community is an attempt for us to work less and less on "stoic" corporate jobs (no offense to our clients), and more on fun, exciting, and even random work like what you see here at IconBuffet.

Your willingness to embrace this idea and support it is allowing us to spend more (not all, but more) time improving and developing this community. And we love that. Hopefully you all are loving it as well. And we love our VIPs to death for your support.

Part of our deal with The Deck is also that we won't run advertisements apart from their platform. So I think it's safe to say you've seen the extent of what's going to get added here. And the extra income it provides allows us to continue to grow the site and add more icons at a faster pace. We hope that it's a win-win for everyone.

All that said, we are listening. We don't want to rub our favorite people wrong. There is definitely a fine balance: We need to nurture you, our friends — and yet still make enough cash so that IconBuffet doesn't find itself dead on the vine in a year. I think we'd all agree that would be the worst thing that could happen.

Anyhow, thanks for sharing. We appreciate it.

justG on May 18, 2007

Hey josh, thanks so much for the thoughtful (and prompt) response. You've adequately addressed my concerns, renewed my faith in your collective integrity, and removed whatever doubt I had about my upcoming VIP renewal. Cheers!

fuseunderground on May 18, 2007

Thanks for the comments Josh, Have the adverts disappeared from 'our icons' pages? because there is not currently one on mine when I look at it.

KatieK on May 18, 2007

@Josh - Are you mad? Don't go to Ikea on a Saturday! You'll never come back.

taral on May 18, 2007

Right now, they're really obnoxiously placed due to some positioning problems. Tell me when that's fixed and I'll take another look at them. In the mean time: document.getElementById("thedeck").setAttribute("style", "display:none");

josh on May 18, 2007

taral - can you link up a screenshot for us? And yes, the ads are not appearing on your own profile page at this time.

zelda013 on May 18, 2007

that's some fine company to be keeping.

gswd on May 18, 2007

Much like justG, I had a problem when the Authentic Jobs listings were posted. But, I accepted the explanation then, and figured, well, if it will help me find work in the field that I am trying to break into, then maybe it is worth it, because then I may be able to use even more of the Chef's fine work, including those expensive sets I cannot afford "just for the heck of it, or for an unpaid job".

I have never heard of "the Deck" until today. So far, I have not seen an Ad that pertains to me. Maybe I am not one of the Kewl Kids, that I thought I was in this community. Maybe I am the grumpy old man shaking his cane and yelling "GET OFF MY LAWN YOU RUFFIANS!"

I can understand that there is no truly "free" lunch, or even an Ice Cream Social. I want to design websites and make the web a better, and better looking, place. But, for now, I take pictures of objects, cut those objects out of the pictures, color correct, enhance, edit, and format those said pictures for the catalog of an ecommerce website. Twice monthly I get to edit a small flash file using the very same pictures that I have taken, and update the index page code to reflect the changes advertising that they have made (they advertise their own products, so no conflict there). In exchange for my 40 hours, they give me money. Not much, but still money that I spend on things like 21" wide screen monitors, emergency generators, and design software (when I can get a good deal).

Unlike justG, I paid for a year in advance, so unless I wanted to really whine about "changing my contract without approval", I would not have the same option of 'not renewing next month'. I do not know what the sales level is like on the stock icons, but I always thought that those, as well as the "lots of moolah" Firewheel projects were what kept the Buffet open. Our VIP money was just a little something extra, and maybe covered the cost of the discount given for purchased sets.

I don't like advertising, although I do wish I had thought of the Million Pixel Page. I DVR my TV shows, and scan through the commercials. I know that you have to advertise to get people to visit your website, and sometimes that comes with a price.

Now, that I have rambled on about how much I hate advertising, here is an idea of how to make it work for us, the rank and file. I assume that there is an IB ad in the cycle at the Deck. How about any new IB member generated by that advertising is assigned to a VIP member as a referral.

Ok, I guess my ramble/vent is over, for now. (man I hate getting worked up over "fun" stuff)

whoisgregg on May 18, 2007

Hey, we all need to eat. The Deck has to provide something slightly above ramen noodle type meals to the Chefs and that's A-OK with me.

<q>I assume that there is an IB ad in the cycle at the Deck.</q>

The Deck isn't a link network, it's a bona fide advertising network. You'll find there is little (if any) overlap between advertisers and publishers. (I suspect it would cost a publisher more than their "cut" to be one of the advertisers considering the setup at The Deck.)

gswd on May 18, 2007

Well, that kills my idea I guess.

tonyrayo on May 18, 2007

I wanted to congrads you guys for being placed along sites like "A List Apart", not that you don't deserve it. If you ever upgrade from Dreamhost to a dedicated server (I assume you are still using a DH account) and need a Linux/Windows (sorry, I have Mac experience but I am not a certified administrator) sysadmin or someone to help with setup, improved performance, 24hour care, etc please let me know. I'd gladly offer my services for free as you guys have already saved me so much work for next to nothing!

Stinkerbell on May 18, 2007

I'm going to try this post again, I think I botched my last attempt....

I am new around here, and I love the free icons we are able to share with each other. I am not going to complain about ads. I know enought about trying to earn adequate money doing what we love, instead of what we have to do, to appreciate what you are working to attain. So, I'm 100% behind you!

The site is awesome and I don't mind seeing these ads. Besides I'm also glad to learn about the Deck, didn't know about them before.

So, my word for the day, week, year, eternity....is gratitude!

Winnopeg on May 19, 2007

I no longer see them on my profile page?

tonyrayo on May 19, 2007

You are correct winnopeg. I believe this is temp. though as they fix some CSS issues because Josh said there was a requirement that the ads be shown on each page of the website.

MiCCAS on May 19, 2007

Good luck!

josh on May 19, 2007

tonyrayo — haha, we actually don't use Dreamhost. We have a colo rack with our own machines here in Dallas. DH just pays out great commissions. We couldn't resist! ; )

tonyrayo on May 19, 2007

lol, gotcha Josh. Hmm Dallas, my first guess was you were using ThePlanet (just because they are probably the biggest host in the area) as a host but it looks like you are hosting with CI Host (which I personally don't like but I've only had one experience with them and the client was the real problem anyway, paging us at 3am... wow talking about using a pager makes me sound so old x.x). They were also using Cogent exclusively at the time at lying about it, but it seems that Dallas is at least linked with Savvis.

Also I'm still willing to help you guys optimize/code/etc if/when the time comes when you could use an intern (although you should really have an open résumé call; I still think I'd make it =).

P.S. - I just found this website for you guys. I really think you should consider it - http://www.colo4dallas.com - They come highly recommended from my web design friends in Texas and they own their own center as well. They probably are not as cheap as CI Host, but I think they still worth looking over.

iconmaster on May 19, 2007

The Veer ads add an interesting twist to the site. Look, a woman in curlers!

justG on May 19, 2007

Yeah.. the one I'm seeing right now looks like either Eddie Izzard or Boy George. Interesting.

tonyrayo on May 20, 2007

http://coudal.com/deck/now.php <= "It's no wonder (she) is number one!". Also did you have any opinion on moving servers John (sorry I am out of it and forgot to put a click-able link in the first time, http://www.colo4dallas.com)? I know the idea is over-whelming but I think this would solve the problems people have accessing the site sometimes and it might end up being cheaper in the long run, I couldn't say because I don't have access to your server info. Personally I don't mind what happens as long as you guys stay in business and keep happy (once work starts getting to be a chore, trouble follows... that's how I lost my last job, technically I was laid off when WI Media merged into a larger company).

BTW, if I create my own icon set, would you consider putting it up on the site? I know it would have to be REALLY excellent but I received a copy of CS3 Design from a local design college/studio of some type (don't know a lot about them) for winning a mixed-media creative award and I kind of have something to prove to myself (aka I can make icons that don't suck).

I used foam and Sculpey with some simple electronics that gave it some interactivity. The top 3 winners (aka the people that got money and software) weren't as cool IMO, but I am not "down" with the art community apparently o.0.

justG on May 20, 2007

@ tonyrayo: Afaik, IB hasn't had any server trouble. All the slowdowns and errors that we've seen have resulted from code glitches, and they've sorted them in short order. Changing servers won't positively affect that; instead, messing with a stable environment tends to adversely affect server-side code.

Also, the Chefs have stated elsewhere that right now they're not reviewing anyone else's work for IB, but that making user-submitted icons available in the future is not completely out of the question.

Hope that helps.

Finah on May 21, 2007

Okay, i'm proally a big dork.. but i kinda like the ads... and i'm very happy the google ones have gone by-bye. :^D