the new nats

Some people scream they hate v4, some people scream they hate v3.

4.1 should please everyone. We've offered numerous opportunities to see it & give feedback. You haven't taken any of them. Yet, you want to create a thread saying how you don't like it. Perhaps constructive feedback would help rather than useless non-sense threads.

p.s. congrats on using almost all of the emoticons in one post

its not bullshit its my opinion. why you have a sidebar to export and then the main export is beyond me.

I never said it was bullshit.

And yes, there are some rather annoying elements to the UI in NATS4. We've been working on this for a while and have asked for feedback, testing, and thoughts from the affiliate community for a while also. We're all for constructive feedback. You'd help yourself much more by offering your thoughts in a helpful manner. You can't say we haven't given the opportunity.

Which programs are using nats4?

i think the export needs to be more inline with the old version easy to get the links and banners etc..

the nats4 templates I have seen look way way cleaner.

I think they finally worked out how to use external css lol

If you'd like to get an early look at it, you're more than welcome to, e-mail me, albright/toomuchmedia/com

Thanks!

Looking cleaner is much more important than functionality and ease of use. External CSS is the last thing I look for when I'm looking for promo materials. A plain text file is better.

With Nats3 I click Promo - Galleries and get a list of galleries.

With Nats4 I click click click click clickedy click click click and get - maybe - the CSV file I want. I don't want good looking shit - I want to click one link and get a complete list of all of your promo. Boom! One click - there it is.

Using Duke Dollars as a NATS3 example:
DDv2 -> Marketing Tools -> Modify Program -> BAM!

There's a list of everything I need. I need to create a custom CSV file? Its right there on the same page. Takes me a few seconds to get all galleries from all sites. Do I want to download content? Its right there. I just click on "Content" and DD lists everything with a title, description, and a cute little thumbnail. Banners? FLVs? Free hosted sites? All on the same page. Wow...

If DD is using NATS4, they're using the NATS3 template. Click... Click... Everything you need.

Using Homegrown Video as a NATS4 example:
HGV -> Doesn't remember my login details (No NATS4 sites do - maybe just me), so I type them in -> HGV Internal.php -> Tools -> Hosted -> Pic. -> Then I get to play with the sidebars and set all kinds of shit up. Let's see...

Encoded links -> revshare-> default campaign -> choose tour
Set as default - check!
Limit Linkcodes

Oh, wait.... Another sidebar...

"Limitations" now, is it?

View - Dump
Order - Date Added
Published - FUCK ME!
Name - FUCK OFF!
URL - WTF?
Type - Pictures
#Pics/Clips - OH FUCK ME PLEASE!!!!
Description - Just fucking fuck, already.

So I hit "Submit"

Cool! FOUR FUCKING GALLERIES! Ok, now I still have to set my CSV perimeters.

Seperator "|" -> url -> type -> oh crap, I quit! - Create dump FINALLY!

I just spent 30 minutes creating a 4 gallery CSV file.

In what parallel universe is NATS4 more efficient than even a pencil?

You can soon rejoice that all of that is no more with 4.1

I'm happier day by day with my experience on 4.1 so far...

I have a question/suggestion about NATS 4.1

I love it when programs have some kind of FLV exporter that is similar to the FHG tool. I host clips myself, but I'm sure a lot of affiliates also like the tool where they can get embed codes. As far as I know, programs have been writing various add-on's or something. Is there a way to put this as a new integrated tool?

Another thing is Flash banners. I've never understood the Flash banners section of NATS and cannot think of a program that uses it as is. I like the way Jugg Cash does their Flash banners in their affiliate admin. The banners that have videos playing in them convert best for me and I'm convinced more programs will offer them if it's an easy and standard feature in NATS. So much better than shitty static or animated gifs of old.

edit: plus it's a huge pain in the ass to have to ask sponsors to custom prepare those flash banners for me when all they usually do is switch out the code and email me the files ... would be cool if I could just download myself with the proper tracking codes within or even get an iframe code if the program is cool with hosting of the banner depending on their preference.

Will these features be in 4.1? If not, can you make them be?

Thank God. I always fuck-up with grabbing galleries and it's always a fuck up that requires me to start over and I can never remember what I did or what I have to do (I know, lame of me, but lame of NATS too ).

Galleries in 3 were so much easier. Glad you're simplifying again.

oh ... YEAH !!! exactly what i feel like when exporting in nats4 ... its donkey balls

i see im not the only one.

nats 1 was fine.

So NATS 4.1 is going to bring back some of the ease of use of 3? Ah, ok...

More to the point, the NATS 4 saga illustrates well why some companies strive to write and maintain much of their software in-house .... to avoid the seemingly endless cycle of upgrading (software companies don't make money from perfection; if it works too well, expect it "improved" in an upgrade ) that often breaks things and/or severely disturbs work-flow.

Perhaps NATS 4 brings a lot of new, important functionality that 3 didn't have, and yet somehow I doubt that. Affiliate / billing tracking hasn't changed that much in years.

Ron

You'll find much of what you are mentioning here in 4.1. Hopefully it will cover all of what you are asking, but if you want to be sure it fits what you have in mind you're more than welcome to get an early look at it. Just shoot me an e-mail. I'd love your feedback on it.

Considering we don't charge for upgrades (all that is required is that the client has active support), your point is kind of moot.

Also, it should be noted that the thread starter's comments are regarding NATS 4, which is several years old at this point, not the "new NATS" which is NATS 4.1 and not yet released.

Emphasis mine ... so in a round about way your company is charging for upgrades by requiring "active support" - or do all current and past purchases come with "active support" for life? If the answer is no, then my point is still valid!

Ron

Agree with the guys about gallery exporting.. I hope it will be simplified in 4.1

Also what I hate the most, that you've put new campaign creation under "My account" link.. At least put shortcut "Create new campaign" like in Nat3 version..

You'll find this much easier to access in general. Plus, you'll be able to create new campaigns while getting your link codes, etc. if you'd like.

If you're interested in giving it a peek, shoot me a quick e-mail and I'll get you setup. Thanks!

The vast majority of NATS clients are on a monthly license which always includes support & upgrades. Our one time license fee includes support & upgrades for a year and then we offer a yearly support contract which nearly all if not all one time license fee clients have.

Your point is still invalid. You implied that we update the software in order to charge for the upgrades & continue to make money. I don't recall ever charging only for an upgrade (I may be being forgetful of course), so that is certainly not the case.

I Still like NATS 3, NATS 4 had much better stats, but the side bar limitations was a bit a PIA, and my #1 complaint as an affiliate was that I had to keep going back to the home page to create a new campaign instead of being able to do it from the create a link section.


I plan on upgrading to 4.1 if it's as good as the hype though, just hope I can figure out how to get all my custom nats 3.x tools ported and working into 4.1 not to mention the Gallery builder plugin so I don't have to re-enter all my galleries.

Why would companies need to buy monthly support for an unchanging product? They presumably wouldn't unless the software kept changing - hence the constant upgrades.

Also, if upgrades are truly free, then why require the purchase of active support to get them?

Don't get me wrong, NATS has a good reputation and probably is priced right for most who use it, but to somehow portray your software company as not profiting off the constant upgrade cycle seems disingenuous to me.

Ron

I think if you knew more about us you'd feel otherwise (about the upgrades, not the good reputation! LOL)

We do a tremendous amount of support for our clients on an on going basis covering all kinds of issues & areas. They are always changing things, who they work with, how they do things, exploring & tweaking new areas of the software, etc. and we constantly help them along the way. Of course, we're also always improving the software and adding to it. It's just that "let's make some upgrades to get some more money" isn't a part of our business model as I feel you implied.

I'm not saying that there aren't software companies who do that, I'm simply saying we don't.

It sounds like some of the concerns we've had with NATS4 might be eliminated in 4.1.

I am glad to hear that.

We just need to wait until Monday to have the upgrade done. TMM's policy does not permit upgrades to be done on Fridays------as we just discovered this past Friday when we inquired about getting the update.

Looking forward to experiencing the improvements in 4.1 for us and all of our affiliates.

Does NATS v4.1 contain a better template system? It's a pain in the ass updating things from the web browser, instead of just being able to upload them via FTP / sFTP.

I like both NATS but NATS4 have the details at links that simply rocks! A good way to find out if the nats code belongs to you.

the thread starter did i anger you?

No, you didn't. Sorry to disappoint