I understand the need for ads, particularly at the level this site is now operating. I thank you for keeping them off for as long as you could, but now they're necessary to keep the site running.
It seems though that they were almost haphazardly inserted into the site, like the site was designed not to have ads (curvy edges and integrated pieces) and then ads were arbitrarily stuck in, breaking up the flow of the site.
Have you considered doing a little more work, Fred, to have the ads fit into the design of the site?
my first thought when i saw the FM site this morning was "F**k FM got hacked!!" i had just woken up..turned the computer on and hit F5 on fredmiranda.com
trust me..i was not fully awake but the banner woke me up.
Fred, clearly we all hate them, but you have my support (choke!). Work the advertisers on the color, size and placement location. The one in Landscape is HUGE.
Fred, as a long time reader and a webmaster of sorts myself, I really understand this, and super surprised that it was not done sooner. The people make this community, not the ads, just remember that.
Ever thought of having a donate option? On one of my forums, the first year we moved to dedicated hosting, we did a fund raiser of sorts (fairly small community, big server costs), and we raised it within 30 days.
I bet there would be many people that would donate regularly here, I know I would.
MSC wrote:
I would certainly be willing to pay more to avoid ads. Not sure how many would tho. Many would say the will pay more but not actually do it, so the population could decrease a lot.
Ok, so I'd never noticed this option before... I've said before that I would so I will do so ASAP, maybe if this option were listed on the main forums page or the home page it would get some more activity.
Fred has stated many times that he is opposed to a subscription board. I understand that and agree. However, that doesn't pay the bills...
I, like many others, have blocked the ads. While that accomplishes what I want, it doesn't help with the core issue. So, for those of you wanting to block the ads and if you aren't an image upload subscriber it's time to pony up.
Thanks for explaining Fred.. well, there's really nothing that needs to be explained. I imagine running a site with 150 000 Canon 5D rumour threads... err... 150 000 users must take a lot of cash out of your pockets and I'm surprised we had this forum ad free for such a long time. I'm sure we'll get used to the ads eventually. Thanks again and keep up the good work you're doing for all of us.
Personally I dont like them, or the fact that many of us have spent our own money to support this site and pay to have buy/sell or upload priveledges and now have to deal with ads. IMHO if we now have to deal with ads, the buy/sell option should go back to free. Fred I understand it may be expensive but you are being supported by many of your members and asking them to deal with ads is just crazy. Turn them off for members who are supporting your site please.
Mark Alexander wrote:
Ok, so I'd never noticed this option before... I've said before that I would so I will do so ASAP, maybe if this option were listed on the main forums page or the home page it would get some more activity.
Fred has stated many times that he is opposed to a subscription board. I understand that and agree. However, that doesn't pay the bills...
I, like many others, have blocked the ads. While that accomplishes what I want, it doesn't help with the core issue. So, for those of you wanting to block the ads and if you aren't an image upload subscriber it's time to pony up.
Don't mind the advertising since it helps support the site, but you might want to consider redesigning the overall layout of the forum pages to accommodate it so the threads are not pushed down so much on the page layout.
For example there is a lot of space used for your logo and the word "Forum" and the buttons. You could incorporate your logos and the buttons in less than half the space vertically, making your aperture logo the "home" button.
Heck that might even give you enough space for a second banner ad at the bottom of the page
DoubleNegative wrote:
Ads? What ads? I block them, so I didn't notice.
Well, actually I have also a powerful ad-blocker, and do not notice any ad right now. Should I ? Or should I conclude that my ad-blocker makes me immune to the effect of this change ?
The only thing I noticed so far is the B&H search box, but I actually do not mind that. I even used it a couple of times: copy gear name from thread, paste in the box, and check out the B&H price. I have not bought that way yet though.
One must do what one must, but personally I would gladly pay more to keep the adds out! The addless aspect helps makes FM what it is, besides the people of course. The idea of a "paying subscriber" having an add free experience makes alot of sense to me!
The big bright colors of the ad is becoming like a N.E.O.N light. How about grey-scaling the ads so it won't be so prominently framed by the FM sea of grey??
If advertising is what it takes to continue the site in its present form and quality, so be it.
The speed and features of FM have improved significantly over the past year or so.
That has clearly cost some money.
Just turn on your TV set......now that's where you see an endless sea
of commercial messages interrupted here and there by some inane programming.
A few banner ads and such on this site is nothing in comparison to other media.
