Poll: Ads or No Ads?

[Parsad]

I've been getting requests for no ads, so I thought I would do a poll to see how people feel.  Cheers!

[flesh]

The current qty of ads is okay by me... however please get rid of the tricky ads... those that aren't instantly obvious to close. 

[DooDiligence]

I have no problem with the ads.

You're perfectly within your rights to monetize the site however you like.

I'd like to suggest affiliate programs. This way you could choose to advertise products that you believe would specifically benefit users.

[ValueMaven]

Agreed with DooDiligence.  It is what it is.

[Viking]

I understand the value of the site and will support whatever you decide. Ads do not both me. Paying a monthly/annual fee also does not bother me. I just hope any changes you make supports new people coming to the site and becoming active members (perhaps first 6 months for free). Enough time for new people to become engaged and part of the community. Once they are hooked you will have them for many years...

[djleeam]

9 minutes ago, Viking said:

I understand the value of the site and will support whatever you decide. Ads do not both me. Paying a monthly/annual fee also does not bother me. I just hope any changes you make supports new people coming to the site and becoming active members (perhaps first 6 months for free). Enough time for new people to become engaged and part of the community. Once they are hooked you will have them for many years...

This

[fareastwarriors]

The ads are fine if they are at top or bottom and not between posts. I voted to pay a small amount. 

[Morgan]

I remember the issue of paying for entry was brought up maybe ten years ago and it didn’t happen. I would probably pay now that I’m not in college and broke, but I’d prefer not to. I think having the site for free with some ads, plus affiliate links, and a donation button is a good balance. I know the internet is changing from everything is free, to pay for access, but I think this is a bad trend in general. 
 

For what it’s worth, I don’t think many young people would join if they had to pay, and over time this would damage the site. Pay to enter would likely also reduce the number of infrequent posters, who over time add a different viewpoint. Just my two cents. 
 

I say no pay, plus have ads, affiliate links, and a donation button. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by Morgan

[LC]

Why not just make it an option? 

[dwy000]

I have no problem either way but if you put up a paywall, the number of posters (and new registrants) will likely plummet.  The value here is from the open exchange. 

 

[alwaysinvert]

7 hours ago, dwy000 said:

I have no problem either way but if you put up a paywall, the number of posters (and new registrants) will likely plummet.  The value here is from the open exchange. 

 

Agreed. I also feel compelled to answer here since the risk is that you will get responses disproportionately on the sycophantic side.

It would be a short-term cash grab in exchange for the longevity of the site, as new blood is always needed to keep it going. There is no cachet associated with being a member here, as opposed to something like VIC, so ease of access is important. 

To be fair, the site has already been heading downwards in quantity of posts so it could be a good trade-off for the owner if we are looking at the inevitable anyways (not saying that's definitely the case). Sadly, the new forum design is worse than the old one without seemingly adding any relevant functionality from the member's POV.

You did a donation drive a couple of years ago and I think I gave a couple of hundred bucks in that one, but tbh I'm not really up for being a customer of a message board. Having 20+ years of experience from all kinds of different niche forums, I strongly doubt that I'm alone in this. It doesn't matter what the hardcore "social" users say here - think about the ones who are going to provide new fresh stock pitches continuously, which is ultimately the life blood of the site. Maybe high monetization can be done, who knows. But be too aggressive and you *will* kill the golden goose.

[Sunrider]

The problem isn't the ads - they were fine on the previous layout. It's where they are, how big they are, and how many there are.

Now when I get to a page, the top 25 or 30 percent is irrelevant stuff, sometimes I think it's two huge ads! Then when you scroll through you lose space for one or two posts where there is ads interjected.

When you go back to a prior page it no longer pops you to were you were on that page but puts you back to the top, where once again you have to scroll past all this wasted space.

 

[Gregmal]

No issue with ads, as long as they arent jammed inside a post like what was happening before. I dont want to deal with reading a flow through idea and then having my train of thought disrupted by some stupid add, then scroll down, and continue the same idea. But outside of this, I dont think its an issue and also realize its probably necessary to keep the lights on and am all for it. Would be easier if it could be a user choice. I would pay not to see any. But you force everyone to take that option, you'll kill the site and user base. 

[Jurgis]

New members are already paywalled as Sanjeev posted on

So opinions that paywall would decrease quality/quantity of postings are independent of the additional (?) no-ads paywall. There is a paywall already.

[John Hjorth]

I'm actually not totally sure that I to the full extent understand the last post by Jurgis here in this topic,

I mean, shoudn't this poll be two dimentional? [The "second dimension being "old members" [from before the migration to the new software platform], who will maintain  their privileges from "the old forum platform"], and new members?

[Castanza]

17 hours ago, LC said:

Why not just make it an option? 

Agreed, similar to Spotify etc. If you want ad free then pay a small premium. Sticky business model as well. Sanjeev might have a Planet Fitness "foget about it" cash cow on his hands.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Castanza

[Voodooking]

I use an ad-blocker on all sites I visit (and YouTube), so ads are no problem for me at all. I prefer the free model.

As other users have stated, we need new blood and a reasonably low barrier to entry to encourage people to join, and sporadically return to, our site.

I will mention though that I do not like the new site appearance nearly as much as the old one. It just seems cold, plain, with quite a lot of wasted space on the page.

I do like the fact that each page contains more posts though, so I can just scroll instead of seeing a few posts, then having to click onto the next page. That's an improvement.

[adesigar]

I am mostly fine with the new site. I do wish that the design was changed to remove so much empty space. Simple tweaks like decreasing the profile image size and reducing the post header and footer size would really help in my opinion.

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by adesigar

[Sunrider]

Indeed, this last post takes up a whole horizontal iPad page thanks to the white space in the post and the inexplicable white space underneath it. Also, why are the adds so much taller now. At the top I have to scroll past the first one, then there’s the first post in the forum, then straight after there’s another one, also tall. No longer efficient to browse here.

[DooDiligence]

I remember hearing people piss and moan about a mailbox full of junk (pre 2008), and now the same people are whining about spam in their inbox and robo-callers trying to extend their non-existent automobile warranty.

Get over it.

If you feel like the value received is less than the inconvenience of capitalism on full display, then simply look away.