Yes, we DID put ads in the forums [Archive]

primesuspect

30 Jan 2004, 5:35pm

Bandwidth is expensive, it's true. This site does not and never has broken even. We pay a lot of money to host it, and now we have to try to recoup some of those costs.

We're not looking for mega profits here, we're looking to pay for the bandwidth that comes out of mine, doug's, and shorty's pockets every month. So, at the very least, please don't complain about the ads. At the very MOST, click on them once in a while ;)

We've tried (and are continuing to tweak) different positions, layouts, etc.. The goal is to make them as unobtrusive as possible (one of the reasons why we went with Google AdSense, because they are text based and very unobnoxious).

Thanks for understanding :)

mmonnin

30 Jan 2004, 5:57pm

/me clicks

Lincoln

30 Jan 2004, 6:27pm

They open in the same window right now if you click on them. Perhaps have them open in a new window so I can click them faster? ;)

primesuspect

30 Jan 2004, 6:28pm

Don't go crazy though... Google has algorithms that check for "abuse" - ie, clicking ads over and over again just to generate revenue

Lincoln

30 Jan 2004, 6:31pm

I just go through them once or twice a day is all.

Shorty

30 Jan 2004, 6:33pm

Unfortuntately... google set them up so they open in a new page, it's as Prime said.. to stop ad abuse.. ;)

We are gonna keep them to this, we are only allowed to show one ad per page.. and only on certain pages. That's fine with us. We aren't interested in making a fortune on it.. which is why we are changing over to a less "in your face" ad solution.

mmonnin

30 Jan 2004, 6:47pm

You cant add target="_blank" to the end of it?

Yeah I could click them all once and close them all quicky intead of going back all the time.

DogSoldier

30 Jan 2004, 8:19pm

:buck: I'd recommend some xxx ads for uber revenue. With an acronym like "S.M." we'd prolly get tons of hits!

primesuspect

30 Jan 2004, 8:20pm

You cant add target="_blank" to the end of it?

Yeah I could click them all once and close them all quicky intead of going back all the time.

We can't alter the ads :(

bothered

30 Jan 2004, 8:22pm

Scientology? Sorry but that brings the level down a bit. I hope nobody gets sucked into that. I speak from expieriance.

Enverex

30 Jan 2004, 9:33pm

Firebird = Middle Mouse Button
IE = Ctrl + Click

primesuspect

31 Jan 2004, 12:17am

Scientology? Sorry but that brings the level down a bit. I hope nobody gets sucked into that. I speak from expieriance.

Well, you'll notice that at first most of the ads are quite irrelevant to our site. As the site gets spidered more and more people click on appropriate ads, they will start to be targeted a bit more intelligently. This is our first day as an adsense-enabled site, so enough data to target appropriate ads hasn't really been collected yet.

When they see that ads about marriage counseling and scientology aren't performing, but ads about video games and hardware ARE, we'll get more of the right kind :)

a2jfreak

31 Jan 2004, 12:23am

The ads don't bother me, but even if they did, "so what?!"
I'm not footing the bill for this place so I really don't have much (any) say in the matter.

profdlp

31 Jan 2004, 12:39am

Well said, a2j - a few text ads are a small price to pay for the best damn tech site on the net. :thumbup

bothered

31 Jan 2004, 7:18am

I quite agree, I did suggest a 'donate' button to help with the costs. Personally I feel I'm bombarded with ads at every opertunity, I hate it. I AM A HUMAN BEING, NOT A CUSTOMER! (The Elephant man). If it helps the guys pay for the site fair enough. I just hope we don't get any for hand guns or designer drugs.

Necropolis

1 Feb 2004, 11:21pm

I see the google spider is working. This is from my Flag Smilie thread.

Straight_Man

1 Feb 2004, 11:49pm

And the first in line ad for this thread is for VB forum software. I am not sure where the scientology and gay ads(order is Vb, Scientology, Scientology, Gay perspective) came from, though.....

But, I do appreciate not so much distraction and do take a look at plain text ads from time to time if interested in what they say.... Will click a few, but in Opera will right click link and tell it new tab.... Then can just hop back to still-open forum tab....

Google does track ad clicks with cookie acceptances, though-- in Opera, 3 cookies per ad clickthrough. Oh, well, will accept from a good and relatively unobtrusive revenue thing for a great site.

John.

a2jfreak

2 Feb 2004, 2:06am

profdlp

2 Feb 2004, 2:11am

...In other words: Mention only that which you want to see...
Nekkid pictures! Free beer! Peace on earth!

...just doing what I can for the cause... :p

Straight_Man

2 Feb 2004, 2:59am

By mentioning the things you do not want to see, you are making it so that they are more likely to appear.

In other words: Mention only that which you want to see.

Processors or Video Cards or Chipsets or AMD or ATI or anything else that you fancy.

Well, if I mention "ads" will I get random "ads" until the spiders have crawled enough??? Hope not.... Would be nicer if the spiders crawled mostly topics, and the forum subarea titles.

Now I hope we do not get ads for spiders from pet stores.... Testing... :D

John.

Shorty

2 Feb 2004, 6:29am

Lucccccccccccyyyyyyyyyyy... you's got some explaning to do ;D

oops.. nice try google ;D

Enverex

2 Feb 2004, 12:28pm

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH...........
SIMS SIMS SIMS SIMS SIMS SIMS SIMS SIMS...........
And on Page 1 - Logical Religion and The Zen on Sleep, lol.

Anyway.... There are 3 types of adverts that I object to:
Ones that stall the loading of the page or are just big.
Popups (obviously).
Ones with sound (i.e. the AMD ones on SMs from page) these piss me off imensely (sp) and if they continue to spread I am just going to remove flash player entirely.

The Google Ads have to be the most useful as they are small in filesize, they don't stall the page and they aren't bright and obnoxious.

primesuspect

2 Feb 2004, 3:50pm

I have a feeling that the reason we are getting religious ads is because I post a lot and I have the word "Buddhism" in my sig a few times...... :D

t1rhino

2 Feb 2004, 4:19pm

Neato! Click - click...

a2jfreak

2 Feb 2004, 4:56pm

Christianity Christianity Christianity.
C'mon Gnome, help me out! :D

I have a feeling that the reason we are getting religious ads is because I post a lot and I have the word "Buddhism" in my sig a few times...... :D

Straight_Man

2 Feb 2004, 6:00pm

Jesus, Trinity, God. Peace, Joy, Awe.... :D :D

John D.

Straight_Man

2 Feb 2004, 6:37pm

Lucccccccccccyyyyyyyyyyy... you's got some explaning to do ;D

oops.. nice try google ;D

Google "teeny-tiny mind". His is not teeny tiny, but he is humble (and subtle and challanging and .... ) sometimes too.... :D

John D.

a2jfreak

2 Feb 2004, 6:42pm

/me can see it now . . .

In the Red corner, weighing in at 7,865,251,397 pounds: Christianity.
And in the Blue corner, weighing in at 4,378,281,644 pounds: Buddhism.

You guys know the rules. No punching below the belt. etc. etc. etc.
Let's http://www.keyboardjockey.com/forums/html/emoticons/boxing.gif

edcentric

3 Feb 2004, 3:00pm

I hate to admit it but I actually learned some stuff about vBulletin by clicking. I just have to remember to open in a new window.
They aren't too annoying and look to be from OK people, so far.

pseudonym

4 Feb 2004, 4:30am

I wish I could remember the ads that were up there the first time I saw them, pretty funny for a tech site.

The ads are fine guys, you barely even notice them. You could go bigger if need be, I wouldn't care at least.

Jake

15 Mar 2004, 2:58am

* a2jfreak can see it now . . .

In the Red corner, weighing in at 7,865,251,397 pounds: Christianity.
And in the Blue corner, weighing in at 4,378,281,644 pounds: Buddhism.

You guys know the rules. No punching below the belt.http://www.keyboardjockey.com/forums/html/emoticons/boxing.gif

I'm fairly sure we don't have to worry about the Buddhists hitting below the belt -- or hitting at all, for that matter -- but I don't think we can rule out the Christians pulling out a sword mid-way through the match... :buck:

Oh, and just for the record, I am a Christian -- even attend church on a weekly basis -- but I'm very conscious of our bloody, bloody history and, by and large, intolerance of anyone who subscribes to a different system of beliefs.

Nothing like commenting on an old ass thread....

Straight_Man

15 Mar 2004, 3:13am

I'm fairly sure we don't have to worry about the Buddhists hitting below the belt -- or hitting at all, for that matter -- but I don't think we can rule out the Christians pulling out a sword mid-way through the match... :buck:

Oh, and just for the record, I am a Christian -- even attend church on a weekly basis -- but I'm very conscious of our bloody, bloody history and, by and large, intolerance of anyone who subscribes to a different system of beliefs.

Nothing like commenting on an old ass thread....

Well, they just sit down and meditate.... :D We, if we follow scripture of NT kind, use words for swords mostly.... OT, yeah swords, NT, words.

John D.

Jake

15 Mar 2004, 4:37am

Well, they just sit down and meditate.... :D We, if we follow scripture of NT kind, use words for swords mostly.... OT, yeah swords, NT, words.

True, but historically Xians have far too often preached the NT while practicing the law of the OT. I'm not saying we've done more OT stuff than NT, I'm not even saying it's been 50/50, because I don't honestly know how it breaks down, but I am saying that we've carried out OT justice far too often. From a historically factual standpoint, our government does it everytime they execute someone (eye for an eye).

But it seems like the government may be coming around -- because now they're using words in courts and legislatures to keep the "homosexual scourge" in check instead of ropes, chains, pickup trucks, and sharp pointy metal things. So, let's hear it for progress! :skeptic:

I'll shut up now, honest. Sometimes I just have to get the message out there that there are, in fact, Christians who really buy into the notion of not imposing the lifestyle choices which they choose for themselves onto anyone else.

Let's hear it for diversity! :)

:Canflag: :sweflag: :usflag:

Jake

15 Mar 2004, 10:01am

Let's hear it for diversity! :)

:Canflag: :sweflag: :usflag:

I just realized: we really need to get some South American / African / Asian flag action going on. Don't get me wrong, I love Canadians, Swedes, and my fellow Americans, but... Well, methinks our flag representation is currently a tad homogenous in its racial representation. :buck:

Speaking of which, apologies to all the UK folk, didn't mean to omit YOUR flag last time. :banghead:

:respect: :ukflag:

EyesOnly

16 Mar 2004, 4:40pm

And that has what to do with ads? :scratch: Just wondering. :D

Lincoln

16 Mar 2004, 5:31pm

I just realized: we really need to get some South American / African / Asian flag action going on. Don't get me wrong, I love Canadians, Swedes, and my fellow Americans, but... Well, methinks our flag representation is currently a tad homogenous in its racial representation. :buck:

Speaking of which, apologies to all the UK folk, didn't mean to omit YOUR flag last time. :banghead:

:respect: :ukflag:

Ditto EyesOnly, but if you make similar quality ones for other countries represented by members, it's likely they would be added :)

GHoosdum

13 Apr 2004, 11:47pm

For the record, prime, I think it's bad karma to cause ads like this:
Scientology News
Good news stories covering different religions and
to show up...

primesuspect

14 Apr 2004, 2:22am

Yeah, it's pretty hard to keep up with all the totally irrelevant ads... It took me over a week to get rid of all the "bette midler tickets" ads...

Google keeps promising that they are working on their relevancy... We'll see..

dragonV8

14 Apr 2004, 4:55am

I just realized: we really need to get some South American / African / Asian flag action going on. Don't get me wrong, I love Canadians, Swedes, and my fellow Americans, but... Well, methinks our flag representation is currently a tad homogenous in its racial representation. :buck:

Speaking of which, apologies to all the UK folk, didn't mean to omit YOUR flag last time. :banghead:

:respect: :ukflag:

Whilst we are :topic:

South American / African / Asian flag action going on. :bawling: :bawling: :bawling: :bawling: :sad2:

dragonV8

14 Apr 2004, 5:03am

OK, back ON TOPIC, i think the ad's are a great idea from my point of view. Found quite a few interesting links to information aswell as Aussie on-line stores. The religious ones dont bother me. Sally is christian and does not try to force it down anyones neck.

Like the ad's, if you are interested you go and look. If not, go to the next page and the ad's are different. Most of the time i don't really see them as such. Too busy checking the threads.

Just my 2c worth. :)

Jon