Ads Between Posts?

[CharvelRocker]

Uhh, seriously? I would be a little annoyed if I was a sponsoring dealer here and saw that. Though I would hazard a guess a platinum member does not see those adds. That having been said, I thought the idea of the platinum membership was supposed to avoid having stuff like this?

[Cleveland Metal]

So, let me get this straight... You think that Platinum Members should be paying for the non-platinums to not see the ads?

They aren't particularly obtrusive IMO...

[CharvelRocker]

Well, I thought the encouragement was for people to go Platinum to avoid having to put ads up. Kind of kills the point imo, and I would be a little annoyed if I paid and saw ads or if it was used as leverage to get someone to go platinum (one of my internet pet peeves). That said, they aren't all that obtrusive after a quick check in No Script

[toejam]

Must be something new. I've never seen it until today. Jeremy might have gotten a Google sponsorship now.

[Cleveland Metal]

Well, I don't see them and I'm platinum. However, "I" went Platinum to support the board and get the privileges I wanted, not so non-platinum members wouldn't have to see an ad, haha... Just like I'm a paid supporter on EZBoard Yuku. It gives me privileges (and also kills the ads)...

However, do you have any idea what it costs to run this place? This place gets like 25,000 page views a day... That is like some serious bandwidth. I think some non-obtrusive ads like that are a small price to pay.

[Carbuff]

I dont see no stinkin ads.

[VitaminG]

me neither

[thetroy]

Stealth nerf to regular members.

Could be worse I guess, but it is kind of odd to be seeing an ad for FullersGuitar on every page when I don't think they contribute anything.

[Guyver1]

/me wubs Opera and its 'block content' right click option

[MikeStrat]

I dont see no stinkin ads.

You're not missing anything. There is a link to the Fullers Guitar Museum though.

[Spivonious]

Really annoying, especially since it really doesn't cost that much to host a forum. $20/month for a domain, 300GB of space, 3,000GB/month of bandwidth (www.1and1.com). The forum software costs $180 for unlimited use + $60/year for updates (www.vbulletin.com/order).

That comes to $300/year. How many platinum members do we have? How many dealer sponsors do we have? Either Jeremy is getting ripped off, or we're getting ripped off.

[shobet]

The ads. don't bother me. If it brings in some cash to help run the place and does not upset the sponsoring dealers then so be it.

[wilkinsi]

I can't get rid of it. Never mind.

[shobet]

Really annoying, especially since it really doesn't cost that much to host a forum. $20/month for a domain, 300GB of space, 3,000GB/month of bandwidth (www.1and1.com). The forum software costs $180 for unlimited use + $60/year for updates (www.vbulletin.com/order).

That comes to $300/year. How many platinum members do we have? How many dealer sponsors do we have? Either Jeremy is getting ripped off, or we're getting ripped off.

The hosting company should be able to give accurate bandwidth usage data, or otherwise they wouldn't know how to charge for excess use.

[Spivonious]

The hosting company should be able to give accurate bandwidth usage data, or otherwise they wouldn't know how to charge for excess use.

3000GB is a lot of data for a text forum. Images are almost always linked from other sites, so they don't count towards the bandwidth.

I just wish Jeremy would communicate these changes in advance, and offer some explanation why he needs the extra funds.