I know we already have enough threads about the hot topic du jour, but I believe this one might even be of some use to TPTB.
Would you prefer a free SDMB loaded with flashy banners (as most sports forums), or would you prefer an SDMB without banners but with a higher subscription fee?
If the latter, how much would you be willing to pay for a board without ads?
A valid third option is saying that you are ok with things as they are. Paying and with banners.
I’ve got firefox and adblock at home, but at work I’m using IE. And I’ve already started to notice an appreciable slowdown since the ads have been implemented here, without the noisy/flashy ones being added on top.
My preference: a two tier system. Pay a couple bucks more if the ads bother you that much. But I’d want the choice, and I’d likely pay to not have ads (assuming I couldn’t block them and it wasn’t really expensive).
I am able to block them but I would pay the extra money for the StraightDope-approved officiallly sanctioned absence of ads, to offset the revenue lost to the board by not having ad revenue come through as a result of my viewing.
I actually would prefer the ads and a free dope, but not because of the money issue. I think the dope was better when it was free: livelier, and less like other places on the web.
I thought we were paying already to have no ads. Wasn’t that one of the reasons given for charging? To avoid having to put up with revenue-producing ad schemes?
Nevertheless…
People, people. If you follow one of the numerous suggestions in various threads, you won’t see any ads at all. Then it becomes a moot point; Chi Reader is happy since they get income (?) from ads; viewers are happy, since they don’t see any ads. It’s win-win.
Although I do feel sorry for those at workplaces that make this kind of action impossible. Can’t you convince your IT dept to handle this for all, and it’s a good thing? If I were still running an IT Dept., all it would take is a beer to convince me.
Pardon my naiveté, but why isn’t firefox w/ad-block the browser of choice here?
I understand that some users may hang out here via company/library computers, etc. I’m not savvy enough to know why everyone else doesn’t use an ad-blocking browser.
Could someone cure my ignorance? Thanks in advance.
I think the number of interesting posts and useful responses have gone down significantly since they started charing for the site. For that reason I’d prefer a free site with banner ads.