# Banner ads? You're kidding, right? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 28, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090 "2007-11-28T21:43:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/461 "2007-11-29T22:14:28Z")
Has there ever been a thread in board history that got to 10 pages so quickly? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/462 "2007-11-29T22:14:43Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] I would check out your place if you made one, but you’ve made no secret of your dislike for me. Not making a point of that per se, but just a point about how people might split off. When they close this place, there’ll probably be a lot of scattering to here and there. Maybe instead of being lonely, you’d end up with a lot of people who are well matched to you. On the other hand, some people like hearing a diversity of opinions. That might be harder to make happen unless you make clear who is welcome. [/QUOTE] I would hope that any new message board would be set up and run exactly like this one, with the same forums and pretty much the same rules (no one has a copyright on those rules, right?) so it’d be the same, only no fucking banner ads. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/463 "2007-11-29T22:19:26Z")
Or Google ads. I pay for my web sites out of my pocket and don’t ask for any money, and I refuse to have banner or Google or any ads at all. I’m thinking about adding that donate button to my web site, but I can’t bring myself to do it yet. But this is a completely different operaton. People are already willing to pay to maintain the web site, but they’re getting slow servers and ads, even those who pay full price. It’s just not right. I agree with fisha. We need to figure something out before everybody leaves. The PIC (People In Charge, yeah, I saw Wristcutters: A Love Story) could shut the place down at any moment. We have no guarantees that they won’t. They don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/464 "2007-11-29T22:20:41Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] I would check out your place if you made one, but you’ve made no secret of your dislike for me. Not making a point of that per se, but just a point about how people might split off. When they close this place, there’ll probably be a lot of scattering to here and there. Maybe instead of being lonely, you’d end up with a lot of people who are well matched to you. On the other hand, some people like hearing a diversity of opinions. That might be harder to make happen unless you make clear who is welcome. [/QUOTE] You know what **Liberal,** I am not a fan of yours. But if you started up the new SDMB, I’d go. And if I started one, you’d be more than invited. Because **all** the people here, the mix, the tone, is what makes it. Shit, if everyone was like me, I’d buy a gun… Today, I used your advice for blocking the banner ads. And I thanked you for it. I I didn’t think anything more than I didn’t know he had such tech advice, and boy, you made it very clear how to accomplish this. People have many facets and contributions. What makes you think that if you can tolerate people here, that you can’t tolerate people somewhere else? I can’t believe any one who was to set up a new board would try to be so exclusive. There are already livejournals, and all sorts of other crap for exclusivity. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/465 "2007-11-29T22:25:26Z")
Imagine, if 100 people go to a new board and pay $14 just once, that would be $1400 (I’m a mathematical genius, what can I say?). Per **Equipoise** ’s site up there, you can get _10 years_ of their service for $6 a month, paid in advance. 120 months \* $6 per month = $720. I’ll fully admit I don’t know a lot about web hosting, message boards, or, well, anything so maybe I’m way off base somehow. Whatever, I’m just sayin’sall. Makes ya genuinely wonder what they do with the money around these parts, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/466 "2007-11-29T22:25:32Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] I would check out your place if you made one, but you’ve made no secret of your dislike for me. Not making a point of that per se, but just a point about how people might split off. When they close this place, there’ll probably be a lot of scattering to here and there. Maybe instead of being lonely, you’d end up with a lot of people who are well matched to you. On the other hand, some people like hearing a diversity of opinions. That might be harder to make happen unless you make clear who is welcome. [/QUOTE] If I did it, everyone would be welcome. It would be pointless otherwise. And I’d need to bribe mods because I’d be a terrible one. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/467 "2007-11-29T22:30:26Z")
Have they moved the position of the ads? The ads have become sporatic now, sometimes I see them sometimes not, but the last ad I saw was above the SDMB banner rather than below it. If so, that’s discouraging. It suggests that they’ve made the decision to stick with the ads, but they’re trying to make them slightly less intrusive to placate us. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/468 "2007-11-29T22:30:50Z")
[QUOTE=fisha] You know what **Liberal,** I am not a fan of yours. But if you started up the new SDMB, I’d go. And if I started one, you’d be more than invited. Because **all** the people here, the mix, the tone, is what makes it. Shit, if everyone was like me, I’d buy a gun… [/QUOTE] Yeah. A forum filled with mes is a horrifying thought. ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/469 "2007-11-29T22:30:55Z")
[QUOTE=DiosaBellissima] Imagine, if 100 people go to a new board and pay $14 just once, that would be $1400 (I’m a mathematical genius, what can I say?). Per **Equipoise** ’s site up there, you can get _10 years_ of their service for $6 a month, paid in advance. 120 months \* $6 per month = $720. I’ll fully admit I don’t know a lot about web hosting, message boards, or, well, anything so maybe I’m way off base somehow. Whatever, I’m just sayin’sall. Makes ya genuinely wonder what they do with the money around these parts, doesn’t it? [/QUOTE] I do wonder what they do with the money, but the hosting side isn’t that simple. I have no idea what the numbers are like for this place, but I can guarantee a ten-buck-a-month server couldn’t handle it. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/470 "2007-11-29T22:34:17Z")
Oh, I don’t disagree with that at all. But certainly there are more than 100 paid members here? Not to mention, that’s $14 a _year_ for however many folks are around- I was just throwing out random numbers, but saying $14 ONCE for 100 people for 10 whole years. Surely an annual $14 for more than 100 people would buy lots of nice space, right? ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/471 "2007-11-29T22:39:01Z")
All I know is that thanks to the new ads, I will definitely not be buying a Ford Focus. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/472 "2007-11-29T22:41:43Z")
[QUOTE=Slacker] I do wonder what they do with the money, but the hosting side isn’t that simple. I have no idea what the numbers are like for this place, but I can guarantee a ten-buck-a-month server couldn’t handle it. [/QUOTE] I assume you’re right. I also assume that a new board would be different. Not only would lots of people not come over, but the traffic patterns would be very different. The size of the database would be quite different since a new board would have no archives. Traffic wouldn’t be driven by searches for Cecil. Etc. And that’s one of the reasons I think such a venture might not ever work. On the other hand, if someone did decide to try and they found it was much more expensive, we could at least hope for some transparency in the numbers. I’m going to ask a friend of mine who runs a large poetry board what his costs are, generally. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/473 "2007-11-29T22:46:17Z")
Very good points, **jsgoddess**. Ok, why don’t we try to buy the SDMB? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/474 "2007-11-29T22:50:36Z")
I should have referenced [jimm’s entire post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9223282&postcount=26) so he would get full credit. Here it is: > [@](#): > > What makes me sad is that it would be (relatively) easy for many willing, able dopers to pay for and run a decent server, with the latest version of vBulletin and a robust database, for a fraction of the money that the Reader must have made from charging $15 per member. > > I’m talking free, highly skilled labor, massive bandwidth, huge storage space, backups, the lot. Dreamhost currently provides 500Gb of space and 5Tb of transfer, for $5.95 a month! A dedicated server on a rack from Dreamhost is $395 per month, which sounds a lot, except actually that’s only the cost of 320 doper subscriptions in one year. And vBulletin is chump change - about $140 per year to get a constantly upgradeable license and phone support. > > The costs are relatively low, the labor would be free, and we could keep the mods we know and love. > > I appreciate Jerry and Jenny’s work. And I feel for you guys, being in the position you apparently are. > > Sadly, instead of something that would keep the brand loyalty, we get a technical crock o’ shit, with a holding company that’s clearly trying to turn a fast buck, or make the SDMB justify its fiscal existence, but will in the end, I suspect, kill our brand loyalty and with it the profit that must surely already be being made. > > It’s pathetic. Even that dedicated server is cheap, comparitively, but I don’t know that it’d be necessary. I’ve asked jimm to join the discussion, but he’s in England so he’s probably asleep right now. As far as people finding it, we would spread the word near and far, and put lots of references to Cecil and The Straight Dope in meta tags or whatever people use to help spiders and whatnot (toldya I’m not technical). ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/475 "2007-11-29T22:54:22Z")
Losing archives would really hurt, but they’ll all be gone anyway if this place gets shut down. I wonder if the PIC would let us have them. No, probably not, but it’s not like they care about us or the archives. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/476 "2007-11-29T22:58:16Z")
[QUOTE=fisha] Very good points, **jsgoddess**. Ok, why don’t we try to buy the SDMB? [/QUOTE] That’s an interesting suggestion, but what if they asked for an outrageous amount, equal to several years’ worth of memberships? But that also brings up another point. If they don’t care about the message board, that would seem a pretty good indication that they don’t care about The Straight Dope. They could shut the message board down and keep TSD, but I wonder if it’s vulnerable too. I wonder what “Cecil” thinks about all this. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/477 "2007-11-29T23:01:35Z")
[QUOTE=fisha] Very good points, **jsgoddess**. Ok, why don’t we try to buy the SDMB? [/QUOTE] You might want to check out **Musicat** ’s post in [ATMB](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=445958) . Oh, and ETA: If something drastic were to happen here and the place went out like a light there’s a SDMB member group over in MySpace with a few of us, you know, as some sort of contact. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/478 "2007-11-29T23:03:09Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] That’s an interesting suggestion, but what if they asked for an outrageous amount, equal to several years’ worth of memberships? But that also brings up another point. If they don’t care about the message board, that would seem a pretty good indication that they don’t care about The Straight Dope. They could shut the message board down and keep TSD, but I wonder if it’s vulnerable too. I wonder what “Cecil” thinks about all this. [/QUOTE] Well, the Straight Dope is syndicated all over the country, and that’s revenue. I don’t think the status of the boards is really relevant at all to the question of what happens with the column itself. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/479 "2007-11-29T23:06:08Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] Well, the Straight Dope is syndicated all over the country, and that’s revenue. I don’t think the status of the boards is really relevant at all to the question of what happens with the column itself. [/QUOTE] I just read the posts at Cluricaun 's link (thanks). I didn’t realize that The Straight Dope was a registered trademark of the Chicago Reader. I thought it was a tenant of the Reader, not a property. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090/480 "2007-11-29T23:08:51Z")
[QUOTE=fisha] Very good points, **jsgoddess**. Ok, why don’t we try to buy the SDMB? [/QUOTE] I don’t believe that would be possible without essentially starting from scratch anyway. And if you’re starting from scratch, it doesn’t make sense to pay more than you have to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banner-ads-youre-kidding-right/428090.md?page=25)