Wow. I could not care any less about these ads if I tried. And believe me, I tried.
As long as they aren’t the popup kind like on Snopes.com or the flashy-blinky kind like on other sites, I really don’t give a hoot. I’d be interested to see what gets advertised once they’re–whoever ‘they’ are–finished tinkering with them. I mean, surely they can’t just all be about mailing lists, right?
Either way, it’s just two inches more I have to scroll down to get to quick reply box. Hell, if the ads are something for which I might be interested, I’ll probably even click one. I’ve followed a few from my gmail account.
I find the ads unobtrusive, but I do have to agree with the person in the ATMB thread who opined that adding advertisements should really have been tried before going to the SDMB members to support the site. Had this been done, perhaps people would have paid a membership fee to remove the ads for their account. Maybe that’s where all this is heading… one can hope? A future where we only have to pay if we want to avoid the ads?
Anyway, to help folks learn a bit more about Google Adsense:
The SDMB admins/techies can filter inappropriate ads, to a degree. If they so choose, that is. ‘Inappropriate’ can mean ads for offensive, stupid, and/or or competitive sites.
After placing the Adsense code on a site, it can take about 24 hours or so before Google can correctly target ads to its content. Until that time, the system places vanilla-type ads like PSAs (e.g. the Katrina banner) and generic junk like, I guess, the email marketers we’re seeing. So that’s why we’re seeing all this crap. Once enough time passes and Google does its magic, the ads may be a tad less objectionable.
Then again, there’s a slight problem with this plan. The ability for Google to place relevant ads on a website depends on whether the site is crawlable by their spiders. If the site’s robot.txt or .htaccess file doesn’t allow entry to Google:TSE (the search engine) bots, Google:TAP (the ad provider) bots ain’t likely to get in either. Is the SDMB visible to Google? I don’t recall seeing search engine results with SDMB threads lately…
I wonder if they’d let DOPERS buy ad space? Think about it-all the fuss over Opal’s teeshirts, and anyone selling anything. If they’re going to do ads, why not allow someone like Opal ad space here?
Gotta feel bad for the admins here. This is a no-win situation for them. If they raise the membership rates, they get screaming and moaning. If they do the ads, screaming and moaning. If they do anything at all to make the board at all different in any way, shape, or form, screaming and moaning.
I know they charge more than a lot of comparable websites - so I must admit to curiosity.
But further, I simply doubt that the damn google ads will make nearly enough money to be worth having yet another part of my life filled with ads. A lot of us simply are not fond of advertising. If they would make the same amount of money by charging a quarter, or a dollar, or whatever more per year, I’d pay. I don’t appreciate seeing yet more ads - because I don’t like ads.
I’m not aware of comparable websites–which ones are you talking about? ANd what revenue streams do they depend on?
You may be right, that they won’t make enough money to be worthwhile. I don’t know how the numbers break down. And I just don’t see it as that big a deal. If I don’t want this area of my life being filled with ads, I have several options I can take to prevent that from happening. If I’m not motivated enough to use adblock and not committed enough to stop visiting the site, well, that’s on me, not on the admins.
Good Og, people! You want to see obtrusive ads? Go check out other message boards where they appear along one side of the page, complete with images. Those of you suggesting putting 'em up under the banner – are you nuts? That would be way more intrusive, seems to me.
And whassamatta with your personal ad filters? No, I mean the ones you use to tune out all the commercial crap that saturates our environment, from billboards to radio ads to TV commercials to… Well, hell, they’re EVERYWHERE. I hadn’t even noticed the ads at the bottom of threads till I checked out the ATMB thread. That’s how efficient my own ad filter is – it tunes them out unless I WANT to look at them.
I’m also noticing that when I scroll the thread font larger, the ad font stays small. No matter what you’ve set your font size to be, the ads are smaller, easier to glance right past.
All in all, seems way too picayune to get all in a lather over. YMMV, of course.
Truthfully, I would much rather see ads from Dopers. At least they’re part of the community. Minimum post count 500, ads posted on a rotating basis, etc.
This place is usually a refuge from the United Center, U.S. Cellular Field, 3Com Park commercial world. That’s part of what I resent.
Plus being lied to.
Oh, wait - why not rename “The Dope?” Surely someone would pay for the privilege. What about Apple (given all you Mac lovers)?
Ok, even assuming the SDMB is in dire need of funds even with paid memberships, couldn’t us members have an option of getting Premium Ad Free Memberships? I’d pay a couple bucks extra for zero ads.
I personally wouldn’t mind the ads if they weren’t 100% for freaking mailing lists. If they’re getting paid per click, this was a waste of time, both for the SD administration and Google. If there were, for example, ads for baked good or kitchen utensils in GQ’s pie thread, I’d go see if I could mail order myself some chocolate chip cookies. Even in a mailing-list-related thread, no one here is going to click on a mailing list ad (such a thread would most likely be a rant against spam-lists or a question on how to get off them). Can the PTBs ask to get certain categories of ads banned from the links?
Thudlow Boink (Continued from Thread in ATMB) In answer to this post
My calculator needs a new battery. (my story and I’m stickin’, my glasses are just fine thank you!) See where technology has taken us?
Of course, I meant $0.041
I figured it out. TPTB are secretly making money from Mozilla. After all this time of being told Firefox is so much better than IE, I finally installed it. No more mailing list offers to Monetize sign ins!
But all I have access to is Quick Reply. No simple “Post Reply”. what did I do wrong? Or does it work the same way?
And yes, we were told when the board went pay that it was to prevent the need for ads. Maybe the cost went up. I don’t have access to the books, so I can’t say. But it would be appreciated if we were forewarned of it. What happens? It’s foisted on us Friday afternoon. When’s the best time to pull a turd and make people eat it? Right before the weekend. Everyone gets Friday night and all of Saturday and Sunday to get it out of their system before the Overlords get to the orifice on Monday.
Fucking cheap is what it is. For a site that has pretty well proven members hate intrusive ads (search Mozilla in the threads) this is assinine. Fighting ignorance? We’re doing it by selling mailing lists! LOL!!@!111!!!
Hmmmm…wonder what the former head of FEMA is doing these days. With the utter lack of sense this makes and the timing, I can only wonder.
Business Mailing Lists
20% Off! 16 million Experian B2B Leads. Enter BMS9 at Checkout.
MGI Lists
The source for high response association member mailing lists.
Opt-Intelligence, Inc.
Co-Registration Network. Monetize your Website sign-ups and log-ins.
AmeriList Mailing List Co
Accurate Responsive Business and Consumer Mailing List & Sales Leads
Since the fuck when did that become expected? To such a degree that you’re acting like they’ve betrayed your most sacred trust?
It’s often a selling point, yes. “Become a premium member! NO MORE ADS!” But that does not mean the two sentences are permanently and inextricably linked.
Shit, sometimes advertising increases, though not necessarily on a website. Cox, Qwest, my bank, my credit cards – when I signed up with any of them, suddenly I started getting junk mail from them. Cox ran and probably still runs their own commercials. Those pissed me off worse than any pathetic little text ads from Google; I already bought your product, now SHUT THE FUCK UP. And if they can get the filter system working (I don’t think it currently is, what with the mailing list BS), then they might have ads that gasp are actually useful and germane.
I’m not saying be grateful or that you have to like them. But this melodramatic cockamamie “YOU BETRAYED US” screeching is really fuckin’ pathetic.
