Yep, and that’s what some of us are discussing. Do we continue to patronize this business, now that they are collecting my money, as a membership fee, AND loading up with ads.
In addition, this business has changed the product provided, after I have already paid for it. I paid for membership to a board that does not have ads. First the Google ads were added, and now the banner ads. That’s not what I purchased.
Would you allow a car dealership to come slap some bumper stickers for their company on your car, 6 months after you bought it?
I signed up a couple of weeks ago, before this brewhaha. I do, however, feel like you do, that I need a backup plan. In the pit thread, I advocate starting anew, while we still have momentum and a large amount of posters.
Right. This is more akin to having a rental car. And pre-paying a one year lease in advance. And then a few months after that, when you come in for scheduled maintenance, the rental agency adjusts the radio so you can’t change the channel … or turn it off … or adjust the volume. Well, unless you get a third-party add-on that you install yourself to get past that, and hope the rental agency doesn’t notice.
I’m not infuriated by the banner ads but I do feel myself winding down. I hate having to check my sound before coming here or risk being blasted by a car commercial again. But really I’ve gotten scared to post outside of the pit. I feel like anything I say a moderator is going to come in and threaten to ban me. So yeah I’ll need a new place to go eventually. I don’t run up until june I think. Be sure to let me know who is having the after party.
Ok, if you bought a membership to a health club, would you object when they started making you watch commercials for local restaurants before you were allowed to enter the locker room?
When I surf at work (oops!) I see how much I’m missing (?). I feel your pain. I don’t intend to join the exodus just yet. This is still the best (most dynamic, generally intelligent, non-leetspeek/-avatar/-image-posting) forum that I know of.
Stranger. If forthwith doesn’t happen and you decide to place your energies and comments on another board-let us know! I plan to stay with SD, but will certainly join any site that you find worthy of participating in. Please, your comments are consistently the best we have and I will do what I can to keep up.
http://www.metafilter.com is not quite a message board, but the quality of posts are sometimes on a par with this place.
I’m going to let my subscription to the SDMB die next month. The ads are only the straw that broke the camel’s back – I’ve been meaning to leave for awhile. Among other things, this place is simply too much of a distraction for me. I may still read it every once in awhile, but I think my posting days are through.
While I think Fathom, Unaboard, Skip’s Magic Board, and so on are nice message boards, they just seem like … well, like they’re extensions of the owner’s personal site.
The SDMB has a touch of Cecil, but he’s not the focus of the site; rather, the community and its members are. It’s not “Cecil Adams’ Forum” or “Ed Zotti’s Magnificent Message Board.” Same thing with other successful message boards; it’s “Something Awful”, not “Lowtax’s Message Board.”
Message boards need owners and leaders, of course, and their personality is going to be reflected in its design and overall vibe. Still, the SDMB spinoffs … well, they feel like they’re too much about Opal, Una and Skip, and that the community is secondary. I get the feeling like such boards are more of a hobby than a semi-permanent fixture.
I was mildly pissed when the ads started, but lo and behold my ignorance of certain things computer was fought. I used the Internet Options Security/blocked sites option on one machine and the HOST method on another. Now I don’t get the ads, but…BUT!!
I also LEARNED how to apply these techniques to other sites. I LEARNED something.
Fuck me running, that was worth the total of one ad I saw before I put measures in effect to stop them.
My main, and continuing gripe (that I’ve all but quit even griping about), is saddling this poor old marginally functioning board down with the burden of running the ads. That just doesn’t seem right, like hitching an extra plow to a 40 year old sway-backed mule.
Maybe the ad revenue will be used to buy a state-of-the-art super server, but I’m not betting the farm on it.