NOTE: ADS ON THE FORUM (updated 26/10/21)

digitalscream

OK, so...my recent exposure to Google Analytics has revealed a surprisingly large amount of traffic from lurkers/non-users.

Now, I have absolutely no objection to lurkers - there's a lot of informative content here, and it's not a closed community. However...I do think they should contribute to the running of the site in some way. With that in mind, I've slapped some Google ads on the site.

This is absolutely not a reversal of the policy we've always had; at least, not in a meaningful way (in my opinion). Members will never see these ads while logged in - the Google code doesn't even get sent to your browser if you're logged in. And, of course, if somebody signs up with an account, they'll never see them after that either.
(EDIT: OK, it's a reversal - based on feedback in this thread, many folk thought it should be site-wide, but there will be alternatives soon...see updates below)

Apologies if some of you saw them earlier, that was a copy-paste error on my part; human-induced bug, not a sneaky inclusion

I shall now brace for opposing arguments.

UPDATE: 26/10/21

OK, the prevailing opinion seems to be that ads are actually OK for everyone (largely speaking), which just goes to show how things have changed from the days when we set this up.

The details are in this comment from page 5, but basically...I'm going to run an experiment with global ads for a couple of weeks to see if there's a mutiny of any kind. After that, I'll come back and draw some conclusions, and lay out the next steps.

There has been some concern about the culture changing, whereby we could block criticism of companies whose ads appear. We actually don't control these, and have no direct contact with the companies in question - as such, we don't really care that much, so have at it However, if seriously inappropriate ads start appearing, feel free to let me know and I'll see what I can do to block them.

UPDATE: 28/10/21

With the above in mind, I've added ads for all. This is a temporary experiment. After a week, I'll run a poll and see whether the general feeling is that it's worth the pain for the proposed benefits, and make a decision on whether they stay or not.

UPDATE: 30/10/21 (the wee hours)

The membership appears to be split at the moment. This weekend I'm building some stuff which should give everyone plenty of options while still preserving some consistent funding, which the forum really needs (sadly, this is the economic reality of websites at this level of traffic). Rather than run some polls based on hypotheticals, I'm going to actually make it work and then we can see where we are. I'll also be doing something a bit smarter with the ads that are there, so you don't end up with two ads in view at any one time. Less money in, but also much less annoying and distracting on some pages.

Philly_Q

I saw a big blank space which looked like it should have an ad in it.  It's gone now.

WiresDreamDisasters

Nah crack on. You guys deserve to make a bit of scratch from this place - viva la capitalism and all that!

darthed1981

I've no objection to lurkers, as long as they stay in brown sector where they belong.

Don't want them getting into green sector with the ambassadors.

( +1 respect for anyone who gets the reference )

digitalscream

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Nah crack on. You guys deserve to make a bit of scratch from this place - viva la capitalism and all that!

Well, I'll settle for covering the bills and building up a nice cushion, without resorting to begging for donations (I feel really squicky about that, although @TTony tells me I'm an idiot for it ).

As I said earlier...I have no expectations of becoming a millionaire, like the TGP guys must be with ads on everything with their traffic levels...

digitalscream

darthed1981 said:

I've no objection to lurkers, as long as they stay in brown sector where they belong.

Don't want them getting into green sector with the ambassadors.

( +1 respect for anyone who gets the reference )

I initially thought, "Brown? Surely it's purple and green!".

Then I remembered.

Grangousier

Not entirely on-topic, but there was this thread on freestompboxes.org recently - apparently you've got vulture capitalist types buying up forums for the ad potential. I strongly suspect you know all this already (you might even point me at a previous thread I've not seen), but it's worth knowing what's going on if they come knocking. 

TTony

digitalscream said:

although @TTony tells me I'm an idiot for it ).

He says you’re an idiot about loads of things though ...



wiz’d the lurker ads.

digitalscream

Grangousier said:

Not entirely on-topic, but there was this thread on freestompboxes.org recently - apparently you've got vulture capitalist types buying up forums for the ad potential. I strongly suspect you know all this already (you might even point me at a previous thread I've not seen), but it's worth knowing what's going on if they come knocking. 

Funnily enough, Faith emailed me a couple of months ago too She was, in fact, responsible for me integrating Google Analytics in the first place - I was curious as to what sort of number they'd be offering, and she wanted to see live stats for a couple of months before committing to a number.

I was completely up-front with her about it - absolutely not selling, just curious as to the perceived value. It's been a very, very long time since I was in the website game, so a pointer felt reasonable.

TTony said:

digitalscream said:

although @TTony tells me I'm an idiot for it ).

He says you’re an idiot about loads of things though ...



wiz’d the lurker ads.

The last 20 minutes of numbers aren't as encouraging as I thought, but we'll see how it stacks up for the next week or two.

In related news, I may have recently changed my mind as to the positives of ad blockers....

tone1

This thread was brought to you with the help of Daz washing powder & Lillets.....

digitalscream

As an aside...one suggestion that's been made is to have a setting in the user profile which shows ads, so people can enable ads for themselves as a non-donation way of contributing.

I personally can't see anybody actively choosing to have ads when they don't need to, but I'm curious as to everyone's thoughts on the matter...?

Bridgehouse

tone1 said:

This thread was brought to you with the help of Daz washing powder & Lillets.....

That’s targeted ads for you…

maharg101

Most of the ads I see these days are for guitar related stuff anyhow

TTony

digitalscream said:

I personally can't see anybody actively choosing to have ads when they don't need to, but I'm curious as to everyone's thoughts on the matter...?

I just logged out so I could see the ads.

So far I’ve bought a pizza oven, some “performance enhancing” aids and a new Thai wife.

If you could get some car ads in there too, @Emp_Fab will never need to start another thread ...

monquixote

Totally support this and think it's a great idea.

stickyfiddle

If I enable ads but block them via adguard, do you still make money?  

digitalscream

stickyfiddle said:

If I enable ads but block them via adguard, do you still make money?  

Sadly, no. We only make money from clicks.

On the bright side, since I enabled it we've made...

£0.44

Roland

How much does that equate to in a year?

Philly_Q

stickyfiddle said:

If I enable ads but block them via adguard, do you still make money?  

I've been using an ad blocker for a couple of months, but some sites seem to have learned how to defeat it and ads have started appearing again...

TTony

digitalscream said:

stickyfiddle said:

If I enable ads but block them via adguard, do you still make money?  

Sadly, no. We only make money from clicks.

On the bright side, since I enabled it we've made...

£0.44

I’ll log out again, and buy some more stuffs ....

digitalscream

Roland said:

How much does that equate to in a year?

Not much

It's about £150/month, which is a bit more than the hosting costs. Of course, I expect it to decrease over time, but we'll see.

For what it's worth, Google reckons that if I put ads on the whole site - members and lurkers - I'd be pulling in about £100k/year.

I hope y'all recognise the restraint I'm exercising here - I could pay the modmins and quit my job