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

hollywoodrox

Well done , the ad’s are not intrusive like guitar world and music radar sites . I heartily hope you can get some sort of recompense for creating this community .thank you

roberty

digitalscream said:

@roberty - so...just so I get it (no judgement here) - you're using the desktop version of the site on an Android device in portrait mode, yes? (I presume that's a tablet, not a phone)

Does it do the same thing in landscape orientation?

Ah yes I do that because it's more fully featured. I'm on my phone. Only just realised this may not be a supported use case lol. I zoom in so the messages fill the full length of the screen

thumpingrug

Im liking the ads.  The introduce a slash of colour.  Haven't had seen anything I would click on yet ( sorry) and it seems to me largely furniture and investments software  - neither of which I have any interest in.  

horse

One thing I think is different for me since the ads were introduced - if I click "back" on Android/mobile, after the page loads I now get returned to my previous scroll position. I'm fairly sure it didn't retain scroll position when going back before, so this is an improvement for me (although my brain isn't used to it on this site!)

Snags

If anyone is really petty enough to get the arseache over some unobtrusive ads on something that has been free for so long,  just switch to DuckDuckGo as your browser, or install an ad blocker.

Neither are hard to do.

Goodness knows how you've coped with the rest of the Web though, given this is the only ad-free, non-subscription site I can think of (except the BBC) that I use in a fairly varied browsing experience. 

danishbacon

digitalscream said:

danishbacon said:

Ok. I fold! Where can I pay to get rid of the banners? 

Nowhere just yet - this is just a trial for a week.

I'll be running a poll once the week's up to offer up options. There will be an option for people to pay for a premium membership - no badges or stupid trash like that, but there will be no ads for those people and there will be additional functionality on offer (eg image uploads).

In the meantime, by all means install an ad blocker. As I said earlier...the point of this is so that I don't have to beg for money or spend half my days fundraising; my time is limited, and I'd much rather spend that time keeping the forum humming along nicely, and hopefully being able to justify spending more of that time building it out to improve the forum for everybody.

A flip side of that is...I get it, ads are more annoying for some people than others. So there's no judgement from me if you do what you need to in order to be more comfortable browsing the site

Thanks Lee. Comment was a bit tongue in cheek  

From reading most of the thread it seems that there is an overwhelming sense of ‘it’s ok’. 

From my perspective, I 100% agree, the site should have some sort of funding model and you shouldn’t rely solely on a couple of yearly donation drives which come with their own share of overheads. 

Bottom line is the site does function as a service,  offers a wealth of information and community and there’s no such thing as a free lunch. 

On the other hand, I hate ads. I particularly hate irrelevant ads. I also hate how the algorithm assumes I still want to buy something I’ve already bought or just throws wildly odd suggestions. Why am I seeing it? This might sound silly but yesterday when browsing and seeing the top/bottom flashing banners, designed to call attention, I was briefly taken out of ‘the fretboard zone’ and reminded that this is the internet. A bit of that Wild West, survivalist capitalism sprinkled on top of something nice. 

I accept that it’s a ‘part of the internet’ but just because every other dick and Harry has set up a website model where media consumption and page hits = income, thus converting browsing eyes into revenue generators, doesn’t mean that this should be the only out. Echoing what others have said, I’ve always appreciated the fact that tfb was this little oasis in the vast desert of the internet, harking back to a time where community websites were community websites and not advertising murals and visually offered a wonderful break from ‘everywhere else’. I don’t want this to feel like ‘everywhere else’ because it’s not ‘everywhere else’ for a multitude of reasons. 

I suppose a paid model/membership is ideal though I would not want it to be ‘exclusive’ as you’ve mentioned with badges etc nor would I like to see any reduction in functionality for those who may not want or be able to afford a £20-30 yearly membership. 

In terms of membership cost, maybe the maths could be something like monthly ad revenue divided by half the peak average daily users times 12 + a built in donation premium. 

I think fundraiser raffles should also happen if not too much of a logistical nightmare simply because it’s fun to win things

Teetonetal

I am mainly receiving adds for the company I work for - actually quite useful, given that part of my job is in dealing with complaints about this kind of advertising...

I don't mind the top add at all, it embeds nicely into the page, the add at the bottom under the comment box is annoying and distracting though.

I am all for this change if it keeps the forum afloat, though honestly I am amazed that anyone clicks on the stuff.

thumpingrug

Ok, Ive seen ads for stuff I was at least vaguely interested in now so clicked through to see what happened ( during in the course of research, you understand), and unlike other links on this site where it opens in a new tab, the ads replace the fretboard.  Knowing this I can work around it but, its the most annoying thing about them so far.  

PS.  do i get commission on the commission the you are getting if I keep clicking??

Mellish

I often get a "Block the ads" either top or bottom of my phone screen (Android, Chrome)  

poopot

Funkfingers said:

I have an unfinished transaction with somebody on this forum. After that, I shall feel to walk away.

Well that’s an unexpected bonus!…

digitalscream

thumpingrug said:

Ok, Ive seen ads for stuff I was at least vaguely interested in now so clicked through to see what happened ( during in the course of research, you understand), and unlike other links on this site where it opens in a new tab, the ads replace the fretboard.  Knowing this I can work around it but, its the most annoying thing about them so far.  

PS.  do i get commission on the commission the you are getting if I keep clicking??

LOL at the last bit. The numbers are so tiny you wouldn't get a string, much less a pack of them

On the new tab thing...I can see how it'd be annoying. It opens a new tab on all my browsers and devices. What are you using?

Mellish

But the ads themselves, I'm OK with them. May take getting used to, like any change, but if it doesn't work out, DS will have a Plan B  

grappagreen

Please let me pay you to have an ad free experience..... please...

I get it and totally support you being recompensed for the effort maintaining this site requires but I just can't fucking take any more marketing intrusion in my life.. I've obviously thrown some money in your direction in the past to help and am happy to continue to do this more formally.

Zappa was right - but its oozing from fucking everywhere.. 

Si

Snags

@grappagreen On mobile use DuckDuckGo browser.

On desktop install the Ghostery or uBlock add-in to your browser.

Keep bunging Lee random donations

digitalscream

grappagreen said:

Please let me pay you to have an ad free experience..... please...

I get it and totally support you being recompensed for the effort maintaining this site requires but I just can't fucking take any more marketing intrusion in my life.. I've obviously thrown some money in your direction in the past to help and am happy to continue to do this more formally.

Zappa was right - but its oozing from fucking everywhere.. 

Si

Please do bear with me. The point of this experiment is to determine whether it's worth the development and organisational headache to build the functionality that goes with it - that's a non-trivial amount of work, so if the revenue generated from the ads is low, I simply won't bother. If it's high enough, though, I think I'll probably integrate with Patreon to handle the memberships.

To work that out, though, I need data - and there's a significant difference between what people promise and what they actually do (not talking about you specifically, but rather in terms of overall numbers), so running this experiment is necessary to get hard numbers on it. It seems to take about 5-7 days for the daily numbers to settle, so I'll call it there.

In the meantime, by all means use an ad blocker on here. That would actually be a useful contribution to the data collection in itself.

TheMarlin

I’m getting a lot of connection issues via iPhone. Could be privacy plugins kicking off about the ads 

poopot

I’m on iPhone, absolutely no issues whatsoever…

as per @snags sugestion, I’ve downloaded duck duck go and hey presto no ads!…

I will however revert back to safari as the point of the ads is to support the FREE TO USE forum!…

grappagreen

digitalscream said:

grappagreen said:

Please let me pay you to have an ad free experience..... please...

I get it and totally support you being recompensed for the effort maintaining this site requires but I just can't fucking take any more marketing intrusion in my life.. I've obviously thrown some money in your direction in the past to help and am happy to continue to do this more formally.

Zappa was right - but its oozing from fucking everywhere.. 

Si

Please do bear with me. The point of this experiment is to determine whether it's worth the development and organisational headache to build the functionality that goes with it - that's a non-trivial amount of work, so if the revenue generated from the ads is low, I simply won't bother. If it's high enough, though, I think I'll probably integrate with Patreon to handle the memberships.

To work that out, though, I need data - and there's a significant difference between what people promise and what they actually do (not talking about you specifically, but rather in terms of overall numbers), so running this experiment is necessary to get hard numbers on it. It seems to take about 5-7 days for the daily numbers to settle, so I'll call it there.

In the meantime, by all means use an ad blocker on here. That would actually be a useful contribution to the data collection in itself.

Of course. I'll install a blocker.

Honestly - it's me, not you. Ever seen the film Falling Down? I'm getting there

Si

digitalscream

Right, since it's come up a few times...if we were to have a premium non-ad membership (with maybe a tiny extra bit in terms of functionality), what do you guys think would be a reasonable price?

I'm thinking along the lines of £4/month. That's based entirely on a finger-in-the-air estimate, and the fact that it's the kind of money most folk wouldn't feel pain over, so I'm not especially attached to the number.

poopot

digitalscream said:

Right, since it's come up a few times...if we were to have a premium non-ad membership (with maybe a tiny extra bit in terms of functionality), what do you guys think would be a reasonable price?

I'm thinking along the lines of £4/month. That's based entirely on a finger-in-the-air estimate, and the fact that it's the kind of money most folk wouldn't feel pain over, so I'm not especially attached to the number.

What would be the average ad revenue you get from a user visiting the site?

that’s got to be your benchmark No?