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That's another entry for the poll
I generally chuck a tenner in every 3-4 months as and when I remember, so would be happy at say £5 per month. That's a bit less than we pay for Netflix, and I certainly spend more time on here than on there!
OTOH, if ads could fund this for everyone, it would make it easier all round - not just for those doing the uploading.
As for "when am I ready?" You'll never be ready. It works in reverse, you become ready by doing it. - pmbomb
That would be my preference.
Lots of sites do turning off ads for premium members and then when the revenue starts coming in the offering could be further improved with photo hosting etc.
Seems to work ok.
https://soundcertified.com/speaker-ohms-calculator/
I think that's a total disaster.
It doesn't stop the bedroom flippers buying stuff up, but it would strangle the number one source of new members (People who sign up to sell stuff) and reduce the pool of stuff to buy for members.
You can tell how it went down in the "We don't need no stinkin' badges" thread...!
I like this forum because it doesn't have ads, doesn't charge a subscription, has an uncluttered UI, is decently mobile responsive, is well moderated, doesn't have complex functionality.
If there were to be ads for all logged in users, I'd prefer them to be omnipresent vs being forced to watch an add for 5s after posting a new thread or a new comment (e.g. like how many free games operate after you've played your go) as that would reduce users' engagement and perhaps retention.
E.g. if I've got 10mins spare to browse the site and that 10mins was then broken down into 8 mins of browsing and 2 mins of enforced ad watching, it would reduce my positive engagement (mathematically by 20% but psychologically by much higher) and likely reduce my retention too.
If ads are always there but not in the way, eg easy to scroll passed, and no enforced gateway viewing of ads between user actions, I think it wouldn't bother me.
For example, Crash.net is littered with ads and they make a fortune but the ads don't get in the way of the user's core purpose for visiting the site so it's easy to visit, read interesting articles and leave in 10mins having had the full 10mins positive engagement.
So, basically all of the options we're looking at then?
I completely agree. The primary purpose of the site is to provide the community with a forum, not to make money; that's not going to change, so pushing ads, forcing people to watch them or chasing traffic aren't on the table at all. The aim of the game with the ads is simply to a) make sure the forum is sustainable without me begging for donations, and b) hopefully to be able to pay for a bit of development, since the site's been stuck on the same platform for a long time.
In years past, this wouldn't have been so much of a problem because of @TTony's fundraising efforts. However, he's a hell of a lot better at that stuff than I am (business matters are most definitely not my thing), so...this is my substitute option.
Maybe these things are sufficiently rare it wouldn't be a worry but when there's cash involved and all it takes is to be a keyboard warrior I can imagine some of these arguments taking up a lot of mod time.
Certainly if ads for the non logged pay the bills I can't see a problem with that at all; I appreciate that this is not intended to be an online Marxist utopian state. Even basic banner ads when logged in I can learn to ignore quickly enough.
Is that like squid game? Paying VIPs can do what they like without consequence or admonishment?