Advertising!

[Montblanc owner and lover]

For me the problem is mainly the fact that there is only one little advertising on the right,making so that on nearly the whole page we have all on the left and a blank on the right...So even if i don't like ads i can understand taht you put them but i think it'll look nicer when the right will be full covered.

[carlos.q]

Please may I suggest using the pinch to magnify feature which while not wholly satisfactory page by page, does allow navigation of the home screen. Wim is correct in that using the screen landscape is a better way to use the screen real estate. You could install a browser that allows ad blocking but I think that would run counter to the good intent here re the valuable revenue stream ads provide.

Roger

Thank you for your suggestion. Wim suggested something similar (zoom) in another thread and it is working just great! As soon as the home page opens I can pinch (outward) the screen on my iPad so I can just see the first two original columns.

I have nothing against advertising but I draw the line when IMO it gets in the way of good web design or a pleasurable surfing experience.

[wimg]

I honestly think it is a matter of getting used to it. As mentioned, because of testing etc., I have been looking at adverts for a few months now, and especially in the Library skin it just seems to belong.

 

The advert space will be filled up. We'll just see how it develops. We are negotiating with a few more advertisers, and there are others to come as well.

 

Warm regards, Wim

[Dickkooty2]

Speaking of Advertising ...

 

The Clash of the Flying Icons !!!

Beer-swilling Toucan meets Pen-wielding Pelican

in an air-borne Battle Royale.

 

http://s271.photobucket.com/user/dick168/media/ScreenShot2014-03-30at10848PM_zps97d6d049.png.html?filters[user]=139176284&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0

Edited March 30, 2014 by Dickkooty2

[wimg]

<ROFL>

 

Oh, and someone uses Safari with an ad-blocker in a thumbnail on that same page .

Warm regards, Wim

[Federalist Pens]

There was a time that I would have complained about this....

 

However, since I have become the admin/owner of my forum, I now realize that this needs to be implememted- even at small forum like TFPC!

 

I have tried in the past to have pen drawings/raffles to help offset costs. This was fine, as long as someone was willing to donate a pen to the cause. This can only go on for so long. FPN is also not the only forum that has advertising- It may not be directly on their forum page though!

 

Wim and I have talked about this back-channel in the past. Since donations are becoming fewer and fewer, and forum hosts are NOT lowering their fees (other than dropping features- which I have done to keep costs down), this is becoming the only sensible alternative. It's either ads, or shutting down forums altogether!

 

Best,

Frank

[wimg]

Thank you, Frank, for your supportive words, much appreciated!

 

Warm regards, WIm

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Now, please note that I do not in any way, shape, or form, oppose advertising. It is because of advertising that we have newspapers and magazines that are as cheap as they are. It is because of advertising that public transportation is as cheap as it is. It is because of advertising that we have, at least in the U.S., television and radio without having to pay a license fee, and without the broadcast media necessarily being a propaganda tool of whatever party happens to be in power.

 

And it is because it was driven by advertisers who wanted to pitch their products in living color, without rendering massive amounts of broadcasting and receiving hardware functionally obsolete, that the transition to color television, running as it did from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, went so smoothly and painlessly (as opposed to the HDTV transition which, driven as it was by equipment manufacturers who very much wanted to render massive amounts of broadcasting and receiving hardware obsolete, may have been quick, but it was neither smooth nor painless).

 

But two things:

1. I definitely agree that with both the sidebar and the ad column, the home page is hopelessly cluttered and difficult to read, because the forum column is so narrow.

2. In any advertiser-supported media (including public broadcasting when any form of "made possible by" announcements are given), one must always keep in mind that to the extent that the media is advertiser-supported, the readers/viewers/listeners are NOT the customers; they are a PRODUCT that is being sold to the ADVERTISERS, who are the real customers.

[Dickkooty2]

From post directly above

 

2. In any advertiser-supported media (including public broadcasting when any form of "made possible by" announcements are given), one must always keep in mind that to the extent that the media is advertiser-supported, the readers/viewers/listeners are NOT the customers; they are a PRODUCT that is being sold to the ADVERTISERS, who are the real customers.

 

As a former manager at Time, Inc., ABC-TV, BBDO Advertising, Carmichael-Lynch Advertising, 3M, and Parker Pen, I have to say "Hear! Hear".

 

Any proposal to sell subscriptions to FPN without advertising while at the same time selling advertising to this valuable audience may be perceived as playing both ends against the middle!

 

​The value of FPN is its' content to readers and its' audience potential to advertisers. Readers should recognize this.

[Dickkooty2]

more blahblahblah to my comment above ...

 

If readers do not want to be bothered with advertising, than they have to subscribe to support the blog, not skip the ads! I understand from some previous notes that readers are somewhat slow to make donations to support the blog structure..

 

I don't have any idea what the budget needed forFPN hosting and admin is, but at 83,000 members, this is a lot of traffic to support. While I am not sure what the statistic of 8600 'most on line' means: it could mean 'most at any one time' or it could mean 8000 'heavy users' defined by posts/month or whatever.

 

But think of this … if 800 (10% of the most on line group) subscribed at $30@, thats $24,000. If 5% of the total membership subscribed at $30@, that's (...wait a minute ... wait a minute...) $124,500!

 

Some number of participants x $ subscription equals the FPN Budget.

 

Otherwise, advertising, without complaints or opting out by paying not to receive the ads from the readership, is necessary.

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I will also say that while I admire Consumers' Union's policy of refusing all outside advertising in Consumer Reports, refusing free samples, and operating on a shoestring budget, in order to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, they are in an unusual situation.

 

The only time I have ever resigned my membership in an organization was because the organization (namely the American Guild of Organists) had a policy of shamelessly running untagged paid advertorials as the cover feature "articles" in their membership magazine, and refusing to recognize that (even though they demand that their members agree, in writing, to uphold a code of conduct) they were failing to uphold the ethical standards (i.e., keeping "editorial" and "advertising" at arms length) that most other magazines, commercial or membership, uphold as a matter of course. (The technical term is "payola.")

 

By contrast, about the time I joined the National Model Railroad Association, they were just starting to accept paid ads in their membership magazines. There was a lot of debate among NMRA members, and a lot of talk about "slippery slopes," but I, for one, applauded their decision (it paved the way for pictorial covers, then color covers, then color throughout the magazine, and they did not have to sell their souls to do it!)

[usk15]

If something is free and you don't have to support from your pocket (subscription), than you should accept and obey any form of advertising even if is not very convenient or aesthetic.

Also, sometimes some adverts might be good for some users, meaning that they didn’t know about specific product advert referring.

On FPN if the advertising covers the cost of website to run I prefer like that then to shut down!

Like Dickkooty2 done the mats: there’s more than 83000 registered users, and more than 1000 daily active. If more than half from daily active members donate only 10 USD will cover the goal to general costs. If…

Edited April 2, 2014 by usk15