So is there a forum equivalent to the advertiser index in the print edition?
There have been many times where I order online and would have gone through the link in the vendors ad on the forum, but finding it seems to be left to chance.
Maybe make it easier to get to advertisers site through this website? I'll gladly go to RA, TR, or other sites through the GRM links, as long as I can find it (and don't have to wait for it to show up by chance).
Tom Suddard said:...and so many of our peers go to more and more intrusive ads (within article text, disguised as user posts in forum topics, constant pop-up ads, etc.)...
Consider why we aren't on your peer's websites and forums.
There are a lot of sites I don't go to based on how intrusive their add content is.
The world is changing fast. GRM's gotta do what GRM's gotta do to survive. Go to the New York Times site and compare. This is not intended as snark.
Not having the forum would be more than annoying.
This is what I said in the other thread
Peabody said:
In time they will be as invisible as the ads on the side.
I don't even see them anymore
While reading this I realized that I have no idea what any of the ads are for. I don't even see the content. They're just colours and shapes.
I guess you guys don't see it that way?
April 1 2020 GRM Asks for donations "to keep the lights on"
June 1 2020 GRM makes a political donation
Dec 1 2020 they start running obtrusive ads "to keep the lights on"
Dec 15 2020 people complain about the ads because they're donating to keep the place going and are told tough luck
Most here are ok with that and those that have an issue are shouted down. Like someone posted here before
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them"
I am not looking at them either, but they have a bad effect. I want to make sure someone reads this fully, and not just as a "gar ads are bad!" post.
The ads are within the row of a thread. I will often miss the thread because my eyes are programmed to skip the ads. If it were the same height as a thread, and between threads, it would be way less annoying. Unless your ads are intending to annoy. A lot of the base here will intentionally not buy products from ads which are annoying.
adblock installed. Nice.
Half the time the ads don't even load for me. There seems to be no real rhyme or reason. So sometimes they are ads, sometimes they are just huge gray or white strips.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
I think instead of "tough luck" I've said "we're spending the revenue from these ads to pay our developers to improve the site and build that feature."
Look at it this way: The ads help pay for the forum where you can come and complain about the ads. See? Wheels within wheels.
Let me reverse the question: What's an acceptable level of advertising to endure to have a forum to post on? If the answer is "zero," what's the preferred alternative to fund the existance of the forum?
Yeah, remember that time we paid for months of our staffers' time and travel to finish a recently deceased forum member's project car so we could auction it off and give the money to his daughter for school? We didn't have buckets of money--or time--to throw around then, either, but felt it was the right thing to do.
Speaking of not having buckets of money, not that we have to disclose this, but we wrote a $20K check to the web developers this week because the software is so outdated, it will cost that much just to bring it into a supported version. These ads will not come close to paying for that in the course of an entire year. But we thought to do more would be too disruptive for our forum people, so we have settled on this compromise.
Margie
I don't like them. Since I'm a FS I would hope we could buy our way out of them.
I don't run ad blockers, so I do see the advertisements. If they are going to stay I'm probably going to turn off the FS.
In reply to Shadeux (Forum Supporter) :
Part of the reason we have to update the back end is so that we can program in some benefits here for our FS, but I understand.
Margie
I really have zero berkeleys to give about an ad that does nothing but help GRM make revenue. It doesn't pop up an ad in my face, it doesn't try to sell me little blue pills, it doesn't have audio, it doesn't do anything except occupy a line. How many topics do you scroll past because you don't have anything to offer to the thread? Do you complain about those? No, you just keep scrolling.
I really don't care one bit that there is an ad occupying a slot that makes me scroll... which is something I was doing anyway.
Tom is just a squirrel tryin to get a nut. Without those nuts, we don't have a forum or a magazine.
You go on with your bad self, Tom. Put an ad under every third topic, I will just scroll a bit more. I think with what this family (all of you) bring to the table is definitely worth a completely innocuous banner that hurts no one.
Rather than an ongoing monthly donation to keep the forums up, I'd rather tack on a one time forum subscription for the same duration as the magazine sub when I renew.
It was a bit jarring at first but I don't notice them anymore. If that is what it takes so be it, its a small price to pay.
Brett_Murphy (Ex-Patrón) said:Rather than an ongoing monthly donation to keep the forums up, I'd rather tack on a one time forum subscription for the same duration as the magazine sub when I renew.
That's the direction we'd like to go, but again, a long road of code ahead of that. We're building it as fast as we can, but as usual we have time and budget constraints.
Margie
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:How many topics do you scroll past because you don't have anything to offer to the thread?
According to my post count that answer is zero.
tuna55 said:adblock installed. Nice.
Which one did you install? Recommendation ? Thanks
JG Pasterjak said:Look at it this way: The ads help pay for the forum where you can come and complain about the ads. See? Wheels within wheels.
Let me reverse the question: What's an acceptable level of advertising to endure to have a forum to post on? If the answer is "zero," what's the preferred alternative to fund the existance of the forum?
There is another forum I frequent that has zero adds. I pay $50 a year for the membership and a ad free forum. I would gladly pay that here.
I pay $8 a month to Amazon for ad free music. I would gladly pay that here.
Many people are more than willing to pay to not be bombarded advertisements. I am one of them.
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
Adguard for android, adblockplus for desktop.
No ads anywhere.
I'm just glad I couldn't afford to join the patreon when it started, and since the political donation, and the way it looked like they took everyones money who had signed up for the patreon to do it, I've even let my subscription lapse, which I only had because I spend so much time here and wanted to feel like I contributed.
Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) said:JG Pasterjak said:Look at it this way: The ads help pay for the forum where you can come and complain about the ads. See? Wheels within wheels.
Let me reverse the question: What's an acceptable level of advertising to endure to have a forum to post on? If the answer is "zero," what's the preferred alternative to fund the existance of the forum?
There is another forum I frequent that has zero adds. I pay $50 a year for the membership and a ad free forum. I would gladly pay that here.
I pay $8 a month to Amazon for ad free music. I would gladly pay that here.
Many people are more than willing to pay to not be bombarded advertisements. I am one of them.
Totally get that. We want to get there. Have wanted to for several years, in fact. Spent a good part of this year with new developers who promised the moon and delivered nothing but padded bills. Back with our original guys now, with a better understanding of their needs and challenges. This week's outlay at least gives them a good place to start. [edit: Afraid amortizing the amount of money Amazon made off their $8/per across our forum supporter base would result in some rather startling fees here.]
In reply to Marjorie Suddard :
Deal. I'll shut up about the ads and give you time to work it out.
Don't think we don't appreciate the time, effort and dollars y'all invest in the forum and community. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and you can count on me to be a supporter of it.
Quick question. Are the ads pay per click or pay for display? If they are pay per click, I can probably manage to click on a few of them every day or so. 
You'll need to log in to post.
