disappointed with bladeforums.com

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Wait a second... "Latin Mail Order Brides"???? Anyone else seen that ad? I haven't looked for mail order brides... or is it a sign? :D
 
I usually ignore the ads but there's a new type with sound which nearly scared the crap out of me the first time it happened. :eek:

I have Firefox but it doen't stop the sound effect ads. Anybody else encounter this and know how to stop it?
 
digdeep said:
I usually ignore the ads but there's a new type with sound which nearly scared the crap out of me the first time it happened. :eek:

I have Firefox but it doen't stop the sound effect ads. Anybody else encounter this and know how to stop it?
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A sound?

Are you sure it's not just in your head? :D
 
HALO V said:
A sound?

Are you sure it's not just in your head? :D
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voicesfunny.jpg
 
I get ads of things I've already bought even. Definitely from my cookies.

I wonder if he's interrogating the son yet.... :D
 
No offense intended..... but I honestly LOVE that someone came in high and mighty and then likely realized after they tried to dump on BF that their actions caused the problem considering the complaint...... live and learn. It's WAY too easy to point the finger sometimes, guilty of that myself.
 
Reignman said:
No offense intended..... but I honestly LOVE that someone came in high and mighty and then likely realized after they tried to dump on BF that their actions caused the problem considering the complaint...... live and learn. It's WAY too easy to point the finger sometimes, guilty of that myself.
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It's still bladeforums fault to allow ads in the first place, so...
 
hey be a gold membership and all of the problems go away. all I hear about is how much your guys just spent on a knife but you can't come up with a lousy $25.00 per year for a gold membership??? trade one of your knifes on the boards for some one else to pay for your membership.
 
HALO V said:
It's still bladeforums fault to allow ads in the first place, so...
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Perhaps HALO V would like to pony up all the costs for keeping BFC up and running. That $25 subscription is just a drop in the barrel. We can't all be like brownshoe and support BFC with our minds.
 
digdeep said:
I usually ignore the ads but there's a new type with sound which nearly scared the crap out of me the first time it happened. :eek:

I have Firefox but it doen't stop the sound effect ads. Anybody else encounter this and know how to stop it?
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the mute on your comp,it is a problem here the noisy pop ups.
 
HALO V said:
It's still bladeforums fault to allow ads in the first place, so...
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You're new, so let me give you a history lesson. Bladeforums went for a long time being ad-free. Longer than most other knife (and gun) forums, many of which weren't nearly the size of BF, which is the largest knife discussion on the internet. But the costs of running such a site are not cheap. Paid subscriptions help of course, but they weren't enough. Spark was extremely reluctant to use ads. Apart from being annoying, they can cause problems. Pr0n aside, they've caused glitches and headaches, and even got us reported as an attack site and blocked by browsers. Trust me, if he could afford to run the site without ads, he wouldn't have them (and he used to).

www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthre...n-a-couple-topics-Search-Subforums-Banner-Ads

Ads are an ugly reality on the internet, but when you think about it, it's no different than any other thing in life. Maintenance on highways is partially funded by billboards. If you watch non-premium TV, you're going to get commercials. Newspapers and magazines make their money from ads, not subscriptions. If Angry Birds is a free download, how does the company make money? Ads.

The difference between those mediums and Bladeforums is that Bladeforums isn't a business for profit. Kevin has another business for that. If he could afford to run BC without ads, trust me, he would.
 
powernoodle said:
I would be quite surprised if Bladeforums did not generate a healthy revenue stream.
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It existed for 12 years before ads were implemented. Most of those years Spark was the owner. If he was in it for the money, we would have seen ads long before that, and us paying members would be seeing ads like everybody else. Maybe he makes a little from all the subscriptions and ads. If so, good for him. Running a forum like this doesn't just take money, it takes a lot of time and hassle. If you think it's annoying when something goes wrong and you can't read or post here for a few hours because of a server issue, software problem, or these recent DOS attacks, imagine the stress Kevin is going through. Maybe he's raking in the dough, swimming in it Scrooge McDuck style. I seriously doubt it. But even then, running a forum of this size is a job in of itself, and I couldn't fault anybody for turning a profit.

Otherwise, there would be no reason for it to exist.
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That's just an extremely absurd and naive assumption. Of course there's reasons for it to exist. Spark is a knife enthusiast. We all are. There's many here who have paid subscriptions for no reason other than to support the site. Look at all the Basic members. What do they get from their money? No ads. BFD, you can block those with Ad Blocker. Personal messages? BFD, there's email and visitor messages if you can't do PMs. An avatar/signature? So what. There's Gold and Platinum members that have never sold anything. Why would people pay money when they get virtually nothing in return? Because they're enthusiasts.

I can't speak for Kevin, but if I owned and ran bladeforums, I'd be extremely proud. Not only of the fact that it's the largest knife discussion forum on the internet, but that it brings together enthusiasts from around the world. Careers for knifemakers and craftsmen have been started here. Without the power of the internet and the expanse of BF, many makers might never have made it. All it takes is a couple pics of a nice looking knife, or a low-rider pocket clip, or some groovy custom scales, and suddenly a off-time hobbyist can be transformed into a craftsman with so many orders he has to make a waiting list.

Also, manufacturers can request their own forums here. Spyderco, Buck, Kershaw, Benchmade, Chris Reeve, Busse, Emerson, Boker, Kabar, just to name a few of the biggest names in high quality knives all have forums here. For free. All on Spark's dime. He could charge them. And I bet most, if not all, would be happy to pay handsomely for the exposure. I mean, if I owned a knife company, I'd certainly have my own forum. But I'd also want to have my own section on the world's largest knife discussion forum on the internet. And I'd be willing to pay a chunk of change for that kind of exposure and community involvement. I'm sure you've looked into at least one of the manufacturers' forums. It doesn't take much poking around Spyderco's, Kershaws, Busse's, Emerson's, or CRK's forums to see that having these forums is undoubtedly a huge boon to the companies and their sales. Busses sell so fast that you can often only get them on the secondary market. High end Kershaw/ZTs sell like crazy. The Sebenza is the Holy Grail for countless people. And you can't find a Paramilitary 2 to save your life. Bladeforums, the size of its membership, and the word of mouth it generates, creates crazy buzz about certain knives. Way more than some ad in a magazine that's only bought by people that wear camo to church.

Spark could charge companies thousands of dollars a year for the privilege of having that kind of exposure, and they'd pay it.

But he doesn't.
 
You guys act like its a terrible insult to suggest that Spark may be generating revenue from Bladeforums. Maybe he is, or maybe he isn't. I'm good either way. But there is not a thing wrong with generating revenue from Bladeforums if thats what he is doing. There is a reason that Bladeforums exists, and considering that there a small army of paid subscribers here - and ad revenue on top of it - its not the craziest idea on earth to conclude that generating revenue is part of the calculus. I guess you also think that Spark went through the major hassle of developing, marketing and distributing the Bladeforums Skyline for no reason but altruism. Of course, Kershaw and Spark divied up around $63,000 for their effort (if it was 700 knives at $90 each - I just made those numbers up), but I guess you think that doesn't count as revenue either.

Not only would there be nothing wrong at all if Spark were generating revenue from Bladeforums, I certainly hope that he is. He dang well better be getting something out of this website considering all that he has put into it. If its a break even proposition for Spark, thats cool. If it runs in the black, thats cool too. I don't care either way. But its hardly "absurd and naive" to postulate that Bladeforums produces revenue.

Esav, please nominate this post for another Nobel Peace Prize. Thanks.
 
I saw an ad for ” ugly girls need love too get laid tonight”. I don't search for ugly girls or getting laid tonight. Thought that was kinda funny.

Adblock plus and noscript firefox addons will make your computer much more secure.
 
You could always go incognito mode when looking at that stuff. ctrl+shift+n = incognito mode. It deletes all cookie history once the incognito windows have been closed. :thumbup:
 
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