Testing Banner Ads - it's not a bug, it's me screwing things up

Lol,though I hit the wrong key and messed up you're entire web site.:eek:: ( Phew ) Man what a relief, carry on Spark! :D
 
Yeah some of the ads are served by google and they respond based off your previous searches. So if some of you start seeing ads for things like certain medications, that's why
 
This brings up a question. Will I get a notification that my Gold membership is expiring? I thought I had expired until I found this thread. I don't mind the ads to the side, but the one at the top is blocking some things for me.
 
nccole said:
Will I get a notification that my Gold membership is expiring? I thought I had expired until I found this thread.
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There are two ways to know if your paid membership is expiring.

You can go to Paid Subscriptions at any time and see when it's up. Or you can go to Settings > My Settings > Genera Settings and see Messaging & Notification > Receive Email: and be sure to check Receive Email from Administrators. This will get you an email notification in time to re-up.
 
the top banner ad covers over our name profile and I think thats it... I guess this won't matter to non reg, as there won't be a name there.. but for now.. its in the way.
 
How long is this test likely to take, the ads seem to be multiplying to the point where it's difficult to read the posts?
 
I have to do performance testing once the ads are all in place. One of the things I've found now is that (thanks to vBulletin's "coding" "scheme") the servers take quite a performance hit when we filter ads out for paid subscribers. Previously, each and every time a user viewed a potential ad location the software had to check their usergroup and see whether or not they were a paid subscriber, then it would display the ad. I think this was behind some of the server slowdowns and timeouts we've been experiencing.

Also if you are having problems reading posts tell me where and how so I can work on the display.
 
site loads slower, seems like its trying to find ads to post up.. I end up waiting til the ad posts, then the forum posts show up...

I know disc space isn't that expensive.. band width might be a bit.. but your costs can't change that much..

Again, hope this testing is over this week... ads at the top, ads in posts, ads under posts.. waiting times increased..

I ran a forum once, albeit smaller than this.. you have quite a few paying members.. and membership isn't exactly cheap.. If the paid members can't keep this running... hope to see things change back soon.
 
sloth357 said:
site loads slower, seems like its trying to find ads to post up.. I end up waiting til the ad posts, then the forum posts show up...

I know disc space isn't that expensive.. band width might be a bit.. but your costs can't change that much..

Again, hope this testing is over this week... ads at the top, ads in posts, ads under posts.. waiting times increased..

I ran a forum once, albeit smaller than this.. you have quite a few paying members.. and membership isn't exactly cheap.. If the paid members can't keep this running... hope to see things change back soon.
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Hey, I appreciate the feedback but do me a solid and don't lecture me on what my costs are. Multiple servers aren't cheap, and I'm about to have to add even more along with additional attendant hardware. Technical support services and consulting isn't cheap either. Running a small forum with no traffic isn't the same as having several thousand simultaneous users. So please trust me that I'm doing what I can to keep the site open for everyone with the absolute minimum of inconvenience.

I appreciate your paid subscription and it helps keep this place open. Given the option, I'd love to be able to kick back on a tropical beach off the money that BladeForums makes, but that's not the current state of affairs - far from it. Our membership rates aren't expensive, especially compared to the commission fees you'd be hit with elsewhere, and you get to help keep it a resource for the entire community.
 
Kevin,

I do not mind the top banner ads. If it helps you with the site then go with it and don't worry about the filtering. My only concern is with the ads that are appearing within the individual posts. It looks like the ad is sponsored by the member and I do not want to receive a barrage of emails and PMs from people looking for all kinds of stuff. It also makes the individual posts that much harder to read; are we looking at content inserted by the member and relevant to the topic of the thread, or just advertising clutter? It is not always easy to tell.

Thanks for the good work.

n2s
 
Glad to see this thread kicking. I saw the ads and thought that either A) membership expired or B) I logged in wrong. I'm happy the answer was C) none of the above :D

This site has been a part of my life for several years now so a brief hiccup like this is hardly a speed bump. We should all be happy that we can even log in. There's been days at a time where things have to completely shut down leaving us to run to our other accounts in Jersey :devilish:
 
Well, I understand you need to do what you need to do.

Equally though, understand that if a platinum member has to have ads for this site to stay up, gl.. I won't pay for ads, and I won't stick around past this year when my membership expires if being a platinum member means banner ads.

I know others feel this way, and I know others will say screw off to this attitude. That's ok with me.

Wicked gems, roll playing ads with movies.. no thanks. This ain't AOL or Yahoo is it? No.


EDIT: oh and I totally agree that all non paying members SHOULD get ads. If you don't pay, there has to be a source of funds.

And non paying members shouldn't get any perks for that matter. No photo albums etc.. Perhaps just see text but unable to participate. And what's with knife makers that don't pay, just have their link up once in a while.. Free advertising for them? They need to pay. PAY!
 
sloth357 said:
Well, I understand you need to do what you need to do.

Equally though, understand that if a platinum member has to have ads for this site to stay up, gl.. I won't pay for ads, and I won't stick around past this year when my membership expires if being a platinum member means banner ads.
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That's why I'm working on it and keeping this open and allowing discussion instead of unilaterally saying "Deal with it, I don't care about your opinion, my way or highway rawr!"

Believe me, I'd only leave banners visible to paid members as a last resort.
sloth357 said:
EDIT: oh and I totally agree that all non paying members SHOULD get ads. If you don't pay, there has to be a source of funds.

And non paying members shouldn't get any perks for that matter. No photo albums etc.. Perhaps just see text but unable to participate. And what's with knife makers that don't pay, just have their link up once in a while.. Free advertising for them? They need to pay. PAY!
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We're actually dealing with that right now. We had one notable knifemaker have a temper tantrum over it yesterday after getting a warning to remove his advertising information out of his profile. You can see his thread in this forum.
 
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