Policy update regarding advertising

[caserri]

As some of you may have noticed, this month we started displaying advertisements served up by Google AdSense. These ads will display in limited areas and will be shown to visitors based on what they happen to be doing at the time.

For example, more ads will be shown to guests and members who are not logged in. Members who are logged in will see considerably less ads. We are also working on an option to remove all advertising (including internal banners) for a small donation of any amount.

I know in the past, I've been reluctant to place paid advertising anywhere on the site. For years our community was funded by the support of our generous members. Unfortunately, as many of you have witnessed over the last few months, member support can be unpredictable and nonexistent for months at a time. This has resulted in very brief but undesirable shut downs in service. No one wants to visit one of their favorite websites only to find out it is offline. This is very frustrating for our members, as well as our staff, so in order to combat this, I've agreed to start displaying these ads.

It is my hope that we can move away from being a 100% member supported community to a 100% uptime community. So far, in the short time we've been running these ads, we've seen real positive results. We are on track to hit our monthly financial goal. I will monitor the results as we move through the upcoming months and will adjust the ad frequency according to our needs. In other words, the more clicks we get on these ads, the more support we receive, lessening the need to display as many ads. I will be zeroing in on the happy medium of being able to sustain the forum financially and having an unobtrusive ad campaign.

This may lead to the question of why we feel the need to pay for hosting and software. This is a valid question. After all, with all of the free forum software out there, why should TVF pay for it?

The answer is simply this. From day one, I have strived to offer our members a quality and professional product. I don't believe I have failed in that goal. The support we get from our providers is unparalleled and by paying for the product, it ensures that our image remains professional and polished for years to come. Our payment to our providers allows them to continually work on updates and improvements to their product, which in turn, betters your experience as an end user. Many of these updates and improvements can be seen visually but there are many that go unnoticed by the casual visitor. For example, a paid forum solution is better equipped to isolate and fix security issues with its software. They stay on top of forward thinking web trends and incorporate those trends into their product if it is useful. The end result is a quality, safe, and always up to date product that is enjoyable for everyone. It really all boils down to commitment. If I'm going to commit to providing a quality product that lasts many years, it only makes sense to invest in the proper tools.

I want to thank everyone for reading this. I hope that this post helps to make sense of a topic that can otherwise be misunderstood.

[Wonder Vend]

Makes perfect sense to me and if more ads is what keeps this forum and its seemingly endless stream of great information available then it sounds like a great plan.

[moondog]

As some of you may have noticed, this month we started displaying advertisements served up by Google AdSense. These ads will display in limited areas and will be shown to visitors based on what they happen to be doing at the time.

For example, more ads will be shown to guests and members who are not logged in. Members who are logged in will see considerably less ads. We are also working on an option to remove all advertising (including internal banners) for a small donation of any amount.

I know in the past, I've been reluctant to place paid advertising anywhere on the site. For years our community was funded by the support of our generous members. Unfortunately, as many of you have witnessed over the last few months, member support can be unpredictable and nonexistent for months at a time. This has resulted in very brief but undesirable shut downs in service. No one wants to visit one of their favorite websites only to find out it is offline. This is very frustrating for our members, as well as our staff, so in order to combat this, I've agreed to start displaying these ads.

It is my hope that we can move away from being a 100% member supported community to a 100% uptime community. So far, in the short time we've been running these ads, we've seen real positive results. We are on track to hit our monthly financial goal. I will monitor the results as we move through the upcoming months and will adjust the ad frequency according to our needs. In other words, the more clicks we get on these ads, the more support we receive, lessening the need to display as many ads. I will be zeroing in on the happy medium of being able to sustain the forum financially and having an unobtrusive ad campaign.

This may lead to the question of why we feel the need to pay for hosting and software. This is a valid question. After all, with all of the free forum software out there, why should TVF pay for it?

The answer is simply this. From day one, I have strived to offer our members a quality and professional product. I don't believe I have failed in that goal. The support we get from our providers is unparalleled and by paying for the product, it ensures that our image remains professional and polished for years to come. Our payment to our providers allows them to continually work on updates and improvements to their product, which in turn, betters your experience as an end user. Many of these updates and improvements can be seen visually but there are many that go unnoticed by the casual visitor. For example, a paid forum solution is better equipped to isolate and fix security issues with its software. They stay on top of forward thinking web trends and incorporate those trends into their product if it is useful. The end result is a quality, safe, and always up to date product that is enjoyable for everyone. It really all boils down to commitment. If I'm going to commit to providing a quality product that lasts many years, it only makes sense to invest in the proper tools.

I want to thank everyone for reading this. I hope that this post helps to make sense of a topic that can otherwise be misunderstood.

You already know my feelings on this issue.  Given that most of the people online here are lurkers it only makes sense to run these ads.  I've already clicked on a few myself.