Advertising or no?

[blackburn mark]

Hi Mark,

Yes these ads are new to site members, they have been there for awhile but only guest’s could see them. I have been testing Amazon products for a few months now and recently added some other products to the range due to the success of the products I originally recommend.

There is also some new ads showing at the top of the page and a small ad zone in the first post of every thread, again these have been hidden to members and only shown to guests. With only the private advertisers being visible to the forums registered members.

So why have I now decided to show these ads/products to members?

Good question, the reason I have done this is because of a few things. The first is I’m currently getting ready to launch a new front end to this site, the new front end will be totally new to what the site is at the moment (a forum) and will house things like Articles, Tutorials, Reviews, News and so on with the forum also being integrated into the new design. When this go’s live our ad locations will be condensed down into (for the moment) two locations, so you could say pages will become less cultured with ads.

For the Amazon products, I am testing whether or not I see an increase of interest from the registered members. This isn’t a permanent thing and is only for a short time, once I have collected my data I will be reviewing their placement on the site and coming back with a proposal based on the data I collect.

I am aware that I need to be sensitive to the community and I do try to be, at the same time I appreciate that advertising has never been subtle. So please bear with me for the moment as things will come together quite nicely very soon and in my opinion complement each other very well.

You may have also noticed that things have “disappeared” from the site as well, the most recent being the sidebar from the main forum home page, again this is in preparation for the new design and will continue to go on, however these changes will be at a slow rate and over a period of time, allowing you to adjust to the changes as they happen. These changes won’t be massive feature removals but rather little things that may get in the way of how I would like the new design to look and function.

It’s quite hard to describe every change and the reasons behind them without showing you the new site/design and this is something I don’t really want to do until the launch. However you may have also noticed that I have also removed the MYCNCUK specific forums that used to live at the top of the main forum list where you could submit site suggestions, comments and so on, again this is in preparation for the new design BUT I am happy to share with you the replacement for those forums ahead of time, please see below.

If you would like to share your Comments, Suggestions or give us feedback in general for the site, please go to our new system for doing this by Clicking Here.

Mark, you should also note that the poll posted by Irving is in relation to advertisers joining and posting adverts as forum members in and/or as threads/posts, so this is not in regards to the ad placements around the site.

If you will, please can we get this thread back on track with what it is actually about. Please use the link above to give Comments, Suggestions or Feedback for the site. That system is also capable of discussions and will be the best way for us respond and keep track of everything being submitted.

Thanks,
Lee

Hi lee, thanks for your response
I "think" I hear what you are saying

At the risk of being kicked off the forum my feelings are as follows

Please don’t forget that all the members of this forum do what they do out of good will and the joy of helping a struggling soul over a hurdle or two
Without its members this forum would be nothing more than an advert
I’ll assume that most of the members except that bandwidth and sever space needs to be paid for and the "webmasters/moderators" time compensated
What worries me is that on the back of all that good will and hard work we will end up with an orgy of adverts and profiteering instigated and enjoyed by the few who have the power and paid for by the many that in my opinion have the true moral ownership of what mycncuk uses for fuel

I fully except that I may be way off the mark and mycncuk is costing you money to run however you did not express this in your response which naturally leaves me with the feeling that this is not the case

The things I express above are genuine concerns and I express them on this thread as it seems the most relevant to the points i make, I could have expressed them in feedback as you ask but that seems a little out of the public eye and would sooner discuss in an open forum, others may show an interest (id find it rather sad if they didn’t)

So, my question to you considering what it is that everyone else is doing hear, at what point do you run out of good will and need paying for what it is that you do, how much is it you would like paying and would it not be easier to discuss with the members what it is you think you are worth and the best means to satisfy your requirements

This may sound like a very rude question but considering the points I make above it’s not an unfair one

With respect
Blackburn mark