Advertising Is Evil!

[BigBank_Hank]

Originally posted by 4play@16 September 2003 - 02:12
darker is a great host, i have not had one mysql error since he graciously decided to be are host.

the ads are a minor concern that i hardly ever notice so live with them, if you dont like them block them. darker himself said feel free to do so.

but i think im gonna keep clicking them once and while to help the fella out.

Agreed. I haven't seen the dreaded box since he took over. This is the most stable I've seen the board since I became a member, all be it not that long I used to get the error page at least once a day. A big thumbs up to all the guys working hard to keep the board running smoothly B)

[Adster]

agreed

[FuNkY CaPrIcOrN]

I want more Banner ADs.A front Page with nothing but Advertisements and then you can go to the Forum.

[Adster]

What did you say you wanted more Ads??

Ive already given 3 Ads

adthomp
Ad
Adster

[TheMusicMan]

Well... first of all thanks for the comments

Feedback is always welcome since it makes sure that I am awae that everything runs fine or to see if there is any problem since i am not able to monitor the site all day long even if I try to check for speed every x hours.

I know that many people connect the word free / no spyware with "no ads" but thats a fact that is not really doable. Sure I could just say we remove the ads but it really makes no sense - for yu and also for me.

Why ads ?

Well the answer is simple: Managing a dedicated server is work even if a lot of people don't notice it since they didnt do it before but believe me it is. A board like this is no easy task and there are many things that need attention in order to be able to host such a board.

You have to make sure that nobody is on the "waiting list" - meaning that you have to find more or less exactly the right numbers of allowed webservers that start, you have to set find the best settings about how many connections are made at once and you have to take care that there are no "running wild" webservers (instance of apache) which lag the server.

It looks easy to host such a site but this is a live site which is 100% different from a "normal website" where visitors come, read the content, download something and go again. A live site requires somebody to watch over every process to make sure that everything just works and that there is somebody that can restart the webserver or kill a "killer process" if something is running wild.

If somebody does think that the result for all of this is money then I must say that this is totally wrong because the topic of this site is not welcome on any "make money for showing banners" websites - it would not be approved so I wont even try it since i know the net and what "advertisers" want to see.

The other fact is that lets say at least 80 % of the visitors here don't have a creditcard because of their age which means it makes also no sense to just promote a company which sells stuff on a site like this. Since I am also already happy with my clients (I run a 200 people company) I don't really need advertising to get new clients BUT it is a very interesting thing for me to host a live site since I am able to learn more about problems that can happen with such a site.

Now about the ads:

Since there is no way to make money with a site like this my idea was to use different banner exchanges in order to generate some credits for other projects and this is what I do - all banners that you see don't gnerate any cent - they just help me to earn credits which i can use instead that i "buy" advertising. It is not reallymuch since I get like 2:1 ratios due the fact that the banner clicks ar very low but still I wont just sop to host the boad even if it doesnt give the best results.

Currently you can say that if 100.000 pages are displayed around 200 clicks were made which is really nothing and not interesting for any advertisers. People also block banners but I don't care since it's their own thing and i would never force people to view a banner even if i could simply add a code which would not load the site until the banner was loaded (and believe me many people do that cause they just want results)

If you don't like the banner well then block it I really don't care since i wont lose profits (since i don't make them anyway) - thats your thing

I will just continue to offer the best possible services that I can since I like it and it and because I am able to help people that love to talk.

A forum is more than just a board - visitors are more than just numbers - they are humans which want to exchange parts of their life. Boards can even help to get over private problems and therefor they are a great resource which we should never forget.

I don't care about being the "host of the klboards", to have a special rank or to be the "cool guy" that hosts this board since I do have a live and I don't need something to "show off" - there is no reason for this. The only thing that I try is that everything runs well and that I enable people to share their "words" with the world "out there".

Sorry for this long post but I just had to do it

[Wizzandabe]

Originally posted by 4play@16 September 2003 - 02:12
darker is a great host, i have not had one mysql error since he graciously decided to be are host.

the ads are a minor concern that i hardly ever notice so live with them, if you dont like them block them. darker himself said feel free to do so.

but i think im gonna keep clicking them once and while to help the fella out.

You changed your avatar, woooh. I got to say "I noticed straight away"

Go Darker

can we have more like these?

[Bender]

Originally posted by Darker@16 September 2003 - 11:51
Currently you can say that if 100.000 pages are displayed around 200 clicks were made which is really nothing and not interesting for any advertisers. People also block banners but I don't care since it's their own thing and i would never force people to view a banner even if i could simply add a code which would not load the site until the banner was loaded (and believe me many people do that cause they just want results)

I never clicked a banner in my life but I started doing it since you became our host, 6 to 10 times a day.
I think it's very little trouble in return for a stable board.

Thanks for that post, Darker, and thanks for communicating so well B) ; we've seen different.