Are the banners in between the forum posts too much?

[Horton]

I am working on some ad deals and do not want the number of banners to become overwhelming / detract for the conversation.

[eleeski]

Make sure that they don't use too much bandwidth. No movies or graphics that take too long to load. I use too many crappy internet connections. Simple and easy to load ads don't hurt a site - and might help. But I avoid some sites where you can't get to the content because the ads take too long to load. Ads are OK if you read them only when you are interested. They suck if they dominate or restrict the site.

Now go make some money but don't screw up the site.

Eric

[RichardDoane]

too much of a good thing IMO

[escmanaze]

Whatever you do, please don't do video ads. The other forum I hang out on has video ads that automatically start up. I forget about it and it is suddenly blasting in my speakers and waking up my kids. The worst!!!

[Horton]

If you were surfing the site for the last few moments... I was testing... do not freak out. I will not put more than just a few banners in the forum if any.

[ozski]

As an ex forum owner I don't have a problem with the revenue model... Its better than subscription. I'm skiing better and this community has helped, its a small price to pay.

[Texas6]

Light it up with ads, just no motion.

[LeonL]

I agree with @eleeski, keep away from video and heavy on graphics ads. Takes too long to load with my slow DSL. I live in the middle of nowhere and thusly fast internet is cost prohibitive.

[Skoot1123]

Ads don't bother me as long as there isn't any crazy animation that takes up a lot of bandwidth. Definitely a NO on pop up ads. What we have now is good though.

[baja]

Reserve the forum slots for the BOS co-branded promos, tournaments and webcasts. Things we might want to participate in rather than stuff someone wants to sell us. Overall seems about the right amount of screen real estate allocated to ads and they are not yet obtrusive.

[Waternut]

I say they are too much because they aren't separated well enough. I know I've come on here occasionally looking for a specific thread and couldn't find it because it was tucked up underneath the Goode ad. Since the Goode ad doesn't have hard lines around it, the next thread looks like part of the ad. If the ads were the same size as a normal thread AND were clearly segregated, it would make it a lot easier. If you do that, I'd have no problem with the ads.

[BRY]

They are annoying. Adds top, sides, bottom and in the middle two? But, cost/benefit, if they are necessary to keep afloat then yes. Or if they bring in enough additional revenue to bring significant additional capabilities then yes. Necessary evils then.

[B_S]

Just like the voice of my wife and kids, they're super easy to ignore while I'm perusing the forurm;)

[Wish]

Agree with @waternut. It needs to be seperated out better. I thought the Goode add was part of that thread title till I noticed that it was random. Seperate them out a little better so they don't look inclusive as part of a thread the title.

[mwetskier]

auto load videos are especially annoying and would make me leave cuz i dont need the sudden un expected loud audio to blurt out when im on a computer at work.

[Than_Bogan]

I don't know that I care THAT much, but stuff in the middle of the screen is a bit annoying. If you go this direction, could you make it so that anybody "subscribing" to the site (with the scheduled $5 or more monthly donation) doesn't have to see those?

[ozski]

@Than_Bogan The Honda forum I owned had this exact model. You pay the annual subscription and the ads vanish when your logged in. Very few people paid.