Hello, StarboundRPers. As some of you may have noticed over the last couple weeks, I had introduced ads to most parts of the forum. This was to help cover server costs and our expansion. As I myself dislike ads, I tried to keep them mostly out of the way but it seems that I was shooting myself in the foot. These ads, while doing well on Day 1, there afterwards plummeted dramatically in the revenue they were bringing in. It ended up where they were only bringing in 2 cents/day, and that's just not worth the ugliness they add to the forums. While I was really hoping that they would offer some sort of sustainability for us and ease the financial burden, they don't work if they don't ever get used, and while I'm not allowed to ask you to use them and nor would I ever ask you of them - it's just not working out. So I've removed them until I can think of something better. Cheers.
Ads are re-enabled to see how they do. I hope they're not too invasive, and I encourage folks with AdBlock to consider whitelisting this website to help us out. Thanks. EDIT: I've also made it so all donors don't see ads, as a bonus.
Google seems to want me to enable display banners - but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that. I'm opening this thread for a short time, I want to know if you all would be bothered by it.
So long as they're not too invasive, pop out of their space, or sound off on their own, I wouldn't mind them too much.
The current ads between forum posts are fine, so long as they're text ads. They blend in seamlessly with the forum. By "too invasive", imagine the current forum ads between posts, but instead of text ads they're animated video displays about Colgate toothpaste. Or a large banner that takes up a quarter of the screen between the banner of the site and the forum. Or a header ad that displays constantly fixed in location on the screen no matter where you scroll.
So if I were to keep ads the exact same width, length, and in the same spots - only turn them into static banners - it'd be alright?
Yeah, that'd be perfectly fine. Even animated banners would be fine, so long as they don't get in the way or take up too much space.
Yes. I can control certain categories, as well as block specific ads or ad providers. I can decide if they're animated, or if they get bigger on mouseover. (Both of which I currently have disabled)
I don't mind ads. I think we all don't care as long as they don't interfere with RPing or the accessibility of the site and forum posts.
Not directly, but they give me optimization reports and suggestions. It advises that I switch over to use more display banners, and try different ad sizes and approaches.