The ads are getting annoying on this site

[Jeff Mottle]

... but have seen it become more of a cash maker for management instead of a community site for enthusiasts, although there is nothing wrong with that, I would also recommend management listen to it's members.

 

Well that is a direct reflection of how the site started, but I would be curious to know what you would like to see that is missing. It started out as a hobby, but over the years required money to pay for the infrastructure and now that it's my sole source of income, has to pay several salaries too. Natural progression I guess. My complaint about the "feedback" is that it's not really feedback as much as it is whining. If people are going to complain about something at least be constructive about it. If you don't think something is working, suggest an alternative. You can't just throw a tantrum and say "I'm not coming back to this site until it's gone". That sort of attitude is what really irritates me. Put yourself in my shoes and think about the problem and the repercussions before complaining about something. Are there other options I've not thought of, most certainly, but just complaining about something doesn't help anything. One person did suggest the subscription model to remove ads, but that has unfortunately already been proven not to work in the CG industry.

[Jonathan Sanchez]

Well that is a direct reflection of how the site started, but I would be curious to know what you would like to see that is missing. It started out as a hobby, but over the years required money to pay for the infrastructure and now that it's my sole source of income, has to pay several salaries too. Natural progression I guess. My complaint about the "feedback" is that it's not really feedback as much as it is whining. If people are going to complain about something at least be constructive about it. If you don't think something is working, suggest an alternative. You can't just throw a tantrum and say "I'm not coming back to this site until it's gone". That sort of attitude is what really irritates me. Put yourself in my shoes and think about the problem and the repercussions before complaining about something. Are there other options I've not thought of, most certainly, but just complaining about something doesn't help anything. One person did suggest the subscription model to remove ads, but that has unfortunately already been proven not to work in the CG industry.

 

I agree with you Jeff... I guess it's up to you guys to filter through what's "whining" and what's legitimate "feedback". Take for instance this thread.. it's a little whiny with it's title and all, but it reflects what some were thinking... we recommended u limit the number of times the ad appeared, which you did and I thank u for that.

 

To suggest though that we should not give our ideas for the site is wrong imo (u didn't say that Jeff, but others suggested it)... then we would not be a COMMUNITY.

 

As to what's missing.. nothing is.. this is still a great site Jeff and you guys are doing a great job.. and I know you need to make a living somehow, so thx for all your hard work.

[Flint]

I don't think the advertising on this site is over the top. Got it about right but the Vray one was a little off putting when it was on every page you visited which was addressed. The add itself though was very off putting and had me looking for the X asap. Most of us have 16:9 monitors and the way the add was displayed reduced a great deal of screen space. Yeah I know we now get flash animations flying at us that land on the middle of a website we're viewing but to me these are less irritating. It wasn't the advert that was off putting but the way it was displayed. Lots of margin on the either side of the screen for it to be locked to like the one for the cgschool. That way it could be on every page, or even fly in and dock there.

[pixelperfectg]

One person did suggest the subscription model to remove ads, but that has unfortunately already been proven not to work in the CG industry.

FWIW if it's not too much cost/trouble to implement it might be somewhat useful to implement. I say this because I subscribe at CGtalk and it's not because I want the ad's gone as I could probably do that with browser settings or plugins. I subscribe/pay because I wanted to help support a site that has given me so much over the years. I would do the same here even though I rarely do any architectural type projects, and surely I'm not alone in that thought process.

 

Again though I don't know how complex/costly it would be to implement a subscription option. It sounds to me like you've already put a lot of thought & research into it so at the end of the day it may not be worthwhile. Either way for me personally the ads were a bit distracting at first but I didn't think twice about it because I know why they have to exist.

[molson]

Now that its gone, I kinda miss it.

When I saw the add for the first time, I thought wow good for you Jeff. that's a great add for great software. Now hopefully you'll make some more money that can be put into this site. I know that the money that CGarchitect gets as profit, from anything income generating on this site goes back into the site and inevitably back to the users. Jeff has lots of ideas about making CGarchitect even bigger than it is. He does it for the passion of the industry. And needs more money to implement these ideas than he gets. I assume we all get that. But do you really? I can tell that some do.

 

I'm just saying that with anything new you have basically three choices:

1. Whine about it and get mad because your world has been rocked in a negative way.

2. Do nothing

3. Think of the positives of why this change has come about.

 

I can't speak for Jeff, but its hard not to take "...every single page I go to is ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!!" personally.

 

Maybe it's worth while to shut the whiners up with a subscription fee.

"To ensure I don't whine" fee.

 

OK admittedly now I am no better than a whiner because of those comments. Oops.

[molson]

Ah damn i didn't realize this thread was kinda old.

Sorry for bringing it up again.

It sorta rubbed me the wrong way...now I know how Chris Ortiz may have felt when viewing the add.

Annoyed!!!!!!!