jackbird Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 This entire industry is built on experienced practicitioners paying the help they got along the way forward. I understand your need to pay your bandwidth bill, Jeff, but I choose to interpret the adblockerblocker you recently added to the site as a message that contributions of the content that drive the page views that run up your bandwidth bill are simply not valued. No, I am not disabling my adblocker for your site. I am hitting F12, hiding that obnoxious page-covering element, and changing my cgarchitect usage to just reading threads related to problems I'm having. And I'm probably not going to be able to follow the rest of this discussion, since I had to do that to even post this message, and it's a pain. Whatever you're paying those Admiral people that make your adblockerblocker, it's too costly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicolai Bongard Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 At least none of the ads on this site are (yet) as horrible as the ones on ronen bekermans site, those "fancy" ones that covers your entire screen and makes it a pain to navigate. Made the site unusable. Anyway, all you need for the forums is to bookmark the http://forums.cgarchitect.com/search/new/ address to go directly to the new posts (its usually what im after while browsing the forum anyway). The only ads i get are the ones on top next to the cgarchitect logo, and one way below the forum that you never see anyway. While it seems likely that most people use this site for the forums and thus provide the value/content themselves, it is also true that it will cost more for bandwidth for more people using/more frequent use of the site. It does not, at least in my mind, seem unfair to place some small adds on the top and bottomn of the pages that you hardly notice anyway. From what i can tell, most of the content in the ads are related to the topics discussed here, and does not seem out of place. I may be misunderstanding something here, but is it the ads on the forums you are having a trouble with, or is it how the adblock-blocker is worded specifically? (i havent seen it myself so i couldnt argue for nor against it) Anyway, it should - at least to my mind - not be a problem enabling the ads for the forums, as they are not invasive and hardly noticeable. Just my two cents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Vella Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 At least none of the ads on this site are (yet) as horrible as the ones on ronen bekermans site, those "fancy" ones that covers your entire screen and makes it a pain to navigate. Made the site unusable. Anyway, all you need for the forums is to bookmark the http://forums.cgarchitect.com/search/new/ address to go directly to the new posts (its usually what im after while browsing the forum anyway). The only ads i get are the ones on top next to the cgarchitect logo, and one way below the forum that you never see anyway. While it seems likely that most people use this site for the forums and thus provide the value/content themselves, it is also true that it will cost more for bandwidth for more people using/more frequent use of the site. It does not, at least in my mind, seem unfair to place some small adds on the top and bottomn of the pages that you hardly notice anyway. From what i can tell, most of the content in the ads are related to the topics discussed here, and does not seem out of place. I may be misunderstanding something here, but is it the ads on the forums you are having a trouble with, or is it how the adblock-blocker is worded specifically? (i havent seen it myself so i couldnt argue for nor against it) Anyway, it should - at least to my mind - not be a problem enabling the ads for the forums, as they are not invasive and hardly noticeable. Just my two cents! Agreed, I only see 1 advertisement at the top of the screen and one at the bottom of the last post. This is probably one of the few websites I have disabled my adblocker on have not really noticed to be honest (I actually double checked if it was off when I read your post). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 ...the adblockerblocker you recently added to the site as a message that contributions of the content that drive the page views that run up your bandwidth bill are simply not valued... I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. As one of the all-time highest post-count members who answers more questions than I ask, and having contributed to the site and its community in other ways as well, I have always felt valued by Jeff and the rest of the CGA-verse. I do not resent the things the site does to make money. I do not find the ads especially intrusive, in fact this is about the only site on the web where I can count on the ads being relevant to my work. Having said that, I did have a raised eyebrow moment with the recent changes you mention, but I figured that's what happens when 100% of your readers are tech-savvy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notamondayfan Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 I also don't see the issue. I run an ad blocker, but disabled it for this site, as the adverts really aren't full on at all, and are generally relevant to the industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 (edited) I was waiting for someone to bitch about this. Here is the deal guys. This website is not free to operate, but I don't charge anyone directly to access it. My server costs alone are nearly $40,000 a year, security services are another $10K a year, not to mention hundreds of other expenses I incur each year to run this business. And guess what, I actually like to feed my family too, just as I am sure you do as well. I make my money in one of three ways: Advertising, consulting work I provide to companies like Autodesk, HP, NVIDIA, Epic Games etc and our online store. No one thing is enough to pay all the bills, so I rely on all of them. I think it's a pretty damn small ask for you to see a few relevant industry ads while you visit the site so I can continue to offer a useful resource for the community for FREE. The ads are actually useful to many. I recognize why adblockers exist, but thankfully we don't use the obnoxious popups that started the adblocker industry and all of our ads have always been, and always will be, relevant. I regularly turn down offers to host lucrative non industry ads, because I know you would not want to see them. I also recognize that once you turn on an adblocker to block more dubious sites, it's easy to forget you're also blocking the sites you like and wish to support. Admiral provides us a way to remind people of that and whitelist us. Thankfully most people have been doing this. While I appreciate your point of view that user contributions to the forum, our gallery etc. provide value, and they do, how exactly do you propose I provide you this platform for free? Magic pixie dust? Jon, as someone who has been on this site since nearly the beginning, I have to say I'm a bit taken aback by your stance. Naive, entitled and idealistic to say the least. Do you not see the irony in your statement: "This entire industry is built on experienced practitioners paying the help they got along the way forward. " So I guess I'm not included in that list, even though I'm paying to operate the platform? I thought a lot about this situation before I implemented Admiral on the site, and I came to a final conclusion. If users are not contributing to this site in a way that allows me to pay the bills, there is zero reason for me to pay to have you on the site. While I would love to win the lottery and do everything for free, that is not realistic. I have literally given blood, sweat and tears to this community over the last 17 years and have always done everything with the community in mind. Ask anyone that knows me well and they will tell you the same. I eat, breathe, sleep arch viz. I sadly had to take a 4 month sabbatical last year because I burned it at both ends for 22 years and burned myself out completely. As a result, I'm starting to put a lot more value on my time. I think my ask in return is a pittance to the value I have tried to provide all these years. While I do appreciate you have posted 92 posts to this community in 14 years, that unfortunately does not pay my bills. You are free to cease visiting the site, that is your prerogative, but it's also my prerogative to only support those that support me. off> To all of you who whitelisted us and those who support us through our store and click our ads, and contribute to the community thank you. You guys rock! I have some big plans for CGA this year, if all the stars align, but the development costs alone will be $50K+ Can't do that if we aren't making money and I have no desire to offer that service to those that don't value what I am trying to do. Edited February 28, 2018 by Jeff Mottle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notamondayfan Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 Hi Jeff, I personally think what you've done is great, and like I say, the ads for me aren't a problem at all. Have you ever considered a paid / members area? I know a few sites (mainly business based) who offer a paid membership, with certain benefits such as ad free, private members forum, critique, directory etc? Might be worth a look, as some might be happy to pay a few quid? Cheers, Dean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 Have you ever considered a paid / members area? I know a few sites (mainly business based) who offer a paid membership, with certain benefits such as ad free, private members forum, critique, directory etc? Yes, but if I ever did this, I doubt it would be ad free ad free. The people who are willing to pay for services are the same ones who advertisers want to reach. This has been proven and I know first hand experiences with this on other sites. If there was a fee to access parts of the site it would be to pay for added functionality over and above what you get now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zdravko Barisic Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 (edited) I personally do LIKE the adds here, as they are 100% related to our stuff and sometimes they are very very useful. Disabled the addblocker on cgtalk, also. Most of them I do not even realize as "adds" but just another news from industry. EDIT hahahaha, I've just seen the venice add on the right side of my post, but how could I even know for that event? No way...so, keep the industry related adds....they are just like news... Edited March 26, 2018 by okmijun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 I personally do LIKE the adds here, as they are 100% related to our stuff and sometimes they are very very useful. Disabled the addblocker on cgtalk, also. Most of them I do not even realize as "adds" but just another news from industry. EDIT hahahaha, I've just seen the venice add on the right side of my post, but how could I even know for that event? No way...so, keep the industry related adds....they are just like news... I think most people feel the same way. The main intent of the adblocker blocker was to remind people they are blocking ads on sites that likely want to see. Sadly there are some tin foil hat conspiracy theorist out there too. If they want to stop visiting, I guess we're not really losing much. I usually get a few requests per month to delete profiles from the site too because, you know...you have to use your name.....egad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notamondayfan Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 Yes, but if I ever did this, I doubt it would be ad free ad free. The people who are willing to pay for services are the same ones who advertisers want to reach. This has been proven and I know first hand experiences with this on other sites. If there was a fee to access parts of the site it would be to pay for added functionality over and above what you get now. Fair point, Keep up the good work!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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