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ThenQuote:
Originally Posted by JPnyc
make size
constraints
part of
the
advertising
agreement
and resize
any ads
that are
larger than
X by Y.
I would
much
rather see
an ad at
the top
of the
page
instead
of forcing
my text
into one
column.
Forcing
the text
to word
wrap
becomes
a real
pain
when
trying to
read
through
new
posts.
Thank
you for
looking
into this
most
annoying
behavior.
Arjay
No, you misunderstand. They have an ad. It's design exists before they bring it to us. They don't design ads with our sites in mind, but only with their ads in mind. Then they buy display space.
I think the point is that you can choose which ad space to sell. If the size and/or shape of their ads affects the layout too negatively, don't sell them the ad space. If their ad was 1600 x 1200, you surely wouldn't allow them to display it on the site. There is a line between getting the ad exposure so that it is worth more and brings in more revenue to the site, and having the ad become too intrusive upon the forum experience. Obviously the decision was made that these ads don't cross that line. The forum members posting here seem to disagree, and are merely giving feedback in the form of a request to bring that line back in a bit.
Well you can choose which ad to buy, yes. The customer decides which space they purchase on the page, meaning what position on the page. But if advertisers in general are moving to block ads, then you have little choice but to move with em.
I don't believe I misunderstand. When you display the ad, set the size of it in html programmatically. In other words, any size larger than 120 x 150 pixels gets proportionally resized before getting displayed.Quote:
Originally Posted by JPnyc
Here's another idea... Allow the ad to be any width, but don't shrink the forum text to display the whole ad. Instead, display the forum text as a fixed percentage of the screen width (say 3/4 wide), then allow the full ad to display off to the right. The first 1/4 of the add will be visible and the remaining portion of the add can be seen by scrolling right.
Arjay
We are communicating this to the highest level people. The line for these ads was drawn to place them on all pages. JPnyc and I already managed to push these back to not put them on the thread pages. We are still communicating you comments.Quote:
Originally Posted by jlou
I use this site too, so I hear what you are saying.
Brad!
We cannot make any changes to the ad whatsoever. We may not affect it in any way. We may only display it as is. To truncate it as you suggest would completely abrogate any agreement. No advertiser would pay a penny if you did that.
If you read my post again you'll see I never suggested truncating the ad.Quote:
Originally Posted by JPnyc
Arjay
Ok, sorry, excuse me, resized, not truncated. No, we cannot resize the ad either.
Thinking an idea aloud...
The big advertisements are a nuisance mainly to people who post often (i.e. contribute to the site voluntarily), but they are really not a nuisance to guests, and visitors alike.
Given this fact -
Say if a member 'X' crosses 150 posts (just a number) then he views smaller ads.Quote:
Is it not possible to have a system by which Codeguru Members who cross a certain number of posts view smaller advertisements?
(like how they were in the good 'ol days...)
This would take away the nuisance factor for those who *contribute* genuinely and frequently to the website, without compromising it's advertisement potential.
This way -
Just an idea... Would like to see a response.
- The guests (who are many), and the infrequent members would see the Ads in their full glory.
- The frequent members (who see every Ad 50 times) that contribute with solutions, etc see them smaller.
"Click Here to Expand Forum to Full Width"
JPnyc and I have gotten agreement to add the above link below the new ads. JPnyc has already implimented the addition this link that lets you close an ad. Granted you have to do this on every page, but I find it makes it a lot easier to look at longer lists of posts.
I know this isn't everything you guys want, but it is a compromise on the part of those we report to. I think it makes the things much, much more usable.
Brad!
Careful with this suggestion.... The "frequent user" is probably more valuable to the people that would want to advertise here because it indicates a persion that is truly interested in "coding". As such, there could be a push to do more ads towards just this group if it could be identified.....Quote:
Originally Posted by Siddhartha
Brad!
True... but, a good Advertisment is a novelty for the first time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Jones
Such a person would be enchanted, enamoured once. The next 49 times, it will slowly but steadily kill his drive to post, or even to return... The point is now completed.
More than that, the technical logistics would be pretty tough. The ads come from another server entirely, so it would be pretty tough to manage. They're served up randomnly with PHP. Now we'd have to figure someway to pass the value (post total) to that ad server to return a certain size ad, and it's not even part of the vbulletin page request to begin with. We'd have to add that to the query.
I've just tried viewing the forum in 1024x768 and it's pretty much unusable in that resolution :/
Unfortunately, this really is a big change that will impact how much people like being around here. If I were always using 1024x768, I would definitely consider moving to a different forum.