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Bar Italia Forum -> Bar Italia Forum -> Should Bar Italia have ads?
Post Info TOPIC: Should Bar Italia have ads?
Should Bar Italia stay payed for or have adverts? [23 vote(s)]

Keep it how it is and we'll each pay £5 every so often.
26.1%
Allow advertising and we won't have to pay anything.
73.9%
fredthe3rd


200% and Bloody Thirsty

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Posts: 1420
Date:
Should Bar Italia have ads?
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I'm not wishing to take over as admin (it's a delightful place as it is with virtually no admin), but was going to try and contact steve devereux through sparklit (the people behind activeboards) about changing to having an advert on the forum rather than having to pay money every few months. 

 

But then realised I didn't know if that was what everyone wanted.

 

So here's a poll, Steve can see the results and make a decision when he eventually comes on the site.

 

Here's an example of an activeboard with ads:

http://boomtownrats.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=48603 

 

The board currently owes something like $118.


EDIT: Just had a thought, just in case this thread inspires you to make a donation... DON'T! Last time when it got to $135 dollars they sent Steve an email, which would mean he'll visit the site, so let the bill rise a little higher.



-- Edited by fredthe3rd on Tuesday 6th of March 2012 11:32:57 AM

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clodia


Hardcore

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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my offer still stands, though. I don't want to take over admin, either though, so nothing would change.

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fredthe3rd


200% and Bloody Thirsty

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Date:
Should Bar Italia have ads?
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No, but I'm not certain I want to pay any more beyond the current fee...

Perhaps we could have ads like the ones on the Mediafire website where the Pulp Portfolios are?



-- Edited by fredthe3rd on Sunday 25th of March 2012 04:58:14 PM

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fredthe3rd


200% and Bloody Thirsty

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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I should have put a "don't mind either way" button shouldn't I?

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saw119


The Only Way is Down

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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To be honest Dominic I don't really know what to say! It does seem that the cost is ridiculously high and that there must be cheaper boards out there. Also, I don't know what kind of form the adverts will take. (S'pose there's only one way to find out...) I think I like clodia's offer but it's not really up to me.

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Eamonn


The Only Way is Down

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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I don't mind ads if they're just the odd banner at the top. One Weird Old Tip can do one though...

And if any migration meant a loss of all the posts here I think I'd prefer to stay put (not cos I'd lose my erm, status as highest poster but because of all the great threads).

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Fran


Legendary

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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If these targeted adsense type things really work, then surely we will only get ads for pink gloves, bri-nylon underwear and special offers at Bar Italia and definitely nothing for ranges of figurines, James Dean posters or nights at the Brincliffe Oaks.



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superchob


Street Operator

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Date:
RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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...and plenty of mis-sold coffee whitener...


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Everything just... seemed to fit
fredthe3rd


200% and Bloody Thirsty

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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Check out my boomtown rats link. It's pretty unobtrusive. No women peeling their face in sight.

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anet


Cocaine Socialist

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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No, I really don't like the ads, whatever they are for, I feel they would dirty this forum. Even that fairly innocuos one on the Rats link made me cringe in horror at the thought of ads over here.

But having said that, talk is cheap and my current financial circumstances are in a state of emergency (especially since getting duped into spending £82.50 on a RAH seat by good old seetickets), so I'm not really in a position to take the moral high ground on this issue.

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blueowl0708


Different Class

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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There are ways to convert activeboard forums to other types,

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=188741.0

There'd likely be a few teething problems, but it can be done. I am certain it would be much cheaper to use a proper webhost and seperate forum software.

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fredthe3rd


200% and Bloody Thirsty

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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anet wrote:

No, I really don't like the ads, whatever they are for, I feel they would dirty this forum. Even that fairly innocuos one on the Rats link made me cringe in horror at the thought of ads over here.

But having said that, talk is cheap and my current financial circumstances are in a state of emergency (especially since getting duped into spending £82.50 on a RAH seat by good old seetickets), so I'm not really in a position to take the moral high ground on this issue.

 

If you can't afford to pay your way you've surely got to vote ads?



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anet


Cocaine Socialist

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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Erm - I think my finger must have slipped onto the 'keep it how it is' option. Either that or I misread 'we'll each pay' as 'you'll each pay'. Do I face expulsion now if ad's free wins? :(

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ArrGee


Quantum Theorist

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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Eamonn wrote:


And if any migration meant a loss of all the posts here I think I'd prefer to stay put.

 Having lost the previous board, I 100% agree with this. I hate when old posts disappear, and like Eamonn, I have a lot of my input on here.

Not fussed at all about advertisements, a small price to pay here, IF it is possible.

The problem with the charges on sparklit is they are based on views, and that includes search engines and spammers,  I doubt there are enough people posting on this board to incur charges.  



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clodia


Hardcore

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Posts: 170
Date:
RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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there should be no loss migrating, no. The address would change, but everything else would stay the same. (I hate hate hate posts getting lost myself, I like boards with a history!)

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fredthe3rd


200% and Bloody Thirsty

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...and another thing. Is five pound from each of us enough to cover costs? Did anyone pay more than that last time?

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Barcroft


Loss Adjuster

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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I have no problems with ads to be honest, so long as they aren't pop ups.

A forum I use much more than this one has introduced ads and they just blend into the background anyway once you have got used to them.

Go for it!

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shotoki


Quiet Revolutionary

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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Barcroft wrote:

I have no problems with ads to be honest, so long as they aren't pop ups.

 I agree with this



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Fran


Legendary

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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The Boomtown Rats example seemed fairly harmless. I do get fed up with sites that have so many ads taking ages to load that the text you are trying to read is either hard to find at all or leaps about everywhere as new ads keep loading. Then there's the ones that have the temerity to start talking to you and playing videos without being asked, I tend to never go back to places that do that to me. But a couple of sensible static ones doesn't seem too much of a problem really.

The idea of migrating it sounds like a lot of work for somebody, is it really worth inflicting that on some kind soul?



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andy


Master Of The Universe

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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Ads is the way to go.

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fredthe3rd


200% and Bloody Thirsty

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RE: Should Bar Italia have ads?
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I've just emailed sparklit, they probably won't contact him as a result but I'll bump this thread just in case.

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Steve Devereux


This Space For Rent

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Should Bar Italia have ads?
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(Oh yeah, and Sparklit never e-mail me - they send me actual old-skool letters, on yellow paper in weirdly-formatted envelopes.)

 

Edit: That's clearly me talking bollocks, as I've got four e-mails from them in my inbox. Ignore that last bit.  It's 3am.  The envelopes are really weird though.



-- Edited by Steve Devereux on Sunday 25th of March 2012 03:13:44 AM

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fredthe3rd


200% and Bloody Thirsty

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Well for the record I think you're a fucking awesome administrator! Didn't mean to cause you a mental breakdown...

As for stupid arguments on forums: been there done that, all part of growing up in the modern age I reckon.

These big companies either never email you or email you far too much about shit you're not interested in, no happy medium.

On re-reading the message on the front page this jumped out at me: 'To keep this forum ad-free, $123.69 is still needed for the next month.' Does that mean inaction will lead to ads?

(How weird are the envelopes? Such things excite me. I have origami DNA. Literally.)


-- Edited by fredthe3rd on Sunday 25th of March 2012 03:13:24 AM



-- Edited by fredthe3rd on Sunday 25th of March 2012 03:15:44 AM

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Steve Devereux


This Space For Rent

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Date:
Should Bar Italia have ads?
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I'd hoped so, but no - apparently that's aimed at visitors to try and get people to cough up cash.  (It's Sparklit's wording, not mine.)  If you just leave it (as I have been doing!), it just mounts up forever until... I don't know what happens; the board shuts down and they take me to court, I guess?  They're not exactly the model of business efficiency, and they're in Canada, so I don't really know what the end of the line would look like.  I'm not that keen to find out, to be honest!

 

It does kind of imply that if the board doesn't make enough money, the administrator will be forced to implement ads, which makes me think there must be a way of doing that, though I'm buggered if I know what it is.

 

The envelopes have two different address windows - one the normal size, but in totally the wrong place (in the bottom left hand corner), and then another long thin one near the top to show a reference number.  Both of them must be something the Canadian post office is happy with, but by the time they reach me they're always crumpled or torn by whatever machines the British post use.  Yeah, it's exciting stuff alright.



-- Edited by Steve Devereux on Sunday 25th of March 2012 03:20:12 AM

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Steve Devereux


This Space For Rent

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I did try that once (writing to them by post, I mean, not making an origami envelope), to no avail - but like I said, I didn't really press the issue. If anyone has the time to deal with this properly, I'm quite happy to hand over the, er, reins.



-- Edited by Steve Devereux on Sunday 25th of March 2012 03:48:00 AM

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