Google ads moved to new annoying location

[taerowyn]

I think they've been there for forever. I'm so used to ads on the internet now though that I've got a pretty high-tuned filter and really, for the most part, can completely tune them out.

Has Craftster ever considered doing a higher tier of FoC that allows you to block the ads for those who don't have a good mental filter and are bugged enough that they might be willing to pay for it (she suggests, having no idea how much coding that that might actually entail)? I know of at least one site, Livejournal, that does that. You can have a basic membership that still includes ads, or a deluxe (or something) membership where you don't...so the site either makes the money from the ads or from the non-ad users' higher "dues."

Just a thought...myself, I'm fine with them. I can tune them out, but can also, on occassion find some interesting stuff if I'm interested in looking

And definite props for keeping them mostly craft focused...actually, the only time I remember seeing non-craft focused ones, was some Doctor Who/Sci Fi Channel ones, while looking at some Doctor Who swap galleries. Scary on target, but on target nonetheless.

[SpottedFrog]

Yes, they have been under the first post for that long.  My point is, if they have been there for this long and you have just now noticed them, maybe they are not so annoying and obvious after all.

The size of the font has changed, significantly. It used to be smaller than the posting text, now it's double.

And yes, we have been told that some people do not appreciate the ads.  It's not like we do not realize this and we haven't spent many, many hours discussing it as well as trying to find other ways to make income, though.  That being said, no one has taken the time to tell us another effective method in which we can raise money to run the site.  We're definitely open to ideas and suggestions.

BS. I used to be a FoC, there were several long threads in that forum discussing various other options. Why did I not renew my FoC? You Sweets. I don't know exactly what I did but even after long stretches of not posting I still get attitude from you and I never could figure out exactly what it was that I did to get such animosity from you. Of course everyone who hasn't got the "too bad, shut up" side of Sweets will pile on & tell me I'm the mean one, I expect that, such is the internet.
bye bye.

[sweets4ever]

It's not BS at all.  We haven't gotten any effective suggestions.  Yes, we get lots of suggestions, but if they don't work, we have to stick with the ads.

As for the rest of your post, I'm sorry you feel that way.

[Black_Sheep09]

Yes, they have been under the first post for that long.  My point is, if they have been there for this long and you have just now noticed them, maybe they are not so annoying and obvious after all.

The size of the font has changed, significantly. It used to be smaller than the posting text, now it's double.

And yes, we have been told that some people do not appreciate the ads.  It's not like we do not realize this and we haven't spent many, many hours discussing it as well as trying to find other ways to make income, though.  That being said, no one has taken the time to tell us another effective method in which we can raise money to run the site.  We're definitely open to ideas and suggestions.

BS. I used to be a FoC, there were several long threads in that forum discussing various other options. Why did I not renew my FoC? You Sweets. I don't know exactly what I did but even after long stretches of not posting I still get attitude from you and I never could figure out exactly what it was that I did to get such animosity from you. Of course everyone who hasn't got the "too bad, shut up" side of Sweets will pile on & tell me I'm the mean one, I expect that, such is the internet.
bye bye.

I don't want you to think I disagree with the fact that ads are a bit unsightly and annoying, but I am going to have to agree with Sweets4ever on the fact that there are very few options.

I think you have proved this issue at hand through your posts.  Rather than say "ads suck, lets fix this" you just go on a tirade about how the font size has been resized and the placement has changed (in your opinion).  Although kudos for you for speaking your mind, tsk tsk for not at least offering a better suggestion other than ads.  Sure yelling at the sun because it's bright may make you feel a bit better, but wouldn't putting sunglasses on make more sense?

I like the idea that another person posted about a higher level of FOC to eliminate ads.

I think a campaign to get more members to join FOC in order to cut back on advertising.  I'm sure we could get the mods to give us the number of members they need or something of the likes.

[jungrrl]

Of course everyone who hasn't got the "too bad, shut up" side of Sweets will pile on & tell me I'm the mean one, I expect that, such is the internet.

I would never say "oh my God it's impossible for you to read that from Jean's messages!"  What I would say is that we don't ever intend to come across with that tone, but sometimes we honestly just don't know what else to say. I know it probably might seem like we don't work 40+ hours a week on this site but.. we do.  And I know that it surely doesn't seem like we have days and days worth of conversations and actions put toward more craft related advertising but.. we do.  So sometimes it's just really hard for us to hear suggestions about things that we've tried and things that haven't panned out for us. It's hard that people expect those to be an easy as pie fix because we know that they haven't been.  It's hard to know what to say to that other than, "we did our best but right now we can't change it, I'm sorry". 

[pinokeeo]

There are many ways to deal with this situation.  Most of them are not feasible, from a programmer's point of view.  

Yes, we could make this site a pay-as-you-go.  But we would lose many valuable artists and crafters who could not afford to stay.  

We could eliminate some of the ads, and some bandwidth along with it.  

We could make several layers of payment, but that's a programmer's nightmare.

One of the things that is being done as we speak is that the amnesty program is in place and seems to be working to clean up the duplicate accounts.  

I'm sure there are other ways of dealing with the ads, but at the moment I haven't a clue.  I will be thinking about this, now that I'm aware of it.  Hopefully, I will come up with something that will help.

What bothers me more than the ads is the number of people who will join just to spam.  If there was a way to allow people to join without allowing the robots, I think that would go a long way to fixing some of this.  Maybe one of those boxes where you have to retype the letters and number that you see.  Robots cannot physically read, so they can't comply.

[jungrrl]

We did put a better spambot filter in place after we had a particularly nasty run of spambots a few months ago.  It's been better since then but that still doesn't stop human spammers.    We just have to stay on the ball with that one and ban them as soon as they're reported.

[taerowyn]

What bothers me more than the ads is the number of people who will join just to spam.  If there was a way to allow people to join without allowing the robots, I think that would go a long way to fixing some of this.  Maybe one of those boxes where you have to retype the letters and number that you see.  Robots cannot physically read, so they can't comply.

If you do go the CAPTCHA route, can I recommend linking in with this project: http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/10/02/1224204.shtml It's pretty nifty distributed computing project...I know I find CAPTCHAs so much less annoying when I think they're also helping decipher old texts.

[sweets4ever]

This is what we use right now.  I'm going to check out your link!

[pinokeeo]

We did put a better spambot filter in place after we had a particularly nasty run of spambots a few months ago.  It's been better since then but that still doesn't stop human spammers.    We just have to stay on the ball with that one and ban them as soon as they're reported.

I wasn't aware of the new spambot filters.  That's a good thing, and exactly what I was talking about.

As for human spammers, it's up to all of us to try to catch them.