Personalising the Site

[Kozmyk]

What's all the fuss about?

RCHeliAddicts is a GREAT site.
I think Stuart does a great job with this site.
I like the structure here. I like the way it works. I like the atmosphere.
If Stuart wants to tinker with it then I'm sure he'll do a good job.

As for intrusive adverts. If I don't want to see them I switch them off with Adblock Plus. Simples
Just as easy to switch them on again if I want to see what's on offer.
Of course I'm using Firefox (do people really still use IE?). Adblock Plus is Free.
If you insist on using IE then I'm sure there's an ad blocker add-on that you can buy.

[Mark_T]

use firefox and install adblock plus. then u can block any advert u want!

Stuart, you really need to let us know a reasonable value to attribute to each person who does this so they know what they should be donating to the site in exchange for blocking the revenue needed to keep this site running.

I'm sure nobody would mind making the appropriate contribution once they knew roughly what it was.

I know many do already contribute but no idea how the amounts given compare to the revenue lost ...

[Planehazza]

I like the ads here. Means I always have something I want to buy!

[Kozmyk]

Conversely, if you could render the adverts unblockable you could charge the advertisers more for guaranteed exposure.

As it is, I'm sure that advertisers are aware of the existence of ad blocking software and consider it worthwhile nevertheless to continue to advertise.

[Mark_T]

As it is, I'm sure that advertisers are aware of the existence of ad blocking software and consider it worthwhile nevertheless to continue to advertise.

I am not sure how Stuart is selling the ads on this site, but I do know from past experience elsewhere how other sites do it and what advertisers expect for their money.

The stats on ad views delivered are what drives the price you can get or how fast you can get through a particular paid campaign, generally expressed as a CPM figure (cost per 1000).

The advertisers neither know nor care how many people block ads as they pay for the ads that are actually delivered or are persuaded by the quoted number of ad impressions viewed so when you block ads you hamper Stuarts ability to deliver on campaigns he has already sold or to attract new advertisers as the number of ad impressions delivered reduces ...

[Kozmyk]

The advertisers neither know nor care how many people block ads as they pay for the ads that are actually delivered or are persuaded by the quoted number of ad impressions viewed so when you block ads you hamper Stuarts ability to deliver on campaigns he has already sold or to attract new advertisers as the number of ad impressions delivered reduces ...

If the advertisers "neither know nor care how many people block ads", how does blocking them hamper Stuart? You can't have it both ways. One or other of those statements must be incorrect.

In my own case I vary my approach dependant on local net speed at any given time and personal choice.

[msssltd]

For all the technical blurb you have just typed the obvious has gone straight over your head.

Far from it.

Your ISPs DNS caching policy can cause a few sites to respond slowly while most sites respond just fine. You don't have to undertand the terminology any more than you have to poke at people who do, who are attempting to help you. Just change the DNS servers in your network settings as I suggested. If there is no improvement in your browsing speed, change it back and accept my apology for wasting 2 minutes of your time.

There is more to QoS than your ISP confirming your connection is unlimited, unrestricted or not throttled. In simple terms, QoS causes the ISP to throttle their own connection to selected high-bandwidth internet services of their choosing. Once again you are not required to understand the intricacies to understand the implication. The common assumption that, 'If I can reach this site fine, I should be able to reach that site fine,' is no longer reliable. It never was entirely reliable but less so now than ever before.

There are things Stuart can do to improve performance at the server end but no amount of fiddling by Stuart, is going to fix an issue that lies between your connection and Stuart's server. The home page loads reliably on my system in under 3 seconds and my adsl throughput is average at best (5 mbps). If you are regularly experiencing poor response there are likely things you can do to help yourself.

[Mark_T]

If the advertisers "neither know nor care how many people block ads", how does blocking them hamper Stuart? You can't have it both ways. One or other of those statements must be incorrect.

There is no contradiction there.

People who block ads will not appear in the statistics that Stuart can show for ad impressions served or contribute to the delivery of specific campaigns so that reduces Stuarts ability to both attract advertising and to deliver campaigns.

The advertisers just see the totals for delivered ads, they don't care how many people block ads as they just care about and pay for the ones that are delivered.

The more people who block ads the harder it becomes for Stuart to sell and deliver advertising and the lower the income to support the site.

[Steve]

Ok, how about a suggestion?

If we were to pay a voluntary annual subscription, rather than a donation (i.e. at a fixed value set by Stuart rather than the current voluntary amount), then maybe it could open up further options to us as members.

So, if I have a valid subscription, then the site has earned money from me for the year so would not need to rely on advertising revenue from me as well. I could then have the options within my CP to turn things on and off like the adverts, for sale, wanted etc - i.e. I get more privileges as a subscribed member than a non-subscribed member.

[Mark_T]

If we were to pay a voluntary annual subscription, rather than a donation (i.e. at a fixed value set by Stuart rather than the current voluntary amount), then maybe it could open up further options to us as members.

I agree completely, it is a logical alternative to depending on advertising and offers people a choice if they really don't want to see the ads.

[Smoothound]

My ISP has not throttled my bandwidth that is confirmed.

Beside the fact you only seem to be having issues with this single site which does seem odd. I'd not believe the above statement coming from any ISP, they lie and are well known for doing so and having worked for Virgin for a while I'm sure of that

[R1stu]

Stuart, you really need to let us know a reasonable value to attribute to each person who does this so they know what they should be donating to the site in exchange for blocking the revenue needed to keep this site running.

I'm sure nobody would mind making the appropriate contribution once they knew roughly what it was.

I know many do already contribute but no idea how the amounts given compare to the revenue lost ...

Ive not blocked any of the adds. Dont find them worryng. IN fact often click the fastlads one when need something as I dont need to type it in by hand then!

Ive been a member of tamiayclub for a few years now, and its £15 a year for prem membership for £15 you get

• Gallery
• Video Library
• 10% Discount at 5 or 6 different suppliers
• More options to turn things on or off.
• Access to more areas of the site.

[Neutrino]

One thing people might be missing is how well they have it here. The level of advertising appearing on this site is low to be honest. Also, it in no way employs any sneaky placement of adds to make peaople click on them by mistake. I have never had a problem finding the information i require on this site, nor has any advert hampered my enjoyment.

A LOT of other sites and forums, from similar niches have a lot more adverts than this place, to the point where it is actually obscurring the content. They also place adds in such a way that you click on them beleiving they are actual site links, so again, we are very lucky with the marketing regime in place here.

However, i can see the "Paid" member option being a reasonable sugestion. At the moment there is unpaid/free, and "donations", donations being a "status" symbol more than anything, showing your support for the site. As that stands it should not hold any extra options in regards to what adds you see.

But a paid for option at £xx per year to remove adds would be interesting, of course it would have to be fixed at a value of price=loss in advertising revenue per person removing the adds from the site.

Either way, im content with the current arrangement.