[bandit429]

It really does'nt bother me to bring this back up..might as well be honest and leave little doubt where I stand. I think its postitively unbelieveable that google and its co-founders are becoming Multi billionaires. One thing that is so striking besides the good search you get is the lack of ads. Oh there are a couple after you do the search "sometimes" but you never get the colorful flashy stuff that bugs the **** out of ya while your trying to read. I mean just go there and come back here. Its like leaving a dirty place and going to a clean one, then coming back to a dirty one again. I am not picking I am pointing out.
Are we not as good at giving help? And there is the donation thing...I dont get paid to help when I can,,why would I donate..besides the soon to be multibillionaires did'nt charge me a nickel and I did'nt make a move to help them. Of course we dont have the volume that Google has, A person would have to think that if one is irritated by the "artwork" another would be as well. I know you are trying to have a good site Mike but once in a while checking out the successful cannot be a bad idea,,and trying to figure out why they are so successful,,,I wonder if they listened to each other.

I have typed this a thousand times but this time Im posting it.

[TechGuy]

I don't think we really need billions... just millions would be fine. Let me know how to do that and I promise I'll remove the ads.

[bandit429]

I asked lots but you awnsered one.

[TechGuy]

I thought I'd already answered everything else... let me know what else you'd like to know!

[Rockn]

If Mike had billions don't you think there would be no ads? And I am also sure he is paying for the data connections, servers and software out of his own pocket. I feel dirty having just answered your questions, all you asked about were ads and the money.

[TechGuy]

I don't think that was his other question... I mean, I think it's pretty obvious that it costs a good bit to run big sites... why else would Yahoo, MSN, and everyone else have ads? I don't think we're the only site with ads, although I don't know of many that offer to remove them for only $20. Anyway, I answered him on this topic a year ago... http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?t=137131

*shrugs*

I'm too busy to keep repeating myself on the topic. I'd rather work on the to-do list of useful suggestions. When it comes right down to it, I'm not going to pay for everything out of my own pocket. Until someone comes up with a way to make millions without ads, they'll have to stay. If someone has an idea, though, let me know! lol

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by bandit429

It really does'nt bother me to bring this back up..might as well be honest and leave little doubt where I stand. I think its postitively unbelieveable that google and its co-founders are becoming Multi billionaires. One thing that is so striking besides the good search you get is the lack of ads. Oh there are a couple after you do the search "sometimes" but you never get the colorful flashy stuff that bugs the **** out of ya while your trying to read. I mean just go there and come back here. Its like leaving a dirty place and going to a clean one, then coming back to a dirty one again. I am not picking I am pointing out.
Are we not as good at giving help? And there is the donation thing...I dont get paid to help when I can,,why would I donate..besides the soon to be multibillionaires did'nt charge me a nickel and I did'nt make a move to help them. Of course we dont have the volume that Google has, A person would have to think that if one is irritated by the "artwork" another would be as well. I know you are trying to have a good site Mike but once in a while checking out the successful cannot be a bad idea,,and trying to figure out why they are so successful,,,I wonder if they listened to each other.

I have typed this a thousand times but this time Im posting it.

How apropros for you to start out that post with "incredible" as to me I think now incredibly uninformed and naive you are. You talk as though every site on the Internet has the luxury of tailoring its advertising the way it wants. Google is unique--its like winning the lottery. For every site like Google, you have a hundred thousand that don't even come close to its success. It happened to be a great idea at just the right time. Because of its enormous number of "hits" it can choose how it advertises--it can dictate how it will display businesses adds on its site. If it were so easy to come up with a company like that, don't you think many more of us would have done it by now?

Your comment is like querying a 10-year old pee wee league football team as to why they have to run annoying bake sales and candy sales and car washes to raise money instead of getting Pepsi or Budweiser to run a commercial during one of its game to raise the desired cash!

Do you think if Mike could "choose" what types of advertising he wanted on the site, he wouldn't choose those that are least offensive to the members? Do you see any porn adds on this site? You'd never see him do that even though there's plenty of advertisers who would pay him to do so. I've been on plenty of sites that have a helluva lot more annoying popups and banners than we have here.

Unbelievable to me the gall you have to make a post like this. I don't know how Mike controls himself.

[angel]

My goodness... I just got through reading through the post from last year.
My thoughts/points - very simple:
- No one wants this site to go away.
- The money needs to come from "somewhere" (lines, servers, etc)
- Donating has been an option for quite some time but, obviously, not enough are donating. If they were, do you honestly think there would still be ads? To those who don't want to see ads, they can donate. If you think that no one should have to see any ads on this site, then the only option I see is for you to come up with some way to convince more people donate.
I'm sure that if it ever gets to the point where Mike won't need the ads, they will be gone. Until then, whining about them is rather pointless.

[TechGuy]

I might also remind you that a lot of forums sites have gone to subscription-only access, to pop-ups, or to shutting down! Also, those that do offer the no-ad version usually ask for more (like $6 a month for one I saw)... I think we offer a pretty good deal here for everyone involved! With so many members, I doubt there will be a solution that makes EVERYONE happy, though. Such is life...

[kath100]

I don't mind the ads. Turn on the TV, pick up a newspaper, walk on the street. Ads are everywhere. Just because they are there is does not mean that you have to take any notice of them.

[bandit429]

If I had not stated the truth no one would have noticed,,,I noticed because I do care bout doing well...as for being upset..I m not. Nor will I pay..Ima bit smarter. I asked for a look at success and what it takes to get there. I asked for a look and a comparison..quite the myriad of response to the simple mind I have eh, and yet no awnsers. Quality of work, we are that bad?? Time is free or one should pay for devoting time??
. Does that have the smell of success to you??? As for listening...I can see its not happening,,dredging up the past is not looking to the future. I know one thing dude,,,and Im not the only one who has told you this....I dont pay to do work.I get paid to work, you can drag up all the old threads you like. I ma dollar on the hour man There is no reason I should be criticized for that. I m offering help free be it good or bad. If its devoted by me than its a gift to you, one that should be appreciated. Do you turn your nose to all who ask that question,,cause it seems your trying to make me a jerk. Im not being a smart** Im being honest as I can be. If its lack of understanding then please dont just jump up and say this or that. Lets see it. Maybe more would be willing to help you out.

What is your evaulation of Google..how did they do it? No ads...here you get 6 per thread and asked to pay? How? Why did nt no one have to pay? Also I asked,,,Are we not as good?

one in a billion right,,,,so that makes it ok. I said I was not picking I said I was pointing out. There is something to look at here and there. They did nt do it for free either.

[TechGuy]

For what it's worth, Google hasn't found some magical way to grow money... They have ads on the right side of the search engines, just like the ads on the right side of our posts (in fact, those are powered by Google!). Also, I'm told a fair part of the revenue is from the services they provide to the likes of Xerox: http://www.google.com/appliance/

I agree, it'd be super to be able to pay everyone for their time here... but that's not really what TSG was designed for... The only way I could think to do that would be to charge those asking the questions. Plenty of sites do that, and then give a cut to the person who the customer says answered the question. Another way would be to have a live chat for those who need their question answered immediately, and again charge for it and pay a cut to the person answering... *shrugs*

Anyway, what I'm saying is that there needs to be a source of income. Just saying that you want paid and not to see ads doesn't really cut it without a suggestion of how to accomplish that.

[bandit429]

Thanks Mike,,Im not wanting to be paid..not the idea at all. The idea was to take a look,,be honest and see how you or we could make the site better. (I know just by looking here an there at the time you put in you are constantly trying to do that). They have done awful well and I sincerely believe there is something more than a good search going on. Originality is important too you too. but if the other guy is getting big bucks. It can't hurt to take a look at what made those people so successful...Im sorry bout the ad jab. I have a vacation comin if I can help you in any way I will if you ask.

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by bandit429

If I had not stated the truth no one would have noticed,,,I noticed because I do care bout doing well...as for being upset..I m not. Nor will I pay..Ima bit smarter. I asked for a look at success and what it takes to get there. I asked for a look and a comparison..quite the myriad of response to the simple mind I have eh, and yet no awnsers. Quality of work, we are that bad?? Time is free or one should pay for devoting time??
. Does that have the smell of success to you??? As for listening...I can see its not happening,,dredging up the past is not looking to the future. I know one thing dude,,,and Im not the only one who has told you this....I dont pay to do work.I get paid to work, you can drag up all the old threads you like. I ma dollar on the hour man There is no reason I should be criticized for that. I m offering help free be it good or bad. If its devoted by me than its a gift to you, one that should be appreciated. Do you turn your nose to all who ask that question,,cause it seems your trying to make me a jerk. Im not being a smart** Im being honest as I can be. If its lack of understanding then please dont just jump up and say this or that. Lets see it. Maybe more would be willing to help you out.

What is your evaulation of Google..how did they do it? No ads...here you get 6 per thread and asked to pay? How? Why did nt no one have to pay? Also I asked,,,Are we not as good?

one in a billion right,,,,so that makes it ok. I said I was not picking I said I was pointing out. There is something to look at here and there. They did nt do it for free either.

Okay bandit, maybe I may have over-reacted to your first post because it clearly appeared to be a complaint. I suggest a little more "tact" in how you worded it would have gotten much more positive response.

We actually are talking about the issue of devoted people such as yourself and perhaps compensating them with removing the adds.

However, asking us to see how Google does it is again like telling a high school football coach to ask how the Dallas Cowboys get advertising dollars. Being "good" (and this site is) from a technical standpoint doesn't translate into high demand for your service. On the Internet, advertising dollars are driven entirely by number of hits to a site. Of course all advertising dollars are driven that way. The more the exposure the add gets, the higher it is going to cost. On Google, it gets exposure to hundreds of millions over a year's time. On this sit, we deal in thousands. Do the math. Its not like we can look at Google for ideas on how to generate more ad revenue.

And by the way, we do have threads going on in the Mods forum at how to improve the site and how to generate more interest and more money.

[bandit429]

Mulder is there a time when you don t over react?


No I really am being sincere now,,,these ppl are super successful,,,the ad griping was a mistake on my part..I should nt have done that..But I really think a hard look at what they have done is worthwhile. Surely it is worth a look,,,they did nt just come outta nowhere. And I did say that I know the volume difference,,,I do not know the numbers but I know there is a huge one. I appreciate you taking time to explain it to me Mulder and Mike.