Site Advertisements & Donation Tracker

[Hells Warrrior]

To be honest, it could be a lot worse.

Most of them are in places I can easily scroll past, or barely look at.

The only one that annoys me is the one under the first topic in a forum, but that's not that big of a deal.

I can live with this.

 

We couldn't decide whether to have it or not - however, as you can see we went with.

 

Just so everyone is aware, as it currently stands NO ONE and we mean no one (including staff) are not exempt from AD's we do have additional plans and changes. Some I'm just about to add.

[GRILL]

Wasn't this the one thing Dan NEVER wanted on this site?

 

@Matuzz Dan has stepped back from CODZ, and left it to us to keep it alive.  He is the founder, and will always be the founder.  As I said in my post, times have changed - our data size is gigantic and that equals a higher server bill cost, higher then it's ever been.

 

Would you rather not have the site?

 

Do you realize the server bill falls to the staff every month, if there are no donations?

 

The staff are comprised of students, adults, and parents.  We work, we study, we deal with life, we deal with our own financial situations, we deal with our kids - and yet we do our staff job's on CODZ for free.  Actually, now it's not for free - now we are literally paying to be staff.

 

And no, we won't lock this thread.  I want to hear the good and the bad, so I can combat it with the good and the bad.  I know you were just voicing your opinion and I respect that very much.  Any and all questions and concerns must be addressed, so keep them coming please.

[Nemesis_96]

*tips fedora*

Well played, this will help the site nicely :)

[Slade]

The donation goal is based on server costs if I'm not mistaken, right?

Over time, will the average amount of monthly revenue from the ads be subtracted from the donation goal?

[Matuzz]

I'm not locking the topic, I'm open for the criticism.

 

For each critism, I'll personally come back with, when was the last time you donated, have you donated? Feel like AD's are still a bad/good thing? Still feel as though you have a right to criticise the decision?

 

I hate AD's don't get me wrong, I detest AD's but when it's necessary, it's necessary.

Yes I feel everyone can share their input have they donated or not. It should be the right of the users to discuss about the vaerity of the ads their placement etc. WITHOUT getting told: When is last time you have donated? do you think you have right to critizese?

 

It gives just tone that if you have not donated you have no right to criticise nor discuss about it and can therefore just shut up and get off. So that is what I'm going to do.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Matuzz

[Naitrax]

I'm fine with these ads, even excluded AdBlock from this website for you all.

One thing I despise however is the Orange names for the members. Is it possible to put them back to white and the pending guys to orange?

[Hells Warrrior]

Sorry Matuzz, I don't want to come across as an arsehole. However, if I come across as an arsehole so be it.

 

Bottom line is, I personally don't think anyone that hasn't contributed in a financial sense, has a say on whether AD's are or are not active on CoDz, I unfortunately disagree with you on that. We pay out of our own pockets to keep this site alive, month after month - with little to no donations. Yet every time we make a decision to do something, everyone has an opinion on the subject. It's everyone's right to have an opinion on any subject - that's democracy for you.

 

Bottom line is this, we need cash for the site to survive, so they'll remain.

[MysteryMachineX]

I just want to say that I think the ads were a good move. You won't hear complaining from me.

[InfestLithium]

Appreciate the comments, friendos. Ads aren't easy, and a great deal of us think back to "but CoDz was meant to be ad-free". As Grill already said, times change, and it's costly to run the server while offering everything that we can in order to remain afloat. Donations help us going, and with what we have in store coming very, very soon....well, we'll make sure to leave it as a surprise. 

 

But again, thank you guys for understanding our position right now. We're all family.

[GameChanger]

It's pretty ballsy to contradict what the creator of the site swore against, but I guess it wasn't his call anymore.

 

 

I guess it's acceptable, though I'd probably remove the one in the middle of the thread, it really kills my vibe. The white does as well, but I guess that's an unfixable issue as that's on Google.

 

 

 

This is more of a personal thing, but I think you catch flies with honey rather than vinegar.  The You Are Using Adblock message is kinda harsh and restricting. I know other sites that instead of locking you out of the site for x amount of time they have a plea to turn it off where the ads are. It may be just me, but I usually disable it if they ask nicely. May work with other users, who knows?

[GRILL]

It's pretty ballsy to contradict what the creator of the site swore against, but I guess it wasn't his call anymore.

 

I guess it's acceptable, though I'd probably remove the one in the middle of the thread, it really kills my vibe. The white does as well, but I guess that's an unfixable issue as that's on Google.

 

This is more of a personal thing, but I think you catch flies with honey rather than vinegar.  The You Are Using Adblock message is kinda harsh and restricting. I know other sites that instead of locking you out of the site for x amount of time they have a plea to turn it off where the ads are. It may be just me, but I usually disable it if they ask nicely. May work with other users, who knows?

 

@GameChanger I wouldn't call it contradicting what he swore against.  If it was the same conditions regarding size/server bill then it would be that, but now it's just being realistic to survive.  Carbon has stepped away from CODZ and has left us to figure out how to make it work.  Ads have never been tried before, so we'd like to give it a try.  We'll build up some statistics on how much we make a month from them, and then determine if it's a worthwhile investment - or if the ad revenue is too minimal to give up for the "quality of life" that comes with having CODZ be ad free.  We have to try.

 

Regarding the Adblock message, thank you for the input and I totally respect where you are coming from.

 

Just so everyone can see, this is what @GameChanger is referring to:

 

 

How do you all think it should be worded?  I agree that with the whole honey vs. vinegar argument, and I think we could solve it simply just by rewording it.  

 

I'd truly hope that all of us would choose "whitelisting CODZ" over "leaving CODZ" though, regardless.  

[GameChanger]

@ l GRILL l thanks for the speedy reply. I understand where the staff is coming from regarding the ad thing. It's a risky choice, but it was a viable one. I really do like the idea of removing ads once we hit a donation "quota" for the month. Really shows that CoDz cares about the ad system beyond making some profit.

 

 

On the whitelist topic, I'd probably just  note that the site needs it in order to run and ask nicely to simply whitelist the site. I think the pop up should stay, but the time should be reduced a bit. Turns me off a bit that the site would lock me out for so long.

 

 

 

P.S. Whitelist this site! It's 3 measly  ads that don't really clutter or break the forum!

 

 

Edit: Your username apparently doesn't like the @mention system ;(

Edited May 15, 2014 by GameChanger

[Hells Warrrior]

On the whitelist topic, I'd probably just  note that the site needs it in order to run and ask nicely to simply whitelist the site. I think the pop up should stay, but the time should be reduced a bit. Turns me off a bit that the site would lock me out for so long.

 

You know we discussed it and I originally said have the pop up for 5 minutes. I didn't actually realise that it completely locked you out of the forum and reduced it from 120 seconds when I activated it earlier to 45 seconds, this can be reduced even more but I'll look at what I can.

[Rissole25]

Any ideas how you guys will go about reducing the data and cost? Only thing I can think of is deleting old threads but that is probably a last resort I imagine.

[ETEl2NAL407]

Knew this was coming, but it doesn't bother me. None of us are too old not to understand ads and/or be completely used to them. We are all at the age of or close to the age of being born within the internet generation. 

 

EVERYONE on the internet has ads, who cares?! Do what you always do and don't click on them. Oh, but if you accidentally click, just back up. So simple. 

 

BTW, the donations aren't working right now. Getting an error message after step 1 that the Email Gateway is not setup. Guess I'll donate tomorrow.

[Hells Warrrior]

The forum actually doesn't take up that great deal of space (1Gb + or - 500Mb), however, we are reviewing what is stored on the server and what can be removed.

[Jolteon]

Believe me when I say nobody understands the no ads argument like I do. I'm pretty sure if the "time online" thing went back to the time of the forum's creation, I'd be right up there at the top. I've been here through every discussion of ads this site has had. But honestly, right now, it's no ads=no CoDz. The way I see it it's a small sacrifice for a badass community.

 

-Jolteon

[TheNathanNS]

I would disable my ad blocker, but the last time I made an exception for a forum I was on, I got some xvidsetup.exe in my downloads folder and then Chrome started telling me it detected malware.

 

Another time I got infected by SpySheriff by some stupid advert from some GTA save game site.

 

And also some adverts are real obnoxious and won't shut up or won't close and worst of all, I still ain't got my free iPad or Macbook or iPhone 5S.

 

 

Unless someone tells me what these adverts are, I ain't disabling my adblocker, for the safety of my PC and sanity.

[Boom115]

@TheNathanNS They are totally non intrusive, there is no video or sound playback. It's about a quarter of the ads that you see on Facebook. None of them seem to link to any malicious websites.

[GameChanger]

@TheNathanNS IIRC the ads are provided by Google. Then again, I do see a lot of shady as hell ads on it. That's another valid concern. You clearly can't  check every single ad to see if it's bad, but if there's risk of viruses I'm not gonna risk my computer for a small internet forum.

[Hells Warrrior]

These ads are from google adsense and have all been screened by google, we take no responsibility for googles scrutiny but they are safe or we wouldn't be using them.

[TheNathanNS]

Eh, Alright,.

 

I'll disable my AB+ but one single malware warning/free iPad/Your PC is infected/obnoxious ad then I'm re-enabling it.

 

I wanna browse CODZ in peace, not hear some washing up advert. I remember hearing that on a site before, it was quiet then some obnoxious washing up advert played.

[Slade]

Google adsense is safe and if you're still a bit unsure, get some good antivirus software and you're golden.

The ads by the way have no sound and everyone here is smart enough to not click on "You've got Mail/A free ipad" ads.

[Lenne]

Ads?

Time to say goodbye. Just kidding.

 

I am a bit worried about clicking on those ads by accident other than that I am fine with it.

[Caddyman]

Hard to believe that hosting runs $130 a month for the size and traffic this site gets, very hard. If you really are paying that you are getting ripped off in a serious way.

 

I have a dedicated server, hosting 40+ sites all at once with 750GB's of storage on it, for $160 a month.

 

With the amount of ads and traffic the sites gets, the ads are making what? maybe $10 a month? if that. Are they really worth it?

 

I'm sorry, seems like a money grab to me. I likeD CODZ very much at one time, but things change, and not always for the better. It is unfortunate.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Caddyman