Mr-M
Donovan Banks wrote
Strange how we will bitch about bands not being paid, but when a site is provided to us for free with ads to cover the cost we have an issue with that too.
Down with commercialism, except when it suits me.
+1
I don't even really see the issue with the ad after the first post. International forums like TDPRI and MyLesPaul have it and it's not exactly a hindrance to their vast memberships or the quality of their content. Is it such a hardship to simply scroll past the first post? ???
Jack-Flash-Jr
Big ups to Norio and Alan for continuing to enrich our lives with this awesome site... I don't have a problem with the ads because my macbook is under the screen width that ads get posted. But I can understand how it gets annoying.
There was a long thread some time ago (not sure sure if I kicked it off or not) about donations. I stand by what I said - I would be happy to anonymously donate if it keeps the site going and has it looking as ad free as possible. It would be nice to get an indication of what sort of amounts are needed etc. Even if that comes via pm.
(I'm not posting as often because of work and other things kinda taking over (not because of the ads) but I'm still very much part of the family - besides you young whippersnappers still have a ways to go to reach the stats page ? )
Edit: the jokes will NOT be missed ?
Jack-Flash-Jr
Hammeron
Feels way better to me generally. The right of my screen is completely blank, nothing at all, do I have some sort of blocker on??
NorioDS
Loving the new positive posts. Thanks guys ?
I agree with what a lot of the more recent posters are saying.
The subscriptions thing is something we avoided for YEARS but I think it's daft avoiding something that a percentage of you guys CLEARLY are keen to take part in and can ONLY benefit the forum. I'm seriously implementing this today.
PS: If this works (this being the ads AND the subscriptions, together), the plan is to move the server to its own server and upgrade the site in ways that benefit the community. That's always been my intention. This is my baby but I can't carry it anymore. My baby needs to stand on its own 2 feet before I can help it walk, run, teach it Kung Fu or do much of anything else that it so badly wants to do.
PS: I'm terribly sorry for the horribly cheesy metaphor ?
inflames
I like the static header, but please Norio bring the girl back!!!
The rest is fine with me
NorioDS
inflames wrote
I like the static header, but please Norio bring the girl back!!!
LOL! I know right? She was so cute!
You'll have to beg Alan for that. He found her too distracting ?
chris77
I don't mind the idea of ads, but I can't say I like the way they're executed atm, especially the desperate Look At Me I'm Flashing! ones on the right. Nothing wrong with somebody trying to sell you something but when they all of a sudden appear out of nowhere when you're walking home and start jumping up and down in front of you shouting in your face....... ? (And if people know these salesman are waiting for them on a certain street it won't be long before they start taking a detour to avoid them.)
It will be a whole lot better if they are at least somehow related to music and gear, so hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later. In the meantime I'll just have to suck it up I guess. Like the site too much to quit it, even though I've been a bit scarce of late. Hell, I managed to overcome my loathing of Afrikaanse Sokkie music after I met my wife (who absolutely adores old Bobby, Kurt and Juanita ☹) and now I even sometimes find myself tapping my foot when she has it playing in the house. :-[ After that getting used to these annoying ads should be breeze.... ?
BluJu
Don’t like the static header for the simple reason that I work in an open plan office and would prefer my colegues not to see the Guitar Forum logo on all day. ?
Warren
Haven't been online much the last few weeks.
The change is jarring, but not a big deal. Sites on the net now are chock-full of ads and it's something we all just have to get used to.
I don't like the static header: it's too tall and on my work laptop (768p) I don't get much actual text viewing space. But it's not a deal-breaker, just a mild pain. The ads on the right don't bother me much, and every now and again Zando does have the odd cool bit of gear. ?
Not a fan of the "in-text" ads, because it disrupts the flow a bit. Once again, not a big deal to get used to, but if the screen is centered on one of those ads, with the combination of the stuff on the right hand side and the banner at the top, it's rather a busy screen.
However, these are all minor gripes. It's the contributions from a great membership that make this site worth visiting, and the ads don't diminish that in any way.
NorioDS
chris77 wrote
Hell, I managed to overcome my loathing of Afrikaanse Sokkie music after I met my wife (who absolutely adores old Bobby, Kurt and Juanita ☹) and now I even sometimes find myself tapping my foot when she has it playing in the house. :-[ After that getting used to these annoying ads should be breeze.... ?
Bahahahaahahahahahahaha! ?
ezietsman
I don't mind the ads, but the way the layout is now is highly jarring, and that's not because I'm an old fart who can't stand change. Modern websites SHOULD work elegantly on any screen size, given a modern browser and at the moment it is rubbish on both my 1080p pc screens and on my Android phone.
When I said earlier we could probably work out something (as a community), I meant we could fiddle with the software to make it work nicely i.e. make it easy to read on any screen size. We could tweak the CSS to take the media size into account and collapse elements on narrow screens etc. Responsive web design 101.
My point was, if someone lands on this page and they even for a moment have to search for anything, or get annoyed by an ad that makes it difficult to find the thing you are looking for, they will leave. Bye Bye ad revenue, which was the point of this change.
Of course this is my opinion only and worth the amount of ZAR you paid for it.
NorioDS
ez, I agree. If you read the first post (I've merged the topics now), you'll see that I *did* work on responsiveness but only down to tablet-size. I will improve the site over time. Any CSS improvements can be posted here and I'll test them and, if they work well, I'll implement them.
Also: screenies please. Telling me something is ugly without a picture of how it looks on YOUR computer is not helpful as it looks good on *some* configurations so I have no way of knowing if it's just your opinion or a real problem that I haven't experienced on my 2 test-stations.
ezietsman
Norio wrote
ez, I agree. If you read the first post (I've merged the topics now), you'll see that I *did* work on responsiveness but only down to tablet-size. I will improve the site over time. Any CSS improvements can be posted here and I'll test them and, if they work well, I'll implement them.
Also: screenies please. Telling me something is ugly without a picture of how it looks on YOUR computer is not helpful as it looks good on *some* configurations so I have no way of knowing if it's just your opinion or a real problem that I haven't experienced on my 2 test-stations.
I will download some pages and see if I can help with some css for mobile form factors. Maybe over the weekend. I'd like to give back a bit.
Do we have any UX experts on the forum? We could use a bit of help.
Some things are obviously lacking on touch screens e.g. page buttons are WAY too small and the drop down menu doesn't work with touch at all. But its all fixable.
Sean
I don't see any ads on the right, only the one after every 1st initial post. As far as I know, I don't have ad blockers etc activated. Last night I had a blank space to the right, now it's back to how it used to be (stretched across the whole screen). Has something been changed? Using Firefox. Last night it looked awkward to me. The way it is right now is fine for me. And yes, I would not mind making a small monthly contribution.
wirt
Sheesh... I get that ads are a necessary evil, but this is going a bit overboard, IMHO.
Screenshot attached is my from my work laptop, Chrome, 1600x900 resolution.
Screenshot Link
The ads just take up too much real-estate.
EDIT:
For anyone who is looking for an easy-to-use website to upload images to post on this thread, www.imgur.com is pretty painless, free, and you don't even need to register to use it.
NorioDS
Thanks for the screenie. It looks the same as on my screen.
[deleted]
ez wrote
Do we have any UX experts on the forum? We could use a bit of help.
*raises hand reluctantly*
I could pontificate for an hour about the design patterns that are being broken now (and the dangers of losing new (and existing) users to the "turn off Adblock" screen... wow, just wow...) That being said, I think the forum users have already spoken for themselves in terms of what bothers them most (ad size, font size, layout, animations, mobile performance - it's all in this thread).
I fully understand the need for ad-generated revenue but there are far more elegant and unobtrusive ways to achieve those goals.
NorioDS
I prefer facts & figures over emotions & opinions. It's too early to say whether I can trust these stats or not (I'd give it 1 month at least) but, so far, Google Analytics says:
Bounce rate is down 16% (From 36% to 30%). This is seriously good.
Visit duration is up 24% (Average increase of 2 minutes). Seriously good too.
Pages/visit is up 4.7%. Not bad.
If the stats don't lie (and right now, they probably do, as it's barely been a day ??? and some of the improvement could be directly related to THIS thread!) then this has definitely been a worthwhile experiment and the changes will stay.
The other figures I'm interested in is monthly revenue generated by the forum. Those figures have also improved but it will take at least a week to see if it was worth it.
ezietsman
Norio wrote
I prefer facts & figures over emotions & opinions. It's too early to say whether I can trust these stats or not (I'd give it 1 month at least) but, so far, Google Analytics says:
Bounce rate is down 16% (From 36% to 30%). This is seriously good.
Visit duration is up 24% (Average increase of 2 minutes). Seriously good too.
Pages/visit is up 4.7%. Not bad.
If the stats don't lie (and right now, they probably do, as it's barely been a day ??? and some of the improvement could be directly related to THIS thread!) then this has definitely been a worthwhile experiment and the changes will stay.
The other figures I'm interested in is monthly revenue generated by the forum. Those figures have also improved but it will take at least a week to see if it was worth it.
That.
