MoreCowBell wrote
in the meantime you run the risks of losing those vocal users (who probably spend more time on the forum than anyone else and generate more ad revenue than anyone else...)
Not true. Most ad revenue is from clicks, not pageviews. More pageviews does not, intrinsically, mean more revenue.
MoreCowBell wrote
That "vocal minority" are the same vocal minority who post about all the things, and the members that you can afford to lose the least
Agreed but not all of the posting members are unhappy. Some are totally fine with the new stuff. With every change, there will be those who hate it, those who are indifferent and those who love it. My job is to cater to the latter 2 groups.
MoreCowBell wrote
The only serious piece of advice I would give here is about the "turn Adblock off" page. Any internet user who has ad blocking enabled who comes to the site will be lost to the forum forever.
Not true. Not *any* internet user. Some will go, some will stay. Seeing as we make money from those who turn off AdBlock and stay, it could be worth it. I'm prepared to take that risk. (At least, for a month.)
MoreCowBell wrote
Bear in mind that there are also users who may not have a choice about their browser plugins, depending on company/sys admin policies and so on...
Point taken but a risk I'm prepared to take.
This forum (and perhaps forums in general) attract a type of person who uses Chrome or Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, who uses AdBlock instead of tolerating ads, etc. So by this forum's very nature, most ads will NEVER be seen if things went back to how they were. Unacceptable to me considering the effort that has (in the past) gone into this forum and the effort that will go into it in the future.
The more money this forum makes for itself, the more stuff I can do with it FOR the community. I have dozens of ideas but can't implement nary a one because this site makes no money.
