A comment on the new advertising on OzMPSclub

[armthehomeless]

Hi all,

As I'm sure you have all noticed, since the server move and software upgrade there are new ads appearing in the first and last post of each thread. These ads are part of a trial agreement with Go2space to increase the income of the site to help alleviate the costs of our new server and help grow the club.

I appreciate that some of you may not be happy with the placement and/or content of these ads. Please remember that this is a trial. We are working out the best way to balance the financial stability of the club and the end user experience on the site.

Firstly, not one member of the staff has taken a single cent out of the money received from Sponsors, VIP donations or sticker sales. This is not an attempt to have a greater return into our pockets. This is all about costs and preserving the funds that we have accumulated so that if VIP Membership or Sponsorship drops off in the future we can continue to operate the site at the same high performance we have been blessed with in the past.

Below are the actual hosting costs of running OzMPSclub since it's inception in 2008 and what we anticipate over the next 12 months (note: these are not the only costs of running the site):

2008/2009 - $38.00 (original US shared hosting)

2009/2010 - $1,116.78

2010/2011 - $0 (Due to the generous sponsorship from ICO)

2011/2012 - ~$2,400 PREDICTED

You can see that as the forum has grown, so has the requirement for a high end server. This forum cannot simply run on a shared hosting solution. We have a cloud hosting service with dedicated resources. On top of this we need redundancy. We don't want to go the way of other clubs who have lost all data on a number of occasions and have had to start from scratch. We still have our first threads and posts from three years ago because we have placed a priority on backups and data preservation.

If in the future, our sponsors decide not to continue their partnerships or VIP Members drop off we want to continue to be able to provide this site as it is now - fast, reliable and resourceful. It is also my mission to never have to beg our members to contribute to keep the site running. Donations to this site will always be optional.

All that said, we can appreciate that you may still be against the display of these ads. We are currently looking at giving VIP Members the option to disable the ads to return the forum to the way it was before. This would likely be an option, rather than a blanket change, because some members may be happy to have the ads displayed. The more displays we get, the more support they give us (this are not paid by click).

The content of the ads will change and will become more relevant. We have joined mid-campaign, so automotive advertisers will not have the option to list ads on our site until the next round.

And it still is a trial. We will work out a way to balance the display of these ads.

I welcome your comments about this below, but please be thoughtful about why we have done this and that we are happy to work with our members to work out the best way to do this.

[blackbetty]

Thanks for being so open and honest Rowan, keep up the good work guys and we are here to support you. Your job is not a thankless job, many many people here appreciate the great place this is and the hard work all the mod/admin team put into making it that way

We have a great community and a great admin team and thats what makes this place stand out above the rest

[rogwick]

The adds may look annoying but if they bring is some revenue for the club I think they're ok. It's not like they're massive adds and plenty of them

[Caffeine Fiend]

Big +1 to Mel's comments

The idea of having the ability to disable ads for VIP members is a solid one if an agreement can be reached accordingly

Having said that, I will certainly be renewing my VIP membership ads or no ads. I get too much out of these forums not to contribute something


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[Yeldarb]

I agree with Dan and Mel. Even though I may have previously said that adds suck, they do, they’re also a nessasry evil.

Like Dan, I’ll be donating add’s or no add’s…

But can we get them to integrate better…

Not like this…

[armthehomeless]

Yeah, I have noticed they sometimes don't play well with signatures.

[Lardman]

I'm giving the ads a quick click every now and then. Doesn't hurt, right?

[kmh001]

My opposition to the advertising is not being precious because I donated a few dollars. It's about that fact that advertising garbage has become an insidious invasion of our personal space. I don't watch commercial TV (really) because the advertising is painfully insulting (so is most of the programming but that's another story).

I naturally gravitate to places and websites where I'm not bombarded with the inherent dishonesty of advertising and for me OZMPS club was a very welcome escape from the world of entrenched fakeness that pervades and pollutes most of the things we see and do. I'd really like to keep it that way and I would be happy to pay more if it meant we didn't have to see advertising.

I don't want to get too far off topic, but if you haven't noticed, Australia, like the UK, has a problem with apathy. People just accept it when something happens that shouldn't happen. Whether it's corrupt and ineffective politicians, inappropriate development or whatever, it happens because people feel there's nothing they can do about it, and that's wrong. I completely disagree with the sentiment that advertising is everywhere so we should accept it here as well.

Rowan I don't think you should feel awkward about asking VIP members to contribute more. I'd be happy as I'm sure others would.

[spooon]

I totally agree for an alternative for VIP members not to have the advertising once they log-in.

I'd be happy to contribute more money (say VIP membership is $50 a year or some other suitable figure) if I didn't have to look at the advertising and I think a lot of other members would to.

Personally, the advertising is... disappointing, but I can understand the necessity of it.

[rogwick]

I just had an idea...can we somehow incorporate David Jones/Myer adds with Miranda Kerr? Instead of Boinkwest Banking, Peugeot etc.