New forum look

[NoFroBro]

I really like the clean lines of the new forum look.

Watching the list of sponsors appear one by one on every page load not so much. Even without this I would resent the need to scroll that far down to content on every page.

I appreciate the need to fund the forums but studies have shown that intrusive advertising builds brand resentment. Simply put this is exactly the reverse of positive advertising. It makes people less likely to use your product or service.

[keksdose]

Originally Posted by NoFroBro

I really like the clean lines of the new forum look.

Watching the list of sponsors appear one by one on every page load not so much. Even without this I would resent the need to scroll that far down to content on every page.

I appreciate the need to fund the forums but studies have shown that intrusive advertising builds brand resentment. Simply put this is exactly the reverse of positive advertising. It makes people less likely to use your product or service.

AdBlock plus is a great firefox plug-in to get rid of ads.

AdBlock plus

[guitargeek]

Studies have shown that without advertising there would be no GuitarGeek.

We've made the sponsorship bar as minimal as possible - 22 pixels high.

If you have any other solutions for funding the site, I'm all ears.

[NoFroBro]

imgur: the simple image sharer

That's what I see. The list of sponsor loads at approximately one a second. This happens on every page view.

Where did I say that we shouldn't have advertising?

If you can't take constructive criticism from the people who make the site WORTH advertisers paying money to you, I really don't know what to say.

If you want an alternative funding model you could take donations. Plenty of other sites do this. I would continue to point out that I never suggested that we shouldn't have advertising. I just said that it had become intrusive and annoying.

If a site forces me to install software to make it less annoying I choose not to install the software and not visit. This is the low tech way of fixing someone else's mistake. Bad intrusive advertising is self defeating.

Peace. Out.

[guitargeek]

NoFro...

Points taken, kind sir.

What browser are you using? The sponsorship bar should be loading horizontally instead of vertically. I can only view and test on Firefox, Safari and Chrome. Now I see your point/gripe and will work to resolve it. Explorer maybe? Are you seeing the same vertical thing on the main GuitarGeek page as well?

I didn't mean to come off as confrontational. I'm very open to other ideas and suggestions, thus my "all ears" comment. We've tried the donation thing years ago and didn't see a dime. Maybe I'll try it again...

The sponsorship bar is, at least to me, the least intrusive because it's not actively pimping a product - and the Click-Thrus stats seem to reflect that.

Adam

[Concretebadger]

It must be a browser issue because I'm seeing them on a neat, inobtrusive horizontal row (I'm on the latest or a recent-ish version of Firefox).

I thought there was a problem with the page loading at first but I quite like it. It's more in line with the main site, and it's a comfortable width on-screen too. Since I'm on 1920x1080 some forums are stretched across the full width, making me squint at the paragraphs.

It's a compromise, really. There are still a lot of screen resolutions in use, and the site has to be funded somehow. I wouldn't want the admin to be shelling out too much of his own money when it could be better spent on things like food, rent and...more guitar gear. What about shopping around for a different hosting provider? I've no idea what the traffic numbers here are like though.

[guitargeek]

This is a Browser issue related to CSS inline-block command - which Microsoft doesn't support. I think I found the code fix for this...

Can you check out the site in Explorer and tell me what's happening now? Is it loading vertically or horizontally?

[Uome]

I'm using Explorer at the moment and it's loading horizontally for me. Looks good.

[guitargeek]

Cool, hopefully that little bit of code fixed it...

[NoFroBro]

That's fixed for me. It's now horizontal not vertical. Unfortunately I'm using IE 8(?) in Windows XP and can't afford to upgrade just at present. They still load one at a time on every page view but I can't blame everything on others as I do have sucky old software.

Thanks for taking the time to address the issue.

[asatbluesboy]

Originally Posted by NoFroBro

That's fixed for me. It's now horizontal not vertical. Unfortunately I'm using IE 8(?) in Windows XP and can't afford to upgrade just at present. They still load one at a time on every page view but I can't blame everything on others as I do have sucky old software.

Thanks for taking the time to address the issue.

Ubuntu, dude.

[Motorhead]

Originally Posted by guitargeek

Studies have shown that without advertising there would be no GuitarGeek.

Studies? How much money is going into these studies?

Adam, thanks for keeping this place up and going!

Looks good and still feels great.

[guitargeek]

Study funds? Less than a Behringer pedal and more than a Fender pick...

[NoFroBro]

OK I installed chrome and the (horizontal) list of advertisers still loads at about one per second on every page view. So I'm specifically asking is this by design?

[guitargeek]

Originally Posted by NoFroBro

OK I installed chrome and the (horizontal) list of advertisers still loads at about one per second on every page view. So I'm specifically asking is this by design?

Not by design - should load horizontally. I'll check and see if Chrome needs some kind of formatting exception or code.