What's up with those ads?

Roland · Jan 14, 2012

Please, PLEASE tell me you guys are kidding??

ADS randomly placed between threads and at the bottom of every 1st, 2nd and 3rd post of EVERY THREAD?

Is that really the way you want to go with RaceDepartment?
Beacause it is most definitely not what I would like to see... plus it really takes the point out of having people donating doesn't it?

Linus Broström · Feb 26, 2012

if the ads helps keeping RD runing, I dont mind seeing them, even though they might be abit annoying at times. And if clicking them meens more money to RD, then i am willing to take a couple of minutes a few nights a weeks to just go click every add i can find.
but could it be fixed so they open in a new window? so u dont have to click back to the start page of RD every time

I'm trying to save up for another period of donations, but i gotta sort everything out with my Clio racing first.

Robert Woodward · Feb 26, 2012

I dont understand what all the fuss is about having two advert bars one at the top and one on the bottom, how on earth can you be annoyed by a small bar on a webpage wayne? especially when it's not a popup, if you get annoyed by 2 bars on a webpage then i would hate to race on any race track (in real life) with you because you would probably road rage every 3 seconds as you pass a freakin trackside billboard...

Ole Marius Myrvold · Feb 26, 2012

Linus Broström said:
if the ads helps keeping RD runing, I dont mind seeing them, even though they might be abit annoying at times. And if clicking them meens more money to RD, then i am willing to take a couple of minutes a few nights a weeks to just go click every add i can find.
but could it be fixed so they open in a new window? so u dont have to click back to the start page of RD every time

I'm trying to save up for another period of donations, but i gotta sort everything out with my Clio racing first.

I seem to remember that "fake-clicking" doesn't help. Therefor I only click on the ads that I find interesting to some point, so I do spend some time on the site. Almost ended up with buying a Wii-game the other day!
Oh, and right click - open in new tab

Kyle Puttifer · Feb 26, 2012

If you're so pissed Wayne you could use an adblock like me.
And before a mod/admin tries to tell me not to use adblock - save it, I don't want to hear it.
I don't click ads because I have no interest in them, I ignore them completely. They also massively slow down page load times (at least for me) so I have nothing to lose by blocking them, I always browse websites as if they're not there anyway.
As Wayne said: my PC, my rules. Also, as I can't race here anymore I don't give a toss about server bills.

Chris Butcher · Feb 26, 2012

Kyle Puttifer said:
If you're so pissed Wayne you could use an adblock like me.
And before a mod/admin tries to tell me not to use adblock - save it, I don't want to hear it.
I don't click ads because I have no interest in them, I ignore them completely. They also massively slow down page load times (at least for me) so I have nothing to lose by blocking them, I always browse websites as if they're not there anyway.
As Wayne said: my PC, my rules. Also, as I can't race here anymore I don't give a toss about server bills.

Oh for gods sake. Server bills are also for the web site. If you block them, fine, but there's no need to go telling everyone else to do that. If everyone ran an adblocker, then there would be no points in the ads. So if you want to run them, no one can stop you - just don't tell everyone else to do that.

Kyle Puttifer · Feb 26, 2012

I was merely providing advice to prevent him from bitching here - or could you not see that?

Erik Tveit · Feb 26, 2012

Chris point is that you were saying that you won't care for the server bills since you can't race, but he said that the forum is actually a part of that server and must also be paid for.

Ole Marius Myrvold · Feb 26, 2012

Kyle Puttifer said:
I was merely providing advice to prevent him from bitching here - or could you not see that?

And that is what he is using. I don't like it when people doesn't use ads or donate. But it's not my choice.

Anyhow, last night got to three pages. I think the easiest here is to agree to disagree. Some are freebies, some feel that by having ads it's justified not to donate, and others donate. It's really that simple.

EIF · Feb 27, 2012

Looks like I opened a can of worms.

I'm all for adverts if they keep the site alive. If I could I'd contribute something every month but times are hard and I can barely afford to pay the leccy bill to even run my pc. When I'm more active and actually racing here I'l try to contibute something.

Robert Woodward · Feb 27, 2012

I dont believe in ad blockers, even on youtube (actually especialy on youtube sometimes cuz altough its a large company now there are a lot of people who make a living from youtube partnership so if all used adblocker those people would be out of jobs)... if the internet is going to stay a free resource for sharing information and also having fun with people all around the world then adverts are the only way to sustain it, sure a lot of people can buy subscription but that's only for the 107% hardcore enthusiasts (f1 reference ftw ^^) and only a small percentage of us are those people.
Sure if you really dont want the ads then use adblocker, just dont go trying to make yourself look all cool because of it because in fact, adblocker users are just as dangerous to the internet as SOPA and ACTA could have been.

Kyle Puttifer · Feb 28, 2012

Oh oh, so now I'm the bad guy for:

Wanting faster load times
Having no legitimate interest in ads

This wouldn't be the first time I've been labelled as the bad guy for completely illogical reasons, and it won't be the last as long as I don't get censored (which has happened here before when I spoke ill of RD).
And saying that adblockers are as dangerous as ACTA is the most exaggerated crap I've ever read.

Ole Marius Myrvold · Feb 28, 2012

Kyle Puttifer said:
Oh oh, so now I'm the bad guy for:

Wanting faster load times

Having no legitimate interest in ads

And saying that adblockers are as dangerous as ACTA is the most exaggerated crap I've ever read.

No bad guys here. But you are able to see it from the other side as well? That when you want faster load times, and not having ads. 3 EUR each month, ain't too much!

Erik Tveit · Feb 28, 2012

Kyle Puttifer said:
Oh oh, so now I'm the bad guy for:

Wanting faster load times

Having no legitimate interest in ads

This wouldn't be the first time I've been labelled as the bad guy for completely illogical reasons, and it won't be the last as long as I don't get censored (which has happened here before when I spoke ill of RD).

And saying that adblockers are as dangerous as ACTA is the most exaggerated crap I've ever read.

Too make it easy Kyle.

If everyone uses adblock: No RD because the ads is brought in to get more money because there are too few donators for too many members.
If someone use adblock: More ads and stuff. But RD don't get enough money, guess what happens.
If no one use adblock: Bram will be happy and give out cookies.

But still, your own choice Kyle, specially I can't force you to do anything. But I'm just saying why it is like that.

Bram Hengeveld · Feb 28, 2012

Kyle nobody has interest in ads, but they are unfortunately the only way to run this community. No income means no servers means no RD.

Its not acceptable that a group of 10 to 15 donators per month have to pay for the joy of others. That is simply not fair to anybody.

Clicking one ad per day/week takes you a few seconds, no harm done, no hidden spyware or popups so this whole discussion is a bit pointless.

In the end its pretty simple. This community has been funded the first 1 1/2 years by myself, the last years with the help of donators (thanks you know who you are

!) and now hopefully with some additional income through ads we don't need to rely on the good hearts of a few people.

Apart from the 10 tot 12 hours I spent here on daily basis i am not going to put anymore private funds in it. If this results in the end that we cannot pay our bills anymore we simply have to close our doors or have to strip on our hardware. No more game servers, no more files, no more forum server and go back to a crappy sharedhostingprogram for a few bucks per week with no extras.

Kyle Puttifer · Feb 28, 2012

Erik, I'll have none of that. I perfectly understand the point of ads and adblockers and I do not require a patronising explanation of it from someone who is younger than I am. If you see that as a personal attack, fine, but I find patronisation deeply insulting. (being told I can end up at Cambridge University says it all really)
As far as I'm concerned, clicking on ads of which I have no interest (which is the whole point, right?) is a waste of my time, no matter how negligible, and I have no intention of donating to a community whose racing operations have treated me like crap, especially after Rouen in the summer which wasn't even my fault (I could talk about how I tore Remco's argument to shreds after Hockenheim but that's another topic entirely).
Basically. no-one is going to guilt-trip me into donating to a community which I don't really feel a part of. Simple.

Senad Subasic · Feb 28, 2012

You're more than welcome to donate and ram people in another community

Bram Hengeveld · Feb 28, 2012

You have been banned for a very valid reason Kyle. If you don't wish to discuss it here don't bring it up. I can copy paste a simple video here to show you why you've been banned by our staff after an independent research.

So stop twisting the facts and certainly don't try to make our staff look like unfair incompetent race directors with non-arguments. I will not accept that.

Think twice before you post such insinuations as I can hear the Simberia Express coming already in the distance.

Kyle Puttifer · Feb 29, 2012

Senad Subasic said:
You're more than welcome to donate and ram people in another community

Excuse me?

Senad Subasic · Feb 29, 2012

I thought Cambridge folk wouldn't have issues with such simple words

. Ram, as in to hit people and even end their race.
Oh, right, I'm sorry, you called it... turning into him, but a lot more than you intended.

In any case, would be nice if you stopped moaning about it already, it was reviewed by the whole staff and well deserved.

Kyle Puttifer · Feb 29, 2012

Senad Subasic said:
Ram, as in to hit people and even end their race.

I know what it means. It also implies a deliberate or malicious act - my car movement was to scare him out of a manoeuvre and I never intended contact, especially with a chance of a double victory. But you obviously didn't review both sides of the argument.