(12-06-2017 02:00 PM)the_blazerman Wrote: I use an ad blocker on this site so thrash me.
That's certainly your right and prerogative, but you're only hurting me, not some Evil Mass OmniCorp International Inc. I do go out of my way to prevent advertising that is annoying from being shown. The following content I have voluntarily banned from being shown:
- Flash / Interactive ads
- Interstitial ads (ads that cover up the entire page until you dismiss them)
- Pop up ads
- Pop under ads
On top of that Google itself prevents generically unacceptable content from being advertised (adult content, drug content, etc etc).
If you hate ads but still want to support the site, Ad Free Premium is a whopping bank busting $15/yr. That is $0.04/day. I probably make more money off people through advertising than I would selling ad free premium. And I'm fine with that. I'd love nothing more than for the site to be self-supported by users so much that advertising was unnecessary. But until that day arrives, I try the best I can to thread the needle of paying the bills but not being annoying in doing so. It sucks that there are so many a**hole big publishers like Forbes out there so aggressively carpet bombing with annoying advertising that everybody just cuts on an ad blocker and doesn't think about it ever again. It really crushes small independent publishers when people do that.
One of the things I've been spending that advertising money on? A graphic artist to rebrand all the areas of the site and produce outdoor rated vinyl banners and business cards, so that BlazerTalk (and all the other active boards) can have an actual physical presence at the games on gameday. Looking forward to having pics from ATTALLA in the future showing a nice big giant BlazerTalk banner under the tailgate tents outside Legion/Bartow.