New ad bar

[Maidhc O Casain]

I know ads aren't popular, guys, but I don't really have a choice. I don't know if it's the economy or what, but nobody's buying anything - advertising, CS accounts, EN Publishing PDFs. The only thing I could think of was to increase the amount of Google ads, otherwise the site would have to go bye-bye.

Understood - but those who did buy something bought the option to turn off the ads. Only it seems now like we didn't . . . and the one's we can't turn off are in far more annoying (to me) places than the ones we did ever were!

 

[Morrus]

Understood - but those who did buy something bought the option to turn off the ads. Only it seems now like we didn't . . . and the one's we can't turn off are in far more annoying (to me) places than the ones we did ever were!

I promise I'll fix that! Taking longer than I thought it would.

 

[Nifft]

I know ads aren't popular, guys, but I don't really have a choice. I don't know if it's the economy or what, but nobody's buying anything - advertising, CS accounts, EN Publishing PDFs. The only thing I could think of was to increase the amount of Google ads, otherwise the site would have to go bye-bye.

Need donations?
Post a "goal" and a donation link.
Some of us are doing pretty okay, in even this economy.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Maidhc O Casain]

I promise I'll fix that! Taking longer than I thought it would.

Apologies for the snarkiness. I was afraid from your other post the mid-thread ads were mandatory. Sorry about that!

 

[Morrus]

Need donations?
Post a "goal" and a donation link.
Some of us are doing pretty okay, in even this economy.

Well, that's the problem. There isn't a goal; there's a need for regular reliable revenue. Donation drives are just a band-aid.

I've made an "appeal" which consists of pointing out EN World's various revenue streams in the hope that some folks see something they didn't realise was there.

 

[Nifft]

Well, that's the problem. There isn't a goal; there's a need for regular reliable revenue. Donation drives are just a band-aid.

I've made an "appeal" which consists of pointing out EN World's various revenue streams in the hope that some folks see something they didn't realise was there.

This recession won't last forever. I'll bet it won't be too many more months until people start buying stuff again.

So: even if donations are a band-aid, the lack of revenue ought to "heal" at some point in the future.

Cheers, -- N

 

[chriton227]

Not to pry too much, but are most of the site expenses bandwidth related? If so, have you considered optimizing the site to reduce the bandwidth load or making minor changes to reduce the bandwidth usage? Minor changes can have a big impact on the actual bandwidth used by the site.

For example, a quick check on a couple pages shows that updating the HREFS and SRC attributes in the HTML to not include the full domain name of the site (href="/forum/archive/index.php/" instead of href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/index.php/") could reduce page size between 5% and 10%. You could also make avatar images a "Community Supporter" thing, which would reduce the bandwidth utilization further (5KB or so for every avatar image not displayed). Even moving style information from being inline to being in a style class declaration can reduce the page size, especially on elements repeated on every page (I'm looking at you, mouseover/mouseout on the navigation bar images instead of using a CSS :hover)

To be honest, I haven't renewed my CS account because what you get doesn't seem like much for the cost, and while I had my CS account I didn't find a need to use any of the benefits. I have a hard time justifying spending as much on a CS account as it costs me for 6 full months of hosting on my own site. While the price per year is much better if you go for the three year anniversary deal, given the fund drives and recurring performance issues I don't have much faith in the site being here three years from now.

 

[Morrus]

Not to pry too much, but are most of the site expenses bandwidth related? If so, have you considered optimizing the site to reduce the bandwidth load or making minor changes to reduce the bandwidth usage? Minor changes can have a big impact on the actual bandwidth used by the site.

It's not bandwidth; the server costs are the same every month. The problem is that things that used to pay for those costs now don't. EN World made $7.50 this month. Total.

To be honest, I haven't renewed my CS account because what you get doesn't seem like much for the cost, and while I had my CS account I didn't find a need to use any of the benefits. I have a hard time justifying spending as much on a CS account as it costs me for 6 full months of hosting on my own site. While the price per year is much better if you go for the three year anniversary deal, given the fund drives and recurring performance issues I don't have much faith in the site being here three years from now.

It's been here 10 years; but your reasoning is a self-fulfillng prphecy. If folks don't spend money on that basis, it won't be here in 3 years.

I'd ask that you forget the benefits a CS account gives you, and think about the benefits EN World's existence gives you. Now, if you don't think EN World gives you $35 a year's benefit, I can't argue with that - only you know what is worth that to you. But IF EN World's existence provides you with $35 benefit a year (say, a cheap meal out once a year), I'd ask you to consider the account anyway.

Only you know what value you get out of the site; I can't tell you that. You simply need to make decisions on your own valuations. If it turns out that EN World isn't worth $35 a year to most people, then I guess market forces will have spoken and we'll quietly fade away. I still hold out hope that the site is worth that to people, though, because I believe there's far more available here than in any given $35 rulebook.

 

[Umbran]

I could turn the ads off, but I don't. I figure some ad impressions are a tiny price to pay for the content of the site.

 

[pawsplay]

I know ads aren't popular, guys, but I don't really have a choice. I don't know if it's the economy or what, but nobody's buying anything - advertising, CS accounts, EN Publishing PDFs.

I blame Evony. I'm not saying it's their fault, just that I blame them.