• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
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TFred

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
7,750
Location
Most historic town in, Virginia, USA
The reset has caused all of my notifications to go to very early postings or the OP -guess this will work out once all have been reread - laborious for now.

Will have to see after a few days whether or not I am still getting multiple email notifications on the same thread.
Once I made sure I was "caught up" with this morning's threads, I clicked on the "New Posts" link above, then from that page, clicked on the "Mark Forums Read" link. That cleared everything that was marked unread for me.

TFred
 

John Pierce

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
1,777
I am not sure. I will see what I can find.


John

When I replied to this thread from the "What's New?" thread listing, after my reply it was no longer visible there. I clicked the "Settings" link, and as expected, I did not see it there until I clicked the "View all Subscribed Threads" button. Then it was at the top. It still does not show in the "What's New" listing; I am guessing it will be like that until someone other than me creates a post? Is this a 'feature', a management setting, a user setting, or a bug?
 

deanf

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2007
Messages
1,789
Location
N47º 12’ x W122º 10’
Was my question about the ads ever answered? I can't find an answer.


My question was:

Why am I seeing ads with the new software. I had zero ads before now I have 3 or more per page?
 

Grapeshot

Legendary Warrior
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
35,317
Location
Valhalla
Was my question about the ads ever answered? I can't find an answer.


My question was:

Why am I seeing ads with the new software. I had zero ads before now I have 3 or more per page?

It pays the freight. Running a site is not free and the bigger and better it is, the more it costs.
 

John Pierce

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
1,777
Dean,

I thought I had answered your question but the first couple of weeks were a bit of a whirlwind. :)

The ads are a combination of sponsors who pay to have their banners on each page and Google ads which pay us by the impression.

The combination (while a little annoying at first) helps us to pay for the forum. Our costs went up quite a bit with with the new server and software and as our volume goes up, I can imagine a day when we will want even faster hardware and more bandwidth.

What I don't understand is why you were not seeing the sponsor banners on the old site. We have always had them.

Anyway ... I hope that you are enjoying the new software!

Thanks!


John


Was my question about the ads ever answered? I can't find an answer.


My question was:

Why am I seeing ads with the new software. I had zero ads before now I have 3 or more per page?
 

John Pierce

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
1,777
It depends on the ad. And I am NOT asking for members to do so because asking people to click ads just to raise the revenue is another thing that is specifically noted as an account closing offense by Google.

The best thing that members can do for the forum is to just allow the ads to be there (as opposed to installing ad blockers). The per-impression income is what we are counting on based upon the volume of traffic and I want to do nothing to jeopardize that. :)

But thank you so much for asking!


John

As far as AD's go, do you get an better funding if we click on the AD?

I wouldn't mind clicking a few extra times if I knew it was benefitting the site.
 

wrightme

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
5,574
Location
Fallon, Nevada, USA
It depends on the ad. And I am NOT asking for members to do so because asking people to click ads just to raise the revenue is another thing that is specifically noted as an account closing offense by Google.

The best thing that members can do for the forum is to just allow the ads to be there (as opposed to installing ad blockers). The per-impression income is what we are counting on based upon the volume of traffic and I want to do nothing to jeopardize that. :)

But thank you so much for asking!


John

So that leaves another question........


Why Google?
 

John Pierce

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
1,777
After Google dropped us last time because someone posted a For Sale ad, we tried dozens of other advertising options.

Either the payouts were minuscule (or not made at all), had inappropriate and spammy ads, or ... even worse ... exposed our users to spyware and viruses.

Ultimately, the truth of the matter is that Google is BY FAR the best option to support a forum if you want ads that are appropriate, pay well and are properly vetted to not contain malware, etc.


John

So that leaves another question........


Why Google?
 

Tomas

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2010
Messages
702
Location
University Place, Washington, USA
Quick note that you may wish to look at some of your word censor settings as some of them may be a little bit too strict.

Being a gun forum, we often **** our guns, and trust me, C0CK looks a lot better than **** in that instance.

The folks who originally helped me set up one of my forums went overboard in the censor bot's word list, and it wouldn't even let us say Dick Cheney without problems.

While some words are good to block, one must be cautious not to block words commonly used in the context of a legit forum discussion.

(This comes up because of a discussion of carry modes for a 1911, and that some people carry them at half **** ...) :eek:
 

eastmeyers

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2008
Messages
1,363
Location
Hazel Park, Michigan, USA
Do we have the ability to change the color of the background of the forum yet? I know this was something that was going to be looked into once most of the bugs were worked out. I was just wondering if this option is yet available.
Thank you.
 
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