Think about it...

J

Jaws10387

Guest
[me]Goes to try to comfort Multani.[/me] Its not use i can't stand it anymore either.[me] Starts sobbing with Multani.[/me]
 

Killer Joe

New member
Sure, why not? Who's going to lose from it? This site has transformed before, remember the "Troubled Times" back in the spring? The whole question about growth still needs to be dealt with, are we going to grow or not? If yes, the bring on the ads, if not, then those who DO pay will stop paying one day and hand this site to someone else who will then eventually hand it to someone else etc.....
I like "Punch the Monkey" one.
 

Ed Sullivan

CPA Founder, Web Guy
Staff member
Jaws - just to clarify,
a) Geocities has banners (as do 95% of other FWPs [Free Webspace Providers])
b) Geocities doesn't host domains
c) 95% of FWPs don't have Perl/cgi-bin access
d) 99% of FWPs don't have PHP access
e) 99.9% of FWPs don't have MySQL access
f) Those that do aren't reliable at all
g) If they were, they probably would yell at me for being so intensive on the MySQL daemon, and the PHP module :D


And god no! I hate that punch the monkey ad! It's kinda amusing though :D But it's java, so I will therefore attempt to avoid it at all costs.
 
F

FoundationOfRancor

Guest
Well, its up to ed I reckon. Whatever he decides is fine with me (I like to live under the influence that my opinion matters ;) )
 
O

Ogg

Guest
Hey, it's fine with me. But then, I've only been here for, what was it, 3 days? Ah, well.

OGG CRUSH! DESTROY! MAIM!
 
F

Fire Slinger

Guest
Ads are good as long as they are not the pop-up ones. (The ones that open a serparte window to advertise)
 
A

arhar

Guest
This is a message from a fellow webmaster to Ed and all the other founders:

Don't listen to people complaining, run with ads, get a lot of money (even after you have to split it with each other ;)), and use it to make CPA better!

And people, how many sites that are not made for profit (like e-bay or StarCity) with traffic as high as CPA can you name without ads? Thought so.
 
H

Hawaiian mage

Guest
[me]suddenly thinks that once the ads come up traffic will drop to one hit a day and chuckles to self after Ed deleated my dragon.
 
Z

Zadok001

Guest
First of all, that sig-removal line was hilarious, Ed. :)

Ok, ads. Hmm... Well, needless to say, the idea doesn't thrill me, but I comprehend the nessesity. As the CPA grows, so does its requirements. Feed the beast, if you will. If we get ads, so be it. We'll live. :) I mean, I ignored 'em fine on the Dojo, and a lot of our members regularly ignore the MtgNews ads. It won't be an huge deal. If anything, this can almost be considered a reason to celebrate; the CPA is growing into a real site that others sit up and take notice of. I emailed a random author of an article on Starcity a week ago, the response started 'You're a CPA guy???' :) We grow, and so we must adapt. But while the adaptation is not too pleasant, the fact that it is nessesary shows how much we have grown as well.

It's worth it.
 
N

Namielus

Guest
With money coming from ads that will let ed do more of the cool stuff we wanna see and like too. Ads don't have to be a big deal for all of us, its just an extra bit of loading each page. Its about on par with 1 Hawaiian mage dragon as far as loading is consered (I know thats not quite right but for ppl that don't understand web loading time). Also it might give the cpa more reconsion and over shaping the ideas of other magic players across the world.

And what would you do if say you didn't like ads, well I can say this, not a damn thing. So suck it up and take it like a man (or woman).

ED: please add all the banners in header right below body (unless you can stick that tag elsewhere), and if you can figure out how to do this have the graphics load last for the page. Just ideas most likey will not work.
 
P

Purple_jester

Guest
When I first came over here from MTGnews, I was surprised that there were no ads. Especially banners. My server isn't spectacular, and banners make me load pages slowly. Static picture ads were okay. So now, you think it's time for ads?

Well, the data seems to say yes. This is a very popular site, especially its message forums, which I believe is the best in all of Cyberspace. Prime advertising ground.

I just hope that the ads don't become the site. I love the simplicity of the CPA. It seems so comfortable to me. Other sites have so many plug-ins that it actually ruins the feel of the place.

I trust Ed. I know he only wants the best for the CPA, like we all do. So Ed, do what you think is best for this unique community. I'll trust your judgement as much as I love the CPA. Zadok is right. We have to grow. Growth is what made the CPA the way it is today. We just have to hope that we will grow in away that is as beautiful as it is now. It may load more slowly afterwards, but I'll still be here. Just don't allow thos irritating pop-up windows, okay, and not too many moving banners, please?

Sigh. I guess I'll be off now. <walks over to Multani, Apollo and Jaws, and gives them a comforting hug of reassurance before stepping out>

(BTW, shouldn't something this important be in the main forum, instead of being placed in Off Topic? This is an important issue and I think that everyone should be informed.)
 

TomB

Administrator
Staff member
Wow. I was hoping we could put this off for a couple more months...

It's inevitable, as Zadok said. If we're to grow as a site, and continue to grow at this sometimes alarming rate, then we need to do this. Bandwidth, as they say, isn't free.

OTOH, AFAIK, we're not considering more than what it would take to keep the site solvent, so please, everyone, don't panic and think we'll suddenly be overrun with banner ads. Aren't we only talking about 1 or 2 here Mike?

Of course, a little income here could help enable the T-Shirt thing. Hmmm...

Most of the time I doubt we'll even notice them, unless, of course, they're the semi-obnoxious kind like the monkey thing. Then they'd at least be good for a laugh! :D
 
A

Almindhra

Guest
I guess it has been impending doom...We could see it coming...Maybe Ed won't be so grouchy now...:D...I don't really want the ads...I find them so obnoxious...Maybe if you could make them .1"x.1" them I'd like them...Can you do that?!...

Ok, guess not...But I do like the idea of having ads and that could go towards t-shirts...And think you should hand them alphabetically...Active members only...Starting with...Me!!!...
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
It's a good thing this topic didn't come up over the weekend like the CPA Notables or I'd probably have another couple pages to wade through!

General impression: Ads are okay (the ones on the Dojo just make me scroll down a tad longer).

Don't know if scrolling down is better than having a pop-up window and then minimizing it (or if the latter's even an option).

Slightly off: LOL at Ed's and Zadok's editing! But they didn't have the [Edited by...]! See, that's what makes it confusing! And man, do I wish I had editing power JUST to add to it (must be Whimsy's influence ;))

A thought: Comparisons from the CPA to the Dojo keep popping up in my mind. 'Cause at first it didn't have ads and was (basically) run by one person. What happens if Ed gets tired/finds out he can no longer maintain this site? Or college calls or whatever... are there more people backing Ed up? I mean with the meat of the site, not just TomB's Voting stuff and all... What happens if ad revenue is not enough to meet expenses? Will the CPA be a victim of its own success? Stay tuned, true believers...
 
M

Mr_Pestilence

Guest
Banner ads don't bother me - I never click on them. Why do people think more ads will be effective? I probably see 10,000 ads a day in one form or another, but I very seldom pay any attention to them. So, what's a few more?
 
T

Thrash Golem

Guest
you could put up magic-related ads, or jus make sure they have a black background so youdontlose the feel of the place
 
W

Whimsical

Guest
Ads. <smiles and shrugs> As has been pointed out by more voluble people than me (and who happen to have spotted this thread much earlier than moi) ... while no one really likes the idea of ads, they're a necessary evil we all must go through if the CPA is to flourish. If ads are what we need to continue, then ads it is.

Just don't make it pop-up ads, please? I HATE those things... <gives the sobbing people a nice hug and a business card for the clinic> :D
 
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