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What sort of advertising would you find acceptable on the forum?

CTC related services only (eg CDF)
17
13%
General cycling related adverts, as might be found in Cycle magazine.
37
28%
None, leave the forum as is.
78
59%
 
Total votes: 132

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Mick F
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by Mick F »

Tinhorseman wrote:Don't we get enough ads? - just look at the magazine - probably over 70% and then there are all the leaflets which slatter onto the floor when the magazine is opened :x
Yes, it drives me mad!

I said earlier - up thread:
Mick F wrote:Cycle Mag has loads of commercial adverts. A quick head-count of the latest copy shows 34 full pages of commercial adverts out of 84 pages. That's 40% advertising.
This doesn't count the leaflets.
Mick F. Cornwall
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patricktaylor
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by patricktaylor »

Whilst I don't want ads on here, I don't mind them in the magazine. It's no different to most magazines, and there is obviously a cost for printing and distribution that has to be recovered from somewhere. People accept that. However, web forums are not the same as magazines (nor even normal websites) but are a tool for discussion in which there is no cost for content because it is all provided free of charge by contributors. I accept that someone has to maintain and moderate but the cost of that should be minimal compared to a printed magazine.
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by ncutler »

patricktaylor wrote:Whilst I don't want ads on here, I don't mind them in the magazine.


This has me thinking about my reasons for disliking ads on the web but tolerating them in print.

Partly tradition, of course, newspapers and magazines have always had them, although 'quality' publications take care to prevent the layout of ads becoming too obtrusive.

Some problems on the web might be:

Screen size is often limited, particularly on tablets & smart phones. Ads are incredibly intrusive on small screens, also expensive and time wasting for people paying for mobile access.
Ads are more distracting on a bright back-lit display. They tend to go for bright colours to seek attention. This is particularly at odds with a cool textual site like this.
Animated ads are an abomination of t'devil.
The entire focus of a site such as this is peer-to-peer comment & advice. People are friendly, helpful, honest and open. This is at odds with advertisers trying to seduce us for profit.

I am reminded of a quotation from a poem by e e cummings: "a salesman is an it who stinks excuse ... "

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Audax67
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by Audax67 »

I find on-line ads considerably more annoying than magazine ads. When you buy a mag, the ads reflect the main area of interest of its readers, but on-line ads are targeted at you personally, according to the profile that the ad agency has managed to acquire from your multiple browsings across the web. I'm male, and a few years short of 70, for example (and how the hell did that happen?), so Facebook reckons that I must be semi-decrepit, sex-starved and about to join the Grey Nomads: just now my home page sports three dating-service ads, one for a home alarm system, another for a three-room tent and yet another for dental implants. If I look at a different site there'll be something very similar on show. I reckon I'm not alone in finding such profiling obnoxious. In a few years the sex ads will probably give way to adult diapers, and that will be really charming.
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Mick F
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by Mick F »

The magazine advertising subject is raised due to this comment:

jonathan.pontet wrote: ...............Many of you receive Cycle magazine and it is the type of adverting that you see there that you can expect to see used in the ads here in the forum i.e. something very much of interest to cyclists.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Benethi
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by Benethi »

How about if we could save a few trees by putting some here and hence removing the leaflets from the magazine?
(EDIT: I realise this would never actually happen, I'm just putting it out there as a thought to chew on)

Personally I never really understand why anyone needs to go on a forum from a mobile device; I'm quite ashamed of the fact that I do now check my email from my phone, and possibly wish I couldn't (damn Virgin and their stupid loyalty deal that led to me to doing this!)...each to their own of course! :D Surely the mobile site could be made ad-free anyway though? I'm sure my Gmail is...
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Mick F
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by Mick F »

Has all this subject been dropped, now that the CTC want's to rebrand itself?
Mick F. Cornwall
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gaz
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by gaz »

I've noticed one on the top of this weeks cycleclips. There might have been one on the previous weeks for all I know but this was the first one that I've noticed.
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by thirdcrank »

gaz wrote:I've noticed one on the top of this weeks cycleclips. There might have been one on the previous weeks for all I know but this was the first one that I've noticed.


But can you remember what was advertised? And if you can, is it likely to influence your future wallet openings?

FWIW, a little while ago I opened a link on here to an ad for a bike storage hook at Evans Cycles. Ever since then, I've been getting their ads - mainly highlighting that hook. :evil:
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by JohnW »

thirdcrank wrote:
gaz wrote:I've noticed one on the top of this weeks cycleclips. There might have been one on the previous weeks for all I know but this was the first one that I've noticed.


But can you remember what was advertised? And if you can, is it likely to influence your future wallet openings?

FWIW, a little while ago I opened a link on here to an ad for a bike storage hook at Evans Cycles. Ever since then, I've been getting their ads - mainly highlighting that hook. :evil:


I know what you mean tc - I did the same when looking for, of all things, a garden hut.

My wife sought a decent B&B in Portsmouth/Southsea (our daughter lives down there, and our usual B&B was booked up) and for about three months afterwards one of the establishment's adverts that she'd looked on came up on both our computers (we have different e-mail addresses) with monotonous regularity - I'd say every day.
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Mick F
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by Mick F »

I've not looked at this thread for ages, and I've just seen that there are 100 votes.

57% don't want the advert banner.
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by reohn2 »

Mick F wrote:I've not looked at this thread for ages, and I've just seen that there are 100 votes.

57% don't want the advert banner.
Screen shot 2013-09-28 at 09.05.07.png

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Si
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by Si »

The question now is: do you take the cast votes as a representative sample of forum views: thus overall we do not want advertising; or do you take the fact that only a 100 or so have felt that the subject matters enough to vote one way or another as meaning the vast majority of the forum users don't mind either way? And if the latter do you hold off implementing adverts because of a potential backlash from an extremely small but disproportionately loud minority who are agin them?

And if the minusculey small minority on whom the forum is reliant for smooth running happen to be agin them, what do you do then? :wink:
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by Sooper8 »

I'm not in favour. I don't like or want adverts.
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Re: Forum advert banner

Post by byegad »

Despite the vote I'd guess advert's will appear. CTC is going to need the cash.
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