I just realised, the Ford advert is a pop-up over a Chrysler artikel. Leaving the different brands aside for now, pop-ups really put me off. If I click on a link and it directs me to a site whith a pop-up (which incidently Jim' example does.. ) I'll leave that site. The worst ones are the little irritating " congratulations..you have won our big prize...click here quick..." I don't need another boot, my marina on my tropical dream island is full to overflowing, as is my doule garage underneath my dream villa.

Cheers
Henk

Well... Is this popup in Jim's link the advertisement in the space between the text?

I'm slightly bothered by the advertisements, myself, because they make me have to read a tall. narrow column of words and sentences, instead of a landscape-like paragraph. Know what I mean?

Other than that, I'd rather have them like on that news link. Not interrupting the shape of the paragraphs.

Now i too understand the importance of adverts but one thing that bugs me is the adverts on the left of most pages. It often means that you have to shift the screen to the left to see all the text or pictures you actually want to see.
I can see three easy options to solve this;
1 Move the advert column to the right of the screen that way if I want to read the whole advert I can scroll over to it.
2 Move the adverts to the top of the page
3Give them their own area or only have them on the initial pages. When I am reading articles or forums I am not looking to buy stuff and they are an inconvenience
Apart from that hooray for the big A
Cheers Robbo

RIBBIT! RIBBIT! RIBBIT! :-) :-) :-)

Hi Brent

Advertising revenue is much more than "good" - it's crucial. Put simply, Armorama couldn't survive without it. Thanks to our huge and growing popularity, we have to use powerful dual-server technology - and that comes at a price. Although the A-Guard make a wonderful contribution to the costs of running the site, I'm afraid we'd soon grind to a halt without the income from advertising.

All the best

Rowan

So, put simply, No adverts = No Armorama.
I say keep the adverts.

Dave

I think Mikes's comments (above) are a good example of commonsense 'reality'. One or two mentioned that the site is 'too' commercial. Well to re-iterate what others said, it's commercial or it isn't here.

As to the 'too' commercial viewpoint, well, if there were pop-ups to On-line casinos, that IMHO, would be too commercial... As it is, the adverts on the site are model-related something you'll find in every magazine. To be realistic, it's the way forward - the advertising here reaches a huge number of people and let's be honest here, just how many of us find the adverts in print magazines useful? I certainly do... The difference is that we can react on a day-to-day basis, particularly in the News Section. Yesterday I posted images of the new DML USMC figures, it'll be around 2-3 months before these images appear in a magazine...

At the end of the day, our advertisers support the site, not because they like what we're doing, they do it because they get a good return on their investment. Sentiment has little place in business. It (might) be nice to live in an 'advert-free' environment. That sadly, is utopian in the extreme...Jim

The ads are sorta like those subscription forms that fall out of every magazine I buy. Sort of a bother but I don't really notice them anymore.

Shaun

Advertising is a fact of life nowadays in almost whetever we watch, read, mobile phones etc.
I have accepted that there is a requirement for advertising to keep this great site alive. Now the other way that Jim could go as it is selfish of us to expect him to fund it from his own pocket, would be to make this a paid membership site.
For some here they would be happy to pay a sum which allows them to have such a great deal of fun, inspiration and the opportunity to share a hobby with others from all around the world, which might be unlikely in the ordinary world.
Personally I would love to be able to send the funds and become a paid up member of the guard. However in my case as I live on a series of social benefits for disability would have to miss out on something that I have found to give me great stimulation and pleasure as well as making some friends. Now obviously I hope that my circumstances change in the future, but for now Armorama is an important part of my daily life and I suppose must admit that it is theraputic in some ways as I do communicate here with others, confident that my views will be examined, debated or whatever but always with a feeling that I will never be demeaned or turned away.
So there are advertisements which can sometimes get in the way as we read, they are not however pushing subjects aside from our hobby and I am sure that manufacturers also see this as an important asset in marketing their products as well as receiving feedback.
I honestly believe that Armorama gives us all a voice in the future of our hobby and the products that appear. Look at the Dragon Forum, I dont think that it just grew from out of thin air, moreso that they have seen the vibrant community that lives here.
Lets stop moaning and respect what we have and as it grows maybe more money will be forthcoming from companys to allow us further growth for the future, because this is without any doubt the most friendly, helpful and family orientated site in the world of modelling.

Please dont shoot me down for what are personal views gained from my short membership here.

John

I run Ad-Aware by Lavasoft on my laptop and it supresses the advertisements. All I see is this along the top of the thread and at a 10 post break:
ADVERTISEMENT
Dragon USA Model Kits
Pre-order the CyberHobby 1/35 Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.B Today!

Military Miniatures Warehouse
American history figure kits, diorama aids, 50+ brands! Hauler, Armorscale, LionMarc
These and more fine products found at wingsntreads.com

Working More & Earning Less?
Serious Income Potential Working From Home! Learn How Today!


And this along the left side. Absolutely no little pictures or anything:

Interested in advertising?
Armorama™ ranks as the most popular scale modeling site according to Alexa.

Heck, I don't even see my own banner.

I have been reading these posts and laughing to my self, Personally they have not bothered me in the slightest, but each to there own. If adds are what it takes to keep the sight going forward then we should all be grateful for the extra income it provides

Most of us here all have BANNERS what are they???some sort of advertising! should we remove these! no we just scroll past them! why it is a problem to shift your screen left or right when you have to scroll down as well to get past peoples banners???

just my 2 pounds :-) don't like cents :-)

redleg

I changed my mind about my stance on the advertising. I think my ripe old age of 34 is making me a grouch. I re-read my posts and I basically just sounded like a whiner with not much basis to my griping and they were not constructive comments. So, I deleted my posts on this subject.

I do think the advertising should be kept to modelling though. Putting things like this on the website

Working More & Earning Less?
Serious Income Potential Working From Home! Learn How Today

does not compliment the site in my opinion. But as said previously, if it is necessary to keep the site going, I absolutely support it.


This is still the best modelling site on the net. Drive on Jim and keep up the great work!

I still don't like the frog

I like the frog!

My original post on this subject seems to have become a "Should there be ads on Armorama?" debate. This was not my intention, of course there should be ads to help fund the site.

My argument is that it is not appropriate for them to appear in the middle of things like reviews, especially when they take prime spot in the middle of the page and detract from the review itself.

Let's not forget that many members take the time and make the effort to do reviews and features for the site. The least that could be done is to show them to their best rather than fit them in around an ad.

Imagine if a museum asked for people to donate models that they'd built so that they could be put on display, then stuck a big add for McDonalds bang in the middle with the models shoved over to the sides. How great would you feel if you had donated a kit you'd spent some time and effort on being used to frame a pic of Ronald McDonald?

All I'm suggesting is that the ads be placed in an appropriate manner rather than detracting from someone's work. The ads may fund the site but it is the contributions from members make people come here in the first place.

If the ad I originally mentioned had been at the bottom of the page I wouldn't even have thought to mention the subject.

Not only a non modeling advert, also one of those 'quick, hurry and get rich' ones.
And I thought pyramids were in Egypt...

I, like most people arent a big fan of ads but scale model ads are the exception to the rule. Some stuff cant be found in NZ, especially AM parts so those ads on the left have come in pretty handy for me.

I for one though am not affected by the ads in terms of accessing the review section etc. My only fear in terms of intrusive ads is when multiple pop ups comes up or when it actually blocks every since article i read. I can deal with the first one but not subsequent center aligned ads.

I have no problem with ads for Tamiya, DML, or whatever modelling brand or store being on this site, and I really don't find the frog ad intrusive. You should see the stuff on other sites!

Staff Jim's example is the norm, and it's not just online. Open any car mag and you'll see an ad for Jaguar slap bang alongside the review of the latest Porsche.

What I must point out, though, (and there's nothing to be done about it), as an ad man myself, is the ineffectivity of the frog ad. Can anyone honestly tell me what they're selling (without opening a review page)? All I remember is a frog. If an ad isn't memorable, it's a failure. Just my two rupees.

Well, all this talk about needed ads or not convinced me to sign up as a gold A-Guard member.
So that's what i did 2 minutes ago.

Cheers
Claude