Remove the ads, remove the ads, remove the ads

[SATire]

I don't understand all the notices about becoming a paid member to remove the ads. There are more ads on this site than I've ever seen on any other site, which must in itself generate SOME income.

I own a small data center and also outsource hosting to huge data centers and hosting is dirt cheap. You can get a crazy loaded server with tons of space and tons of bandwidth for as little as $100/Month. I am talking physical hardware server here, not just some crappy vps on some overloaded server.

In all the years that I've been hosting, I have never seen even one server become so busy that I needed to add so many ads that it actually became frustrating to my or my customers users to use a site. And, the costs involved in operating a web site are mostly in the part time time that it takes to keep everything running so I am not sure why it is costing you so much that you have to advertise in every little crook and cranny that you need funds to keep the site going.

Do you need me to host your site for you? I'm sure I can do it at a very reasonable cost. Or, perhaps I can offer some suggestions, ideas, feedback, help in some way which would have you reduce the number of ads in order to make this site faster and more usable.

I don't know, just wondering and honestly interested in helping if you are really having that hard a time with this site.

 

[Mr Tony]

thread a couple weeks ago about the subject
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/complaints-about-access-to-satelliteguys.344017/

 

[SATire]

thread a couple weeks ago about the subject
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/complaints-about-access-to-satelliteguys.344017/

I wanted to offer my own thoughts and suggestions but the topic seems closed.

When I first joined this site, it was nothing but frustrating because of the amount of ads. I've been running sites of all kinds since the 90's, had one that was costing me upwards of $5K/month in hardware/software/bandwidth alone not to mention the amount of time it cost me. But, those were the BBS days where it took a LOT of hardware and very expensive software to run 32 users simultaneously but I was growing that site to over 200 lines.
I understand the costs behind sites but these days it's super easy to run huge web sites with little hardware.

The owner talks about spending $1200/Month for just 3 servers and bandwidth and that sounds odd. I own my own server room and have hundreds of CPUs running and can't even imagine three servers alone costing me $1200/Month. The owner should consider other means of hosting.

I rent a number of x-Quad servers each with 32GB RAM, 1TB drive, 15TB of bandwidth per month and a full 1000Mbs of bandwidth for $130.00 each. You can get hugely loaded servers similar to above, just a tad less oomph for under $100/Month with bandwidth. Drive space is typically a minimum of 1TB and of course, you can easily add a drive. You could even use software based RAID to run a RAID setup across multiple servers if you wanted to rent more than one but for a site like this, I bet it's the ads that are bogging it down more than the users.

The point is, there is nothing wrong with wanting to make money but why inundate everyone with endless ads that bog the site down making some people leave almost as quickly as they found it. Start a campaign which is meant to earn the site and it's owner some money, put some of that money into events, prizes, all kinds of things but don't scare lots of people away by blasting what could otherwise be a wonderful site with so many useless ads. We are all fed up with too much advertising around us or we don't even notice them anymore. Find other creative ways of funding the site and most importantly, start looking at outsourcing hosting because there is a lot of competition out there and they are VERY well set up to do the job.

Just my two cents from a guy that's been in this business since the late 80's.

 

[Deadlocked]

Tapatalk: very few ads seen!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Hall]

the topic seems closed

Just like this one will be

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I find it funny, over the last month, I have removed over half the ads, and everytime I remove more people complain there are too many ads. Maybe I should have left them alone as no one was complaining about them before then.

 

[SATire]

But you are missing the point. I've not been here in almost two years and while there are less ads, there are still quite a lot. It's much better however but the point was more about your costs. I don't understand your costs based on having been in this business for many years and having built countless BBS sites, web sites and the various resources involved.

I was trying to offer you some positive criticism and telling you that you are pretty much overpaying for what ever you are doing. Doesn't sound right based on my experiences.

Anyhow, didn't mean any offense, just an observation based on your long post in the other thread and my experience on this site.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Tapatalk: very few ads seen!

Tapatalk may be going away for everyone. I read something over the weekend that the latest update allows Tapatalk top download all users information from any forum using Tapatalk and to email all users with ads for Tapatalk, even if the user has never used Tapatalk before.

That is not cool at all.

I am searching for the link where I read this and will post it here when I find it.

 

[king3pj]

I just logged out to check out the site as a visitor and see what all the fuss was about. At this point I've been a pub member long enough that I don't remember what the site looked like with more ads.

In my opinion, most of the general ads aren't that bad but the ones that pop up over the threads I'm trying to read are very annoying. Especially the video ad that keeps popping up in the bottom right corner.

 

[Hall]

but the ones that pop up over the threads I'm trying to read are very annoying.

Ewwww, those are bad, aren't they ? If you put your mouse in the middle of the page and scroll down, you are likely to hit some of these and they pop-up, then if you hit another, it replaces the first. It's really distracting.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok scratch what I said about Tapatalk. They were flooded with complaints and made some changes that I am ok with.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I hate that one on the bottom right corner! I have submitted a ticket about it and if necessary will drop Vibrant media if they don't fix it. The things that also popup are Vibrant Media as well. Those ads were only showed to people not logged in.

I will tell you what... They are annoying.

***POOF GONE***

 

[Hall]

the latest update allows Tapatalk top download all users information from any forum using Tapatalk and to email all users with ads for Tapatalk

Ok scratch what I said about Tapatalk. They were flooded with complaints and made some changes that I am ok with.

Understand that it's a non-issue now, but it seems that the core of the problem is that forum software gives the Tapatalk module/plug-in/?? way too much access if it can harvest member's info like that.

 

[thomasjk]

Not only that Tapatalk has lots of annoying ads. Even the Satguys version.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Tapatalk now splits the ad revenue they get with us via the SatelliteGuys branded app. But don't give us anything if the user uses the Tapatalk app.

So far we have not received a single penny from Tapatalk for ad revenue, while the branded app costs us (I believe) $90 a month to have.

Here is an unedited look at our Tapatalk earning... notice we have earnings... but have no been paid...

BTW In looking at the site as a person not logged in and a regular registered user I am seeing some thing which I am making changes to to make the site better for all. I have removed some ads already and will be doing more work as well.

 

[Hall]

Here is an unedited look at our Tapatalk earning... notice we have earnings... but have no been paid...

Ouch ! All the way back to February ? Is this normal for Tapatalk (other sites not being paid as well) ?

BTW In looking at the site as a person not logged in and a regular registered user I am seeing some thing which I am making changes to to make the site better for all.

It gives one a very different perspective when not logged in !

 

[thomasjk]

Doesn't look like your $90/month is worthwhile.

 

[lakebum431]

Scott, maybe you should take the OP up on a consultation. If he/she really has been in the business this long, then maybe they have some ideas that could save you a lot of money!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

We have done that a few times already this year... I was actually thinking of moving the 3 servers from the ISP to my house. But the commercial internet to my home and no backup power would have almost cost us the same. Plus we tried moving off of non premium bandwidth before and you can remember what a mess that was.

What the OP says about operations costs for the servers is correct, but he not factoring in many of the other costs that we pay monthly which we have been over before. For example last month we renewed our cpanel licenses for a year at a cost of $425 per server.

 

[Hall]

...but he not factoring in many of the other costs that we pay monthly which we have been over before. For example last month we renewed our cpanel licenses for a year at a cost of $425 per server.

Ask him to give you a quote. Even presuming what you currently pay is close to what he can offer, things like that license are out of the scope of what he can help with, yes ? I'm guessing things like that make up the bulk of the monthly/yearly charges.