What is up with the ads?

[Vanquisher]

Kris asked me to, and I removed the in-thread ads. They were there until Saturday night when I edited the settings.

I am going to gently add my two cents on the ads, and it is all I'm going to say on the topic.

I would gladly give annual donations for support of this site and it's members to have zero ads. I just prefer the "spirit" of a 100% direct donation to the third-party ad solicitation. I feel it somewhat diminishes the feel of the site.

This is my member opinion, not an "admin" one, and I will defer to the board of directors for definitive decisions on this, but I would be in favor of a donation button in lieu of ads.

[diggitydot]

The advantage to having ads depends on how the advertising contract is written. The bots that crawl the web may be adding revenue to the site, even if real people aren't clicking the links. That could potentially lead to the site earning enough to support itself without the need for anyone to donate anything.

I don't really have an opinion one way or the other. I'll gladly donate or click links if it keeps my addiction of choice chugging right along.

[Michele]

Fee membership would decrease random non-med spouses. But it would discourage good people as well. I certainly would never have paid to join this site years ago. Now? Hell yeah. But it was probably only after a few years that I would've considered it. And at that time we were both still students/thinking about residency.

I think purely optional donations would be better than a flat fee or even an ad-free fee experience.

[diggitydot]

Fee membership would decrease random non-med spouses. But it would discourage good people as well. I certainly would never have paid to join this site years ago. Now? Hell yeah. But it was probably only after a few years that I would've considered it. And at that time we were both still students/thinking about residency.

I think purely optional donations would be better than a flat fee or even an ad-free fee experience.

I agree.

[Pollyanna]

In complete agreement with Heidi. I know it's private information but it might help to have an idea of what the monthly costs are to run the site so we would know how much we need to raise on an annual basis. Maybe we could also hold an annual "telethon" of sorts?

[Deebs]

I agree with the donation idea, if it's optional. Now that we r out of training I really work hard to pitch in where med students and residents struggle. I'd b happy to pay an annual fee knowing it was supporting more than just my use.

[diggitydot]

I belong to another website group has a voluntary subscription service where those who have purchased memberships don't see ads. There is also the ability to buy gift subscriptions and donate them to any non-paid member. Between the paid memberships and the non-paid memberships who see ads, the site pays for itself.

[MissCrabette]

I know it's private information but it might help to have an idea of what the monthly costs are to run the site so we would know how much we need to raise on an annual basis.

Yes, this. I would LOVE to support this site, but I wonder if maybe I have unrealistic expectations regarding how much it takes to keep the forum running.

I also agree with Heidi that the ads do take away from the feel of the site. There are a bajillion forums out there with ads, and it doesn't bother me one bit, but there's something about iMSN that's different to me. I also don't think there's any revenue generated unless someone at the very least clicks on the ads. I don't see myself clicking for honest purposes, and any other kind of clicking would most likely be against the terms of the ad network. Now maybe all the random readers we have are clicking on the ads and keeping the site afloat. I don't know. Me? I'd rather donate.

[SuzySunshine]

Every year people volunteer to pay and it hasn't happened yet. Maybe its time.

[ides]

If there is an obvious link or paypal address we can use then I think it might happen. A donate now button off to the side of the page then maybe a twice yearly call for donations. Maybe Kris could create a med spouse paypal account that could be used.

[niener]

Just wanted to jump in and say a big thanks to Kris, Heidi and anyone else involved for the quick resolution on getting the ads out of the individual posts. I know Kris was headed out of town when that happened and you guys are always too good to us when it comes to taking care of this site.

I'm just seeing an ad banner across the top of each page now and that doesn't bother me one bit. Loading the site on my cell phone is a bit annoying because it takes longer and jumps around if you try to scroll before it's finished, but that's not a huge deal.

I'm still more than willing to do a donation if the powers that be believe that to be a good alternative.

Regardless of whether this site has ads or not, it rocks.

[MissCrabette]

That's one thing. We don't know how to do it. The other thing is that we don't know how much is enough. If we do it and it's still not enough to support the site from donations only... and we're still stuck with the ads, as much as I love the site, I'm not sure I'd feel good about having donated. Is that an awful thing to say? I know that every bit helps, but having a clear goal in mind would be even better.

[Cinderella]

For some reason I'm getting a bajillion insurance ads. Maybe because I tried to log into my insurance company profile to print off my new insurance card for April? Anyways I don't care about the ads with where they are placed now. Some of them are interesting like the fashion ones. However, if you want to do an annual thing where you open up the site to donations for a week for the cost of expenses it may be beneficial. It's not like you're soliciting any of this help or anything like that.

[Michele]

I would think the problem would be if too much money is collected. It can't all just go to Kris' personal account. (or maybe it can. ) but I was thinking taxes and such.

Can iMSN incorporate or whatever and then have a non-profit status or something? Or is that just WAY more work than ignoring/clicking the ad bar?

[HouseofWool]

The site already has non-profit status.