Forum Moderators: skibum
They also have a popular travel forum, The Thorn Tree [lonelyplanet.com]; it's a WebmasterWorld for the travel crowd.
In mid-October, the BBC announced [webmasterworld.com] the addition of advertising to their new site - www.bbc.com - aimed at the international market. Not an unreasonable move, given the funding methods of the BBC.
What wasn't readily apparent was the imminent addition of advertising to the previously ad-free Thorn Tree forum. Advertising now appears on the site. Previously, the forum pages looked very similar to what they look like here at WebmasterWorld: a left-hand column with poster information, with the rest of the horizontal real estate taken up by the text of the post. Now, the pages have a three-column design: on the left is still poster info (in a column that has been thinned), the middle holds the posts, and the last column - taking a third of screen real estate - has the ads (and some other new "fluff").
The users aren't happy, and they're revolting. (And I don't mean they smell funny... ;) )
Some unhappy users have just left. Others have developed low tech methods of "blocking" the ads like writing sentences...
.with.a.period.between.each.word.so.there's.no.break.
...forcing the ads off the right-hand side of the screen, or using their browsers' zoom feature & changing the font size. Naturally, others have pointed out the existence of ad-blocking software & browser extensions.
Adding to the trouble, Thorn Tree also recently upgraded their forum software, which users find to be slower, less user-friendly and with reduced functionality. Unhappy users are now found throughout the site.
Faced with an unhappy user base, and operating a site that doesn't need ads to support itself, how would you handle this situation?
Indeed it is! In my niches, I've seen that happen several times with varying degrees of success, when changes have led to an exodus. The usual reason for failure has been creating a new board with too many forums (attempting to duplicate the size of the "original" board), leaving a large amount of empty forums waiting for their first post. (Too many virgin fields makes people think the grass is dead, is one way I've described it.)
The advertising on Thorn Tree would be acceptable to some members, if only it wasn't so "in your face" and was positioned differently. Smaller and above the posts, not beside, seems to be the preference.
