Forum Moderators: open
I want to note that I have absolutely no objection to the use of targetted text banner ads here. I would go further and suggest that if the site operator can make some additional cash through the use of banner ads, that I would actively encourage it. Further, I think most surfers here would agree.
Non-targetted animated banner ads can be annoying. Targetted banner ads here would mean some cash for the site, an opportunity for advertisers, and informative for us users.(I don't have any interest in advertising on this site, but I would be interested in products from advertisers who have products that would be relevant to this site)
I run a mid sized community forum frequented by technical people. We had the same issues with banner advertising but didn't want to get into charging the end user. There was a lot of concern over banner ads by the community. We resolved this by allowing only text ads and requiring that the ads be targetted directly at the community. The result were ads that the community actually liked. The advertisers see great results, and we get the bandwidth paid for.
Part of the problem we had was charging end users. We never would have been able to pay expenses through that - not even close. It's a bit different than here where people are using the forum for professional purposes and thus a subscription fee is reasonable (and clearly people are happy to pay it). Nevertheless, I expect that the site operators aren't seeing as much revenue as they deserve - these subscriptions are always a tough sell.
In short, I think the site operators could deservedly see more income from this site and that most users would actually benefit from such an offering.
I welcome other users to provide their comments. Perhaps we can convince the authorities :) to earn a bit more money for themselves while we get exposure to products we might not have seen otherwise.
