Google Ads

Hello everyone. As I am sure you have noticed, we now have small text ads from Google on the site. We are testing these ads to see if it will generate enough revenue to support the site and keep us from needing donations.

I am sure some will be offended and not care for these ads. We don't like it either but we feel it has become a necessity and feel that text ads are small and innocuous enough that they wont' distract from the functionality of the board.

We are testing these ads for a month to see how effective they are and will then evaluate whether we will continue using them or not.

Thanks for your patience during this transition.

how does the revenue work? is it just clickthroughs?

Yes, it is based on click-throughs.

so...
if we click them it helps pay for the site?

It does, but please don't abuse it. Google stays on top of things like that (not entirely sure how but if they feel it is being abused they will kick us out of the program) so please don't just click on links to "help" unless you are actually interested in the item you are clicking on.

They must be REALLY small ... I can't find a single one

-Chris

haven't noticed them yet either

Originally Posted by slave1pilot

so...
if we click them it helps pay for the site?

S1P,

I wanted to answer your question a little more thoroughly...

Again, yes, you clicking helps pay for the site, BUT here are the rules the site itself must abide by:

1. Don't click on your own ads.
2. Don't ask others to click on your ads.
3. Don't include any prohibited site content, including adult content, violence or excessive profanity, drugs (including alcohol and tobacco), or copyrighted material.
4. Don't modify the AdSense code.
5. Do follow our Webmaster Quality Guidelines.
6. Do provide a good user experience.
7. Don't place more than 3 ad units, 3 link units, 2 search boxes, and 3 referral units on any page.
8. Don't place images near ads in a way that may mislead users into thinking that the images are associated with the ads.

The first and second rules are the most important. I am not supposed to click on the ads and I am not supposed to ask you to click on the ads...