As you can see there have been a few changes made this morning. First let me thank everyone for their patience with some of the growing pains with the new software. Next, I added the winning banner to the header this morning. Let me know what you think plus what theme you are using. On the default VB theme, it looks kinda dark, but on the dark theme it looks pretty good. Too big?? Too small?? Let me know what you think. I might throw the other non-star version up next week to see how the cleaner one looks. I have also turned on google adsense. And before everyone flips out, it is more of a test than a permanent item. I would like to let it run all weekend to see how it effects the server and to see if there is a potential for the site to generate some money to sustain itself. Here are a couple of items that you might want to read to better understand why the ads may or may not become permanent. http://mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?37914-Site-Donations http://mnsubaru.com/forums/entry.php?92-Secret-Moderator-Stuff-you-should... And finally, yes there are a few more mods coming down the pipeline and another big VB update that will be taking place. Jason touches on a few of the items in his blog entry. One of them that could be fun (or a complete disaster) is the pay to ban idea. Basically the mods are finalizing the rules, but once it is all said and done it should be fun. We hope it will be fun and as long as everyone views it as being fun and doesn't try to turn it into a giant personal attack, it can be fun. And all proceeds go to keeping the site up and running (with less ads ). I think that is about it for now. If you have any questions or concerns, please ask. Thanks Russ
dig the new logo at the top. Good on the AdSense, no reason why the site shouldn't make some money to cover the expenses. MNAutoX has the ads, most sites I go to do, don't know why this one shouldn't.
Why pay? Several people have figured out how to get themselves banned from this site for free over the last few years.
the only reason that sucks right now is because the quotes break the rest of the code, once it's fixed I'm sure it will be useful. What if you are spotted and you aren't a member but decide to check the site out? That post spotting you will be on the fp. Or if you need to sell something, it's now on the FP. It's a good thing, we just gotta fix the glitch and there will be many more
yes im sure it will be very usefull once the issue is fixed i was not sure if it was issue or if thats how it was going to be hence the concern
The new posts widget on the front page got messed up with this last update. Basically they rolled out a security fix for the front page. Then they realized they broke some stuff. While they fixed the first stuff, they broke more stuff. This broken stuff is round 4. So I am guessing that there will be round 5 shortly. At least this round of broken stuff is just a widget box. The last round was all the articles. The round before that was almost the whole front page. This version of VB is knocking down their status of having great forum software. Russ
I don't understand how they're having so many problems still. Do they not test this stuff?? Thank you, Russ, for the time you've put into this.
Looks good on the light theme as well. As always, your time and effort put into the site is greatly appreciated, Russ!
pay banning ftw! so much fun glad your going to try it, it deff can raise lots of money for the site.
yeah, on the default theme, the grey logo text and background blue are similar in tone; I'd try lighter or darker text. If it isn't too much of a pain to have a different logo version for each theme. Otherwise looks good!
very nice.. at first I was wondering why the hell the University of Ohio was on the adsense.. cant you link it to things that correspond to subarus or something?? I like.. site is finally stepping into the 20th...er 21st century... great work Russ
I have no idea. That is probably the most popular question on VB now. They though the first patch was ok, but the whole front page was messed up. It is like seriously, did you not install it?? A 5 year old could have told you that it wasn't ready for prime time. Adsense has bots the crawl the site. As they crawl the site they will get ads will get more directed at our group. I was more interested in getting it rolling and to watch how it effects everything. Depending on how this test goes and how the pay to ban goes, they might not stuck around. Russ
well here is my two cents.... I like the new lay out a lot, but it was nice to see that the thread title was on the posts on the right side of the main page. Instead of seeing the most recent post in it.
so I just noticed the last time I logged in one of the banners was for a gay singles site... just saying
So it's been a week with the adsense, can it be turned off now? I'll donate $10 a year to keep this site ad free. Not having ads make this site seem more like a community rather than a virtual place to waste time, but I do understand that money needs to come from somewhere.
I think google displays ads based on your browsing history/interests. http://www.google.com/ads/preferences
Yep, the hit is for each time a page loads and calls for a ad, whether not your browser displays it. Russ
Why not offer a premium membership option? Those who donate $x can browse the forum add free and maybe throw a few trinkets or perks in there as well. It has worked on other car forums that I have been a member at in the past.
