Is It Me or Did Something New Start Today?

[Pinecone]

$10 a year is peanuts.  
 

I started aviation forum participation on AVSIG in the Compuserve Days, where you paid by the minute of connect time.  Ponder a post or your reply, and you were eating up money.   Thank god someone developed TAPCIS to dial in, downlond new messages, then log off.  You would read and write, the push the button, it would dial in and upload, then log off.  Saved a LOT of money

 

[MooneyMitch]

Mooneyspace……. a valuable asset!! 

[skykrawler]

6 hours ago, Pinecone said:

$10 a year is peanuts.  

 

I share my hanger with two other aircraft and we have a snack shelf.    A large container of peanuts from Costco is more than $10.

[Schllc]

On 9/26/2023 at 8:50 PM, Andy95W said:

I’m getting that also, Cliffy.  Supporters who donate won’t see those ads.

It’s adding to my reasons to avoid MooneySpace.

Perhaps viewing it as a resource rather than just a social site, would frame MS in a different perspective. 
The minimum is $10 to remove ads, you donate something for the effort and expense it takes to keep the site active. 
It would appear that it is  well worth the money to most others of the regulars.
If donating a few bucks is too burdensome for all the benefit the site provides to owners and to avoid the ads, then visiting isn’t required. 

[Andy95W]

2 hours ago, Schllc said:

Perhaps viewing it as a resource rather than just a social site, would frame MS in a different perspective. 
The minimum is $10 to remove ads, you donate something for the effort and expense it takes to keep the site active. 
It would appear that it is  well worth the money to most others of the regulars.
If donating a few bucks is too burdensome for all the benefit the site provides to owners and to avoid the ads, then visiting isn’t required. 

Yes, I understand all that, and addressed some of those points in my second post, above.  And as I noted in that post, I was a supporter for years.

And as I also noted, a lot of the “regulars” from years gone by are no longer here.

I seem to remember from a few years ago that Craig said he actually makes more money from the advertising than he does from the $10 per member.  So I’m still doing my part in helping out, because obviously I’m still stopping by.  But I’m understanding why so many regulars aren’t any longer.

[kortopates]

I'll confess I am stopping by less and less and these days. Not just because I am a busy guy, but because this site has become too much of a social site with too much posting of off topic stuff. Its as if it has become something akin to Facebook for some here; especially when discussions turns political.  I come for the Mooney stuff, the rest pushes me away and faster than the ads do.

I've also met a lot of great folks here too over the years, several of which are gone, but luckily I don't need to MS to stay in touch with them. 

[midlifeflyer]

Ads? What ads? 

[mooniac58]

On 9/28/2023 at 5:41 PM, cliffy said:

I should have put "pay wall" in quotation marks as a figure of speech

My question was only that what has changed (letting the banner come down over 60-70% of the page) 

"seems" very similar to a pay wall.

Also I have no issue with the donation system. Its up front and honest.

Its just that suddenly the top banner drops down to cover most of the page and can't be driven away.

Something has changed that many are seeing

I'd just like to know why the change?  Is the answer so as to drive mort traffic to the donation arena?

If so just say so. No  recriminations. no hard feelings

Just asking a straight question-

mooniac58-  Was a change made to the opening page to drop the banner down over 70% of the page and if so why? 

I do feel though that newbies to the forum may think twice about coming in if this change persists  JMO

Actually I don't control the ads on the page.  I use a Google "auto ads" system that after I drop one line of code on the site it does all of the ad layout.  I use this because the advertising system build into this forum is pretty weakI have not logged into their system in a while so I will check in to see if perhaps they have added some control settings there.  

 

[cliffy]

Now that I have recovered from being sick I can respond better to this thread

Some may have gone astray from my OP and read more into it than I intended

I was only commenting on what I saw all of a sudden

It had nothing to do with the value of the website (or any cost thereof)

Also as I noted I was getting ready to donate anyway so the idea of a "pay wall" so to speak played no part in my question

I did comment that if it was planned then I thought some would take great umbrage with the idea the way it suddenly appeared and what it did to viewability.

As I noted I have become a supporter  (way beyond the min) BUT I also note that the viewing events that I commented on disappeared 2 days ago on its own long before I decided to donate.  The problem just disappeared for me at least. 

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding. 

 

[hoot777]

Trying to figure out how to pay the money.. I agree with others that the new ad gizmo eating up half the page is ridiculous. How about limiting the views to 3 or something if not a supporter. Let me know how to pay. If you did it on purpose shame on you.

[cliffy]

31 minutes ago, hoot777 said:

Trying to figure out how to pay the money.. I agree with others that the new ad gizmo eating up half the page is ridiculous. How about limiting the views to 3 or something if not a supporter. Let me know how to pay. If you did it on purpose shame on you.

Go to "FORUMS" page to view all forums

At top of that page you will see  "DONATIONS TO MOONEYSPACE" banner

Click on it and then look in the first entry and find   "THIS LINK" 

Click on that -

[Hank]

It looks like this:

But this is just a screenshot, so I could add the red arrow and circle around the link. Easy peasy! I even did it online this year instead of mailing a check as I did in the past.

[Pinecone]

On 10/1/2023 at 11:13 PM, kortopates said:

I'll confess I am stopping by less and less and these days. Not just because I am a busy guy, but because this site has become too much of a social site with too much posting of off topic stuff. Its as if it has become something akin to Facebook for some here; especially when discussions turns political.  I come for the Mooney stuff, the rest pushes me away and faster than the ads do.

I've also met a lot of great folks here too over the years, several of which are gone, but luckily I don't need to MS to stay in touch with them. 

Need a specific section for non-aviation stuff.  Most forums have that.

[Fly Boomer]

On 9/28/2023 at 6:41 PM, cliffy said:

mooniac58-  Was a change made to the opening page to drop the banner down over 70% of the page and if so why? 

This topic has now dropped from favor and, while Craig can answer for himself, I would just clarify that, since the behavior of the software changed, there was almost certainly a change in the forum code.  Sometimes behaviors can change because of changes to your browser or operating system or other environmental factors but, in this case probably the forum software.

The key thing to know about the forum software is that Craig didn't write it, doesn't own it, and cannot change it -- he pays for it using our donations and administers the site.  You can learn a little more about the group that owns the software here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invision_Community