Love the forums, angry about Google Ads
Printed From: Web Wiz Forums
Category: Web Wiz Web App Support Forums
Forum Name: Web Wiz Forums
Forum Description: Support forum for Web Wiz Forums application.
URL: https://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=17085
Printed Date: 13 April 2026 at 1:47am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Love the forums, angry about Google Ads
Posted By: elongman
Subject: Love the forums, angry about Google Ads
Date Posted: 30 October 2005 at 4:58pm
|
I support a handful of clients who have been using the WebWiz forums
for years. One in particular runs a very popular board that has
over 30,000 posts and 1200 (very active) members. We upgraded her board to V7.95 last night and we were surprised to see that the board was now showing Google Ads at the top and bottom of the page, undoubtedly benefiting only Mr. Corkhill. This new "feature" was not publicized anywhere that I can find...it's certainly not listed in the Revision Log (beyond a vague reference to "new ads file") or in the list of new features in the new version. More appropriate might be a large red sign: WARNING! WEB WIZ FORUMS NOW REQUIRES MORE THAN JUST LEAVING OUR LINK INTACT! YOU MUST DISPLAY ADS FOR US ON YOUR SITE IN ORDER TO USE OUR SOFTWARE WITHOUT PAYING A LICENSING FEE! It's one thing to give the software away as linkware and require that we leave a link to WWG at the bottom of the page. I don't mind doing that, in fact I'm happy to offer up the Google juice because it's a well written piece of software. But dropping in Google Ads to earn advertising revenue from other people's websites is going too far, particularly when the only way to (legally) get rid of it is to pay an "ad/link removal fee". This is too drastic a change in the licensing model to be "slipstreamed" in. Effectively, this amounts to hijacking revenue generating space on a website that's not under your control, and to do it with no advance notice was a bad, bad idea. If you made it optional ("Enable Google Ads if you'd like to have your site benefit the developer of the forums") that would be a different matter, but this is just wrong. If you had properly communicated in the documentation what the change was, that would have been more acceptable. I don't appreciate being surprised by it, nor do I appreciate you changing the rules of engagement without any real notification. My $0.02, for whatever it's worth. ------------- -- Regards, Eric Longman |
Replies:
Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 31 October 2005 at 9:07am
|
As the site is now taking up well over 40 hours a week of my time
I need to make enough money from it to cover my time and earn enough
money for myself and my family. At the moment I am over 30,000 USD in debit, living in a council flat (apartment) on a dodgy council estate with my partner and 6 your old kid. I don't even have a phone or Internet at home, but luckily my friend owns an audio manufacturing company which has office space above one of his warehouses which he lets me have for free in return for doing some web site work for him each month. This means that as this is a full-time job I need it to pay enough money to live. The present Google ads in Web Wiz Forums are a trial to see if advertising would work, with maybe an aim to have ads servered from Web Wiz Guide and people paying us direct to advertise. But at the moment with a 0.01% click rate it's not even enough to buy a Big Mac meal each day, so this idea will probably be dropped. The other option at present is to charge money for the software, but I don't really want to do this, so other means of revenue need to be looked at. ------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: elongman
Date Posted: 31 October 2005 at 10:52am
|
I appreciate your situation, and the openness with which you've shared it. What frosted me about the Google Ads is not so much the fact that they were in there -- I respect your desire to be compensated for your hard work -- it's that it came as a surprise. Admittedly, I'm not a frequent visitor on the support forums at WWG (testament to the basic stability of the software), so perhaps I missed some long discussion about this, but I doubt it. There are A LOT of sites running this software (Google shows 4.3 million hits on the phrase "Powered by Web Wiz Forums" -- don't know how many actual sites that corresponds to, but it's more than a couple) -- use the community to your advantage. I'll bet there are a lot of capable developers who would assist with development work (if you're at all interested in sharing the load), and I suspect that at least some of your users would be willing to pay a "support" fee annually or something like that to get advanced features or more access to suggest changes, or something. If you ask, I suspect that the community of users will help find a way to create revenue around this thing so that it won't go away. In the light of day, more creative solutions may come up than you would ever have imagined. Hey, if vBulletin can support an entire business around their product at $160 (or $85/year), why not Web Wiz Forums? Again, thanks for your candid response. ------------- -- Regards, Eric Longman |
Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 31 October 2005 at 10:55am
|
In light of your response I will update the new features page to mention the Google ads as a new feature.
------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: elongman
Date Posted: 31 October 2005 at 12:39pm
|
Thanks, Bruce.
------------- -- Regards, Eric Longman |
Posted By: dfrancis
Date Posted: 01 November 2005 at 4:59am
|
I'm not sure I understand, is the ad words block being inserted into other forums? Is this intended to remain on registered versions?
(I have not upgraded from 7.92 yet and am curious.)
|
Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 01 November 2005 at 7:41am
|
The free linkware version now also has Google Ads intergrated into it.
These are removed by purchasing the link removal key, which has been
renamed to Ad/Link Removal Key. At the moment it is only a test to see if it's viable, but I am thinking about changing it so that the free version has ads in it at the bottom and/or top, with the ads comming from this site. Then if companies want to advertise within the software they can purchase advertising directly from Web Wiz Guide, ------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: JCH2
Date Posted: 01 November 2005 at 9:19am
|
I have to be honest - I detest adware of any kind. It's bad enough that the average half hour of news on TV amounts to 20-21 minutes of actual news. I don't buy any software that uses streamed ads in its shareware or demonstration versions. I advise all clients to follow the same policy.
I do however appreciate that I was able to FULLY test the forum software before I purchased it shortly after, and this was a selling point for my following purchase.
I recommend ads be positioned so they do not interrupt styling of a forum, or at least minimize their impact. And be aware that the adware approach might actually decrease sales. It would have made me think twice.
Minimizing ads table height might be a start (even the one at the top of your forum, for it has excess blank space inside of it and around it.) Or prehaps placing it at the bottom of the page.
|
Posted By: RAVALON
Date Posted: 01 November 2005 at 6:06pm
|
sorry.....
could you confirm i can remove ads buying commercial license ??
|
Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 02 November 2005 at 4:13am
|
Yes the ad/link removal key that you get with any purchased license removes both the powered by links and the Google Ads.
------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: RAVALON
Date Posted: 02 November 2005 at 9:04am
| last question.....how much time license work?and form how many forum ? |
Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 02 November 2005 at 10:53am
|
Licenses are for 1 web site only, unless you purchase a Developer License. The License Key you receive will work forever, including future releases, like version 8 when it becomes available. ------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: RAVALON
Date Posted: 02 November 2005 at 1:54pm
|
Is forever only for one release of for all future release ? This is my last question....i promise... |
Posted By: dj air
Date Posted: 02 November 2005 at 3:53pm
| its for all future release, it will work in V8 also |
Posted By: wistex
Date Posted: 03 November 2005 at 5:05pm
|
I don't like ads myself, but then again, I would glady put up with the ads to not have to pay for something. I too wish it was mentioned before I downloaded the new version, but I understand why its there. People who upgrade should be told about it in advance so they can chose whether or not to upgrade, or perhaps they can be grandfathered and not required to show the ads.
Think of it this way. There are some countries in the world where there is no advertising on the air (TV). Either one of two things also exist in those countries: either the programming really really sucks, and/or everyone who owns a TV is required to pay an annual tax to pay for the TV stations. And I should also mention there is only a couple channels in those countries. In other words, someone has to pay for it. In most countries, the advertisers do, in other countries either they do without or they pay taxes to fund the TV stations. It's be nice if everything is free, but the money has to come from somewhere.
I too have several websites that takes up a quite a bit of my time, and sometimes I have to get creative to get the revenue flowing. For projects that are making me money, I buy a license, but for sites that don't make money, or for small private sites that only a couple people will use for collaberation, I don't due to money constraints. (Once I get rich, I'll probably buy licenses for most sites since I will be able to afford it. Need to get rich first, though.
 )If nothing else, you might get more paying customers because people want to remove the ads. ------------- http://www.wistex.com" rel="nofollow - WisTex Solutions http://www.caribbeanchoice.com/forums" rel="nofollow - CaribbeanChoice Forums |
Posted By: bruce
Date Posted: 03 November 2005 at 5:17pm
I don't have any problems with the ads at all. Of course I paid for WWF. 
Keep up the good work -borg-!
|
Posted By: RAVALON
Date Posted: 03 November 2005 at 5:30pm
| How can pay an italian without credit card or Paypal ? |
Posted By: Trefenwyd
Date Posted: 04 November 2005 at 7:03am
|
i understand and respect the choiche of borg to add the google ad, but i sincerely dont like it.
Just my 2 cents... |
Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 05 November 2005 at 8:24am
|
No one likes ads, but free things have to be paid for somehow and advertising is the only way. Free TV and radio channels have advertising, and much free software also carries advertising, including now allot of forum software. If you don't like adverts on your TV channels you can subscribe to ad free subscription channels, the same is true of software, if you don't like the ads you can pay to have the ads removed. Unless the world suddenly changes and everything becomes free, we all need to have money to live. Writing the software that you get from this site and supporting it, via this forum and email is a full-time job taking around 40 + hours a week. Even Saturday and Sunday's most weeks I am in the office anwsering emails and writting code. Of course at present this site doesn't make enough money to live on so I am also do other part-time work as well, everything from sound engineering, to unloading containers. This then means I have less time to work on new software, which in turn means delays in new versions like Web Wiz Forums version 8. The ads are just another way to find away to justify having the free version, it's either that or remove the free version altogether and only have paid versions. The Google ads do need to be looked at, and I may remove the Google ads to have a small ad section at the footer with ads comming from this site. Whether people would pay Web Wiz Guide to have advertise within the Web Wiz Forums software is another matter. To determine if people would be interested in running ads in the Web Wiz Forums software (free version) then please contact me by PM. ------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: Imperator
Date Posted: 05 November 2005 at 1:01pm
| It isn't straightforward and sometimes you need to take a step back to take two steps forward. Ads can be good at the short run, but not always in the long run if you can't sustain the usage quantity. For example, phpBB is a free program that has grown to be huge in usage. They have 300 users at a given time at their support forums, which is good for ads on should they chose to do so. If you bring ads in, you'll lose some customers. If I were you I'd recruit more developers. (just a thought...) |
Posted By: y2cRAck4
Date Posted: 06 November 2005 at 3:39pm
|
google told that if somebody will put GoogleAds in his site in hebrew they'll give his account ban forever.
so what does the hebrew forums have to do ?? ------------- http://playonlineslots.y2crack4.com/PlayOnlineSlots.html"> 
|
Posted By: JCH2
Date Posted: 07 November 2005 at 10:09am
| Interesting. Yes, there are actually hosts inside the USA which don't allow streaming ads at all, or only ones that use come from the host. I'm not sure it would really be a significant number of users who would face this problem. So borg, have you thought about a time limited version of the forum sans banner ads as an optional download? I know, I know, the last thing you need is more work. It's just a thought. |
Posted By: Yeormom
Date Posted: 24 February 2006 at 2:28pm
| So, what happened with the Ads? Are they still in existance or idea dropped? |
Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 24 February 2006 at 2:32pm
|
Ads are staying, please see the following topic:- http://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=18063 - http://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=18063 ------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: mack
Date Posted: 01 March 2006 at 4:12am
|
I hate the ads, but I'm a programmer myself. Without ads, there may be no free version at ALL. If you don't like it, just imagine if you had to pay $80 to use WebWiz. Now that would suck, wouldn't it? Support -boRg- and buy a link or at least donate! |
Posted By: jeffdaro
Date Posted: 01 March 2006 at 2:48pm
BoRg is there a place on the WWG site that lists exactly what the link removal key license does in detail? I have found WWF to a be nice platform from which I been able to heavily customize for my needs. I'd like to put some cash in your pocket for your work, but before I do, I want to be sure I don't break anything. Can I pay the fee, and simply remove the links myself? Or do I need to actually install some new code that may hinder or overwrite my mods? |
-boRg- wrote:Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 01 March 2006 at 3:09pm
|
How the license key works is that when you make a purchase you receive a unique license key registered to your site. You then enter the license key and registration details into the admin area, once these details are excepted the ads and powered by links are no longer outputted in the HTML. This means that applying the license key should have no effect on your mods, and your site visitors will no-longer see the ads or powered by links. |
Posted By: Zerobyte
Date Posted: 03 March 2006 at 11:18pm
|
Everyone should just stop moaning,,,,,the Chappie makes this forum for the love and not the money , but people have to live...
The google links are a small price to pay for the best Free forum system around. and if you dont like them its only a small cost and "Poof" there all gone......
Sorry for ranting
Zee
|
Posted By: xeerex
Date Posted: 07 March 2006 at 3:50pm
|
just wanted to add my .02 cents worth as a long-time user/fan of WWG...
While I agree there should have been some sort of prior warning about the ads, I think most of us need to step back and realize what this community means to everyone. For me personally, using the WWG forum and having a desire to mod it is what prompted me to learn ASP. This in turn has helped push my web development business forward. For that, I owe -borg- and everyone here a large debt of thanks.
I have donated a few small amounts in the past, and I plan on donating (or purchasing licenses) in the very near future. I have some websites that I am about to start working on that will need a message board and the links will take away from those sites. I have no problem with sending $$ to -borg- once I get those deals finalized.
Recruiting extra developers may help reduce the workload some, but then -borg- has to worry about managing the developers, reviewing changes, etc. While that may seem to easier, it may actually not work in -borg-'s plan. That is up to him. He may also not want to share the development work.
My point is simple. Unless you want to write your own forum application, then either deal with the ads or purchase a license. That includes me as well as much as I dislike the placement of the ads. Links back to the WWG site are great but I doubt they generate much in the way of real revenue.
-borg- I have a few ideas that might can help you out in generating revenue. If you are interested, send me a PM or direct email. I know I haven't been active in a while, but I'm trying to push my development business forward again. ------------- http://webspacegeeks.com - Need Hosting, Domains, Dedicated Servers? http://www.smartergeek.com - web design | pc support | training | podcasts | video production |