Thanks, Rick. That was a good read. It's very eloquent and explains things much better than I could.
Welcome to GN. :note2:
GN is my "bread and butter" gig.
I thought it was film-making...
GN is my "bread and butter" gig.
I thought it was film-making...
That's my "shoot the moon" gig.
The "tip jar" is good." It is necessary in modern times If we didn't have it, bands and site would drop. +1 on the "tip jar."
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
I totally love this site but I still have the ads blocked. Just can't stand having a bouncing smiley ad jumping around while I try to concentrate on a lesson. I did contribute a little though. :) But man! $95 in donations in a month, that's depressingly little! Come on, not all visitors can be broke teens.
That said, the donation form is extremely irritating. I had to redo it ten times for it to finally pass. And I hate PayPal and I don't want to give them my email and phone number. Plus they can't validate non USA-formatted addresses. :/ Maybe a bank account number would be easier cause then you could easily setup a transfer from your own bank.
I also love this site. I didn't realize that someone was working on it full time, though by looking around over the past year it's very apparent, it's looking great. I absolutely love the design of these forums and the site, except for the ads. Just because it's the way things are done, doesn't mean it's the way things *should* be done. Bluntly, I don't find ads cute or cool, I find them offensive and instrusive. Whether they're circulars in your mail box, emails from companies, or ads all over your screen, they're unwanted and 95% of the time unsolicited.
I don't click ads because I don't support that business model, I find it offensive and I think it should be illegal. Yeah, hold me back *sigh*
But I definitely don't want to see sites like GN go away, or the people that put such hard work into them go unrewarded. I just wish there was a better way to support GN* rather than being subjected to advertising schemes, other than going to a pay system like JamPlay. On that note (hah!) are they some sort of affiliate, are you getting money from them for linking through? Because I think it demeans GN by promoting them. Why do that rather than a cool indy guy like http://www.justinguitar.com ? Maybe they're good, JP just left a bad taste in my mouth.
*the tip jar is great, I can just hardly afford to put food on my own table right now :
It's a dry heat!
I also love this site. It is well run and informative. I don't add much to it because I am just a beginner and I don't know much.
However: I use my ad blocker all the time when I am online because I get tired of everyone pushing their product in my face. The internet has become worse than television for advertising and I quit watching tv because the ads kept interrupting the programs to the point of distraction. If I am interested in a product I will research it and then buy what I think is the best one, not because someone says their product will cure my baldness, make me thin again and let me make $10,000 a month sitting at home. I also do not believe what someone says of their own product. I have never heard anyone tell me, "Don't buy our product, it really isn't that good" although I have certainly bought a few that were really bad after reading their ads telling me how wonderful it was. I know I am probably a bit naive with the advertising world, but I always thought ads were just a right off for tax purposes because I could never imagine anyone paying attention to or believing them.
Just curious . . .
I noticed one of the ads (in the top blue banner) was from FPL, Florida Power & Light (Florida's electric monopoly .. I mean company).
Surely, this ad isn't seen by all the people coming to this site.
How does that work?
You have a slot for local companies to advertise?
What would our New Zealanders see? . . . an ad local to them?
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
Most advertisement services allow for localization.
Basically, they lookup your IP address, and see where your ISP is, and serve locally relevant ads if there are any available.
I regularly get ads that are targeted at Canada.
Some sites even display ads targeted at the city my ISP is located in (which is kinda funny, because I'm in a different city)
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
The localised ads are only seen if there is a local advertiser involved. In the case of guitarnoise the banner ads seen in New Zealand are the Napster, Apple ipod, Amazon and Online Guitars. I suspect that these are just the standard default banners.
I must admit that I sometimes get a bit grumpy about animated ads as I consider these to be on a par with subliminal ads, that is, that they exploit the "human condition". In the case of animated ads these target the fact that humans are preprogrammed to notice things that move, you can no sooner stop yourself from being aware of movement that you can stop yourself breathing, you have no choice. This to me is an infringement on my right to choose, I feel controlled and manipulated by these advertisers and generally will not buy their product because I feel that they are supporting what I believe to be an unethical practice. I have no problem with static banners.
Paul
I'm all for localised ads but what gives them the impression I need a bigger penis? Really, thats the only ad I've seen for a month or so now and it's becoming annoying. :evil:
