As you all know, ATP is a completely free site and I plan for it to stay that way forever. I don't ever want to charge a subscription and I don't anticipate that we'll ever need to. The revenue we gain from the advertisements we place on the site more than offset our costs and even provide us with some income.

I do believe that some people who are "power users" of ATP would prefer to not see the ads, and that many of those people would never click on an ad anyway, so showing ads to them would be pointless. Therefore, this weekend I added code to allow those power members to disable ads for their account.

To disable the ads, go to your profile then click on your site preferences. In the list of preferences you will see "Disable ads on the site?" and you can choose yes and then save it. If the option does not appear on the site, then you're not eligible for the feature.

So who is eligible? Simply put, everybody who has contributed at least a hundred different things to the database. That includes images, comments, and databox proposals. If you've been active in the database then you probably have this feature enabled.

Ha! I'm a power user!! Yay

But I'm not going to disable ads. I don't even see them I'm really a targeted user.

I barely notice them either, but I disabled them just to have a less cluttered look.
Edited: Yes, I like it better without the ads.

OK I have also disabled ads . I'm just wondering whether this feature wouldn't turn off potential advertisers, though?

Thank you Dave

I think I'm happier to know I'm a "Power User". Woo hoo! But I agree with Seedfork, the less cluttered look is better.

Dutchlady1 said:I'm just wondering whether this feature wouldn't turn off potential advertisers, though?

We had over 125,000 different people access ATP in March. Only around 300 members are eligible to turn off ads. So we're talking about a very small population of members that have the power to turn off ads. I don't think it's even noticable.

Oh wow, well then maybe I will turn them off.

If you're not clicking on ads anyway, then it doesn't matter whether they are on or not for you. Advertisers only care if they get actual customers from the ads. So if you don't pay attention to them then your viewing them isn't helping ATP (for the most part.) We only get paid when we send real customers to the advertisers.

Thanks for the explanation, Dave. Wouldn't want you to miss out

dave said:If you're not clicking on ads anyway, then it doesn't matter whether they are on or not for you. Advertisers only care if they get actual customers from the ads. So if you don't pay attention to them then your viewing them isn't helping ATP (for the most part.) We only get paid when we send real customers to the advertisers.

Do the Green Pages not count for anything? I think they should. It's one of the reasons I'd like to see the searchable categories increased. Listed vendors would be well served by checking those off themselves, rather than leave it up to us general users who use the pages as a potential site to place orders. We could find them a lot easier. At least that's my thinking. It would be a lot more pro-active than waiting for someone to click on an ad and in the form of a service as much as an ad. It should benefit both vendor and potential customers.

Donald

Really I just ignore the ads. They don't bother me. So I will leave things just as they are.

I agree, and once in a (great) while I even click on one!

needrain said:Do the Green Pages not count for anything? I think they should.

The Green Pages are currently in "Phase 1" development. It's still a feature that is in its toddlerhood and I have long term plans to use the Green Pages to make shopping experiences for customers, connecting gardeners with seed/plant suppliers in a meaningful way. I've been talking with a few companies about my ideas and I'm getting a lot of positive feedback.

In the meantime, yes, I do encourage the companies to fill in their details and a good number of them have done it. I wish more would come and pay attention to their listing, though. It's free advertising for their company!!

Thank you!

I am not a "power user", only being a one month old ATP user, but the ads don't bother me and in fact i expect them from "free sites", even the "pay sites" have ads all over the place. Most of the time i don't notice them, sometimes something of interest catches my eye and i'll click on it. Now that i am reminded that this generates revenue, i'll probably click on things more often. I don't think ATP members in general expect you to be donating all this time and energy and face it, acorns will only buy so much. I think it is generous of you to think of the members in this way. Maybe the members who use the opt out of ads option will take a one day a month (or so) to turn the ads back on and click a few in appreciation.

Ahhhhhhhhh, uncluttered! I love it.
Thanks.

The ads don't bother me. I even bought something once. I think. (Heh, not sure if the ad showed up before or after I bought that room divider.)

Cool