Hey folks,

As I'm sure many of you know, e621 operates exclusively off of advertising revenue. Since I became responsible for the site, we have held off on asking for donations or charging for premium accounts, in an effort to keep e621 free for everyone.

At the moment we are exploring a number of additional options with regards to advertising, and are evaluating what methods are a good fit for the site and its community (that means you!). As such, we're looking for your feedback on the ads on e621 - not only the content / variety of advertisers, but their placement and obtrusiveness on the site.

Right now we accept furry-related advertisements for all ratings of products and services (See our advertising information page here: http://e621.net/forum/show/10410 ). Naturally, this means that a wide variety of people come forward wanting to run ads on the site, and finding more furry-related advertisers to put ads on the site is something we will be focusing more on in the near future.

We recently put two 'medium rectangle' ad spots below the image when viewing a post page; these are a much more useful size for advertisers and are considerably better performing. What do you folks think of these, and is there anything you think we could tweak about them to make them look better / more professional?

Good advertising done right is, I believe, of great value to the community as a whole, as it not only helps fledgling businesses and artists get publicity for their work, but it also ensures that sites like this can continue to be run and used by everyone, at little or no cost.

I welcome your input on the ad situation!

thanks,

Varka

It's way too large and splits up the image from the content below it, which makes it impossible to enter tags while looking at the image, and makes you have to scroll much further down to view comments.

While I can tolerate an ad there if it's small, in general I'm against ads being directly in the middle of the page like that.

Bad bad bad bad bad. Please change it back to the way it was. The way they are couldn't possible be more obtrusive and distracting.

Semi-related, ads don't load at all for me now. I just get a blue square with nothing in it. And yes, I have adblock disabled.

I don't think the new adds are loading correctly... It looks like they're supposed to be side to side, but they keep popping up one on top of the other, which doesn't fit the background at all.

Like said before: makes tagging a larger pain. Hard to tag something when you look up and see nothing but Bad Dragon's dildo's, Ha!

The ad space gets the site needed money, cool, I would just move it below the comments so that tagging and commenting will not be inhibited.

Yes, the ads are obtrusive.
But that's the point, isn't it?

Munkelzahn said:
Yes, the ads are obtrusive.
But that's the point, isn't it?

No, there's a difference between 'visible' and 'obtrusive'.

on a side note, they are quite commical.

I noticed the ads were all of dildo's, so i thought maybe they were based off of the image you looked at. I searched "female -penis" and it is still nothing but dildo's with the exception of a horse saying "pony play."

Pandering to the penis and pony lovers, gotta love it. Not against it, just thought it was funny.

I think right now they should be placed either under the list of tags going down the page, or to the right of the image (although might not fit on all pages) but at least throw it under the tag edit box so things can be edited without scrolling up and down the page.

Would possibly be better below the comments box, but I think a nice compromise would be right above it

Also, I like the ads so far, but would like to see more con related ads such as ads describing events to go to and such, but that's just kinda personal preference

the only thing I dislike is when the ads come too close to things I aim to click on.

this becomes a problem on mobile devices since they zoom in on any slightest possibility that I may have misclicked.

the content is great though, I have checked out both baddragon and that furaffinity or whatever it was xD

a place for ads could perhaps be below notifications at the top of the screen, at least in the forum; I for one wouldn't mind that too much.

I shall now go ad hunting to see what I like/dislike, brb xD

under notifications in the comments page would be ok as well.

I was thinking about on the my account page, but I'm not sure how popular that would be among other users.

also, I will now go to the feature request page and propose something that I think could be good if done well :)

I never allow ads unless I am forced to.
I'd pay for a premium account though.
Gotta throw the money I make by copy paste programming java servlets somewhere.
So I can't really say anything about the ads since I don't see them.

Good points regarding the placement of the ads in relation to tag editing and so on.

What if we moved them below the 'edit / respond / full size' buttons, and made it so when you hit 'edit tags' it displayed them right at the bottom of the page?

Regarding ad content, it's still early days and was kind of a chicken and egg scenario - you can't sell ad space to conventions etc until you have the ads up, and people won't like them if they don't see relevant ads... I will be soliciting large numbers of potential advertisers as soon as the ad placements are sorted.

Thanks for the feedback so far guys :3

Varka

I'm OK with this, if it would not make tag edits more difficult.

what was wrong with the old placement? This placement is...seem....too... h1.In Your Face!

also the header Dtext is broke

Perhaps place them stacked under the Related Posts thing, right under the random button?

EDIT: Here's an image i snapped, since i dont think the admn would be happy with me uploading it onsite i did so to flicker.

Esme_Belles said:
Perhaps place them stacked under the Related Posts thing, right under the random button?

EDIT: Here's an image i snapped, since i dont think the admn would be happy with me uploading it onsite i did so to flicker.

That's utterly horrifying.

Ads should be put below commenting boxes. That would probably eliminate loading problems.

Akkira said:
That's utterly horrifying.

XD! the image i used or the ad placement? lol.

From a page design point of view, I think splitting the page is a sin.

But I understand the need for ads.

I like Esme's idea, or at the top or bottom, just not square in the middle. That is the kind of in the way that would cause some people to block ads on the site they normally don't

First I thought it was a joke, I clicked a picture of Celestia, and under it was Marie asking about Pony play, next to a buncha dildos.

Then I found out these were on ever image and screwing up the page layout, especially on portable devices.

To quote Mr. Horse, "Nosir, I don't like it!"

Esme_Belles said:
XD! the image i used or the ad placement? lol.

The current placement.

I think that they should be placed under the "Related Posts" bit to the side and perhaps under the comments. But whatever you do, please find some way of getting rid off those damn dildo's, there creeping me out

I find the ads big but they do get the product across to the people on the site. I don't mind the ads being there they do not get in the way of the images and to use my finger half of a second longer to scroll down is not an issue, All-in-all, they are good and not a issue.

Ralph-E-Coyote said:
But whatever you do, please find some way of getting rid off those damn dildo's, there creeping me out

they are awesome, I wish I could afford one...
maybe I can wish for one for my birthday... xD (from friends, not parents. lol)

I say: keep things that are relevant :)

The ads load fine for me; but if users or people whom just want to view the site, and don't want to see explicit or questionable content, see that stuff... they probably won't approve... (If you know what I mean) :/

masterwave said:
The ads load fine for me; but if users or people whom just want to view the site, and don't want to see explicit or questionable content, see that stuff... they probably won't approve... (If you know what I mean) :/

Sounds like you need to be using http://e926.net then if that's a concern. :)

Char said:
Sounds like you need to be using http://e926.net then if that's a concern. :)

I'd be very, very much interested in the user statistics of e926 compared to e621. If you would be so kind please tell me.

I can't imagine anyone using it.
Innocence doesn't exist in the furry fandom.
The furry fandom is very deeply intertwined with porn and sex.
So no one of us should be concerned with seeing porn.

And a lot of "rating:safe" images are still completely inappropriate for any workplace besides a sexshop. Buff shirtless beastmen could easily offend your surroundings.

That's why I don't even see any use for e926.

My phone disapproves. I disapprove. Tagging has become almost impossible on my phone, and the ads don't show up at all. Furthermore, the two ads seem to be much too close on the pictures others have taken. Maybe a better idea is a bar that kind of changes when the image's x-pixel count is higher or lower, and picks ads depending on the best fit. Please remove that huge rift between the taggers and the picture. Before I read this post, I was going to report the blue square as a bug. And indeed, changing the ads depending on the rating:ex/qu/sa tag would be very useful.

Char said:
Sounds like you need to be using http://e926.net then if that's a concern. :)

You guys should totally make or sticky or something for that site, there may be enough interested in the SFW- e621.

On Topic: My Idea would be to kick the "Edit | Respond | Download" between image and Ads and put the edit box, after clicking edit, above the ads, that way they aren't in the way for tagging purposes.
Comments should stay below the adds.

OR, if you'd like to bother Aurali or Tony, make the whole edit thingie into a freely movable popup frame. You could then leave everything as it is now but we could tag bigger pictures easier by simply moving the edit box in a place we currently think would be useful.
Would help if one could turn it of for mobile devices but I don't think that will be the breaking point of this idea.

Also, this seems to be really important if you extra uploaded an avatar for you to use, Varka. :V

Akkira said:
I'd be very, very much interested in the user statistics of e926 compared to e621. If you would be so kind please tell me.

I can't imagine anyone using it.
Innocence doesn't exist in the furry fandom.
The furry fandom is very deeply intertwined with porn and sex.
So no one of us should be concerned with seeing porn.

And a lot of "rating:safe" images are still completely inappropriate for any workplace besides a sexshop. Buff shirtless beastmen could easily offend your surroundings.

That's why I don't even see any use for e926.

e926.net is literally just e621.net but with explicit and questionable posts (and ads) forced off, so the amount of activity via one URL or the other isn't really relevant, I would think.

Kimpumomo said:
they are awesome, I wish I could afford one...
maybe I can wish for one for my birthday... xD (from friends, not parents. lol)

Believe me, nobody cares. Your grandparents can give you some of them on yours birthday, but don't inform us about that. Well, if it goes to ads: less advertisements - more happiness.

I feel that its very critical for e621 to remain a free, accessible site so that it appeals to everyone, which in turn improves the website's popularity and sense of commmunity. If that means advertisements need to make up for the costs, then I'm certainly for that decision.

It is also important that the ads are managed correctly, though. Placement and content can effectively make-or-break the worthiness of ads. The ad above the post is a good example of placement, I feel, as it does not hinder my ability to use the site, but is also noticeable to me and other users. The ads themselves should also be selected correctly to avoid any malicious content, but I trust the staff to do a good job with that.

So to comment on the sugestions already stated (or not):

Ads above a post or in any of the "tabs" (forum, comments, etc.) are a good place to be viewable and not bother any operation of the site. There just can't be too many ads in that space, or the ads would take preference over the post!

Ads placed somewhere inbetween the top and bottom of the pages could be intrusive, becuase that's where the good stuff is located! I don't very like where the ads are located now because they split the post from the editing and comments. I think what has been mentioned (placing the ads after the editing section) would be better, but would not be my first choice.

An ad at the bottom of the page would be the least obtrusive to users, I think, but would probably attract the least attention. Potential advertisers wouldn't appreciate ad placement in discrete places on the site.

My preference would be to put the ads on the sides of the post pages. There is definitely plenty of "blue space" on the sides of posts. Having ads on the sides of posts would not obstruct any user interaction, but would still be very noticeable to users. However, I believe the site is constructed on a vertical basis, and I don't know how difficult it would be to do this. There would also be certain large posts that might block the ads. Still, I think this is the best option for placement.

Although posts certainly have the highest traffic, there are other areas of the site where an ad would be appropriate, such as the forums.

Just make your finances public, give us a permanent donation link and all your problems will disappear because users can donate demand orientated.

And add premium accounts.
I'd gladly pay 3€ or something if my name in the forum was colored like a gay rainbow.

ippiki_ookami said:
Semi-related, ads don't load at all for me now. I just get a blue square with nothing in it. And yes, I have adblock disabled.

This ^

Akkira said:
And add premium accounts.
I'd gladly pay 3€ or something if my name in the forum was colored like a gay rainbow.

And I'd gladly pay $30 or something if your name wasn't.

Allow donations before trying premium accounts please.

Akkira said:
And add premium accounts.
I'd gladly pay 3€ or something if my name in the forum was colored like a gay rainbow.

Premium accounts are certainly something we can consider, provided that we have enough bells and whistles to offer to make them worthwhile. I'd hesitate to say that we'd just instantly give them access to all features that "Privileged" accounts have, as I could definitely see that leading to abuse (Privileged accounts are really only given to people we trust). But it's something worth looking into further and seeing what we can come up with.

I don't think that they're really annoying, I'm just a little bit confused when I'm trying to read comments at the moment.

I'd be able to handle the ads if they were on the side of the page, where there's often a large amount of space. Hell, they could even be larger. But as it is, they feel obtrusive and more like pop-ups than actual ads. I love Bad Dragon, but I don't want them butting in and splitting posts and comments.

TheOrigamist said:
but I don't want them butting in and splitting posts and comments.

Man, if there's ONE thing that Bad Dragon is REALLY good at... ;x

Char said:
Man, if there's ONE thing that Bad Dragon is REALLY good at... ;x

How clever. =◕ ◡ ◕=
You forgot bleeding buttin though.

Akkira said:
I'd be very, very much interested in the user statistics of e926 compared to e621. If you would be so kind please tell me.

I can't imagine anyone using it.
Innocence doesn't exist in the furry fandom.
The furry fandom is very deeply intertwined with porn and sex.
So no one of us should be concerned with seeing porn.

And a lot of "rating:safe" images are still completely inappropriate for any workplace besides a sexshop. Buff shirtless beastmen could easily offend your surroundings.

That's why I don't even see any use for e926.

"Oh, hey boss... oh, no, I'm just looking at perfectly innocent furry art. You know, with no sexual connotations at all. Yup."

I would suggest that you put "Edit","Respond" and "Download" directly under the picture.

Been having the "itch" in my brain.
Just wondering how long you guys been on the internet. :x
6 years?
5 years?

I mean how long? If it's that long (a year at least), would you get used to the ads?

Not sure if this is relevant but just saying. :o

As many said, the ads that are between the post and "Edit | Respond | Download" are kinda big (250px high) I prefer them like Esme said (typed?), below the "Related Posts" section, there's so much space (240px width, 800px height max) and/or put one just below the comments box. Oh and don't make them Flash based (those take a darn long to load), floating ads that follow the page, pop-ups or click-to-continue (don't remember who said it, but I agree). And if you're putting them on almost¹ every page, they'd be better at the bottom, since the comment box is located there, they'll always be seen, IMO.

¹ The homepage , userpage and user profile pages look nice whithout them :D

RlctntFr said:
"Oh, hey boss... oh, no, I'm just looking at perfectly innocent furry art. You know, with no sexual connotations at all. Yup."

No idea why the rating for that was ever changed to "Safe". According to it's tag history it was originally marked as "questionable" as it should have been.

I hate ads but I don't plan to ever give away money.

Char said:
Sounds like you need to be using http://e926.net then if that's a concern. :)

I just went on there and couldn't help but notice the ads there overlapping the comments... is that intended or something...? :(

I think a big problem with how the ads are placed now is that they're too close to the image you're trying to view. There needs to be a proper amount of spacing between the subject of the page and the ads, or else it becomes one big ugly frankenbeast. Even if you put the ads below "Edit | Download | Full Size" there needs to be at least one blank space in-between the two to separate things visually.

I also use a paginator to view posts in order, so I would prefer the ads to be off to the side since scroll space is important.

I had adblock disabled, but turned it back on due to the ads just below the images. That's a bad place for them.

I would be perfectly okay with an ad at the bottom of the results page, near the page numbers.

What's up?

* Disables AdBlock, goes to a random picture, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls down, Bad Dragon, F5, Bad Dragon, scrolls up, Bad Dragon, enables AdBlock *

Furries have nothing to advertise on e621 except dildos? Sorry, but I'll have to leave AdBlock enabled. Seeing this shit is pointless.

I moved and improved the ad so it should be a lot less intrusive now (not that I like it in the first place).

FeralBeast said:
Furries have nothing to advertise on e621 except dildos? Sorry, but I'll have to leave AdBlock enabled. Seeing this shit is pointless.

Not that I've done intensive research into this myself (Varka would have more insight on this than me), but I believe it's likely that a great deal of furries that want to advertise themselves stick to doing so on FA because it's the "most popular" furry site and therefore that's where their ad will get the "most exposure". Of course that's not actually true at all, since if EVERYONE is advertising on FA, your ad gets seen considerably less. (I did a count a couple of months ago of UNIQUE ads on FA and I finally just stopped after counting over ONE HUNDRED of them.)

Meanwhile on e621.net, we serve up over 2 million unique visitors per month and over 300 million ad displays (meaning an ad loads on a page), with 40 dollars (the current rate mentioned on the advertising info page) buying you a guaranteed 800,000 displays of your ad (no matter how long it takes, it's not a month-to-month deal). That's a lot of exposure, but if people don't know about it then they won't sign up to advertise on the site. So basically we need to advertise our advertisements. :P

By the way, thank you Varka and the rest of the staff for taking our opinions (and each others) into consideration. It's a whole lot better having a good relationship between the administration and the users.

Eeeeehhhhhgggggg.
I really hate the placement of the new ads. Just having a huge ad BAM right in the center of the page is really annoying and distracting. I could deal if it was below the comments, though.

I'll tell you how I feel about the advertisements when I can see them on https βP

Esme_Belles said:
Perhaps place them stacked under the Related Posts thing, right under the random button?

EDIT: Here's an image i snapped, since i dont think the admn would be happy with me uploading it onsite i did so to flicker.

oh mygod this. It keeps ads visible without stretching the page, and allows for a large ad as well as a banner, simple as that.
edit: oops

Shiitake said:
I had adblock disabled, but turned it back on due to the ads just below the images. That's a bad place for them.

I would be perfectly okay with an ad at the bottom of the results page, near the page numbers.

Sadly this. I always turned it off for this site, but will be blocking them if they are in the middle =/

Again, esme's idea was good

Hm, well I don't see any ads now, with AdBlock disabled and e621.net whitelisted for scripts. Is there another server that needs to be allowed?

As for feedback, I see two ideas being discussed here, so I'll comment on them separately.

Re: more ads. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's tricky to get right. Ad blockers exist because ads are often extremely annoying. It's important to strike a balance between ads that will be seen and noticed, and ads that will annoy and be blocked.

What I saw before (dunno if there was more that didn't show up) was a couple banners at the top of the page, which didn't move, and that was fine. What people are reporting now is large banners between the images and the comments, which is really annoying (and creates usability issues as some have mentioned).

There are a few things that make ads annoying:
-Distracting from the content. This can be due to poor placement (anywhere within the content area is especially bad), animation, or just being so fucking huge that it makes the actual content take a long time to load. Especially horrible are those that cover the content (by means of layering or just incorrect placement), move around the page, or have sound. If you've ever done the latter two, go die in a hole. (Moving ads with sound are why I installed ad blockers in the first place!)

-Being too similar to the content. e.g. an image directly touching the actual post, or text links directly below the tag list, that looks similar enough to be confused with the actual content. It can be annoying when you click them by accident when trying to do something else, or when you can't tell if they're part of the image or not, and it can feel like the author is trying to trick you into clicking them. A few pixels of separation and/or a border helps a lot.
Some BBSes do this deliberately by disguising ads as posts. It's a great way to make people not want to participate.

-Being useless. A good ad should tell me about a product I might be interested in, and explain what it is and why I should care. If it's advertising something completely irrelevant to my interests, or doesn't tell me WTF the product is or why I'd be interested in it, it's not going to do any good. (Unless of course you're making money by just showing them, whether they get clicked or not - in that case, advertise all the cars and iProducts you want.)

-Being sleazy. Trying to trick people into clicking them, selling things that are obviously junk or scams, leading to malicious sites or even just having shady-looking URLs. This reflects poorly on the site as a whole, as users will assume the admins are aware of their presence, and not caring if your advertisers have no respect for your users implies that you don't respect them either. Ads that are just "click here because boobs" fall under this as well; they don't tell anything about the product, but just try to lure you in with sex, to a product that (guaranteed) has nothing to do with sex. (Of course, on this site, that may well not be true... nothing wrong with using sex to sell your product when it does, in fact, relate to sex.)

-Being NSFW on pages that are otherwise SFW. That's especially bad if you see only nice SFW ads, so you send a link to your friend, and they see nasty NSFW stuff and complain that you didn't warn them about it. This should be simple; don't show R-rated ads on non-Explicit posts.

The best ads are those that don't stand out much (no movement, not too contrasting colours - enough to be noticed, but not to distract), take up space that was otherwise not being used (e.g. below the tags list, at the top/bottom of the page) or otherwise not too much of it, and have some relevance. I'd be entirely satisfied with just more of the static graphic banners I'd seen before, if they're not in the way.

Medium is important to consider, too. Text ads are great because they take up extremely little bandwidth and don't stick out too much (but can be styled with CSS, too). Graphics are usually not too bad, but I've seen them take up several megabytes which is just eugh (especially if you're on mobile and/or in a crappy country and bandwidth metering is a thing). Anything using Javascript or Flash is likely to not load for some people, and take up enough CPU power to be really annoying. (Flash especially is a pile of shit, and just having a Flash ad anywhere on a page can make the whole page virtually unusable.)

Relevance is an interesting issue, because how do you make it relevant to each user's interests? It sounds like the current system just uses the post's tags as keywords, which works nicely. Using the user's viewing history is a common method, but easily leads into privacy issues, especially if the user's identity can be easily figured from (or is even given with) the data. I think it might be sufficient to send a union of the tags of the current post and those in the user's favourites/history, perhaps weighted by how often a tag appears, without any other identifying information.

As for placements, spots that come to mind: a banner above the search field and image or above the news box (or both, if they're small), multiple square images below the tags/options/etc (especially if you have many comments, that's just a huge empty space), below the new comment field. Possibly between rows of thumbnails every so often (again, small banners).

Someone also brought up the ideas of donations and premium accounts. These are closely related ideas, and like ads, there's a fine line between doing good and being just annoying.

I think a donation button is a great idea. Just add a "Donate" link to the navigation bar (maybe even colour it!), or a (not too distracting) button above the search field. It's obvious to me at least that this site costs a fair bit to run and I'd love to chip in. (I don't have a credit card, so it'd have to wait until I get one... but anyway)

Perhaps some information about statistics like the server load and disk space, hit counts, etc would help incite donations by giving a rough idea how big the site is and how much its expenses are.

Premium content, on the other hand, is a very slippery slope. At the top is rewards and incentives for donating (really, keeping the site alive should be plenty of incentive), and at the bottom is turning into a pay site, and I've seen plenty of sites slide all the way down easily.

It's nice to want to give some kind of reward, but it's tricky. If it's something that costs money, like a physical gift, then you're dipping into the donation money. If it's something that used to be free or that people would expect to be free, they're going to be annoyed, especially if they can't donate (because of not having a credit card, being flat broke, etc). It's also a pet peeve of mine when you get something better than the free product by "donating" - at that point, it's no longer a donation, just a purchase. (See practically every "donation" Android app ever.)

In general, if a user is being inconvenienced or lock out of something entirely because of not donating, they're going to be annoyed and probably leave. Those kinds of arbitrary restrictions very quickly turn into existing just to make money, and it's rare that greed doesn't make the matter worse over time, to where things you already got for your donation before are being taken away again. People may even be less willing to donate for something that should be free, than for no reward at all (besides the feeling of having donated, of course).

I know the admins here are pretty cool and aren't likely to go dicking people around, but it's just as important to not make people feel like you might. Not everyone knows you too well.

There are already the privileged accounts that have some seemingly arbitrary extras like being able to use colour in comments (which I've never seen used anyway) and IIRC able to add more tags to a search (which seems kinda dickish to regulars, but I've never hit the limit anyway). I can see having a similar account type for donators.

Main thing I'd want to see is just more static banners and easily accessible donation link. (and not one that requires PayPal, because PayPal are bastards and I don't know why anyone would ever do business with them. There's a decent chance you'll never even receive the money, and the fees will whittle it down to nothing anyway...)

Also, I really, really appreciate that you're all listening to feedback. <3

On the subject of content and advertisers, perhaps you could simply request that advertisers give a rating and simplified tag list, so no one is forced to see what they don't want. That way, you could have just about any ad content on the site, because if a user dislikes an ad's content, he could simply blacklist it. (ie blacklisting "gay" would replace hardblush ads with another advertisement) Only problems I can see are that blacklisting "gay, straight, dragon, dildo" would essentially disable every ad on the site, and that some advertisers might be turned off by having to provide tags.

edit: When I say "simplified tag list" I mean like two or three major tags, such as "gay, anthro, questionable" for a generic semi-sfw hardblush ad, or "dildo, explocit" for Bad Dragon advertisements.

The current ads are extremely annoying. My suggestion is that you keep the banner at the top, add a matching banner at the bottom, then add a single ad beneath the tags/related posts sidebar (either a vertical banner, or several small ads if they'll fit within the sidebar). Revenue's more or less the same, but it's much less intrusive.

i am fine with why ads are here, but please make it a banner ad instead of a large box!

if you want to keep the big box at least move it just below the comment response box.

It's a very smart placement and despite all the negative reactions I think they are in a perfect spot. However, I noticed that none of the advertisements are very clearly labelled "ADVERTISEMENT," which I believe is actually a legal issue, plus it can be confusing to users who aren't good with the internet.

Hmm. I don't mind them there. Works.

ippiki_ookami said:
Bad bad bad bad bad. Please change it back to the way it was. The way they are couldn't possible be more obtrusive and distracting.

THIS. Plus about 90% of them seem to be the same DISTRACTINGLY HUGE COCK ad from Bad Dragon.. Which defeats the purpose of the other bad dragon ads almost 90% of the time on the top banner. I'm running at about 1024x768 for my default rez here so HUGE DISTRACTING COCK. Which normally wouldn't be a bad thing if I wasn't trying to view straight porn sometimes.. :V

In fact, It's funny cuz now that I think of it, Whatever image you view is wedged in a cock sammich..

ippiki_ookami said:
Semi-related, ads don't load at all for me now. I just get a blue square with nothing in it. And yes, I have adblock disabled.

I didn't even notice the change, I have this problem too. I appear to be getting 404 errors for the four scripts that are supposed to be loading.

I don't mind ads, I even like them if they're relevant. But being obtrusive just gets annoying and leads to mis-clicks.

Yep, too big and annoyingly placed. I'd be OK with it if they were a bit smaller and to the side.

It's all too muuuuuuuuuuuuch...

FoxFourOhFour said:
THIS. Plus about 90% of them seem to be the same DISTRACTINGLY HUGE COCK ad from Bad Dragon.. Which defeats the purpose of the other bad dragon ads almost 90% of the time on the top banner. I'm running at about 1024x768 for my default rez here so HUGE DISTRACTING COCK. Which normally wouldn't be a bad thing if I wasn't trying to view straight porn sometimes.. :V

hey tony remember when you said no one runs this resolution anymore?

i think there should be no ads

Aurali said:
hey tony remember when you said no one runs this resolution anymore?

Not everyfur has a beast machine bought with magic furpile monies. :P It's just common sense to plan for resolutions in at LEAST this size. Some people actually use their TVs as a second screen, Or use a portable device stuck in a lower rez. :P

^So much this. I'm on a netbook with 1024x600 resolution, and will be for the foreseeable future.

Esme_Belles said:
Perhaps place them stacked under the Related Posts thing, right under the random button?

EDIT: Here's an image i snapped, since i dont think the admn would be happy with me uploading it onsite i did so to flicker.

Its just a matter of finding the right sizes and spaces to put the ads in. As shown above the smaller ad and side ads resemble the previous ad placement(which I and hopefully many others have grown accustom to) but the new "HUGE" blue box under the artworks is very annoying, especially since I never see ads in it either. Many of us would rather have no ads at all but taking in account the freedom of e621 I think we all need to make a small sacrifice in order to help pay for it, this isn't a free world after all.
Anyways, I wouldn't want to be forced to pay premium memberships in order to continue picture hoarding (LOL!) with ease and helping out with tags.

All in all, I don't mind the new layout, although all you see when scrolling down on an image is the BadDragon dildos.
I agree with the people who said about putting the ads beneath the related post section, but you could also put a place on the My Account page so people who want info on FurCon and other events can have that fed to their page.

I agree with the fact that it´s annoying, but if you really have to do it: i think we can handle it... :)

JustFrame said:
i think there should be no ads

Then just use adblock -_-'