Banner Advertisements
 

A message to the community of FIRST:

The Chief Delphi Forums, operated by the webmasters at Team #47 Chief Delphi, have been providing a communication tool for the community of FIRST since 1997. During this time span the growth of the site and the value to the FIRST community has grown many folds, as have the expenses to operate the site.

Given the current state of team economics and the anticipated growth in the upcoming years, we cannot absorb the site costs within the Team 47 budget any longer. We anticipate the site costs to rise as we improve and upgrade the site to meet the traffic demands of the FIRST Community.

In light of this we have incorporated banner advertisements as a method to offset the stress on our teams budget as a result of the website. Banner ads will fall within two categories:

Category 1: These are ads that are purchased by business to promote a product or service that is common to the community of FIRST. All revenue from these ads will go to support the site directly.

Category 2: These ads were sold by our students as a fundraiser to support their fundraising efforts for the coming year. These are referred to as “Partnership” banners that display a local business partnership with our team. All revenue generated will go to support direct student expenses.

All the ads will be displayed on a random/rotating basis at the top of each page.

If you would like to participate in this effort to advertise a product or service to support the site by purchasing a banner ad please contact Mike Martus at mmartus@chiefdelphi.com

If you would like to make a personal donation to keep this site running you may make a contribution using the “PayPal” button located between the banners. You will be listed as a Chiefdelphi.com web supporter on the advertisers page (unless your account is set to be 'Invisible') and for six months the banners will be hidden when you are logged in.

Please direct any questions, comments, concerns, or other inquiries to ads@chiefdelphi.com rather than replying here, PMing the moderators/administrators, etc.

Thank you;
Leadership of ChiefDelphi.com

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Is there any way to include the "target=_blank" command on the code end to make the clicked on advertisements open in a new browser window instead of the current one?

And, not to sidetrack to much, but can that same feature be added to attached thumbnails in posts as well?


edit: Back on the subject of the Banners and sponsored links. Will the "Helpful Links" on the left hand side of the portal page be forced to buy banners, or are they already "in" as far as a link is concerned?

Just curious.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Hmm... I can't say I enjoy having those two banners at the top of every page.

I understand, though, where you're coming from with this, and I have to say that this is a very elegant and well-thought-out solution. I like that none of the banners I've seen so far have been anywhere near as distracting and annoying as some on the Internet, and I do appreciate the option to make them disappear by donating directly. I'll probably be taking you up on that.

Anyways, I'm sorry to see that the financial situation is such that this is necessary, but kudos on finding a solution that I, and everyone else (I hope) can easily live with. :)

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

I just donated with my Paypal account and the banners disappeared. It's just like it was before. :)

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

$5 for 6 months is a small price to pay for the value this forum provides. I bought my subscription :)

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Brandon, You know there are many of us who really value the service you provide. I am glad we now have a way to "help". Just one thing ... We might also like to patronize your sponsors (that's one of the reasons they advertise ... right?). But after donating thru PayPal and eliminating the banners I don't see a way to get to your "Advertiser's page" :ahh: . I think you need a small but prominently placed link to that page ...

Keep up the great work - we REALLY appreciate it ... :p

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

I would suggest maybe a link on the extras page?

Until then here you go http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/advertisers.php?

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

It definitely made my head spin for a moment.

But for all the blathering on I do around here, five bucks is a steal.

(By the way, any chance of getting longer periods put into the system, such as $10 for a year? Or $47 for four years, 8.63 months?)

<edit>After chipping in my five bucks, I got an error saying "POST requests from foreign hosts are not allowed.</edit>

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Same here, I chipped in and got the same message. I still got my transaction recepit though. :)

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

i also contributed....if you need anything else let us know

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

I am not a fan of ads but they don't really bother me. I understand the need for them and will put up with them unless they start making noises, get bigger than they are supposed to be, etc. I might donate to get rid of them.

Have you thougt about putting them at the very top of the page? They feel a little bit intrusive stuck in the middle and divide things a bit.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

I'm not an advertising expert (and it is 1:30 AM), but I'd stick them in that spot for the sole reason that they divide things a bit. To go from the body of a page to the top control bar, your eye has to cross over the advertisement. Which is kinda what they want you to do.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

£2.96 if your british...

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

I don't mind the cocept but wish I'd read the announcement BEFORE seeing the ads pop up on the pages... because I thought I'd inadvertently downloaded something on my PC which was causing them to show up.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

If you are so moved, you can use PayPal's "Send Money" link, and send however much you want to "paypal AT chiefdelphi DOT com". The ads won't disappear unless you use the automated system via the button on the advertisers page, so make sure you send me a PM if you choose the manual route, so I can remove your ads for you.

-Brandon

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

If this happens to anybody else, can you please get a screenshot & send it my way..

I'll be double checking that everybody who had a payment go through is in the 'Supporting Members' list. If you don't show up there 24-48 hours after you donated, send an email to ads@chiefdelphi.com with your username (and PayPal transaction ID, if you have it).

Thanks.


**EDIT**

This should be fixed now .. let me know if you see it again ..

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

I'll be adding a link to show the banners from each company on the advertisers page, eventually.

Thanks!

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

How about offering a separate price for a team donation (even if through the "Send Money" manual route) providing blanket advertiser blocking, in addition to the individual. That might generate more income as it's easier to budget donations like this through a team budget or generous benefactor.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

I don't mind the ads too much, but you would think that you could do better than stretched black text on a white background. Some of them are awfully hard to read.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Not bad, guys. This seems to be a workable solution.

Question: Will there be availability to purchase memberships as a gift (maybe with a printable sheet so that we can put it under the tree)? There are a couple of people I would like to "give the gift of ChiefDelphi" to come Christmastime.....

hmm..."give the gift of ChiefDelphi"? "This holiday season, send some Pontiac cheer to someone you love"? "Don't forget to put The Chief under your tree!" The possibilities are endless :D

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

The banners with stretched text are being fixed in the next few days. The students on our web team created most of these banners, and it's their first time doing it.

-Brandon

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

For now, there is no way to do this easily; you'd have to manually send $5 to paypal AT chiefdelphi DOT com and include in the message what username this would be for. We would manually apply it to their account -- if you wanted it to not be active until they received the gift (to be a surprise, or whatever), have them send us an e-mail with the PayPal transaction ID and their username, and then I can apply it to their account. The 6-month period would apply starting then, and not when you purchased the gift.

This brings up another point -- if you were to donate another $5, the 6-month ad removal would be applied the end of your current subscription -- (i.e. ending 1 year from the first donation)

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

The students are learning. These are student made banners. Most will be improved in the coming weeks ( I hope) :)

Considering what they are sent they are a start.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Hmm... This really proves how observant I am. Visited chiefdelphi scrolled to the news and read their were banner ads just added. I wondered where they were so I scrolled up and down twice before I decided to read where they were.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Brandon, in reference to this, does chiefdelphi.com need some help in the processor/storage/bandwidth department? You've just gotta say the word(s) and I will gladly help, I'm upgrading my connection to dual lines by the end of the month so I will have much more bandwidth to spare.

What if we want to donate more than $5 at a shot?

-Mike Aalderink

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

If you want to donate more than $5, just use the 'Send Money' feature of PayPal and send it to donate@chiefdelphi.com

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Wow

Surprisingly, I'm not supprised by this being done, Brandon ... a bit saddened though

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

If your team would like to do a blanket 'no-ads' for everybody registered on your team, as Mark suggested, please contact ads@chiefdelphi.com with:

• Your team # ..
• How many ChiefDelphi users you have registered (or would plan to register)
• Contact info (preferably a team leader/mentor/coach/engineer)

If there is enough interest in something like this, we may make it available.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

I unfortuantly doubt it. Brandon/CD doesn't seem to be one for accepting non-monetary donations. Both of us have offered similar services on multiple occations which seem to go unnoticed.

On another note: we're currently hosting 45 FIRST sites (teams & regional), I'd like to make it to 50 before the end of the year, so if you're reading this and our team needs hosting, look at the signature.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Thank you for the offer to be a host, it is kind indeed.

We have made the changes with careful thought and want to keep this site as healthy as possible with all the considerations with funding.

I am please to say our goals are being met and we see a bright path to the future.

We have had many offers for "Free" hosting. The problem with free is in most cases we would lose control and service at some level. We follow the old adage "you get what you pay for". We are sure many of the offers are solid but we choose not to take any chances with the site.

Plans are in place and we are moving forward to meet the needs of the Community of FIRST.

A special thank you to the community of FIRST for understanding and support.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

If you don't mind me asking, are you planning to do any server upgrades before the kick off? More memory?

I remember last year (actually earlier this year) Brandon had to turn off some of the features of this site to lighten the load on the server. I was just wondering if we're looking good to hold up for this coming season when the traffic spikes on here.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

I'm guessing the official FRC forums will alleviate some of those spikes in traffic.
I hope.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

Possibly. We are still working on a possible upgrade.

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

What's the prices for Advertisement space?

Re: Banner Advertisements
 

E-mail the above address and you'll get an advertising packet sent to you.