A Truly Dumb Idea...or is it?

[Ken Loyd]

It's Friday and a three day weekend. With plenty of time on my hands, I have an idea. I don't know if it is good or bad but here it is.

What if (to assist team 47 in raising money) there was an advertisers section on the forums.

A place where companies could offer their services such as tee shirts, travel plans, or drill motors. This would give teams a chance to check out their needs and Chief Delphi could have a source of revenue for their team.

You would not have to go to the site if you didn't want too.

I benefit greatly from the forums and all the hard work of the sponsors.

What do you think?

Ken Loyd
Team 64

[Elgin Clock]

Personally I think the greatest thing about these forums are that Team 47, along with Brandon and whoever else is in charge of their site, does not allow advertisements.
And I thank them for that!!

Remember the Yahoo Boards last year for the team updates that FIRST used. Did you get sick of that security camera advertisement as I did??

I think an online place for teams to find team related things; ie t-shirts and travel plans, as you mentioned, would definately be an invaluable resource for FIRST teams, but just not on the Forums.

If you notice right now as it is, the only place that you can even link to Team 47's own team website is a little text on the bottom of your screen. Shocking isn't it??

If the website fills up with adds, even if they do have us FIRSTers best interest at heart, it will just be a mess.

[Mike Martus]

Yah we could use the cash! But it would not be good for "The Community of FIRST".

We will stay with non advertising as much as possible. A few teams slip some stuff in, not a real problem.

This web site is a service by our team to the FIRST Community to foster interest and growth in Engineering, the FIRST Competition and Education of youth for the careers of tomorrow.

We will stay as is.

I sure hope FIRST has a solid plan for communication this year!

[MattK]

hmmmm, Puttin the name of your sponsor all over your robot and T-shirts isnt advertising?

It seems that in hardly any other School Sport do you see the teams wearing shirts with a company's name on it (Unless that shirt is made by a like Nike where they put that little swoooosh thing in the corner). I do disagree with the fact that company's names are plastered all over FIRST. I would have no problem if this was @ a private school, but not a public school.

[FotoPlasma]

Originally posted by MattK
hmmmm, Puttin the name of your sponsor all over your robot and T-shirts isnt advertising?

It seems that in hardly any other School Sport do you see the teams wearing shirts with a company's name on it (Unless that shirt is made by a like Nike where they put that little swoooosh thing in the corner). I do disagree with the fact that company's names are plastered all over FIRST. I would have no problem if this was @ a private school, but not a public school.

What you're saying has no relevance to the topic of this thread.

Putting your sponsors' company logos on your team's robot is nothing like having a section of the forum to be used as advertisments.

It seems to me that the manifestation of this "advertising" would be in the form of a Classified Section, rather than anything like pop-up or banner ads. Companies, retailers, or what have you would pay CD some money to get their name, a link to their website, a paragraph or page or however much Brandon would choose to allot (if it were to happen, at all), and have exposure to around two thousand users, on hundreds of teams, all around the US, Canada, Brazil, etc.

I don't have anything against this type of thing, in fact, I'm all for it (unless I was wrong about something in my interpretation and description).

[Ken Loyd]

My intention was not to have pop-up ads and tons of cookies but simply a section a person could go to if they so decided.

Brandon and the rest do an outstanding service to FIRST and us. I sometimes get the feeling that I am using them.

Ken Loyd
Team 64

[Joe Matt]

There's never such a thing as a truly dumb idea. Just ways to improve upon it.

[meaubry]

Thanks Ken,
I agree with Mike Martus - the forum is doing fine "as is" - this way there aren't all the other issues that go along with advertisements such as favoritism, and other bad things.
As far as teams with their Corporate sponsors on their shirts - that's part of being a team and it shows the committment to our unique relationship as a team - besides we really like it alot.

[ShelbyRiderGrl]

n another thing is that if the site has ads then they wont be accesible in the school computers...well thats atleast true for LAUSD....

[Ken Leung]

Wow, I didn't know having advertisement in the website would cause so much issues. I didn't even know having ads would make the site inaccessable in certain school's computers.

As far as having ads in this site, there's something about it having none of that that makes this a nice place to come in and have good discussions... Something about flashing banners and ads that's just annoying...

Then this forum probably has the reputation it has right now because its not sponsored by any companies or products... Something about people running this for the education and inspiration value instead of money that makes it appealing to people.

And what if CD does put ads in here? Like Mike said, favoritism and other bad things will come into play. It will probably have less benefit than what team 47 might gain from this.


I was talking to Brandon earlier about what he gained from this place, and he told me, "Many things. I wouldn't be who I am today without this experience". Then he told me, Chief Delphi "pay" him with the education he gets from running this place. That's much more valuable than $20 an hour in my opinion.

But I agree with Ken... Sometimes I feel I am using this place too. Well, I am sure Chief Delphi have enough funding to keep the site alive... Shouldn't be too expensive paying their internet service provider. And if CD do have trouble maintaining it, I am sure many FIRSTers are willing to contribute into this.

[Ken Loyd]

I started this thread with the words"...or is it?"

I have come to the decision that I like CD the way it is. Forget the ads.

Ken Loyd
Tem 64

PS If this site is ever in need of funds, count me in for a donation.

[Wetzel]

ads...bleh

But if 47 ever hits hard times, I'm sure a quick PayPal asking will bring in plenty of money.


Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hmmm....

[Gope]

I think that delphi has offered the FIRST community an incredible service by giving us this forum, and I think that a simple banner add would not greatly hinder the quality of this site, although certaintly pop-ups or other things would be bad.


also if u are against this idea, please consider that several people that post advertise their team websites regularly using rather large banners, ,and no one complains about those.