Banner Advertisements

[Brandon Martus]

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 ..

[Brandon Martus]

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

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Stu Bloom

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" . I think you need a small but prominently placed link to that page ...

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

[Mark McLeod]

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.

[ahecht]

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.

[Jessica Boucher]

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

[Brandon Martus]

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

Originally Posted by ahecht

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.

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

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

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)

[Mike Martus]

Originally Posted by ahecht

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.

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.

[Adam Y.]

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.

[Mike AA]

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

[Brandon Martus]

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

[Randy]

Wow

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

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

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.

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.

[Randy]

Originally Posted by Mike AA

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

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.

[Mike Martus]

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.