So, WTF is the sticky all about at the top of the page? Although I realise this site is US run now pretty much, the user base is predominantly UK, what good is a US tyre deal to us and how come, given the situation with paying traders on here, this is a sticky?

I know its probably already been discussed, but I couldn't find anything.

 

stop moaning and ignore it

 

I thought the same.

Obviously mates with or owned by same people as own here.

TBH this place is an utter joke. Its purely a propoganda machine for MSD/Evolution chips. Seriously like 10 adverts per page and you never see any other adverts for other traders. Blatantly a scam, and no way am I paying £20 a year to see a load of adverts from those scam dogs.

 

 

the irony being that there aren't ANY ads on this page, so far

 

"scam dogs millionaire"

 

They are a company who pay to advertise across ALL Internet Brands sites, and they pay specifically for one week sticky adverts. We do in fact have quite a lot of US traffic, thats why this place is still busy when you guys are asleep.

A) There are only two or three banners on a page on PF. (Varies)
B) All banners are in rotation with all other advertisers like Xsport, A Plan, Opie Oils, Google etc.
B) Its £10 a year not £20.

Not too hot on the facts are you Tim? LOL

 

Stu,

There are still a few pixels on the screen left to squeeze more adverts in !!

At this rate, we wont need the gold membership fees

 

I wasn't trying to upset the apple cart, just genuinely curious.

 

i dont care who,s ads they are, still too many imo, not that my opinion means owt

 

Sorry, I still remember when it was £20 all those years ago.

My anger comes from how comercialised this place has become. Fair enough bills have to be paid but its either we pay a membership and have no adverts whatsoever, or no fees but advert-o-rama. But not both please!!

And I'm sure last week there were 3 adverts in a row for you Stu!! Its like watching ITV and every advert is for whiskers cat food. I get the message after one advert

 

Yep, I covered it a few days ago:

https://passionford.com/forum/genera...strelease.html

While I think your response it a tad OTT in places... playing devils advocate here...



Sorry Stu Just found it amusing, somehow all 3 ads were on MSD at the same time. Not seen it since, they do normally rotate as you said between the banner traders.

 

Anger?? From a few pop-ups and a small non-compulsory membership fee?? I take it you don't run any kind of business.

 

why do you have 10 pms waiting to be answered?

i've never been that popular

 

I'd never seen the adds until they were mentioned, they work well

 

Please tell me your joking?

If you are I suggest you retract your post else we'll be seeing full page spreads to ensure that every single member, paying or not get the full *Has a quick look at the banner above* A-Plan experience..

Big-Dan.

 

i don't get the adds


anyone using firefox, install the add on "add block plus" click on the add and block it, and thats it the banners no longer appear

 

I thought PF was a website for Ford enthausiasts, not a business? Ok the new owners brought the site for profit off the advertising, but why are we still being charged £10 per year to view endless adverts?

Also, how come MSD can have a massive advert up top for a few weeks, but paying traders cannot? And yes I saw 3 MSD adverts quite a few times, while having to wait for my IPhone on a non 3G network at times to load these up.

 

ive never really noticed excessive advertising when viewing threads. Some other forums have them nearly every other post !!

Had to laugh the other week on LS1Tech.....somehow there was an advert for an Enema kit on the page !!!


As for Tirerack....I wondered why a US Tyre place was advertising here. Seemed a bit stupid really.

 

You don't pay a membership fee. You only need become a gold member if you wish to use any of our gold membership rooms or sell something. You will note that even the greatest online sales website in the world both charge you to advertise and run adverts on them as well. We are no different and I think people moaning about the very few adverts we have is a little surprising given how many adverts most big sites run.


There were, and as explained in policy room it was a test for some new ad placement software and we just used mine to run the test. And it was ONLY in general Discussion.


As above. You are not, you have never been charged anything, this website is over 98% free to view and if you have paid anything, its because you wanted to, you were never "charged" anything for access to Passionford.


My massive advert has been up there for over 7 years mate. Hardly a few weeks, lol. And it is up there alongside any other traders who wish to PAY for them, just the same as I do. I have no idea why you think paying traders cant have adds up there when anyone viewing the forum can clearly see they can and do have adverts up there.

 

I've never noticed ads until now either!

They dont bother me at all

 

I pay the £10 as you never know when i may need to sell something and the hassle of joining up when your in a rush is a pain. May I ask why this site charges to use some services? Why not, as a suggestion only let "Recommended" people into the for sale room and have a general sales area for unknown or new people to the site. Obviously the Gold Membership does not stop scammers and does not help people if they are scammed. Its turning into EBAY

I think you misread what I wrote or do not know what I mean. If you see the screen dump posted above there are 3 MSD adverts. The largest one is the one Im refering to, which you described as being a test for new software. That appeared a few weeks ago and left after a few weeks. If it was just a test fair enough, but name one person, non admin that didn't think you was out for more publicity?

 

work out how much time you spend on here, then relate it to £10 (thats if your even a gold member) it works out a lot cheaper than sky tv

 

PF is a website for Ford enthusiasts, that's owned by a business who (understandably) have added it to their portfolio to increase their profits.

Personally I find the ads very unobtrusive, and really can't see what the fuss is all about. Go on the Autoexpress, or Evo websites and you get those pop-ups that literally cover what you're reading unless you click them, now THEY'RE annoying!!

 

I wondered why I didn't view them websites Seriously, I cannot stand pop up adverts. The only reason the MSD one was annoying was I had to scroll down (On my IPhone) everytime the page loaded up and when you have 3mins or less to check a thread or reply to a post it becomes annoying. Yes, sad, pathetic, whatever you wanna call it, but "My names Steve and Im not a sheep who follows the heard"

I understand the website owners need to earn their money through advertising and will not argue with it. When there's adverts interupting my ease of use with the site then it starts bothering me

 

So you chose to pay for a service you may never use? Hardly something you can complain about is it?


Why shouldn't it? Internet Brands pay a lot of money to host this site and as per most big websites out there they can command a premium for its existence. Tell me there is a better place to sell Ford RS Parts than here on the web other than ebay? When you consider how many items are sold through here you will agree our scam rate is TINY, its well below 0.05% and more often than not its because people don't exercise some common sense when buying. We have also introduced the excellent iTrader system to help buyers make an informed decision.



Just one? Ok, Id say Sky insurance know as the test was to confirm the new template works with heavy traffic. they will know as we then confirmed it worked and sold to them, as seen here.


Gold membership is 3p per day Matt. Sky charge me £1.90 a day and I never watch it. LOL

 

PMSL @ being angered by adverts on a FREE forum

 

Im not complaining or I wouldn't pay it , I asked why the site charges for membership when its of no benefit to anyone, except the people (inc yourself) collecting the cash? It was originally setup to help the site with maintenance costs. Them costs are now offset with advertising, so no need IMO to charge unless its just for profit/greed. Why not come up with a better solution to help site users not be ripped off by scammers instead of charging some users to be ripped off? ITrader is a good tool, so well done on using it

Just because other people charge for something you have to? If people really cared about this site they would donate into a pot to keep it running instead of paying for services. So everyone on this thread talking about money can pay for its upkeep I thought this site was for the people who like Fords, not for personal gain by all owning parties. Its not about "Cause we're the best we can charge for it". This site seems to be more and more for personal gain than what it started off to be, a website by the people for the people I remember it being described as.

Well done, thats how the site costs should be made and in all honesty if I never clicked that link I would of continued thinking it was ANOTHER american company sponsoring this website

Can I pay by daily installments then?

 

On 15 refreshes I got all MSD ads' 7 times and an MSD ad' was in their somewhere everytime. I'm not arsed like, but maybe it's broke?

Benni.

 

Like many people, I understand that using free websites you will get adverts as servers, staff etc have to be paid for.

I know Passionford is mainly a free website but the perception to people who have financially contributed to this site by becoming a gold member is that they are suscribing to the site as whole entity.
(This is how I see it too even though the admin will disagree)

Perhaps the amount of adverts could be reduced for gold members ????

 

Thats much what i was thinking. i wouldnt expect anything else from a free to view Forum.

Personally they don't bother me at all. Not like a pop up where you have to close it to keep viewing

 

My membership has expired recently and I have chosen for the first time in a long time not to renew.

There is not enough incentive this time around. At first I was persuaded to contribute to the forums future, as I understud this was a community. This was thrown back in our faces when it was sold on for huge profit, despite the fact we all helped to keep the place going.

Then you tried to make the incentive to pay greater by making it so you cannot use the forum to make profit yourself without paying. I don't think I've ever sold more than 5 things on here, and really only use the place for buying rather than selling. So no need for me to renew on that basis. I guess the next step will be only gold members can see the classifieds???

A final incentive to renew could be the total removal of all the adverts. I would renew then 100% if this happened.

The community feel has left this place, there is little or no incentive for me (obv. others may not feel the same) to renew as stated above.

Hope that clears up why I posted!!

 

i only come on here to moan, annoy people and badmouth simon

just for that its worth the gold member, so i have access to all them imbeciles like the ones moaning about ads....

 

I don't mind some adverts, but in the past few weeks it has risen to ridiculous levels.

I feel for the other traders who pay VERY good money to be on here, but it is not a level playing field for them.

 

Of course its for financial gain, this site is hosted as a business but its content remains up to the members whom post on it. its a win win situation for everyone. If you can run and host a site better than this and do it without charging anyone feel free to go and do so and see if you can succeed where many others have failed.



So when you read this page where you have to pay, you think your subscribing to some form of club? the benefits are all there in bullet points for all to see.


Again you are short on facts. The gold membership scheme came about long before the forum was sold on and when IB bought it I DROPPED the price of membership by 50%. There have been NO commercial changes to the forum since IB bought it except to LOWER the prices, INCLUDING all trade memberships.



So don't, nobody is asking you too mate, I really cant see what your complaining about. You use the site for free and seem to be moaning that there is an OPTION for you not to do so.

 

Erm, what is it with you and the facts today?
ALL traders on here have the option to get the same packages anyone else has. Including the forum sponsorship as shown in the link above for the Insurance forum.

 

I'm not interested in starting an argument, I'm just stating my opinion on how I feel this place has changed.

Change is not a bad thing, but it seems the stakeholders in this website want to have there cake and eat it.

I would gladly pay again IF there were no adverts for Gold Members. Of course what I feel does not matter, the website will continue as it is with or without my £10.

I do not see why we should pay to see grossly excessive advertising. The only reason I can come up from a business point of view is you will get less trader money if paying members do not have to endure scrolling through the barrage we get. Which in turn makes you less money.

Ultimatly it is easy to play on the fact £10 is not a lot of money at all, but quite a lot of not a lots add up to something in the end.

Just out of curiosity what does this site cost to run PA?

What income does it recieve to cover these costs? How many members do we have?

Clearly the website would not be under IB's portfolio if it wasn't making huge sums of money, or at least had the potential to at some point in the future?

The point I'm getting at here is that I believe the website could easily sustain itself either without the adverts OR the Gold Member fees.

Please tell me why it is not possible to have no fees and adverts as we are. Or no adverts and Gold Members fees (which I would gladly pay even £20 for).

re: The uneven playing field comment, in the past few weeks you have had 3 big adverts at the top of the screen, and nobody else had any, for quite a period of time too. The situation has changed now, presumably for good? Guessing the other traders kicked off so you have gone back to how we were? Thankfully.

 

But you dont pay!!
I truly and honestly cannot understand your line of questioning here. This site is FREE. You do not pay to view it, only to benefit from its traffic financial by way of sale or to enhance the already excellent free features.

As for grossly excessive advertising, are you just having a laugh now? Where is it? Please show me a screenshot of all these ads you have to scroll through!


Our BARRAGE of advertising? Are you on the same site as the rest of us here?
Again, please show me this barrage of adverts!


How many times do I have to explain to you on this topic that this site is a business and is run as such? Why do you think anyone should provide anything to you for free anyway?


Wrong. I had three due to our traffic testing, everyone else had two.


Don't you even read this topic your commenting on? This was explained earlier, it was simply a test, teh test ended sucessfully and we sold the feature to an advertiser, and nobody complained at all, the traders will all fully understand it as they were all contacted offering them the same service we were testing and indeed sold.

More Facts here...

 

Your missing my point here Stu we are going round in circles.

 

We most certainly were. Always best to just stick to facts, its a faster and more direct route.