Pop-Up

[Engine5FF]

To: The web-team,

please get rid of the Member's Zone pop-up on the front page. Or at least program it so it only pops up once per visit. When I go back and forth from news article to home page and back, etc. I do not want to have to close it down fourty times over. What are you guys now, Expedia.com?

Thank you

[lutan1]

There's a hell of a lot of ads already on this site- surely enough is enough!!!!

I had hoped (As I'm sure many others had!) that by becoming a subscribed member, the pop ups and other adds would decrease....?

[webteam]

We're just testing that ad this week. It will soon be set to only display once per session, just testing the bugs.

As a subscribed member, you can set your own personal start page which has no ads to get all the content and features you want quickest.

Thanks
WebTeam

[lutan1]

Appreciate what your saying WT, but I, like a lot of others still use the main page to access everything on the site....

[webteam]

No problem. Hopefully as things move forward more and more users seem to be connecting via high speed making it a little less of an issue. To be honest, the ads on the front page specifically are the largest source of site revenue, followed by MembersZone subscriptions and then all other revenue. Without them, we wouldn't be able to continue to grow and provide as much content and features as we do.

As new technologies emerge related to advertising, we may be able to downsize the number of ads overall in favor of improved delivery.

Thanks
WebTeam

[Engine5FF]

Most of us really do appreciate the work the WT does as far as content goes and we do know that they have to pay the bills. I personally think that as the web site grows the WT needs to start deciding when the site has gotten big enough and any more additions would become "too big". I feel pretty comfortable with the way the pages are set up now and can't think of too many more things the WT could add that would improve content.

[FFMcDonald]

The memberzone pop up keeps playing non-stop on my computer... I cannot stay on the main page-- it just keeps opening up, closing, opening up, closing...

Please... Help... very annoying..

Marc

[firenresq77]

The memberzone pop up keeps playing non-stop on my computer... I cannot stay on the main page-- it just keeps opening up, closing, opening up, closing...

Just happened to me too.......

[webteam]

What browser types?

Should just appear once per person, ever, per ad. Please reload, as we've just made some further adjustments.

Thanks
WebTeam

[FFMcDonald]

Internet Explorer 6.0

The problem does not occur every time - but it does happen frequently.

AND IS VERY ANNOYING!!

I logged out - cleared all cookies -- and logged back in -- still happened...

[webteam]

To those of you it did occur to (its down for a few days now until a new ad appears), what are your security settings? The issue relates to cookies, if you have your browser set to accept cookies, it should work where those ads would only appear once for you ever.

WebTeam

[SIGNAL99COM]

See, that's the problem. As a member of the members zone, paying a yearly fee I shouldn't have to accept cookies if I don't want to see all these pop up ads.

I understand that ads pay the bills, but a website with 75% ads and 25% content is just plain ridiculous.

[webteam]

To clarify, if you are a Member of the MembersZone, you can login to your personal start page and avoid all ads on your entry page. AND, you MUST accept cookies as a Member, otherwise you won't be able to login at all. The entire login system is based on using cookies to ensure you access the areas you can. We'll be adding a new secondary home page for MembersZone subscribers in mid-2004 that will be ad free, offer your personalized features, plus also put up the rest of the main content (daily hotshot, etc).

The web site is far from 75% ads and 25% content. There are and never will be any traditional 'pop up ads' that you see on many mainstream sites. There is a flash ad that appears at most for the vast majority of users no MORE than once a day (most just once ever per ad) and there is only one campaign running at a time, for no more than 15 seconds playtime before it vanishes automatically.

In fact, with the new tabs on the front page, there is even more content on the front page then ever before. It may not always seem like it but we are looking at ways all the time to reduce the 'impression' that there are more ads than content, and retooling the front page specifically as possible to push content further to the top, like we've done with the tabs, while balancing the advertising. Unlike magazines, where there's a 50/50 split usually of magazine and content, we have to be a bit more creative.

To give you an idea what it takes to run a site like Firehouse.com, updated seven days a week: 22 full-time staff and 10 part-time staff. Thats compared to 1/3 that for the print edition.

Thanks
WebTeam