Re: Amazon affiliate and display issues

[pixsmith]

has anyone else noticed that at 800x600 the amazon affiliate ads cause the forum to be squeezed off screen, necessitating scrolling?

I am having this in Opera 7 and 8, IE 4, 5, and 6, and Netscape, Mozilla and Firefox, so I think it's an issue in the code somewhere, though I think it might be with amazon, since this has been a problem on a number of boards that have added this "feature."

And fwiw, in anticipation of a "everyone is surfing at higher res -- estimates are that one third to one-half of people surfing the net are stilla t resolutions of 800x600 or below :p

[Robert Allen]

It's not just low res, it's also at 1024 x 768. However there's a catch. Right now while posting I don't have a horizontal scrollbar. But when I was reading your post, I did, and resizing to the max horizontally did NOT fix it. There's something funky with some posts. I noticed it also earlier today with one of mine, one of the posts in the Nigerian scam thread. At that time I thought it was because I'd pasted in a long URL, but now I'm not so sure.

[Chris Aguilar]

Why not run the ads along the top or bottom of the of the forums so they don't mess with the format so much?

Or why not use something like Google ad-sense where the ads tend to be textual, more easily placed, and less obtrusive?

I have no problem with the concept of ads here at all, but I think the execution could potentially be better.

[mrgoat]

Originally posted by Chris Aguilar:
Why not run the ads along the top or bottom of the of the forums so they don't mess with the format so much?

Or why not use something like Google ad-sense where the ads tend to be textual, more easily placed, and less obtrusive?

I have no problem with the concept of ads here at all, but I think the execution could potentially be better.

I would definately agree that ad-sense would make more , er, sense.

I would also be prepared to pay to get an ad free version of the site. As I imagine many here would.

Obviously blocking non-paying users would result in the forum shrinking to a point that makes in 'not as good'. This is not what I am suggesting.

But I use this site daily and would be prepared to pay an annual sub rather than the Amazon ads.

[pixsmith]

Err, I wasn't debating the value of the ads, actually, jsut the mechanics of the ads' pushing the forum messages (not the subject list)offscreen.

It does not happen when the images are turned off, so it appears that even though the border of the ad section stays the same, which it does, when the images load, they start the "scooching" process. I will have to try turning them off individually to see if I can pinpoint the problem.

The other thing that has started happening is that it takes _forever_ for the page to stop loading now, if indeed it ever does. I noticed this first yesterday, but don't know what element it is that is hanging. In a couple of cases, tenminutes went by and the "page loading" indicator was still showing (In fact it iis on as I am typing this)

I just took a look at the code -- the table widths are all still set to 100% , in spite of losing a percentage of the space to the ads. I don't know if this is the problem or not, but I can't check it until I am at the office.

Just more info for the tech guys,

Pix

[Richard Kaufman]

The ads are here to stay, so I don't want to hear any bitching about it. (Your posts will be deleted.) We are not going to start charging anyone to use the Genii Forum. The Amazon ads are a good way to subsidize what has become an increasingly time consuming (and therefore expensive) part of our operation.
In addition, I think many of our readers don't know that Amazon offers such great prices on these books, and the David Ben book, for example, has not garnered much attention and many readers may not even be aware of it. So, not only do the ads help support the Forum, I consider them an additional service to the readers (just as I consider the ads in the magazine to not only support the magazine, but to also be a service to readers).
While I have experienced some problems on other sites, I'm happy to say that the Forum is still working perfectly well on my machine--no scrolling, no problems loading, in fact none of the problems that I've encountered with other sites.
If there are technical things that we can do at this end to help alleviate problems people may be having, please direct your comments on this matter to Webmaster Brad.

[Jim Maloney_dup1]

Just from a design standpoint, I think things will flow better with the Amazon stuff on the right side, as opposed to the left. I did a mock-up for myself just to check, and I really do think it looks better.

-Jim

[pixsmith]

I am _not_ having the problem in 1024 x 768, nor with Opera panels open, which reduces my display to a "regular" 800x600 size. Should any issues with the display be sent directly to Brad via email then?

Thanks again.

Pix

Hmm, just looked and it seems to be related to the placement of the genii domain images, and I think it might be the banner that causes the shift, though I can't imagine how.

FWIW

[Richard Kaufman]

All issues and suggestions should be addressed directly to Brad.

[Robert Allen]

Richard, I tried to find the Webmasters address but I can't find it either on the Forums or on the Genii home page. I think it used to be there, maybe it's missing in action. If you could post the webmasters address here I'll forward my bugs to him.

Thanks!

[Richard Kaufman]

Brad seems to have removed his e-mail address from public use (can't imagine why!), so send your messages to me and I'll forward them to him.

[Glenn Godsey]

I'm not having any problem with the ads. I have a 19" screen and I am using Firefox.

Best regards,
Glenn Godsey