A new way to thank our members who contribute consistent quality -- no ads!

After some experimentation yesterday, we've launched a new feature that provides a modest reward for our most prolific members... the elimination of advertising on the discussion board.

For all members who have at least 250 posts, have received at least 250 flags for their threads, and at least 250 stars for their posts... advertising on the discussion board area will be automatically disabled. These members are in the "250/250/250 Club," and a new link in their mini-profile (displayed next to their posts) indicates the milestone. Also, your stars and flags are now shown on your profile page.

Unfortunately, the home page and any other page ending in .html isn't part of this, as those pages are "static html" and thus are unaware of your membership status. But while your on the board, viewing threads, recent posts, forum indexes, etc... you'll see no ads.


One (small) way to say thank you to those members, and also give other members an interesting milestone based on quality contributions to ATS.




edit to correct the numbers to 250 -- the code was written that way, but I put 200 into the announcement thread, sorry.

[edit on 10-5-2009 by SkepticOverlord]

What a great idea Skeptic.

I am sure this serve a new way to get people to contribute great content and meaningfull discussions.

~Keeper

Interesting idea. It's a pretty nice reward.

Thanks.

oh now that is just SWEET!

Thats really sweet. Looks like im in exclusive company in this tread alone

This is awesome...
Just the triple 200 thing to the left of the post is elite in itself, and I guess it shows some conspiracy wisdom!

Can't wait to be a part of the triple 200 club!

Edit to add: I am??! Nice!!!



Aack I knew I couldn't have been... Must be that bug. No problemo!

[edit on 5/10/2009 by impaired]

[edit on 5/10/2009 by impaired]

A great incentive for members to post quality

Ah, that is cool.

Thank you to the staff!

Very nice strategy Skeptic. I commend you for your brilliance on rewarding those to make this site possible.

I dunno what to say? I ... I... I think I'm going to cry

I'm going to miss those epilepsy inducing flashing ones as much as I miss the ones that used to scream...

SAYYY SOMETHING!!

through 200watt monitors when you forget to turn them off at 3am.


My underpants last so much longer these days.

A great idea, go quality posts!

Well,

That's a lovely idea. I've got something (else) to look forward to now.

It's a nice way of showing that you appreciate quality and not just quantity of posting.

Now, it's the stars that I struggle with but I'm sure that I'll get there eventually.

Consider my hat doffed to the triple 200 club.

Peace.

MGGG

Edit to add: After looking at my profile it would appear that it is indeed the flags that I am short of - not the stars.

My god, my intelligence amazes me sometimes...

[edit on 10-5-2009 by machinegun_go_go]

Ahhh, what a cool idea! Love it!! I'm almost there, too!

I wonder who or what inspired it....

(small bug in the code, still working it out)

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


This is an awesome approach. I get the idea of generating some income but some of those ads were for the birds.

I think you are making a mistake. I've been in this business a long time, and have even created/ran ad networks. Getting ad revenue for a site like this has to be hard enough as it is. You have little to no marketable content which is what brings in the higher paying ads. The best thing you have going for you is the amount of traffic, so I don't know why you would want to take that down a bit.

If I didn't want to see ads on the site, then I would just disable them. I don't simply because I understand the nature of things.



[edit on 10-5-2009 by badmedia]

Was it really necessary to add the 200 posts clause. I would have thought that someone with 200 stars and flags would have much more than 200 posts. I have over 200 posts and I have only done a couple of threads (which weren't very good anyway).

-Cauch1

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Looks like you got it.

Great idea, S.O. I'll never be in this exclusive and privileged club because I'm not much of a thread starter (no way to get flags) but I congratulate and cheer those that do make it. No distracting ads is a nice little bonus.

Well done.

Originally posted by badmedia
Getting ad revenue for a site like this has to be hard enough as it is.

About 90% of all our page-views come from non-members. So this is simply a small reward for those that help make that happen.