I have been looking at NiCO forums for a long time and recently started to post. I would like to know how others feel about the following statement.
This web site inundates its viewers with advertisements. Yes it is free but I feel taken advantage of because there are more ads here than the vast majority of other free forum sites I have visited.

Eh, honestly there's not that many ads. There are 5 on this page, and 3 of them your brain is probably tuning out (2 banners at the top, and you'll probably never see the ad below the thread). The only ones you'll really see while browsing are the sidebar ad, and the initial post "related" ad.

I just checked the homepage of superhonda.com, the Honda equivalent of NICO, and they have 10 ads on their homepage alone, and 7 forums dedicated to specific advertisers/ brands. I think we're doing all right.

As long as NICO stays away from those AWFUL, DREADFUL keyword ads on the threads, I'll be pretty content. Man, I hate those...

KnuckleSandwich wrote:I have been looking at NiCO forums for a long time and recently started to post. I would like to know how others feel about the following statement.
This web site inundates its viewers with advertisements. Yes it is free but I feel taken advantage of because there are more ads here than the vast majority of other free forum sites I have visited.

Something has too many ads when the ads make the site hard to navigate. Nico doesn't have this problem. There aren't any ads that are in the way of function at all for that matter.

KnuckleSandwich wrote:I have been looking at NiCO forums for a long time and recently started to post. I would like to know how others feel about the following statement.
This web site inundates its viewers with advertisements. Yes it is free but I feel taken advantage of because there are more ads here than the vast majority of other free forum sites I have visited.

Most other free forums aren't near the size of NICO, which means they don't cost as much to maintain. With more traffic, more ad revenue is needed to keep it running. With all that being said, like others have mentioned, I don't find it too bad myself. Doesn't seem to hurt the functionality of the site at all.

Not to brush aside your complaints (and it's obviously a little different coming from a moderator) but I don't know that I agree. In fact, compared to many website I view, NICO has very few, and very conservatively-placed ads.

In response to your comment, a few things to consider:
1. I promise you that the owner of the site has gone FAR out of his way to keep the ads from interfering with site operation. It's something we're very conscious of.
2. The first people to complain if there were too many ads (or if the ads were obnoxious or interfered with forum use) would be us (the moderator team). We don't want to look at them any more than you do.
3. I agree with the others here: while there are certainly noticeable ads around the page, they're not in the way or intrusive.
4. If you're getting popups or full-page ads ("click to continue to your page" type stuff) or anything intrusive like that, those are NOT from NICO. We do not use them. You might want to run an anti-adware/malware/spyware program.

If the average user had any idea what it costs to run this site, they'd poop. There are only 2 or 3 other automotive forums that have the content, traffic, and # of pages that this site has... so, it's kinda hard to compare.

Here's a hint: I could pay cash for a 2010 GT-R with the annual expenses.

With that said, we're in the middle of a HUGE (and expensive) professional redesign, by one of the top guys in the industry.

I've been on forums with WAY more ads. My beloved Cadillac forum comes to mind.

Yea, I'm on other forums that are worse than this one by a long shot. The ones I can think of that aren't as bad as NICO don't have NEARLY the traffic that we get here.

A redesign? Great. What, did you guys team up with Microsoft?

Yeah. It's just gonna be a sea of tiles.
You'll love it.

LOL

As long as they don't make noise when they load, I'm good.

Razi wrote:Yeah. It's just gonna be a sea of tiles.
You'll love it.

I love you man.