I am tempted to include a line in each of my mountain/rock pages that all ads and mouse-over callouts are not of my doing. I also intend to inquire to those placing the ads why they keep showing me ads for my own book, as if I wanted to buy one when I can get them for free.

But I agree, and made my own post about this a few weeks ago, the myriad of ads and hyperlinks detract from the page. It's ugly, plain and simple.

If ads are a necessary evil to keep the page solvent, then place them in discrete spots like along the side or bottom, not crammed into every available white or gray spot or within the page content itself.

surgent wrote:But I agree, and made my own post about this a few weeks ago,

Sorry, I should have paid attention before making my own thread. I haven't contributed much here, but I can't imagine contributing anything more unless this is fixed. (J., you know my suggestions.)

Matt has access to the code
<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
<!-- SP-970 x 90 banner -->
<ins class="adsbygoogle"
style="display:inline-block;width:970px;height:90px"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-6523272176520096"
data-ad-slot="1667597218"></ins>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script>

Just needs to delete this code ...

And adding an old topic to this

summitpost-org-income-estimate-t53886.html

As far as I understand it makes more money than what the OP said. SP is ranked much higher than it used to be. (source) Also note that SP has it's worst rankings right around now due to less people being inclined to climb mountains at this time of the year. When summer comes around the global rank goes up by over 10,000.

Adblock Plus

I haven't seen ads in years...

If everyone did that, the site would have to run purely on donations. Here's a fun little video giving you an idea of why I don't use adblock:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_SVd927h0I[/youtube]

SP makes money just for the ad showing up without any clicks.

Josh Lewis wrote:If everyone did that, the site would have to run purely on donations. Here's a fun little video giving you an idea of why I don't use adblock:

SP makes money just for the ad showing up without any clicks.

Adblock rants by a guy who primarily makes money from ads on the internet are not terribly compelling. According to him, Wikipedia isn't possible.

Bob Burd wrote:According to him, Wikipedia isn't possible.

Wikipedia is the exceptional. SP is too, however it just so happens that wikipedia has a slightly bigger fan base.

In all seriousness if we all used adblock, the donation route would be the only way that would keep SP afloat. I'm not opposed to that method. However from my experience I've seen well respected software supported through donations which eventually halted due to people losing interest in donating. There's always the Jimmie Wales method that Wikipedia uses (pleading).

I have no general objection to having ads on SP. I understand that it helps pay the bills and keep the site solvent, and "free" for the world. My personal objection was the ways the ads appeared, interrupting the main body of each page. Ads should sit right, left, above or below, not encroaching into text or any available white space.

Re: the Mormons and the Casino thing. Ironically, it serves both sides well. The Casinos would not have progressed beyond simple gambling dens were it not for the Mormons (and their impeccable morals, or appearance thereof) backing the operations. The original casino owners were all mob guys from back east and out west and they weren't in it for long term, but for the quick fix. When it became evident that gambling could be done legally, it was necessary that someone (or some people) be in charge whom the banks and the governments could trust.

My mother's family goes way way back in Nevada and Utah (and Oregon, California, and so on) with both Mormon lines and lines that split from Mormonism back around 1890. Some relatives were classic old-west types who died "mysteriously" in places like Goldfield, Luning, Hawthorne, Pioche and so on, and other lines still adhere to the religion. Many of my ancestors were original settlers in these places. In any case, it is fascinating. For an excellent example of the "clash of cultures", go to Panaca (Mormon town) in Lincoln County, about 90 minutes North of Vegas, then drive a few more miles to Pioche. One could not have survived without the other. The difference is jarring, but interesting too.

If everyone did that, the site would have to run purely on donations.

SP makes money just for the ad showing up without any clicks.

I agree Josh. I just hope a happy medium can be found. SP needs the ads to function, but we don't want to discourage anyone not logged in (including non-members) from visiting the site and being flooded with ads. It does appear that the ad content has improved over the past few days when I looked.

I think everyone agrees that the ones sugent is pointing out were annoying.

I wasn't trying to justify the number of ads SP uses for non logged in members. I was just voicing why I don't use adblock in general for all websites. I was the original one who contacted the maintainer about the inline ads. A few months later surgent voiced this publicly in a very friendly fashion. Based on SP's current situation it does make me more inclined to link to my own personal website when sharing trip reports.

Should have stuff about mountain tv and films- Watched an episode of Archer tonight a reprise of the Eiger Sanction