Ebay And The Old Firm

[mbvmorning]

Just seen the ad for the official celtic dogs bowl via ebay above the message board.Is it just me who stares in disbelief at this sort of stuff.ON OUR FORUM

[Joonya]

I think its been mentioned before about these ads.

Does it not have something to do with the topics on the forum. For instance the ad would recognise the name Celtic and therefore adapt to suit?

[Caley]

I'm pretty sure Scotty and CaleyD have little or no control over what ads appear on the site. The ads are necessary as the site has to be funded somehow. Can't expect them to fund it themselves while most of us pay nothing!

Does it not have something to do with the topics on the forum. For instance the ad would recognise the name Celtic and therefore adapt to suit?

Yep, I think that's right. Google Adsense uses some sort of keyword bidding system to place appropriate ads on the site. Maybe we should use other terms to refer to R@ngers & Celt1c. Mind you, most of us do anyway!

Edited March 6, 2009 by Caley

[mbvmorning]

I appreciate what youre saying but WHY does nobody have any control over the content.Cant imagine too many 1690 flag offers getting bandied about on the main Celtic forum.

[Caley]

I appreciate what youre saying but WHY does nobody have any control over the content.Cant imagine too many 1690 flag offers getting bandied about on the main Celtic forum.

The Celtic forum would have a far greater volume of traffic through it and could afford to be more selective about the ads placed on the site. Considering the vast majority of the members of CTO pay nothing, I think it's a cracking site and am more than willing to put up with a few ads I may not like. The alternative would be for every member to pay a subscription.

[mbvmorning]

I stand corrected and agree with you.

[CaleyD]

As has been said, we have minimal control over the precise ads offered via google ads and only block them on a general level....so we could block "football" or "sport", but nothing as specific as certain teams. There's also the fact that the what you are seeing is likely Ebay generated adverts, so we'd then have to go in and block those kinds of ads also.....before too long we're not being served adverts and they're not contributing to the running of the site.

For those who don't like the adverts being shown (or having adverts in general), we do offer a subscription option. If you go into your profile page and scroll down the menu on the left you will see a "purchase paid subscriptions" option. One of the packages available is "Sponsor" which costs ?12 a year. If you sign up for that then you will be able to view the forums with no adverts, as well as a couple of other small benefits, whilst continuing to contribute.

Alternatively, if you wish to make a contribution of some other amount (larger or smaller) then we have a Donate button on the bottom left of each page. When someone makes a donation we work out the equivalent on a pro rata rate for the Sponsor Subscription and remove adverts for their account for a comparable period - i.e. if you donated ?5 you would get ads blocked from your account for 5 months.