C-Forum

WTF! why am I seeing political ads on here? especially a yes on 8!
......your childs education? how stupid and lame.

Was it in the Google ads section on the right? If so, I think Google determines what ads show up there & C-Boats has little or no control of which ads are in that section. I haven't seen it & don't know what "8" is. Maybe Google has a way of seeing what region you're from & puts up ads that it hopes are of interest to you. Obviously they goofed this one.

The ads at the top are the folks that pay for the space to support C-Boats.

it's a google ad and I think you should shut them down for a while

Explain what 8 is?

Is it a referendum of some description?

Edit: I googled it, If you're reffering to the California referendum on Same Sex Marriage then I really can't believe that anyone is for such sweeping discrimination, Hope it turns out well.

I've yet to see a political ad myself, I think they must be able to target ads based on your identity or your ISP (your IP address can reveal your geography sometimes).

Thank goodness it will all be over today - at least I hope so!

I am from Japan and unfortunately cannot watch "8".
Is it limited in USA ?

By the way, why Google ad on the right side of this page
shows such as "Kayak Academy" "Recreational Kayaks" and
"Best Gift for a Kayaker" ?

Why not "Best Gift for a Canoe paddler" ?

I have to apologize for Google's ad placement, in recent weeks it's proven to be far from on-topic. Personally, I was offended that they were advertising Tivo service to me.

There are a few things to keep in mind on this matter:
1. Adam, me, the moderators (sbroam, PAC and Mike W) work on this site for free, but the monthly hosting fees stack up to a good amount. Google is, for better or for worse, a significant revenue source and without it we'd never even come close to breaking even. TO HELP, if we could offset the Google revenue with donation revenue I would gladly remove them - I'll talk to Adam about adding in a "Donate/PayPal" button (which we've shot down in the past for a variety of reasons).

2. The Google ads are trying to relate to the content of the page - however, sometimes that content is unsubstantial. The Tivo ad I saw was on the Forum home page where there's really very little content. I've never seen an ad like that on any other page. At some threshold Google will simply defer to an ad from the "major contributors" department and then you get Tivo or political junk. TO HELP, I will look in to ways we can maybe change the content of the page to point Google in a better direction.

3. Unfortunately Tivo, like most of the world, doesn't see a kayak any different from a canoe, so there's probably no way I can stop those "Kayak Classes!" ads.

It's an imperfect system, and I completely agree with you. I, personally, don't like a big ad bar on the site, but I also like not having to shell out all the $$$ with Adam to keep the site running. I'll continue to look in to other options and ways to bandaid the current ad system.

Personally, I've become pretty blind to ads - billboards, commercials, banner ads, etc... If we get revenue for something that I can pretty effectively ignore, then great! On topic and inoffensive are a bonus - unfortunately the definition of "offensive" isn't universal...

muchas gracias Kenneth...

I'll be looking in to the Googleness this evening - it DOES seem to target via ISP location...scary. Thank you Google...

I'm also up for a discussion of removing Google Ads, though as Kenneth states, it is a major source of revenue to pay the hosting costs (we use a lot of bandwidth these days folks!). I DO NOT plan on changing the "other" ads at the top of the page, which I consider site sponsors, as they are members and supporters of the paddling community, and CBoats (OC and C) in particular.

If anyone has thoughts on a donations section vs. Google ads, lplease post below. Our thought in the past was Paypal or Bitpay or something along those lines.

Those ads on the right rarely catch my attention so I've never seen anything I'd call "offensive". However, nothing wrong with complaining when you do see one. Adam, Kenneth, what is the annual cost for running this site? What guided the decision to not rely on us paying in the past?

KNeal

Google ads are way better than those obnoxious Flash-based things that generate floating windows or those ad-flagged text sites that fire up ad links when you mouse over a keyword. If Google ads generate money for you all, then leave them.

We had an IT pundit (whose name I now can't remember) come here for a keynote last year, and since I was going to be in a car with him for 4 hours, I did some homework reading his books and blog beforehand. Wish I could remember the guy's name. He had some very astute and disturbing analyses of the impact that Google's data mining methods (and cloud computing in general) are having on personal privacy and political freedom.

Firefox + AdBlock Plus Extension.

You won't ever have to see Google ads or most other ads again. I see no ads on cboats.net or any other site I visit.

Cost wise the combination of Sponsorhip ads+Google Ads+CBoats.net Cafepress store revenue (not much, but it helps! We're just happy to see so much C-stuff out there!) we just about break even. If there's extra we (MikeW, SBroam, PAC, Kenneth, and myself) get "Staff" shirts (so far we each have one...so it's not exactly an annual expense), and Kenneth, AdkSara, and myself split the remainder (it's pretty small) as "payment" for use of computers, electricity, software programs, etc.... It doesn't cover all that, let alone our time, but we're pleased the site is as big as it is these days, with folks contributing from all over the globe:)

That's our real payment- seeing folks getting together to paddle, sharing knowledge, and helping each other in a positive fashion.

We got Ads?!

Honest I see the ones up top but never even notice the ones on the side.
Nothing to see. Move on.

Tommy