Außen- und Innenwirkung unseriöser Werbung

KSL Berlin wrote:

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that site advertising is critical to operations; fewer than 10,000 paid memberships only go so far. Look at staff numbers and infrastructure and do the math. And I'm all for that if it is done in an appropriate manner.

My concerns revolve around where/how a potential customer might come into contact with ads on the site. Typical paths to one of us might run this way:

1. Portal home page > search engine > member profile
2. Forum thread > member profile
3. Knowledge base article > member profile
4. KudoZ discussion > member profile
5. Member profile > mail system direct message

I expect appropriate ads (language-related, travel industry, whatever) to be on the home page. Because of all this controversy, I've been experimenting with Google ads on my blog in the past week, and frankly I don't have a problem with a banner ad from the Islamic Council about a legal matter or an education ad from the Confucius Institute and a lot of other stuff I've seen. I've been tempted to click on a few myself. So far I've been spared the sex adverts and diet ads, but I think that has a lot to do with the nerdish subject matter, not with my (not-yet-implemented) filters. I have yet to look at the more scatological posts to see what shows up there.

Given the likely draw of KudoZ for outsiders, I think it would also be unreasonable to expect ads to be removed there. If I were the site owner, I would insist on having appropriately focused ads there. Ditto the glossaries. (I'll have to make some off-the wall dictionaries and search them for laughs to see what shows up. Somewhere I have a glossary from a brothel translation....)

The articles are an area I start to have a problem with. I write them to share information with colleagues, not drive click traffic to the site. Based on principle alone I would delete all my past articles and repost them elsewhere unless I see a percentage of the page revenues (which might not buy me an ice cream cone after 5 years).

I'm not very comfortable with ads in the directory search pages unless these are text ads from members. It's counterproductive to show various ads for Babelfish and mass-mess agencies there.

Advertising in forums should be severely restricted. I have one forum screen shot in my collection that would deeply shock the proper lady colleague under the ad. I know she often disapproves of my expressions, but she would disapprove of this picture even more.

Member profiles AND THE MESSAGE SYSTEM should be totally off-limits. If I cannot be absolutely certain that a prospect who sends me a message via my profile will not be shown advertising of any kind - ANYTHING - afterward, then I want no messages set via my profile. Period. I can offer an e-mail address and handle my own security.

If a prospect finds my profile via Google, goes there ad sends me a message, no ads should appear at any point.