I am trying to guage the interest of the board members in making donations to LBT to avoid ads being placed on the board.

Is the site still painfully slow today ? By the way....this site speed has nothing to do with the ads.

Yes, very, very slow today. It's been bad since all the new changes. I would think that the ads would affect the speed since there significantly more graphics to load now, and that eats up bandwidth.

Originally Posted by alex

Is the site still painfully slow today ? By the way....this site speed has nothing to do with the ads.

Alex, I think I am going to have to eat my words about the site acting fine today. I just started having problems again.

Ok, keep on giving me feedback please. We'll get the site moving a lot quicker in the very near future.

Alex, did the option to change notification disappear? I could have sworn it was under Thread Tools, but I'm not seeing it anymore. I'm being inundated with emails today and wanted to reset most of my subscribed threads to no notification. Can you tell me where to find that now? Thanks.

Alex, did the option to change notification disappear? I could have sworn it was under Thread Tools, but I'm not seeing it anymore. I'm being inundated with emails today and wanted to reset most of my subscribed threads to no notification. Can you tell me where to find that now? Thanks.

Never mind. I just found it down at the bottom of the subscriptions.

I would absolutely pay to get rid of ads, but it would be nice if paying members got some kind of 'perks' on the site. I don't know what, maybe someone else would have some ideas of what kinds of perks other websites offer paying members over non-paying.

LBT has been THE most important and helpful resource to me since I started researching the band, and has continued for the past 1yr + since I was banded. I love it, and I am VERY grateful for Alex's hard work and dedication. Thanks Alex! :hug:

If a donation would help fix the current issues, I have a cc ready to give some funds. I am ok with the slow factor, it's the fact the the e-mail notification links are not working. ~Mandy

I would absolutely pay to get rid of ads, but it would be nice if paying members got some kind of 'perks' on the site. I don't know what, maybe someone else would have some ideas of what kinds of perks other websites offer paying members over non-paying.

LBT has been THE most important and helpful resource to me since I started researching the band, and has continued for the past 1yr + since I was banded. I love it, and I am VERY grateful for Alex's hard work and dedication. Thanks Alex!

Maybe reserve all (or the majority of) the options for contributing members. Don't restrict the site or anything, but give the perks to the people willing to support it.

Along with some typical 'Reply to post ....." emails from my subscribed threads (and yeah, the links I would click on to go to those threads now work, but bring me to the main page, not the thread) I got some emails today stating: "New LinkBack to post 'Lower Body Lift Fun!'" for example. No message with the post, just a link to the thread, which once again, only brings me to the main page. Weirrdness.

Also, should I be seeing ads? All I see is a few Google ads on the side, and everywhere else where it seems there SHOULD be ads, say "Reserved for Sponsors".

The problem with the site being membership supported is that this will discourage new members from joining. This is the reason why I believe that putting up with the ads might be the better approach.

How about free trial memberships, so people can see how awesome it all is, and that whether they pay or not, it's a great site.

Maybe reserve all (or the majority of) the options for contributing members. Don't restrict the site or anything, but give the perks to the people willing to support it.

Sounds a bit elitist to me to be honest. Lets just give perks to those willing to make a financial contribution per chance?

It is important to remember that for some people just the process of getting banded has stretched them financially and they may not be able to contribute any money.

Just stick with the ads I reckon, and just once again ignore what you are not interested in.

Lets end this talk of dividing people down financial lines.

I wouldn't want anybody here to feel less of a person because they are struggling financially and could not afford to contribute. Let the big end of town pay for the site I reckon.

Susannah

I believe that this should be an open site and if it takes ads to underwrite this then so be it. This site has a huge membership but very few of us actually post. Those individuals who like to visit and read will be driven off if they have to pony up with $$.

I think donations for a particular couse may be a better bet but the ad bands dont slow me down a bit you may want to try to run a registry cleaner on your system or maybe adaware. It most probably is either to slow internet connection, Bogged down system or low system memory maybe a combination of the three but to be honest the banner adds arent contrubuting so much as one of the others above. Adaware has a great free dl for personal users on there website you should be able to find it by googling it.

Alex,

We love you. Thank you so much. You do what you need to do for you. I am enjoying the ride. If this ride stopped for whatever reason I would be so lost and sad.

The little cartoon you use always gives me a chuckle.

edie