The product ads at the top of a forum post have to go!

[optikalefx]

I'm adding a checkbox for you guys to turn them off. But I have to ask, are they really in the way that much? Its only 200px at the top of the thread. Most of you guys aren't even at the top of the thread.
And to the subscribed threads, I will def be fixing that, I know its been on the list for a while, but we will have this back, I promise.

I should have kept my mouth shut. Now they show, please get rid of them, very poor placement and not adding to the user experience.

Between this and not being able to exclude subforums from new post searches I will be visiting much less.

[Enforcer]

Yes they are.

Maybe if they didn't have the extra text underneath, they would be less annoying.

[Fiberoptic]

Hey guys. Thanks for the feedback. We often struggle with the best ways to fund innovation in the community. When we had run this relevant products idea by other moderators before it initially had some positive feedback especially when put in context with our costly new super rep points program designed to jump start innovation and community participation. I'm open to changing it around or even adding a "remove me" button. We had hoped it would help newbies find products to get them started and sales from relevant products would be used to fund some of our more expensive community expenditures:

Some of the programs we fund are costly. Examples include:
The supper rep points program
Auto app mart
Forum, database and website maintenance, sever and bandwidth costs
AFKfest - We pay for everything. Food, venue, video production, staff time, planning
Innovation Contests - Staff time and resources
Innovation grants
In the past we have covered food and drink of other community meet ups in Las Vegas, California, and Maryland.
At cost discounts for forum moderators who work around the clock to keep our forums spam free.
Video coverage of events like CES and SEMA also doesn't generate revenue

Let me just throw out some wild options:

Allow a turn off box for long time or active users similar to the way classified posts are controlled
Have an option for all users to move the bar to the side or the top
Allow users to exchange some super rep points to turn it off
I don't like this one, but people have suggested it so I'll throw it on the list: Allow new users to donate 10$ to our innovation efforts to turn it off

Anything else we should consider?

[TruckinMP3]

I am seeing three ads: two in the first row and one in the second row... Very much a big deal to me.
I followed the link to the rep points thread and the first post is barely visible due to ad space. Make them go away in some fashion.
After reading the post, It is not an incentive for me, but might be interesting for others.

Attempting to be patient but almost time to move on.

EDIT: No script to the rescue again. forbid MP3 Car and no more ads. Not sure what other features I'll be missing out on....

[optikalefx]

I can sense your frustration here, and I'm hoping you can work with me to help get this resolved. They should never be on a 2nd row, nor make the thread barely visible. Would you be able to take a screenshot of what you see? The smallest screen I have to test with is 15" and they all fit fine there. 200px is about the size, a little smaller than this quick reply box. I will be making it so you can get rid of them, but if i could see what you see, that would help me make sure it doesn't stack on 2 lines.

I am seeing three ads: two in the first row and one in the second row... Very much a big deal to me.
I followed the link to the rep points thread and the first post is barely visible due to ad space. Make them go away in some fashion.
After reading the post, It is not an incentive for me, but might be interesting for others.

Attempting to be patient but almost time to move on. EDIT: No script to the rescue again. "forbid MP3Car" no more ads. Not sure what other features I'll be missing out on....

[TruckinMP3]

I can sense your frustration here, and I'm hoping you can work with me to help get this resolved. They should never be on a 2nd row, nor make the thread barely visible. Would you be able to take a screenshot of what you see? The smallest screen I have to test with is 15" and they all fit fine there. 200px is about the size, a little smaller than this quick reply box. I will be making it so you can get rid of them, but if i could see what you see, that would help me make sure it doesn't stack on 2 lines.

Thanks or the fast reply, I do not have a screen capture tool installed. Changing the width of the browser window (narrower) will show you what I see. I'll be leaving the script setting to off even if it means missing other functions ...

[Enforcer]

ALT-PRTSC or CTRL-PRTSC should do it for you.

[TruckinMP3]

I can sense your frustration here, and I'm hoping you can work with me to help get this resolved. They should never be on a 2nd row, nor make the thread barely visible. Would you be able to take a screenshot of what you see? The smallest screen I have to test with is 15" and they all fit fine there. 200px is about the size, a little smaller than this quick reply box. I will be making it so you can get rid of them, but if i could see what you see, that would help me make sure it doesn't stack on 2 lines.

Thanks or the fast reply: With narrower browser w1ndows the second row is created by a wrapping function. I do not have a screen capture tool installed ... I have marked this site as untrusted for scripts and will not worry about any missing functions.

[optikalefx]

Ok there. Now it won't wrap to 2 lines.

[optikalefx]

tool installed ... I have marked this site as untrusted for scripts and will not worry about any missing functions.

You reallllly hate these that much? Thats ok, keep the scripts off, Ill personally let you know when I finish the checkbox to turn the product boxes off.