I think we should have a page with the list of sponsors... not only the Random Picture of sponsors on the top-right.
Maybe a link under the picture, beside the MyAssistant link... could have a Sponsors link to a page displaying all of them, with their logo, address, phone, etc.

Anyway, just an idea... food for thought.
Thanks,

Chris and I were just talking about this yesterday. I am considering someting else. I'm not sure just what as of yet. I was thinking of a banner down the side of the page (ls1tech.com style or similar). I would like to make the ads more visible but avoid them being intrusive (taking up the whole page).

I'm open to any and all ideas....

Personally, I like Eugenio's suggestion. I like to try to patronize sponsors when I can, and a sponser page with link, address, and phone information is a valuable resource. Maybe even throw in a few lines of summary info (provided by the sponsors themselves) to convey their general line of business.

The ls1tech banner comsumes bandwidth and valuable screen space, but if I'm actually looking for something it's fairly useless, and it's just clutter to tune out when I'm not looking for something. In other words, there's no "impulse buy" value either. That comes from the advertiser forum, where posted specials show up in "View New Posts". For instance, I'm always aware of tbryne's latest specials here, but I certainly don't go browse all the banner ads on ls1tech to see who might have a sale.

If I see an ad at the top right of this page for a vendor I'm not familiar with I'll check it out, but if I'm actually looking for something it's not very helpful either. A sponsor page is basically a "look here first" list.

That is a good point. I do about the same. I guess we could keep the banner at the top of the page (exposure) and a sponsors page (as well as the GP page, or some combination of the 2).

I do not want to load the page down with ads, slow things down and tie up bandwidth. I'm just looking for a solution that will give the sponsors a "better value" and keep everyone happy. That may be the best solution (a seperate page).

thoughts?

Forget loading the page... just get a sponsor page and add a link to it.

Just below the 1 random sposor pic, we have the following:
My Controls | 0 new messages | View New Posts | My Assistant

We could have this instead:
My Controls | 0 new messages | View New Posts | My Assistant | Sponsors

The last one would open a page with the full list.
Does this make sense ???

Makes sense to me. Anyone else? (just looking for a "majority" view).

does that mean you need 200 votes, we're over 400 members

Kevin, I lobbied for such a listing LS1.com for years.

It would make it so simple for a user to click on the sponsor link, find the sponsor desired and go straight to their home page. If there was a way to incorporate the phone number into that link, it would be even better.

9 times out of 10 when I am needing a sponsor, I need the phone number as well.

The banners down the side is a great idea ... until the list gets longer than the messges. Scrolling to the last message to jump to a new forum becomes cumbersome ...

I honestly think that the banners on the right are very obstructive.
Only 1 random on top is perfect, but does not give great exposure and it's tough to have a list of all sponsors... I've pressed REFRESH several times in a row, to see what sponsors we have... but I think the solution I offer is a win-win situation... the Sponsor link is just beside a the present sponsor banner, so for people looking for it, they will see it, and will not be obstructive.

Let me see what I can get working on this idea.

here's an example of what it could look like once the link is clicked.
Forget the top part.
http://www.ls1.com/index_sponsors.php

I was thinking more of an alphabetical listings page? But that is a possibility as well. Thoughts, ideas?

my thoughts are that if we are all for the "sponsor specific" page with a link at the top of all other pages, then why is there a block listing all our sponsors on every page?

Lucas,

One of our Moderators/Members is "learning the ropes" on this board layout so he can assist with the changes. So, there will be some experiments going on for a while until "we" get a handle on things.

So, it is not permanant. You will see some changes, in the name of science, for a while. Then we hope to find and implement a final solution.

So, don't panic, it's not a new change, just a change to see how the board reacts and it will all be changed again soon.

Thanks,

Kevin

Yep, just testing. I had looked at a few other boards that had advertisers near the top. This board software is more difficult to modify because everything is dynamic and generated on the fly. It's impossible to view changes to the templates on a local machine without having a test server installed. So you make a change and upload it, change it again, and upload it. It's really trial and error. I'm making notes as I go, I've added the ad table in such a way where its' extremely easy to remove.

I told Kevin that I can do an ad page very easily if that's the preference that everyone has.

mmkay. i wasn't freaking out or getting upset or anything.
i don't have any experience with web design or layout or anything like that, i was just going by the fact that the discussion had ended on "seperate page" and then i'd look up and see the bar of advertisers, and simply got confused.

thanks for the clearing up.

No problem. That is why this forum exists. I prefer to honor the majority view and keep the members in the loop. I know it is not what anyone is used to seeing on a board, but Chris set high standards (of getting input and taking suggestions) and I intend to try my best to keep them.

I think I opened a can of worms...

Nah. Steve's been busy and I've been real busy (moving, just bought a house). We'll get a page laid out sometime in the near future and get everyones thoughts.

No, I think it's worth pursuing.

Steve the sponsors page looks good to me.

Is this something we are going to add?

That is the plan.

Steve had a Solo event this weekend so it will be a few more days before we get everything in order. But the plan is to make the page "official" in the near future.