Did DC sellout?

[Architorture]

so i couldn't help but notice the ads placed at the top of threads. when did this change come about?

[gleearch]

Seems to be within the last couple of weeks?
Makes it appear that the first poster is running ads in their thread.

[SDR]

I viewed a post yesterday, on another DC thread, in which the (translucent, red-orange) banner ad appeared INSIDE the post area, partially obscuring the text. And it didn't disappear. . .

SDR

[Kevin]

We've been gradually experimenting with new ad types and positions here at DesignCommunity over the last few months, following good success with similar kinds of experiments at ArchitectureWeek and especially GreatBuildings.

Our hope of course is to improve the site revenue somewhat without disrupting the community conversations.

One thing that's pushed us a bit here at DC might be interesting. It turns out we're currently at a promising but slightly awkward stage of development from the ad agency viewpoint. As the probably the web's highest traffic family of architecture sites, we've been starting to get some specialized ad campaigns from major national advertisers. You may have noticed something, for instance (at ArchitectureWeek and GreatBuildings) of our pieces of the big History Channel (THC) promotion for their premiere of "Rome: Engineering an Empire".

That's a good example because it was a good project, with a topic of real relevance to our community. But to rev up interest for the premiere, THC's agency wanted to pack a normal month's worth of exposure into just the week before the presentation. So to participate in the event buildup, we had to supply a great level of impressions, requiring a lot of work and even creativity to fulfill without overloading our sites.

For whatever reasons of their own, that project didn't want to use DC in their mix, so there was no impact here. Another example is one of the world's best product makers in its category, which is running an intensive month announcing a new model -- just to Canadians. So with Canadians making up about 6% of our broadly international community, there have to be a lot of ad locations to provide the necessary volume.

In other words, as the biggest architecture family online, we've now grown to be just barely big enough to sometimes support the big accounts. Trends suggest that over time, we'll be able to handle them more and more readily, and hew more closely to the relatively sparse advertising level we prefer.

We do welcome your comments, perspective, and feedback. We're constantly experimenting, and growing, and always looking for the best balance for this community that will also fund us to continue serving it. We've recently added a new ad server that, as the bugs get worked out, will give us more flexibility in tailoring and targeting and understanding how and where to form that balance point. We're committed to funding the great team of professional staff who support this community and create these design and building sites, but to us at least, that's the very opposite of selling out. And over time, we are capable and fully committed to responding to your thoughtful input.

Thanks!

[Architorture]

i know you aren't selling out... happy to see the site is recieving some interest from the business world, history channel especially thats pretty good... probably time for that graphics update to reflect the recognized established high profile...

[Kevin]

good point

[SDR]

Or. . .not.

But it was an interesting phenomenon -- like having a TV ad appear "on top of" program content. When was the last time you saw that ?

Don't bother -- there are more interesting things to discuss, elsewhere. . .

[Landy]

that image is the NOT COOL face of architecture. The dialogue on post/reply is almost impossible to understand. From what I can remember that image is published in a architecture pamphlet entitled "sometimes in order to fully appreciate architecture one must kill someone".
pd
eerie isn't it?
that image should be kept under references of unknown nature
please if someone can provide the bibliography of such an image I would greatly appreciate it