So what's up with the website layout?

I was annoyed when I saw the big honking chat box pop up on the main page, but figured maybe I didn't know something and people used it, but I've never seen anyone on. It's very annoying when trying to jump between all the forums we have (which is too many to begin with IMO, we should really merge tournaments and the general forum considering the low amount of volume anyway). Has anyone ever used it or can we get rid of it?

I am also wondering what is up with the Google Ads. Is this something that kicks in automatically with whatever software this is? I thought that this was a free forum...do we have to have the ads? Or is this something that we can optionally do now that we have a little bit of traffic? Does it generate profit or just automatically cover costs directly to whatever company is hosting the server for the forums? If it generates profits for US, how much and where is it going? I don't mind the ads but I'd like to know.


Also I am getting on my plane to come back to Sugar Land tomorrow, after over 6 months of being gone. Just in time to miss BoLSCON, heh. Oh well. My huge paint supply is probably dried up :-(

Yes, the chat box has been used a number of times, just depends on members catching each other on at the same time. I have no idea about the adds, today is the first time I've seen them up there. I'm happy with tournaments and general being separate, as tournament talk and general talk are two different things.

I don't see why you can't have threads about tournaments in the main chat. There's not enough traffic to really have to justify jumping between the sub forums all the time. It's not like stuff is constantly getting bumped off the main page. I've been a member of a really huge forum called Forumopolis for like 8 years now and except for a special arts/crafts/photography section, absolutely every topic on the planet is in the general chat forum and it works great, and they have way more members and different things to talk about than we do. I mean honestly if it were up to me there would be a General Chat, a Gallery, and a Sales/Trades forum, and not much else. It's really just extra inconvenience without adding much to split everything up so much considering the ratio to stuff posted.

Well, who even has the capability to change the subforums and rearrange things? Cause I certainly don't.

And hey, gimme a call when you get back in, Nick.

You post on my facebook wall and then like 10 seconds later I try to FB chat you and you are nowhere to be found :p

And I can change forums FYI

I was leaving from work. Sorry.

I never did get an answer about google ads

I assume they're put there by the hosting company to keep the forums free.

I dont see how its a huge issue as the only ones I really ever see are for the WarStore or various LGS locations throughout the country.

David wrote:

I assume they're put there by the hosting company to keep the forums free.

I dont see how its a huge issue as the only ones I really ever see are for the WarStore or various LGS locations throughout the country.

mine are army recruitment, day trading, and athletics

I was wondering if they got put there or if we put them there

Everywhere I look as far as set up goes I dont see an option or a method to change them or even move them.

I believe its part of forumotion paying the bills. A free forum cannot exist without ads.