I heard that this forum used to have advertisements

[SamReomo]

I heard in a post a few days ago that this forum used to have paid advertisements but later Theymos decided to stop those advertisements. This question came into my mind so I thought to ask you guys that on which area of the forum those advertisements were displayed.

When were those advertisements stopped and what were the advertisers paying the forum to display their advertisements over here?

I think it was a great decision of Theymos to stop paid advertisements but when those paid advertisements were stopped?

If it's possible and if someone has any of the screenshots of that time then kindly share that as well so we can see how the forum used to look when the advertisements were displayed on the forum.

[1714250933]

1714250933

[1714250933]

1714250933

[OcTradism]

Forum advertisement information and stats.

https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo
https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adstats

All 353 rounds of forum ad sales in auctions and results

[Poker Player]

....so I thought to ask you guys that on which area of the forum those advertisements were displayed...

If it's possible and if someone has any of the screenshots of that time then kindly share that as well so we can see how the forum used to look when the advertisements were displayed on the forum.

They were displayed in banner form. Go to https://www.altcoinstalks.com/ and see the banners there. That's like they used to be here.

When were those advertisements stopped and what were the advertisers paying the forum to display their advertisements over here?

I don't remember exactly, I think it was like a year or two ago but theymos decided to stop because the forum has so many bitcoins that it doesn't need the money coming in from advertising. Why are you so curious about ads?

[acroman08]

If it's possible and if someone has any of the screenshots of that time then kindly share that as well so we can see how the forum used to look when the advertisements were displayed on the forum.

I found something but it is not a screenshot but a video on archive.org where the forum was shown advertising a gambling site. I remember seeing archived pages being posted here on the forum too but I couldn't find where I saw it, other members might be able to find it and share the archived page here.

here's the link
https://archive.org/details/bandicam-2021-04-20-10-07-24-909

[OcTradism]

here's the link
https://archive.org/details/bandicam-2021-04-20-10-07-24-909

The video is about bounty sheet checking. I don't see anything about forum ban ads.

With archive, you can see some ban ads in the past.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210816140710/https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo
https://web.archive.org/web/20190430214354/https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo

I don't remember exactly, I think it was like a year or two ago but theymos decided to stop because the forum has so many bitcoins that it doesn't need the money coming in from advertising. Why are you so curious about ads?

Ban ads suspension

Note that I've decided to suspend ad sales. These auctions will probably be permanently ended, and I'm not sure whether or in what form advertising in general will be continued. Maybe some ads will go up again fairly soon, or maybe there will never be any more ads; I haven't decided yet. The main reasons for this decision are:

Firstly, I'm finding it too difficult to determine which services are legit/safe and which are not. It takes me 30+ minutes to research each new service to reach at least some level of confidence in it, but at the end of this I often still don't feel fully confident. Bitcointalk.org is meant to be operated "as a service to the community", so it's very important to me that bitcointalk.org not be seen to be putting profit above the interests of its users. (I've been kind of shocked at the crypto-related ads that are shown on TV, which are often way beyond anything I'd accept here. And I'd like to tighten our standards.)

Secondly, there is a high amount of friction in the current process of auctions and manual ad processing. I often feel that it's more trouble than it's worth on bitcointalk.org's end. I also think that the revenue is substantially less than it could be because the market of advertisers willing to deal with this difficult process is much smaller than the market of advertisers who would be willing to advertise here if only they could do so effortlessly. So I think that we're "leaving a lot of money on the table" due to friction, which makes the other issues feel even worse.

Finally, bitcointalk.org has a large reserve of BTC, so we're able to continue operating without ad revenue for many years. It's not even necessary to cut expenses or find replacement sources of revenue anytime soon, and I currently have no solid plans to do these things. I do regard it as less than ideal to be operating at a constant loss, especially because it constraints any desired future growth in expenses. Improving this situation will be on my mind in the coming years, but luckily it need not be a high priority.

[acroman08]

here's the link
https://archive.org/details/bandicam-2021-04-20-10-07-24-909

The video is about bounty sheet checking. I don't see anything about forum ban ads.

Sorry, I forgot to add what time on the video the forum ad will be seen. anyway, At the 40 sec mark on the video, you'll see a glimpse of the forum ad.

With archive, you can see some ban ads in the past.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210816140710/https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo
https://web.archive.org/web/20190430214354/https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo

thanks for this, this might be what the OP was looking for.

[borovichok]

<snip>

They were displayed in banner form. Go to https://www.altcoinstalks.com/ and see the banners there. That's like they used to be here.

When were those advertisements stopped and what were the advertisers paying the forum to display their advertisements over here?

I don't remember exactly, I think it was like a year or two ago but theymos decided to stop because the forum has so many bitcoins that it doesn't need the money coming in from advertising. Why are you so curious about ads?

It wasn't as big and flashy as it is on altcointalk; it was a little smaller in width and a little longer in length, with no animations or flashy graphics. Well, determining which services were legitimate was another reason the ad was halted, as some of the advertised projects turned out to be dubious over time, and finally, the ones with a dubious background were always the highest bidder, making it difficult for thymos for some bTC the forum didn't even need.

It was an excellent decision because it resulted in more signature campaigns since it was the only way to advertise here.

[Jawhead999]

It was an excellent decision because it resulted in more signature campaigns since it was the only way to advertise here.

The ads was stop in July 2022, at that time there were only 22 campaigns.

Right now, even the ads was disabled and theymos forbidding to promote centralized mixer, but we currently have 26 campaigns, if we count mixers campaign maybe there are more than 30 active campaigns in the last year.

Which mean you're wrong, there's no correlation between ads and campaign, IIRC actually there are some project that prefer to promote through forum ads without run a signature campaign.

[dzungmobile]

The ads was stop in July 2022, at that time there were only 22 campaigns.

Right now, even the ads was disabled and theymos forbidding to promote centralized mixer, but we currently have 26 campaigns, if we count mixers campaign maybe there are more than 30 active campaigns in the last year.

Which mean you're wrong, there's no correlation between ads and campaign, IIRC actually there are some project that prefer to promote through forum ads without run a signature campaign.

It is not big difference from 22 to 26 and it is not enough if we only make cross-sectional comparison because we can miss something. Some campaigns can run very long time but some campaigns only run for one week or several weeks.

A better comparison is average number of campain during a same period (like 12 or 16 weeks) before and after the action goes into effect.

We also have to take into account a market condition like difference is expected to big between bear market and bull market.

[KingsDen]

It was an excellent decision because it resulted in more signature campaigns since it was the only way to advertise here.

The ads was stop in July 2022, at that time there were only 22 campaigns.

Right now, even the ads was disabled and theymos forbidding to promote centralized mixer, but we currently have 26 campaigns, if we count mixers campaign maybe there are more than 30 active campaigns in the last year.

Which mean you're wrong, there's no correlation between ads and campaign, IIRC actually there are some project that prefer to promote through forum ads without run a signature campaign.

I don't understand why you feel that he is wrong. There's a great correlation between ads and campaigns because both are intending to promote. If there are two methods of promoting projects in the forum, one is suspended, you don't actually need a soothsayer to tell you that the second means of advertisement will gain more popularity. Theymos decision to stop forum paid advertisement has in many ways helped the forum to improve through signature campaign. We can be proud that bitcointalk is known for signature campaigns and it has been sustained for a long period of time. The only drawback it encountered in the recent time is the mixer ban. This actually reduced the pricing of signature campaigns because mixers were the big payers.

I registered here 2021 and I think I have witnessed the forum advertisement before it was stopped by theymos. It was running concurrently with the signature campaign because if you can't advertise with one, you can with the other.

[FatFork]

If it's possible and if someone has any of the screenshots of that time then kindly share that as well so we can see how the forum used to look when the advertisements were displayed on the forum.

Just check out the archived web pages at this link: https://archive.is/http://bitcointalk.org/*
You'll find numerous examples of how the forum looked with the banner ads back in the day.

Here's an example:



The banners were shown below the first post in the thread, in the same spot where the factoids are still displayed now.

[borovichok]

It was an excellent decision because it resulted in more signature campaigns since it was the only way to advertise here.

The ads was stop in July 2022, at that time there were only 22 campaigns.

Right now, even the ads was disabled and theymos forbidding to promote centralized mixer, but we currently have 26 campaigns, if we count mixers campaign maybe there are more than 30 active campaigns in the last year.

Which mean you're wrong, there's no correlation between ads and campaign, IIRC actually there are some project that prefer to promote through forum ads without run a signature campaign.

You did the calculations, saw the increase in numbers, and still said I was wrong; you're pretty bad at data analytics if you think that way. Since the close of the Forum ad campaign, there have been 4-10 more organized Sig campaigns, proving my point.

[holydarkness]

[...] This question came into my mind so I thought to ask you guys that on which area of the forum those advertisements were displayed.
[...]

I know some already gave a screenshots of how it looks like, and from it you can conclude where was the ads used to be displayed, but to make it more obvious as well to not leave it unanswered, it's in between the first and second post of each page. So, between the #1 and #2, #21 and #22, #41 and #42, and so on. You can still see the "remnant" of this ad-space basically on every page of every thread, they're now hosting... quotes and informative texts and disclaimers.

[Lucius]

I heard in a post a few days ago that this forum used to have paid advertisements but later Theymos decided to stop those advertisements. This question came into my mind so I thought to ask you guys that on which area of the forum those advertisements were displayed.
~snip~

You have been a member of the forum since 2016 and only now have you discovered that the forum has paid ads that you must have noticed all these years? Unless you have blocked ads (which can be set in the forum settings), it's really strange when I read questions like this from someone who should be light years away from initial questions and doubts.

What is even more strange is that if you have already had that question, you still haven't realized that the forum has a search engine that can provide answers to most questions. After all, I hope you learned something, and I don't mean exclusively the question you asked

[OgNasty]

It is odd that these advertisements went away as they were a major source of revenue for the forum. It would seem like if theymos wants to continue to distance himself from responsibilities here that he would’ve found someone else to take control of the advertising, but I guess with all the money laundering operations trying to advertise here it wasn’t worth the liability anymore.

[coin-investor]

It is odd that these advertisements went away as they were a major source of revenue for the forum. It would seem like if theymos wants to continue to distance himself from responsibilities here that he would’ve found someone else to take control of the advertising, but I guess with all the money laundering operations trying to advertise here it wasn’t worth the liability anymore.

Based on this post by Theymos as quoted by OcTradism he doesn't want the liability of checking if the projects are legit or not or if they will turn into bad projects in the future he doesn't want people complaining that they use the project because it was displayed on Bitcointalk, even if there is a disclaimer people will still blame the platform where they see the ads, without the ads Bitcointalk become a trusted platform and a real community for Bitcoin enthusiasts.
They will maintain their reputation and their rank as the number one community of Bitcoiners

Note that I've decided to suspend ad sales. These auctions will probably be permanently ended, and I'm not sure whether or in what form advertising in general will be continued. Maybe some ads will go up again fairly soon, or maybe there will never be any more ads; I haven't decided yet. The main reasons for this decision are:

Firstly, I'm finding it too difficult to determine which services are legit/safe and which are not. It takes me 30+ minutes to research each new service to reach at least some level of confidence in it, but at the end of this I often still don't feel fully confident. Bitcointalk.org is meant to be operated "as a service to the community", so it's very important to me that bitcointalk.org not be seen to be putting profit above the interests of its users. (I've been kind of shocked at the crypto-related ads that are shown on TV, which are often way beyond anything I'd accept here. And I'd like to tighten our standards.)

[Saisher]

It is odd that these advertisements went away as they were a major source of revenue for the forum. It would seem like if theymos wants to continue to distance himself from responsibilities here that he would’ve found someone else to take control of the advertising, but I guess with all the money laundering operations trying to advertise here it wasn’t worth the liability anymore.

The advertisement's setup was through bidding back then so if Theymos still allowed that then the mixing industry was the ones bidding each other for the advertising space here in Bitcointalk and it would look like kind of the forum was advertising or supporting mixing, Bitcointalk is far better now it is more independent now, no platforms can claim now that they are the ones supporting this forum because of their advertising here. 
Bitcointalk has become a real community forum that we can all proud of.

[Casdinyard]

I heard in a post a few days ago that this forum used to have paid advertisements but later Theymos decided to stop those advertisements. This question came into my mind so I thought to ask you guys that on which area of the forum those advertisements were displayed.

When were those advertisements stopped and what were the advertisers paying the forum to display their advertisements over here?

I think it was a great decision of Theymos to stop paid advertisements but when those paid advertisements were stopped?

If it's possible and if someone has any of the screenshots of that time then kindly share that as well so we can see how the forum used to look when the advertisements were displayed on the forum.

There was back in the days although I don't really know the specifics when it comes to dates of when it was implemented and when it was removed. Although from sources I have collected regarding this matter (cause back then I was kinda curious about how this forum earns money besides the traffic) and from what I could derive Theymos decided to take advertising away from the forum because they're practically swimming in crypto anyway and do not need the extra push in cents that ads will provide them.

Still, personally I don't think advertisements' died in this forum. I'd argue that it took on a new form however in the form of signatures and signature campaigns. When in the past you'd get a massive banner everywhere you go on the forum, now, you become the driving force for engagement and interaction over products and services and you get to represent the product you are proud of while getting a portion of the payment itself, which is good through and through.

While we definitely could make a different case for spammers and those who spread shitposts within the forum, one could say that the current system of advertisement in this forum works fine and dandy already, and it doesn't need any change whatsoever.

[Upgrade00]

Still, personally I don't think advertisements' died in this forum. I'd argue that it took on a new form however in the form of signatures and signature campaigns.

Signature campaigns were in existence concurrently with forum ads.

When in the past you'd get a massive banner everywhere you go on the forum, now, you become the driving force for engagement and interaction

Forum ads did not include huge banners, they were signature size styled and did not appear everywhere, only on the first post of certain threads. Take a look a how unobtrusive factoids are.

[SamReomo]

They were displayed in banner form. Go to https://www.altcoinstalks.com/ and see the banners there. That's like they used to be here.

If I'm not wrong then according to this thread of Theymos the ads should appear on area beneath the first post. On Altcoinstalks those banners appear on upper frame of the posts and also appear below the posts, so I guess now I understand that how they might look like back then.

Here's an example:



The banners were shown below the first post in the thread, in the same spot where the factoids are still displayed now.

I guess that's a quite good example and now I believe I got my answer so I'm going to lock this thread. Thanks to everyone for sharing that valuable information.