I REALLY don't like the advertisements on the new site. My dislike of the ads comes from the implication that I am, or can be, monitored, profiled and stalked for commercial purposes by the new site. The old BMW CCA site was such a nice escape from the ubiquitous and hysterical commercial din. I think a critical distinction is that the BMW CCA website is a member subscription service; not a commercial site. We should not be serving the merchants with it (sorry, merchant members!). It's a flakey sounding thing to say, but I just don't feel as "safe" surfing the BMW CCA site if there are commercial interests involved. Web advertising is a lot more insidious than the plain paper advertising in a medium like Roundel. You or the advertiser can't tell if I looked in the paper copy. I like it that way. How many additional pennies on each of our annual memberships would it take to revert the BMW CCA website to a non-commercial website? Am I the only one who feels this way?
No personal information is gathered via advertisements No personal infromation is gathered with the current ad system. We do not target ads to specific users and we do not know if any one member has clicked a link. The only stats we keep are running monthly totals. In other words we known x number of people clicked a link this month but we don't know specifically who clicked on them.
ip's We don't bother doing Whois querys on every members IP address. 99.9% all that would tell us is the name of the name of your internet provider. The majority of our members don't have their own personal domain.
My opinion on the ads is a bit different than the privacy concerns mentioned, but the bottom line is that I to would prefer not to have them. As a CCA member, I've paid my dues and one of the perks of paying is having access to this great site. I don't feel as though I should have to see banner ads on a site that I've paid to have enhanced access to. A possible solution, is there a way to limit the display of the banner ads to those people who have joined the site yet are not paid CCA members? If those persons want to avoid the ads, then need to pay for a CCA membership. Perhaps it might help increase membership a bit. Just my two cents. The ads aren't going to keep from visiting the site, but I would still rather not see them Cheers.
