I liked the idea on the old website where you cycled member banners in exchange for helping out.
Am I the only one? Has this idea been discussed?
It hasn't been discussed actually.
This place is so much cheaper to run than the old place that we haven't seen the need for the banners. We don't ask for donations, nor will we ever pressure folks into donating. That's not how we operate here. If we ever need funds we will auction off items or you will see events like what Michael has generously done for us here.
The problem with the banners on the old forum was that some of those banners stayed up and running despite either the business behind them going under, closing, or the folks no longer coming to the forum. It wasn't being policed by George, or rather anyone else. It was an "On your honor" sort of thing. Once your banner was up, it stayed there. I had no idea how to fix it, I'm not a code person. George just sort of let things run after he put them up and that was that. So folks were in the end following banners to sites that either no longer existed, or were no longer supporting the forum. One time I clicked on four separate banners, and two of them were gone, one of them was to someone who was no longer on the forum.
Now all that said, I'm not saying we won't have banners. That is something all the admins here (All six of us) will have to put our heads together and discuss. Running this place the way we do, we need to have most admins in agreement either way on the issue to make a final decision. We make every attempt to run this place as much like a democracy as we can. That means members of the administration and moderators get together to make decisions, and sometimes we will also put things to a forum wide vote as well if we feel the need to discuss something like a major policy change, or some other issue that will affect forum members as a whole.
So ultimately, while the banners are not needed here, that doesn't mean we won't have them eventually.
