NS Has Officially Sold Out

This could bring up some good disucssion...Personaly I don't care about the ads. I would rather have them not be there but I dont work for NS. The content of the ads is pretty lame though. We got some honey shit I don't even remember all I remember is seeing some ugly ass girl and right now on the screen is outback steakhouse and ford. I don't know what to do about this tho because if you advertise ski companies it wouldn't mean much because a lot of them get publicity in the gear talk forum or even ski gabber, etc. So where I stand on this is I don't care that we have ads it's just some of them are weird.

it may not be the "core" ski site it used to be but the simple fact is that those adds keep NS free for us members, so really, they are a good thing for the site and all who use it, no matter how non skiing related they might be

Get rid of Mevio ads! They don't have an off buttom and keep on going forever..

If it means the site is here then I say fair enough load up the ads - I don't really notice them too much. However with quite a lot they are making the site load a little slow...

I agree with you guys with the fact that it's the only way they can really progress the site and still make it free for everybody. But I mean, it's almost gotten ridiculous in a sense.

When I open the page and I see this big add pop up and block what I was actually trying to do it's almost threatening. I have closed down NS because of this from frustration, sure that may be a little bit of an overreaction but it's just what my unconscious mind told me to do. In my opinion that is BAD advertising from the companies that wanted their advertisement there because people associate their company with a bad emotion (being annoyed). But as they say, in this screwed up world, any advertising is good advertising...

It has just been a bit of a sad experience being a member from 2002 to see NS evolve into such a mega-commercial website. But at the same time skiing has evolved ridiculously, too fast for my liking you could say.

I'm interested in how much a yearly membership would cost if the ads could disappear. Or better yet, an option to turn them off which isn't blatantly obvious so the majority of the people would still see the ads.

I have every single one blocked so its straight with me

To quote Wu-Tang Clan:

"Cash rules everything around me"

It's all about cream, not trying to sound thug or whatever but seriously, its all about money people. Selling out is normal, i think saying "sold out" is a bad way of saying it though. They are just making money like everyone else in this world.

Here is all I will say on the matter.

First and foremost, the financial and personal cost of running this website is huge.  The NS staff bust there asses off making it run and have taken huge steps to try and make this site as legitmate and secure as possible.

Second, I cannot go into details, because I do not know all of them, and they have been only discussed among mods and admins recently, but I can tell you this concern of NS selling out is very real among the NS staff and they are taking steps to deal with it.

Things have undergone some changes recently, and it is not my place to go into it.  The NS staff is doing their best to refocus the website as much as they can on skiing and is doing so with MUCH personal and financial sacrifice at their own expense.

Say all you want about NS selling out and not being core and whatever.  If that is your opinion, then that's all there is too it.  But NS is not the 10,000 member website it was in 2002 and it is hard to have something so big and influencial as NS stay core at the size it is now. 

What I do know, without a doubt, is that those ads that are bothering you and your feeling that NS is selling out is much much worse for Doug and the NS staff.  They live and die by the site right now and hate to see those ads more than anyone.  Cut them some slack and have some faith.

It should be made pretty clear that there is not any extra cash being made by the NS staff right now.  Those guys are doing this full time and are all taking some financial hits to make this work the way they and most NS members want.

Oh I have faith! It was just a little shocking after taking about a 6 month break from NS and coming back to this. I'm glad that the staff is doing whatever they possibly can to survive and run the site how they intend to.

It's just a change, a big change. And I don't feel the same when logging onto the site anymore. I used to come here to be inside of the skiing culture, and ski culture has nothing to do with AT&T's lowest deal on their bad (I've had terrible experiences with AT&T) internet. So that might've sprouted my feelings as well.

I'm glad that these thoughts are expressed in the thoughts of the staff's minds as well. I'd like to hear more opinions about it.

Excuse my terrible wording. I'm glad that the NS staff has been thinking about the current situation with the ads.

That change is being felt by everyone.  I mean no one, staff, mod, or member enjoys coming on a ski site and seeing AT&T adds, car adds, disney adds, etc.  But as this site gets bigger and tries to expand these things are difficult to avoid.

Just have faith that the NS staff is working on improving the site everyday.

The use of the ad content packages is a sore spot for everyone, but at the moment is a necessary evil to allow NS to survive and continue to provide you guys with the best possible service we can. I think people don't realize how far past your hundred dollar a month hosting services we are, with the site, traffic and media content distribution servers running us well into the thousands. Not to mention the salaries of Doug and the rest of the crew to keep the site running.

We try as hard as we can to encourage ski related companies to advertise with us, and make them see the value we offer. The reality has and always will we are part of a very tightly budgeted industry, where advertising dollars are hard to come by and even harder to sway in our direction. We applaud every ski company who deals with us, and the list is growing, but unfortunately its not always enough and we have to resort to other income to stay alive.

We hear your frustration and feel it too. I will say though that the definition of "Selling Out" is to change your core offering in an attempt to make money, and the truth is we are doing the total opposite, we've changed how we make money in an attempt to continue offering our business of providing a home for skiers and as much news. events and content as we can

you obviously have not been to the ns office, or any of the admins houses or cars... are you aware of the actual financial situation of newschoolers. no. the fact is that newschoolers is getting these adds not to make more money to feed their greed but they are doing this to survive. its not about selling out for extra $, its about selling out for the site to survive. what you dont seem to realise is that its not newschoolers decision to not run skiing adds, its that the ski industry at the moment does not offer enough money through advertising to make the site survive.you should be thankfull every time you look at an annoying add that talks about wearing purple or a cell phone company because these pay the bills and without those bills getting payed we lose newschoolers.

for once I actually agree with you.

Hahahaha, Matty did you EVER like NS? Even way back when I thought you were a hater re: this site. Anyway, the original plan was to take the ads that would bring in the most $ and then gradually shift more and more towards skiing ads until the site could be reasonably supported like, 90% by the industry itself. That hasn't happened and the economic situation being what it is ads are going to make less than in the past, rather than more. Consequently the focus is re-shifting to run the site a little leaner and hopefully cut down on the best buy boxing day sale stuff.

The ads dont bother me much. Most of them are about skiing and there are no annoying pop ups.

Webiste traffic isn't free like Chris mentioned above and NS deals with a large traffic load. This is more then just page views though; think about all the movies that are hosted on here and all the pictures too. The bandwidth to access those features isn't cheap and in order to keep up with the times, NS has had to beef up these services which has come at a cost.

Then factor in all the sweet news content that is provided here and the coverage of events like the US open and you begin to see how quickly the costs can rise to run this place. Add on running the NS store and paying people to keep everything running smoothly and things really start to get pricey :P




I'm not a fan of the advertising either Matty and the guys that run NS aren't either. The good news is though that these things are in the process of changing and I can only hope that the new way works out better then the old :)

haha you sound like a bitch mutha fucka to me. so what if ns can't support the site without any ski related ads. lemme tell you what, right now the banner to my top is a moment ad, the banner to my side is coreupt. so what if not all the advertising is 100 percent ski related, most of the time it is. and think about this, the biggest comps in the world are sponsered by PS2, mountain dew, and all that bullshit. no big deal you can say, but so what if NS isn't as core as it used to be, is that really bad? i bet 5 years ago you would have been on your knees for NS to be as big as it is now. Wait until we've got enough money to sponser the xgames and shit (probably not). its never going to be the way it used to be, so get over it, accept the fact that ads pay for what we all love

Thank you people who actually told me what's up! I totally understand the decision to get ads from irrelevant companies and think it is necessary, I just wanted to hear it from someone who is actually in contact with NS in some way.

IF YOU DON'T HATE ME FOR NO REASON SKIP THIS PART:

JD, you have no idea what the hell you are talking about, but go ahead and think that I am hating right now. You have met me and know that I enjoy life, so I thought that maybe you could apply that into what I am saying but I guess you are coming up with this whole "Matty hates NS" in your head because of reasons I'm not aware of at all. It honestly doesn't concern me what YOUR opinion of me is.

I like NS as a site a lot to tell you the truth. Some of it's members no, but I still don't dislike them as a person. I just disagree with their beliefs and I think that that is perfectly OK and there is nothing wrong with not accepting every single word that enters your mind in your life.

This site is the reason I started skiing, my friend showed me the Happy Dayz trailer on poorboyz.com and it was absolutely unreal to me. I had already watched Propaganda over the course of the summer so many times that my VHS of it broke. Anyways, on the poorboyz site there was a link to NS so I came here and it was the best decision I have ever made because it encouraged me to buy my first pair of skis and start skiing.

You've already reminded myself of why I don't come here as often, because people like you ASSUME what I'm trying to get at, and are wrong on so many parts it's actually not even explainable.

AND CONTINUE HERE:

Anyways, it has done so many things for skiing that nothing else could've done. And a lot of this impact couldn't have been done without financial backing which NS has from these companies. I'm glad that the site has still stayed true to its beliefs which is content. Again thank you people who read this post and contributed to it. :)

If I had followed your advice I would have skipped that part because no hate at all dude. Ironically you just did the same thing, assumed what I was trying to get at and you're wrong. I have met you and you're a good guy. I just honestly thought from all past experiences that you really, really didn't like NS.com, so I thought it was pretty weird that you were lamenting good times long past on here. I'm also well aware that there are people out there who don't like this website and that's totally up to them, so whether you are or are not in fact among said group of people, you're entitled to your opinion.

It's also your call if my opinion of you doesn't concern you but if you change your mind and it does, my opinion of you is positive. It's the internet, after all.

Haha yeah you're right about the whole assuming thing, I was assuming that you were assuming. But hey! The morning after a night at the bar will do that to ya sometimes :P

why the fuck are there army requiting ads here.

why are you trying to give kids a reason to go to war? Thats bullshit IMO

Dude chill. People seem to have an incredibly low tolerance for petty things. Ignor it.

oh im chillin

because we all know that joining the army automatically means you're going off to war...

personally i don't mind the ads at all. they keep the site free for us but i do think its ironic that when i loaded the page an ad for satellite radio came up on top and an ad for washington mutual came up on the side.