Ad Free version?

I'm not too fond of the ads myself, but they do, as you note, bring money into the household. I'm particularly non-fond of the ones that blink and move. Some people have suggested making article illustrations animated, or adding theme music, but that's been firmly rejected. If I'm going to put obnoxious stuff on my site, I'll at least get paid for it.

But when I think of what I could put here for pay -- strobing pop-ups, ear-splitting music, etc. -- I think I've at least shown reasonable restraint.

Thing is, I've put thousands of hours into writing this stuff and maintaining the site, and I just can't afford to sink that kind of work into something that isn't contributing to my family's support. I could cut down, I suppose, but I won't compromise quality of writing and research. Some people I know call this my "life's work", but as I get older (in my 60s now), more and more, I have to think of it as something I can retire on.

It makes me sad, too, that you're getting to where you can't enjoy the site anymore. I find it harder to enjoy myself. But the ads just plain have got to be there.

I'll talk with the people who programmed the site in its current form, and now manage the advertising, about making an ad-free version available for pay. But I'm not hopeful about its feasibility. Lots of people would gladly pay such a fee, but when it comes to actually paying it, not enough turn out willing to do so on a long-term basis, to pay the costs of setting it up. That's unfortunate, but there you have it.

My first ongoing attempt to produce income was signing up for Google Adsense, a fine way for Web amateurs to cash in without expending more effort than it's worth. Early on, I placed an ad block where readers had to skip over it to read a whole article. The reason was, I wanted a horizontal divider so I could install a tab system in the lower part, but I quickly found revenues went up, so I had an additional reason to maintain it.

And I got complaints about that! My own brother phoned to say the additional income wasn't "worth it", which to my mind is about like Madeleine Albright claiming the deaths of a half-million Iraqi children were "worth it" for achieving whatever goals her administration thought needed achieving. What the heck, they weren't her kids, so she wasn't the one paying the price, just as my brother wasn't the one getting the added income.

Whether either of it likes it or not, I'm afraid the ads are here to stay. Sorry.

After posting this, I'll send a copy to the address you give here.

Quack, Don

I agree that the ads can be annoying. Fortunately, my vision is good enough so I can ignore them whenever I want. And, I'm glad that there are no pop-ups. I get my daily fix of the Phantom, and, Spider-Man from the "21st Century Phantom's Deep Woods" site (Mandrake is also there, but in more of an archive format.) The moderator of that site has seen fit to animate his front page, with music, (so when I go there, I turn my speakers off,) and, unfortunately, the comics he links to come with pop-ups, more often than not. So I appreciate Don not going to that extreme. But if he did, I'd just deal with it, because I find his articles on this free, ad supported site, interesting to read.

Thanks, Chuck. It does my heart good to hear that the articles are interesting to read. I've been writing for publication for 40 years, and (aside from making a living) my greatest goal all that time has been having people enjoy what I write.

Quack, Don

I'm still trying. How about this; do you offer the toonpedia on a seperate DVD/CD? I like your writing style and its a great nostalgia buzz to look through this stuff, but the ads still get me...

Thanks,
Jonathan

A CD sounds more likely than an add-free version on the Web, but it would still be a big investment in time and energy. Also, I'm in the habit of making alterations in articles whenever that's called for, and that would be impossible on a CD. (Mostly, I add links to old articles whenever I write a new one, but I also make corrections, add new information and whatnot. Sometimes I just add or delete a comma.)

I'll look into it, but it's likely to be expensive. The production work involved would be a lot more than simply transferring the file copies I maintain on my hard drive to a CD.

Quack, Don