Carsy

I now look down the list of posts with dismay, mostly advertising silly products to people with too much money & not enough to do.

Whether this advertising has frightened off others but there seems fewer faults posts than in the past . Either the W204 is a very reliable vehicle or genuine posters have become sick of the site .

I hope it is not the latter.

Thanks to the dedicated people who have organised & added to the very informative & useful Wiki section.

Cheers.

vipsa

You can actually blame our overlords Internet Brands. They acquired another message board I used to frequent and turned it into the same cash cow, full of advertisers and hardly any useful discussion. Thankfully there's still some useful info on here with a bit of searching.

Skyline45

Hmmm, weird. I don't have any ad crap plastered all over the site when I log in?

MB Marko

i think people don't know about ad blocker pro hahaha

ibcrusn

I have often wondered the same both here and other forums I have or do participate in. On this page alone my ad blocker is blocking 17 ads, I can only imagine what that looks like for outsiders landing here via a Google search. Many sites that have worked up a base and significant traffic end up going down the rabbit hole of chasing revenue. Don't get wrong, these site do cost money to keep maintained and running smoothly but I would have never guessed a forum could be used a cash cow.

I do believe there are seasons when traffic diminishes but you bring up a good point about reliability and the wiki. One other point to consider is there are only so any folks willing to put on their thinking caps, get dirty and work on their own vehicles.

Me, I'll stay as long as the content is relevant and there are helpful folks when I run out of my own ideas, that and I still own a MB. Thanks for those that created what we have at this point.

Funkwagen

To be fair, we don't pay for access/use of this website so the ads are somewhat necessary. Personally I don't find them to be very invasive and I usually have pretty strong feelings against ads. This site is useful for current discussions in addition to past discussions which contain a lot of info

vipsa

You're way behind broseidon, Ublock is where it's at now.

I was actually talking about the high amount of threads from vendors on the site in the model specific discussion, that get bumped on an almost hourly basis. That's why I like certain other forums, where vendors have their own section for spamming with their products and the model specific forums are strictly for discussion and the same applies for FS: threads.

Plutoe

You hit the nail on the head when you mention "other forums"--look very carefully and take any thread on those forums and you will quickly see where the members start to spam and glad hand themselves within the thread rather than technically adding to the post--in one such case a couple of the mega spammers from "kiddy benz" have migrated to this forum and the spam followed and is very noticeable!!

mikenacarato

It costs money to run this website so unless your a paying member don't complain about ads.

BlankProc

This. It's only bad if you're not a registered user. So just register, and you're all good.

Carsy

I will lend you my glasses my friend :-

***Fortune Auto*** Quality Coilovers at Affordable Pricing!

Vossen Wheels | VFS Series CV Series & VLE Series |Member Pricing | C-Class W204

OE Tuning - Black Friday / End of Year Holiday SALE

JBSPEED CF Mirror Cover Replacement for W204/W212/W221

///RW Carbon - C Class Carbon Fiber Parts

AZN Optics 5W5 Canbus LEDs

JBSPEED Roof & Trunk Spoilers for W204

Duraflex & Carbon Creations Body Kits - ALL QUOTE REQUESTS WELCOME

Skyline45

Lmao, dude... it's called AdBlock

EDIT: Nvm, just realized you were talking about the forum posts themselves. My eyes just kind of glaze over those ^.^

AZN Optics

I've got mixed feelings on this as well. Having started out as a devoted member (AZN_C300) long before becoming a vendor, I do see your point which is why I only bump my threads once a month and if you see it up there more often, it's due to other members posting on there which would be fair game. With the holiday season coming up, it does tend to get worse this time of the year. Now, the vendor/sponsor side of me knows that we spend a LOT to advertise here.... MBWorld is the most expensive site to advertise on for Internet Brands and if we're dumping up to a thousand a month just for the rights to advertise, we have to stay viable which means staying visible. I will say that I've received a fair amount of customers who have told me they wish they would have known about us before they had ordered from Ebay or amazon or whatever which means that even with the coverage, it's not reaching everyone, but out of respect for the forum as a whole, we still restrain from weekly bumps I know some other vendors practice.

For us though, we try to stay engaged with the forum to offer advice and assistance as opposed to just pushing products, chiming in when we can. We were appreciative and humbled by the MBWorld Guru title issued to us for our contribution in growing the site. Main thing is, please don't paint a broad negative stroke across all vendors as not all are equal in offense.

vipsa

You have nothing to worry about. It's members like you that make forums worth while. If someone didn't bother searching the forums first for a reputable vendor and instead went directly to eBay, then I say good riddance.
Those customers are not looking for a quality product with good support, but the cheapest route to get something they want. You can't really compete with some of the prices on the junk that eBay's littered with, so I wouldn't consider those people "potential customers". Maybe after the crappy eBay LEDs burn out in a month, they would come here and find you.

JaredP

I used to be a regular. I came here every day and checked the new posts. But I no longer see the posters that I used to, and the quality of content has hit rock bottom. Part of that quality loss is the % increase in vendor posts constantly bumped to the front page. It's a shame.

AZN Optics

Content wise, the other thing is w204 is now an older model now so just like the previous w203 subforums went, member topics will continue to taper down while the w205 forums gain the influx. Sure you'll have the sporadic secondary market owners that might join, but with the w204 platform so well explored, most of the answers would be found via search, limiting the need for new topic. Just the way of things.... older model forums become more reference material rather than lively discussions we used to have.

Alfadude

I agree with AZN...to a point. I previously owned a Jaguar X-Type and those are readily available and cheap. There are always a lot of new owners that were DIYers asking questions, despite having 99% of the issues being discussed previously. Despite that there continues to be a lot of relevant daily posts and a lot of friendly helpful people willing to help. It is a great community over there with a lot of friendly, helpful and knowledgeable people. Virtually no ad "posts" on there.

Joining here to learn and understand about my car it is quite different. Seems like most time an almost 50/50 split between ads and posts. I understand that this is free and revenue needs to be generated to keep it going, but I do find the high number of ads a distraction, even though it might be a necessity. In the short time I've been here I can appreciate someone like AZN being an active participate in the forum other than just posting a weekly "bump" to their original ads and he should be commended for that.

It is what is is I guess and people can always vote with their feet. Still very helpful, you just have to be willing to dig a little.