Hey guys, let me make a few statements here:
1. Yes we're trying Google ads, for the third time in the 16 year life of CC. (The first two times we tried we had to stop it pretty quick coz of cult ads and secular dating ads, which we didn't want on our site, but we believe that problem may be solved now, which I'll explain in statement #5 below.)
2. We're trying it coz we currently don't get enough voluntary donations/subscriptions to operate, as in support our expenses and work, so it's really hard, if you know what I mean.
3. ANY SUPPORTER OR SUBSCRIBER can have the ads disabled for EVEN $1/mth -- if you're a supporter/subscriber and ads are showing and you don't want them to show then please kindly send me mail in the forum. (Sorry for any inconvenience, I'm gradually marking supporters please pardon me if it's still showing for you and you don't want them to show. Some people actually prefer ads even if they're a supporter.)
4. This is experimental and we're refining it (ad placement, blocking certain categories of ads, etc.)
5. In the past we couldn't go on running Google ads because of intolerable ads BUT WE THINK IT'S MUCH BETTER NOW. (Now the ads very much depend on your own browsing history, search history, click-history, etc. Furthermore now Google Adsense allows very refined blocking of categories of ads. As of today we've further refined that to block all categories of what may be inappropriate. The main problem we had when we tried Google ads before were cult ads and secular dating ads. Well hopefully that problem is solved because now we're able to block all "religious" ads and all "dating" ads, which we've done, along with many other categories of ads, even things like "plastic surgery".)
6. I totally prefer no commercialization as in no ads on our site but that's pretty hard to do when relying on voluntary donations with a participation rate of 1% (there are different ways to measure this -- the 1% figure comes from dividing the number of users who donate in a given month by the total number of registered users who log in during that month). Even the Bible Gateway couldn't do it -- that's why, years ago, they announced that they were folding, because they're donation revenue didn't match their operation costs, and then they finally sold out to Zondervan, which commericalized it with ads. (In their case, they're big enough to attract their own sponsors or simply advertise their own stuff -- we're not that big so we have to rely on an ad network.)
7. The ads shouldn't be that bad -- some may occasionally even interest you -- and please DON'T TRY TO BLOCK THEM OR TELL OTHERS TO because it's not very considerate to try to block revenue of a site that you use for free for years. Again if you support the site with even a dollar a month and ads are showing and you don't want them to show then send me mail in the forum.
Thanks for your understanding and we do welcome positive constructive feedback from people who support our site/work or even non-supporters who want to help us make the ads more effective and keep the site clean.