Since the thread, Should we have community ads? seems to have been taken quite positively, we are rolling out the feature.
How it works
- Anybody can propose an ad to be placed in the side panel of every PhysicsOverflow page (besides user pages and some other such pages which do not have a side panel).
- Anybody with >=500 rep can edit the ad to refine it (and those with lesser rep can suggest a better version in the comments, instead of on the edit suggestion page), but the final verdict goes to the OP (unless the edit isn’t vandalism and makes the ad comply with the guidelines below). If the OP rejects your edit or rolls it back, just propose a new ad of your own.
- If an ad gets a resultant score beyond a certain threshold, it will be placed in the sidepanel by an administrator. Only one ad will be displayed at a time, but the ads change periodically, with the more upvoted ads being displayed more frequently. If there are too many ads, the threshold shall be increased. If there are no ads for a long period of time, the threshold shall be decreased. The current threshold is +2.
Guidelines
It is recommended that you adhere to the following guidelines, but it isn’t compulsory. However, if you don’t follow the guidelines, be prepared for your ad to get edited or in some cases (i.e. violation of the second guideline), even deleted.
- The width should be 220px. The height should be reasonable (i.e no 10px or 600px high ads).
- The ad should not violate any copyright. It will get deleted if it does.
- Light backgrounds are better whenever possible.
- No “Click here” and other similar phrases, please!
- It is recommended that you make a vector image for easy image editing, but post a raster image as the ad itself (with a comment linking to the vector image).
- Last but certainly not the least, the ad should be useful to the PhysicsOverflow community!
Notes
- You can post a basic mock-up with a raster image editor like MS-Paint, but as I’ve said earlier, be prepared to get your post edited.
- You can post an ad for your own organisation, product, service, or site, but be warned that some users may treat it as spam and downvote it.
So what are you waiting for? Post an ad below!