Advertising and changes on Geekzone

During the Geekzone Party 2005 (yes, we might do another one in the future, perhaps a series!) we discussed some interesting, non-geek topics.

From the suggestions collected there we have now added/changed some features on the site, including the way e-mail notification on the forums is sent (now using a subject that reflects the thread's subject), added a icon to the forums list as well to indicate new discussions and most importantly we now have local forums for Telecom New Zealand, Vodafone New Zealand, Woosh Wireless, Reach Wireless/CafeNet, and Rocom.

This last change will make it easier to help local users with specific needs, since anyone posting replies there will have a better knowledge and understanding of the local mobile market, while still maintaining the other GSM/GPRS, CDMA and Wi-Fi forums.

Yes, there are some Vodafone and Telecom staff lurking around and helping sometimes, although I can't say who they are (but the people present at our Geekzone Party 2005 met some of them). You have to assume that anyone replying in our forums is just another user like you, helping the community.

Another important change you may have noticed is the banners for Smilies, Screensavers and Anti-Spam software are now gone. I expect this to have a positive impact overall, since we can serve more site-related adverts. We still use Tribal Fusion as the primary advertising network, mostly in USA and Canada, with Amazon, PriceGrabber and in-house ads as defaults (this reminds me to ask you to do your Amazon purchases from our link on the menu bar or from the ads, thanks!).

This change gives us a huge opportunity since anyone wanting to advertise on the site will have more space available. If you are interested in placing banners on the site, this is the time - contact me now. In special I would like to see New Zealand businesses advertising here (yes, we can geo-target).