Hey, Doog. I don't think you should scrap the ad idea. It just needs alternate implementation. Perhaps the 'advertise with us' link should just go to another page that accepts your Email, Bid and banner. Then displays that as an ad leader board on that page...With the email provided obviously as a means of notifying the winner that they have x hours to pay before it rolls to the next bidder.
I'm not sure what initially made you create just-dice, but are you using the suggestions I came up with in the SD thread? (Not implying you shouldn't, I'm happy that chat, ads, accounts etc. are being used when they're such obvious additions to the game). I was really hoping I'd be able to start on something like this as soon as my I.T degree finishes this semester but alas, I feel it would be a waste as i have little forum credibility along with a delayed start. Oh well, there are still plenty of ideas that can grow from Bitcoins fertile soil yet.
Anyway I was just going to say, I've got a few other ideas to share that I feel would boost the sites users and revenue for just-dice. So if you wanted, please just get in touch with me with a PM.
I said "only 1 BTC" not meaning it isn't much, but that it isn't much relative to the 500k BTC turnover of the site. When people are making massive bets over and over, 1 BTC per week seems like noise...
I'll see how the auction goes over the next couple of weeks, and consider switching to the leaderboard idea.
I'm not aware of using your ideas from the SDICE thread, although I certainly read your posts. I think things like ads and chat are pretty much obvious things to do. I put the ads up because I was nagged into doing so, and chat just makes a site more "sticky". I initially made the site because I thought the "investment" idea was just too good not to implement, and wanted to see how it worked out. Maybe I should revisit the SDICE thread and see if there are more ideas worth borrowing (as if I don't already have a huge list of things to implement on the site)...