NOTE: ADS ON THE FORUM (updated 26/10/21)

digitalscream

guitarfishbay said:

If the ads are only going to be top and bottom of page on mobile then they don’t bother me at all.

I don’t personally have an issue with them but I could see gambling/vice ads potentially being an issue for some, I have no idea if it’s actually possible to stop those appearing 

I explicitly blocked gambling adverts last night. I've also just blocked "social casino" ads (although I'm not sure what they are), since they appear to be a gateway to gambling sites too.

ToneControl

TeleMaster said:

In relation to the first post which says I shouldn’t be seeing them when logged in, I can see them when logged in. Has this changed somewhere in the 9 pages? Sorry if I missed something. 

I was thinking that last night,
there's been a change of plan, they are testing running ads for all

ToneControl

Is it possible to just have the ads at the bottom of the scrolling section? some of the ads are flashing on and off, which is a bit uncomfortable to view

guitarfishbay

digitalscream said:

guitarfishbay said:

If the ads are only going to be top and bottom of page on mobile then they don’t bother me at all.

I don’t personally have an issue with them but I could see gambling/vice ads potentially being an issue for some, I have no idea if it’s actually possible to stop those appearing 

I explicitly blocked gambling adverts last night. I've also just blocked "social casino" ads (although I'm not sure what they are), since they appear to be a gateway to gambling sites too.

Yeah that sounds good to me

springhead

I just got a lingerie advert.  Pictures of black lacy bra's and knickers at the top of the page.  I'd say that's a welcome addition to the forum!

digitalscream

FYI all - I just got a casino advert, which should be blocked already. I've reported it to Google, and I've also been through and blocked every casino and poker ad that I could find.

octatonic

The scrolling ads are a bit distracting.

digitalscream

octatonic said:

The scrolling ads are a bit distracting.

Define "scrolling ads" - do you mean animations?

boogieman

I’m on an iPhone and the ads don’t bother me particularly. 

I don’t mind paying a formal subscription. Just a thought but why not roll any subscription payment up with getting access to the classifieds? That would stop the freeloaders who are just here to flog stuff and possibly get rid of some of those scammers replying to WTB ads. 

digitalscream

boogieman said:

I’m on an iPhone and the ads don’t bother me particularly. 

I don’t mind paying a formal subscription. Just a thought but why not roll any subscription payment up with getting access to the classifieds? That would stop the freeloaders who are just here to flog stuff and possibly get rid of some of those scammers replying to WTB ads. 

That's all part of a larger conversation, but...we do get quite a few people who sign up to buy as well as sell. Restricting that flow of people actually harms the active users, because it reduces the pool of potential buyers.

digitalscream

UPDATE: For those of you who said you didn't want yet another small monthly subscription and would prefer annual, it looks like Patreon support annual memberships. That means that...if we can use Patreon, we're good to go on that score.

Sesh

The way the ads have been implemented here during the trial seem fine to me. There not overwhelming like they are on other forum where they bisect threads and pop up over the content.
I can't say I'm keen to pay a fee here. I suspect it would put off a lot of the new blood too. 

digitalscream

Sesh said:

The way the ads have been implemented here during the trial seem fine to me. There not overwhelming like they are on other forum where they bisect threads and pop up over the content.
I can't say I'm keen to pay a fee here. I suspect it would put off a lot of the new blood too. 

Well, I'm keen to give people a choice, rather than forcing them down one particular road.

That said, while I appreciate that most folk don't seem to have a problem with the way it's currently implemented, it's worth bearing in mind that the current implementation is the quickest, laziest approach possible - I just dumped the ads into the main layout, meaning that they appear in the same place on everything. It was the most sensible option for the experiment, but it could do with some fine-tuning.

One thing I'm planning to do, for example, is removing the footer ad on the "New Discussion" page. While it obviously results in more revenue, I don't want both ads to show at the same time on a reasonably-sized screen because it's very visually-distracting.

Unfortunately, it's not a case of suppressing it with the way Vanilla's built - instead, I have to remove the ads from the layout, and explicitly insert them into individual views. And...the data required to decide whether to display an ad in a particular position isn't always present in the same way, so...it's kind of a domino effect.

There's going to be more work involved in the target solution, but I want to put the effort in to make sure it's as balanced as I can manage.

fastonebaz

I don't mind the ads they aren't intrusive, I don't use an ad blocker I just choose to not focus on them if I don't want to.  I can't see myself subscribing to anything I'm afraid.  

digitalscream

fastonebaz said:

I don't mind the ads they aren't intrusive, I don't use an ad blocker I just choose to not focus on them if I don't want to.  I can't see myself subscribing to anything I'm afraid.  

That's cool The way I see it, everyone will have three choices:

1 - See ads and ignore them
2 - Subscribe (even if it's just for the additional functionality)
3 - Use an ad blocker

I won't be complaining no matter which they choose.

TimmyO

digitalscream said:

poopot said:

guitarcookie1 said:

It would be nice if they were relevant to the content on the site though, otherwise why would you bother to click through?

This is a good point!… my ip is in Exeter, all I keep getting is ads for Nando’s down that way!!!

That's a problem - the point of AdSense is that they're personalised to the user (assuming no opt out etc).

The issue I have is that I can't figure out a way to make a positive choice in the control panel - ie only show these categories, rather than block these categories.

No other advertising provider will touch forums of our size, unfortunately. It'd be different if we were TGP-scale, but...we're not.

Talk to Ezoic. Google searches will.suggestbthey have a high traffic level threshold but they changed in the last year

fretmeister

Dumb question alert.

If 2 browsers are open and one has adblock and the other doesn't, would the unblocked one still generate income if it was minimised?

digitalscream

fretmeister said:

Dumb question alert.

If 2 browsers are open and one has adblock and the other doesn't, would the unblocked one still generate income if it was minimised?

Every time you load a page in the unblocked one, yes. Setting it to auto-refresh is regarded as cheating by AdSense, though.

DB1

I've only just noticed the ads! Yes, great - unobtrusive (for me)  and if they're revenue generators, well that's the least that you deserve for providing this facility. Go for it.

octatonic

digitalscream said:

octatonic said:

The scrolling ads are a bit distracting.

Define "scrolling ads" - do you mean animations?

Yes, animated via scrolling.