Forum gone haywire with ads?

[Hushpower]

Just lately I've noticed odd behaviour: system was telling me to wait 25 secs to post after I had clicked the Post button once and my post had already been posted.

Just then, I posted, then I tried to click a Thanks button but an ad intervened and then then next screen told me I was not logged in.

[latreche34]

You don't have an ad blocker? I know this doesn't sound right for the content creators but in the last few years they became very intrusive, It is not safe to use internet without one, that's how people get scams.

[lordsmurf]

In the past 48 hours the email notify has problems. That's the root of some bugs. We'll look at it tomorrow.

[Hushpower]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Latreche

You don't have an ad blocker?

I do; Adblock Plus.

LS: something to consider: Premium users shouldn't get ads. Certainly, the riff-raff freebie users of DFaq are fair game but I think Premium users could be spared.

[latreche34]

I think Ghostery is better, I use to have Adblock and ditched it.

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hushpower

LS: something to consider: Premium users shouldn't get ads. Certainly, the riff-raff freebie users of DFaq are fair game but I think Premium users could be spared.

This is in the new design.
However, the site has almost no ads at all right now. Some of the ad networks have become a PITA in recent years, and it's not worth the hassle. We've not sought new non-network ad contracts yet either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by latreche34

I think Ghostery is better,

Some of the analytics is useful when you run a site. It helps us help you. We'll have on-server analytics at some point, not 3rd party, because on-server can't be blocked.

[thecoalman]

I count 10 ads while viewing this topic including some inside users posts. Also appears there is two that did not load. Generally speaking when I come to site like this I just turn around and leave.

I serve ads on my own site and fortunately I'm in niche where I can do direct advertising, I know it's slim pickings with the ad networks but three ads max and certainly not within users posts.

Edit: just got pop up ad to edit post..... Just wanted to add anoother issue. Some of them are deceptive, e.g. "login to account".

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thecoalman

I count 10 ads while viewing this topic including some inside users posts.

I need to see that.

Quote:

Edit: just got pop up ad to edit post..... Just wanted to add anoother issue. Some of them are deceptive, e.g. "login to account".

What? Oh hell no, we won't have any of that here. Again, I need to see screenshots + code/URLs if possible.

I saw it.

That's so unreasonable that I just deleted all the Google tags. I can't trust them anymore.

All the ads actually got me banned from the site, because all the requests caused a rate limit overload. Absolutely f-ing insane. I had to un-ban myself. I wonder if that's happened to others.

In the next forum iteration, non-scammy ads will be returned for Free members, and no ads for Premium members.

[thecoalman]

For a moment there LS I thought you had gone to the dark side. Just FYI but I'm seeing the same ad behavior on home page, quite a few of them in places they shouldn't be and clicking links causes pop up.

I dumped Google ads years ago. Bunch of crappy ads paying very little. You're literally chasing after nickles and dimes on a forum.

I have customized script for displaying ads with phpBB. I just show potential advertisers the stats for Google search traffic. Ads are paid annually and they are charged by set percent of ads displayed. Fortunately I'm in a small enough niche I can do direct advertising. The one and only real issue is I can't do local adverting because they aren't targeted geographically. Makes no difference because I'm sold out every year....

[lordsmurf]

BTW, thecoalman, thanks for bumping this post. Hushpower briefly mentioned an ad issue, but I had no idea it was that awful.

Prior to this year -- and I forget exact month, it was either late spring or early summer -- I got the "biggest" (not a huge amount whatsoever) AdSense payment that I'd see in probably 10 years. Now I know why. But I'm not pimping out this site for low-paying Google tricks. It's really quite vulgar how they shit all over this place with scammy garbage.

The main part of the site, the non-forum, is actually broken since end of last year. I'll have to deep dive the db to cull out the AdSense junk. Since the plans are to integrate that content into a forum CMS, I'm not sure it's worth the effort. So it may need to stay for a couple more months, if not easy to remove. I may instead see if I can nuke AdSense from Google's end, so it quits serving.

Honestly, what they hell are they thinking? People like that would sell their grandma for $1. It truly pisses me off. Sneaky SOBs.

I've never tried to "get rich" from this site (as I don't think it's really possible in this niche), and am mostly satisfied if it at least pays for itself (instead of coming out of my own pocket, which has happened too many times in the past). Part of the coming site revision is to instill more of a community focus, such as Patreon/etc-type support from memberships and perks, in the hopes that ads are not needed at all. I have especially never liked to drown people in fake low-quality ads. Even I have ad blockers because of scammy garbage out there (for example, CNBC uses slimy ads, misleading clickbait from Taboola, even for their paid Pro members). I've never been against quality ads, to support companies and products that benefit site members.

I've even relented to paying for Youtube Premium, so I don't have to watch that crap anymore on my Chromecast. Youtube does have many good ads, as I learned about new products that way (ie, ads worked!). But not all, and I didn't want to accidentally fall prey to a fake ad.

Anyway, again, thanks so much.

Oh, I notice that you've been a member here for almost 20 years now!

[thecoalman]

With a whopping 136 posts.......errrr 137