G*D D@MN the ads at this forum are the worst!

[emrr]

Almost unnavigable on mobile.  Every action is a full page ad that must be dismissed. 

Desktop is similarly bad, pop-up or nearly full screen.  I'm frequently dumped off to an advertisers website. 

I'm on a lot of different forums, this is hands down the worst for ad behavior.  It outright interrupts the experience like no other.   

There's gotta be another way.  I can say I've aided and abetted in about $800 worth of donations to this place for operating expenses, let's say I feel slightly entitled to ***** about this.   

 

[Brian Roth]

I use the Ublock Origin plugin with Firefox and never see ads.

Bri

 

[emrr]

I use the Ublock Origin plugin with Firefox and never see ads.

Bri

Good for you.  It's not the BEST answer.  Why should this one place be like this, compared to all others!?!

 

[user 37518]

Good for you.  It's not the BEST answer.  Why should this one place be like this, compared to all others!?!

I use AdBlock and wasn't even aware that this forum had ads until today, no ads on youtube either, no ads anywhere. It IS the BEST answer if you plan to surf the web ad-free.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I've already complained to Ethan about the pop ups, and he changed a setting that reduced the severity but I agree, they are still a PIA....

I haven't seen the full page pop ups since he changed the setting over a week ago, but the frequency of them seems to be creeping up again...

F' google.

JR

 

[emrr]

I use AdBlock and wasn't even aware that this forum had ads until today, no ads on youtube either, no ads anywhere. It IS the BEST answer if you plan to surf the web ad-free.

Yes, but then the ads do nothing to finance the site, correct?  It's a shithawk eating it's tail.

 

[emrr]

I've already complained to Ethan about the pop ups, and he changed a setting that reduced the severity but I agree, they are still a PIA....

I haven't seen the full page pop ups since he changed the setting over a week ago, but the frequency of them seems to be creeping up again...

F' google.

JR

Thanks John

 

[bluebird]

Well said. The strait up honest frustration, not directed at anyone in particular, but the SYSTEM. Its really got a hold of us all.

The internet is an expression of our dirty ass, greedy, ridiculous, collective consciousness. Its truly emergent. We're mostly good, well meaning people here, but we do little questionable things in everyday life that keeps the crazy train moving. From shopping at Walmart to clicking on something just to squeeze a molecule of dopamine out of one neuron.

I often loose faith... but I'm gonna try and hang in there and do the best I can. Its all there is.

Anyhow, I feel ya man...

 

[JohnRoberts]

Thanks John

I sure hope the ads are generating income for the forum or why tolerate them?. But I have not discussed forum finances with Ethan.
===
I discovered that I can prevent the pop up ads by disabling java script (in safari under the security tab). But with java script disabled some useful forum features like PM notifications and emoticons don't work.

JR

 

[Script]

No popups over here but I sometimes click ads at random to help finance this site.

 

[rock soderstrom]

Almost unnavigable on mobile.  Every action is a full page ad that must be dismissed. 

Desktop is similarly bad, pop-up or nearly full screen.  I'm frequently dumped off to an advertisers website. 

I'm on a lot of different forums, this is hands down the worst for ad behavior.  It outright interrupts the experience like no other.   

There's gotta be another way.

+1

 

[JohnRoberts]

I notice it getting worse again. I have passed the complaints along to Ethan...

He mentioned he has some options about settings.

JR

 

[zamproject]

Yep...this is very annoying since few week...

What is the hosting cost for the forum ?

Best
Zam

 

[Ricardus]

I use ABP on my browser and never see ads, but I won't surf here with my phone, because as someone said, the ads are insane.

 

[MatthewF]

I too had been finding the adds a bit irritating, but in the last few days they’ve become downright offensive. I’ve now had four instances of a full screen add for Brian Rose’s campaign for London Mayor. You can read more about this guy here: https://www.vice.com/en/article/bv8x5a/london-real-brian-rose-digital-freedom-coronavirus

 

[Ethan]

I appreciate the concerns, complaints, and apologize for the inconvenience. I too have been frustrated by the experience. A few months ago I flipped the switch for google to "auto-place" ads, naively hoping that thru "AI/machine learning" they would figure out the best placement for ads and find the best balance between revenue and user experience, and put it on auto-pilot. I've tried changing some settings but some are just blanket on/off settings rather than being able to define a percentage of ad exposure.

If the experience is truly getting worse rather than google learning to get better, by the end of the month I will just revert to turning the "auto-placement" setting off, going back to what we had previously, no popups, and never more than 3 ads per page, etc.

 

[rock soderstrom]

I appreciate the concerns, complaints, and apologize for the inconvenience. I too have been frustrated by the experience. A few months ago I flipped the switch for google to "auto-place" ads, naively hoping that thru "AI/machine learning" they would figure out the best placement for ads and find the best balance between revenue and user experience, and put it on auto-pilot. I've tried changing some settings but some are just blanket on/off settings rather than being able to define a percentage of ad exposure.

If the experience is truly getting worse rather than google learning to get better, by the end of the month I will just revert to turning the "auto-placement" setting off, going back to what we had previously, no popups, and never more than 3 ads per page, etc.

Thanks for information and your effort!

 

[emrr]

Thanks Ethan!

 

[Ethan]

f**k it. I just ripped the bandaid off. It may take a couple days for all of the hundreds of thousands of google servers around the globe to comply but auto-placement of ads is now officially toggled to the “OFF” position.

I trusted that Google would be far better than me at creating a better experience in terms of ad-placement. I never intended the ads to become a hinderance to a member's experience here…it’s been more of a “hedge bet”, knowing that >90% of our traffic is from anonymous visitors. Regardless, GroupDIY.com has been a passion project for me for almost 2 decades and I'm grateful knowing that it's been fueled primarily by the contributions and generosity of this community. So, once again, I apologize and THANK YOU.

 

[Bo Deadly]

knowing that >90% of our traffic is from anonymous visitors.

If that's the case then add some code to skip the ads entirely if the user has more than 1000 posts.