Is it me or the forum

[luvmysuper]

Best yet. I wonder what "Swarmify" means? They're the latest site improvement.

This thread, and this forum isn't a "running gag" for entertainment.
Please stop using it for that purpose.
Feel free to make a legitimate post about any new issue that requires site attention.
You know already what the options are to combat ads:
Get a free ad blocker, become a contributor, or stop logging in.

 

[Owen Bawn]

I'll leave you to it. I will only donate to the site if the owner opens the books to us. I suspect that many posters have no idea that their donations go into some guy's pocket.

No need to ban me, I'm leaving on my own.

 

[cpcohen1945]

I visit B&B occasionally, and post a fair bit in the DE razors forum.

Today, I was struck by the video ads (mostly for some game-related stuff). They were frequent, and tended to appear on the right-hand lower corner of the screen -- just where I was typing my reply to a thread.

Here the URL for one that just appeared as I was working on this post:

I understand that advertising revenue is important. But if you had some way of restricting ads, by eliminating the video ads (or letting me specify where I want them to appear), I'd appreciate it.

Thanks --

. Charles

 

[musicman1951]

You can kill two birds with one stone: for 48 cents a week the ads will disappear. For someone who posts a fair bit that's a pretty good bargain. I'm not in charge of anything - ask my wife - just offering a solution.

 

[Quaznoid]

You’re not allowed to complain

 

[luvmysuper]

You’re not allowed to complain

You're allowed to complain.
Unless you've posted complaints 9 times complaining about ads and not utilizing the options available.
The same people keep complaining and keep complaining and keep complaining despite being told numerous times what the options are.
Guys like you.
One more time, so the most challenged individual can understand their recourse.
If you don't want to see ads, you can:
1. Become a contributor.
2. Get a free ad blocker. If you're too cheap to be a contributor, it doesn't get any better than FREE
3. Stop logging in here. You won't see ads if you don't log in. The benefit here is you won't see ads, and we don't have to constantly read your complaints for the same thing over and over because you won't select an option to resolve the problem.

 

[Quaznoid]

Thank you for alerting me to the ad-free benefits of a membership. I joined. (BTW, I tried various ad blockers without success).

 

[luvmysuper]

Thank you for alerting me to the ad-free benefits of a membership. I joined. (BTW, I tried various ad blockers without success).

I can tell you that no one on this site hates the ads more than I do.
I despise them, and I despise the miserable excuse of a company that runs them.
But there is absolutely NOTHING we can do about them.
Nada.
Some ad blockers work better than others, and unfortunately it's a matter of trial and error to see what ad blocker/browser combination works best.

 

[T Murphy]

Starting today I'm unable to view on my tablet in landscape. The ad takes up the whole screen and no way to minimize or x out.

 

[DesertIguana]

Clear Cookies.

 

[StewB]

Starting today I'm unable to view on my tablet in landscape. The ad takes up the whole screen and no way to minimize or x out.

Please see previous responses in this thread for suggestions. The site owners are aware of the problems caused by the ads. The moderators can't do anything about the ads except report the problems to the site owners.

 

[Roy]

Whilst I see the need of adverts to help with costs of running the forum, I find they are now a real nu8sance. They pop up frequently and sometimes cover the comments box when tying a post.
Advers yes if necessary but not so intrusive.

 

[Dirty Harry]

Try resizing your screen. I use Chrome and set the zoom at 110%, that worked for me.

~doug~

I tried that and it works! The screen is a little "in my face" but it works.

 

[Lane101]

The issue is the small video pop-up on the lower right side of the screen that won't go away no matter how many times you click it closed or allow the various 30 second ads to play through. These started roughly a couple of months ago. While just a nuisance on my PC they make it almost impossible to view/interact with B&B on a smaller smartphone screen where they use too much of the available real estate.

Unfortunately this has been brought up before and @luvmysuper noted that the mods are aware and, while there little they can do directly on this, they have communicated this to the firm that runs B&Bs advertising.

My only additional comment is that the firm running the B&B advertising may not realize that the intrusive video pop-ups may actually be hurting their revenue by taking things to the point where B&B members are reducing their time on the site when they only have small screen access. Realize that advertising is needed to support B&B. Recommend that the firm placing the ads analyze user viewing patterns in combination with click through results since the advent of these more intrusive videos. They may find that any extra click-troughs are offset by lower overall site usage.

 

[Mr. Shavington]

The issue is the small video pop-up on the lower right side of the screen that won't go away no matter how many times you click it closed or allow the various 30 second ads to play through. These started roughly a couple of months ago. While just a nuisance on my PC they make it almost impossible to view/interact with B&B on a smaller smartphone screen where they use too much of the available real estate.

Unfortunately this has been brought up before and @luvmysuper noted that the mods are aware and, while there little they can do directly on this, they have communicated this to the firm that runs B&Bs advertising.

My only additional comment is that the firm running the B&B advertising may not realize that the intrusive video pop-ups may actually be hurting their revenue by taking things to the point where B&B members are reducing their time on the site when they only have small screen access. Realize that advertising is needed to support B&B. Recommend that the firm placing the ads analyze user viewing patterns in combination with click through results since the advent of these more intrusive videos. They may find that any extra click-troughs are offset by lower overall site usage.

The ad firm knows exactly what they are doing. It’s their business model. As long as the site still has users and ads are getting shown they will keep dialling up the aggressiveness of the advertising and increasing their revenue. This is their site more than it is B&B’s now. They are making money and the owners of B&B are making money. Everyone is happy.

And if people do stop coming here the ad firm will have plenty of other clients to replace B&B and a great sales pitch about how much ad income they generated here and elsewhere. Anyway, people do still come here and nobody will ever know how many other potential members were put off. The ad firm doesn’t need more members if they can increase the revenue by pushing more ads to the existing members or making them watch ads for longer.

It all makes sense if money is the objective. And if you owned B&B and weren’t particularly involved in the community any more, wouldn’t you want to monetize it if you could? What would be the point of owning a site with so many users if you weren’t making it work for you financially?

There’s a lot of stuff in the modern world that makes sense financially but makes no sense for humans.

 

[Mr. Shavington]

The thing that makes all of this so bizarre is that none of us has ever purchased anything we saw on an ad here - I bet that’s true. How mad is the world?

 

[luvmysuper]

The thing that makes all of this so bizarre is that none of us has ever purchased anything we saw on an ad here - I bet that’s true. How mad is the world?

Pretty frigging mad.

 

[Frito Ray]

Just curious, has there been any statistics taken as to the relationship of the presence of “established” members and the step by step introduction of the more and more intrusive ads?

There are a lot of fun faces we just don’t see around here much any more.

 

[EclipseRedRing]

There are a lot of fun faces we just don’t see around here much any more.

I have noticed that, I hope it will not negatively affect the upcoming charity auction, but I fear it may.

 

[gpjoe]

I think part of this issue is that more and more folks are moving away from desktop and laptop computers to tablets and phones.

I suspect that the folks writing the ad software are primarily testing their work on full-size screens and paying little mind to the havoc it wreaks on a much smaller screen...or they just don't care.

It's one thing to have a tiny video ad playing in the corner of your desktop monitor and quite another to have a video or ad completely obliterate your viewing space and obstruct the functionality of buttons and dialog boxes.

Edit: Not a complaint, just a thought.