Site adverts

[Gav]

Afternoon Mods,

The adverts on the site seem to have gone bonkers over the last 48hrs, click the forum link, immediate advert you need to read/click before access.

I understand the need to support the site, but is this the new normal?

Thanks

[Herbie6590]

Our techies are aware...it seems to be the way that Google are presenting their ads now.

As you rightly surmise, this effectively pays for the site so we need to be careful in making any changes that block them...unless you all fancy paying a monthly membership fee ? 🤔

@StubbsUK feel free to add some expertise to the thread...😁

[J*B]

Genuine question... small fee, let’s say... £1.99 / month for an ad free version of the website, thoughts? It’s not intentional that the ads have changed, but it might be an opportunity. 

[Silas]

I'm not getting any change on mobile (samsung galaxy).

Didn't yesterday on my work PC either. 

What am I missing? 🤔

Is it because I stay logged in so I'm not clicking on a new link. 

[Gav]

I'm not logging out, just using favs on PC - Chrome - more frequent ads that stop you moving forward until you click off.

Apple phone - bookmarks - Getting them regular - selecting Forum - Again, ad stops you moving to forum until you click off.

 

 

[Stuart]

2 hours ago, J*B said:

Genuine question... small fee, let’s say... £1.99 / month for an ad free version of the website, thoughts? It’s not intentional that the ads have changed, but it might be an opportunity. 

The new ad format is extremely intrusive, looks shit (are they designed in MS Paint?) and will put me off using the site. A sad sign of the times.

I get you have running costs although I don’t have clue exactly how much to break even but no way am I paying to an online forum - especially as a content contributor.

A potential death knell for Internet forums as long as Facebook and Twitter are free and have far less intrusive ads.

Right now there are fewer and fewer reasons to follow the club and sadly this is another one.

 

[J*B]

3 minutes ago, Stuart said:

The new ad format is extremely intrusive, looks shit (are they designed in MS Paint?) and will put me off using the site. A sad sign of the times.

I get you have running costs although I don’t have clue exactly how much to break even but no way am I paying to an online forum - especially as a content contributor.

A potential death knell for Internet forums as long as Facebook and Twitter are free and have far less intrusive ads.

Right now there are fewer and fewer reasons to follow the club and sadly this is another one.

 

1) we haven’t designed the adverts or created more intrusive ones. It’s happened automatically from Google. 

2) I’m not saying you would have to pay. I’m subscription for ad-free might be a solution to the problem if we can’t change these new more intrusive ones. 

3) Facebook and Twitter aren’t free / they’re harvesting your internet data and selling it on to third parties so that the advertising you see is relevant to what you want to buy. Now that’s intrusive!

[Stuart]

1 minute ago, J*B said:

1) we haven’t designed the adverts or created more intrusive ones. It’s happened automatically from Google. 

2) I’m not saying you would have to pay. I’m subscription for ad-free might be a solution to the problem if we can’t change these new more intrusive ones. 

3) Facebook and Twitter aren’t free / they’re harvesting your internet data and selling it on to third parties so that the advertising you see is relevant to what you want to buy. Now that’s intrusive!

1) I’m not blaming you for how shit they look, just an observation.

2) Shit ads or paying to post comments isn’t a great choice. It wasn’t so long ago the site was ad free supported by donations. (Or maybe it was, is been a while).

3) You are right of course but Fb and Twitter do that in a way that doesn’t interfere with my use of their platform so it’s tolerable. Consequently they show me (mostly) useful ads.

I guess that means these pop ups are here to stay then. Shame.

[J*B]

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

1) I’m not blaming you for how shit they look, just an observation.

2) Shit ads or paying to post comments isn’t a great choice. It wasn’t so long ago the site was ad free supported by donations. (Or maybe it was, is been a while).

3) You are right of course but Fb and Twitter do that in a way that doesn’t interfere with my use of their platform so it’s tolerable. Consequently they show me (mostly) useful ads.

I guess that means these pop ups are here to stay then. Shame.

The site has never been ad-free. For a while the previous owners took donations as well as adverts to help cover the costs.

Definitely here to stay short term. Mostly because we don’t know how to move back to the old ones. Sorry!

[Mike E]

My tuppence:

Yeah the new ads are a bit annoying BUT they can be closed immediately. Compared to other ad-reliant platforms it's still remarkably easy to overlook.

It's not like s 30 second video with a trick cross to make you click the advert, and a million miles ahead of the LET.

A bit inconvenient, sure, but I've only had about a dozen ads in about 3 days' use (that I've noticed). Not had one in the last hour of browsing.

Using Chrome on a Samsung Galaxy A70 FYI.

[Silas]

58 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Yeah the new ads are a bit annoying BUT they can be closed immediately. Compared to other ad-reliant platforms it's still remarkably easy to overlook.

Indeed. I've just worked out I hadn't even noticed them because I was so conditioned to instantly closing them on another site.

Forebet = great football stat site with h2h info, form guide etc that I definitely don't use to aid and abet a gambling habit. 🤔

Anyway, if you're researching fixtures daily those ads must be par for the course, because I appear to deal with them like my eyelids deal with moisturising my eyeballs.

I kid you not. It's actually caused me to reevaluate a few things tonight. 😊😊

[Mattyblue]

Some other forums have presented ads like this for a while, any reason why brfcs has suddenly changed to mirror them?

[Gav]

An example for anyone not seeing them. I’m not complaining, if this is the new normal that’s fine, anything to support the site is fine by me.

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Gav

[Herbie6590]

26 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Some other forums have presented ads like this for a while, any reason why brfcs has suddenly changed to mirror them?

It’s not our choice...Google just changed...we are trying to work out why/how & whether there is anything we can do about it...including potential Patreon type offerings...

[Herbie6590]

15 minutes ago, Gav said:

An example for anyone not seeing them. I’m not complaining, if this is the new normal that’s fine, anything to support the site is fine by me.

 

Thanks...they DO support the site, especially if folks click through but we are always considering options.

[Mattyblue]

12 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

It’s not our choice...Google just changed...we are trying to work out why/how & whether there is anything we can do about it...including potential Patreon type offerings...

I know it’s not your choice, just interested to why this site is now taking ads in a format that other sites have been doing for a long while - I.e. obviously not a blanket overnight change by Google

[Herbie6590]

33 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

I know it’s not your choice, just interested to why this site is now taking ads in a format that other sites have been doing for a long while - I.e. obviously not a blanket overnight change by Google

We don’t know what has prompted Google to make the change...phased rollout of a new strategy by them I presume ?

[Stuart]

13 hours ago, Silas said:

Indeed. I've just worked out I hadn't even noticed them because I was so conditioned to instantly closing them on another site.

Forebet = great football stat site with h2h info, form guide etc that I definitely don't use to aid and abet a gambling habit. 🤔

Anyway, if you're researching fixtures daily those ads must be par for the course, because I appear to deal with them like my eyelids deal with moisturising my eyeballs.

I kid you not. It's actually caused me to reevaluate a few things tonight. 😊😊

If you go onto a site to consume content or to enjoy the fruits of someone else’s work then fair’s fair.

On forums, the users are also the content creators so it isn’t the same. Unless we were all shareholders.

Such a shame the internet has turned into an ad- or subscription-driven place when it’s origins were far more altruistic. Like most things I guess.

[Silas]

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

If you go onto a site to consume content or to enjoy the fruits of someone else’s work then fair’s fair.

Yeah, fair enough, very different sites, I get that.

Was just pointing out that from experience, these specific ads blend into the background quicker than you might think. That was all.

That's my personal experience though, doesn't mean others won't feel different and find them annoying. 

[Stuart]

6 minutes ago, Silas said:

Yeah, fair enough, very different sites, I get that.

Was just pointing out that from experience, these specific ads blend into the background quicker than you might think. That was all.

That's my personal experience though, doesn't mean others won't feel different and find them annoying. 

We’ll all have a different take on it.

I get the site has bills to pay but making the user experience worse seems an odd way to do it.

As far as ads go they are also the most useless. I don’t even read them they are just unwanted noise akin to cookie notices.

[J*B]

37 minutes ago, Stuart said:

We’ll all have a different take on it.

I get the site has bills to pay but making the user experience worse seems an odd way to do it.

As far as ads go they are also the most useless. I don’t even read them they are just unwanted noise akin to cookie notices.

You’re not seemingly understanding the situation here. 
 

To be clear: we don’t control how the ads look. The advertising is completely out of our hands. 

We either have:

Have ads as they currently are - again - we cannot control how they look or operate. 

Have ads as they are, but offer users a subscription to be ad-free which matches what they’re worth to us through advertising. 

We MUST have either ads or subscriptions or take donations. The site is not for profit, it just about covers its bills with the adverts. It is not an option to not have any advertising or subscription. 

[Stuart]

7 minutes ago, J*B said:

You’re not seemingly understanding the situation here. 
 

To be clear: we don’t control how the ads look. The advertising is completely out of our hands. 

We either have:

Have ads as they currently are - again - we cannot control how they look or operate. 

Have ads as they are, but offer users a subscription to be ad-free which matches what they’re worth to us through advertising. 

We MUST have either ads or subscriptions or take donations. The site is not for profit, it just about covers its bills with the adverts. It is not an option to not have any advertising or subscription. 

I understood perfectly fine thanks.

[J*B]

2 minutes ago, Stuart said:

I understood perfectly fine thanks.

In which case your post previous to this one makes absolutely no sense

[Stuart]

4 minutes ago, J*B said:

In which case your post previous to this one makes absolutely no sense

I’m sorry if you are genuinely struggling or alternatively I’m not sure why you are turning this into some kind of argument.

The ads are shit (not your fault as I’ve already stated, it’s just a fact).

You have decided to run the site with ads so the fact they pop up is of your making, (despite it apparently being some Google-related trigger).

Having decided this you now see the “solution” as people paying a subscription to avoid them. Which is a pretty shitty move but hey it’s your site, it’s just that this experience reflects on the site.

I don’t want to see the ads and I don’t want to pay a monthly subscription although I would be more willing to donate on an ad hoc basis. Maybe you could publish what the annual costs are?

End of the day, you run the site so you can do whatever you want.

[J*B]

12 minutes ago, Stuart said:

I’m sorry if you are genuinely struggling or alternatively I’m not sure why you are turning this into some kind of argument.

The ads are shit (not your fault as I’ve already stated, it’s just a fact).

You have decided to run the site with ads so the fact they pop up is of your making, (despite it apparently being some Google-related trigger).

Having decided this you now see the “solution” as people paying a subscription to avoid them. Which is a pretty shitty move but hey it’s your site, it’s just that this experience reflects on the site.

I don’t want to see the ads and I don’t want to pay a monthly subscription although I would be more willing to donate on an ad hoc basis. Maybe you could publish what the annual costs are?

End of the day, you run the site so you can do whatever you want.

I’m genuinely struggling - we haven’t decided to run the site with adverts, that’s how it has always run, it’s just now the adverts are being served in a different way. 

[Stuart]

Just now, J*B said:

I’m genuinely struggling - we haven’t decided to run the site with adverts, that’s how it has always run, it’s just now the adverts are being served in a different way. 

You have decided or you would have switched them off and asked for donations.

Sorry for the immediate reply - the notification intrusively popped up!