What is this ad all about? Hope this is not allowed in the future.

The first time today I noticed an add in the first few lines of the forum!

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I also noticed it.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

Off and on there have been ads. Personally, I have no issues with them because it costs money to run a forum. Ads can generate income.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

Agreed, especially considering how much a zoo this place has become. It requires more work than in the past I'm sure.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

On my laptop, I don't see any ads because I run AdBlocker Plus. However, on my phone, I do see ads all the time. I do understand the need to generate income, but I'm glad for AB Plus on my laptop!

I have AdBlock so I don't see any ads. The site is free for us. I have no complaints!

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

The ads are not the ones at the top, I don't have a problem with them. This latest ad was directly in the forum. I just don't want to see them in that location. I have had enough ads on my computers front page.
HonnyBrown AdBlock is free for us. Who is us? Does it affect any of your programs. I'm old fashion and I am afraid to make changes that I'm not sure about. I still use IE on my windows 7.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2017 10:03PM by shopper8.

These ads are different and in the thread area, not on top where they are normally. They are ads for odd things, I'm suspicious.

Live consciously....

Irene has it right. I am suspicious also. I don't click on anything I'm not sure of. I have gotten one of those SCAMS about your computer having a virus recently. One time it was something I clicked on at the top of the forum.

I'm not suspicious, it's an ad for revenue. I don't see it on my laptop because of adblocker but I do on my phone. No biggie, I just scroll past.

There is an alternative to ads. Membership by paid subscription.

@LisaSTL wrote:

There is an alternative to ads. Membership by paid subscription.

Is the cost of membership in a specialty/allegedly educational industry-specific forum tax deductible? Does the frequent and intense fighting, which make us more like the Bickersons than workers, affect the status of the site? Just curious.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

I saw the ad and it didn't bother me. It's as easy to ignore as a post I am not interested in. If it is a source of income and prevents having a paid subscription as Lisa suggests then it really doesn't bother me.

In all honesty, I can see advantages and disadvantages to paid membership. Advantages would be preventing or at least reducing a lot of spam and one hit wonders who join to disparage a company without explanation. A disadvantage would be those new to the business would have no frame of reference to decide if it was worthwhile to pursue MS and making them pay to investigate doesn't seem the best idea.

Good points but I vote for free.

Not that my vote matters.

Are revenue and spam only generated, when an ad is clicked on? I have not seen info on a paid membership, but I never click on the ads.

There is no paid membership and AFAIK, it has never been mentioned. It is something I tossed out there simply to make the point it costs money to run a forum so my expectation would be for the person paying the bills to want to offset the costs in some manner.

My understanding is clicking on ads does generate revenue. I have no clue if just having them on the site results in any income. I have visited "free" sites where watching an ad is required before continuing to the content. There was no requirement to actually click on it and visit the advertiser's website.

The only complaint I had about ads in the past was that it took longer for the page to load and when I went to click what I thought was a heading on the forum it was an ad. Some of the ads that popped up from Google were not good ones (spam links) and Jacob had little or no control over them. So that's when I installed adblock. I keep IE around just for that because I don't think it works on the newer Edge.

Kim

It is Google analytics. It is safe. They are on most sites.

My posts are solely based on my opinions and for my entertainment, contact a professional if you need real advice.

When you get in debt you become a slave. - Andrew Jackson

Just because an ad is part of Google Analytics doesn't make them safe. And this has been discussed before with examples that were spammy ads.

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Kim

After using my phone here, my only observation is a non-issue. When I use my phone, it is more likely that I could inadvertently tap a link for an ad than when I use a mouse and view a larger screen. That is just a "me" thing.

I have no pro or con remarks about the presence of ads here.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

There are different types of ads. Some do generate revenue just for impressions, or anytime someone sees it. Others generate revenue when they are clicked on. Still others only generate revenue when they result in a conversion. There are also some hybrids. I'm sure many of the ones we are seeing are based on impressions, so the advertiser would pay X amount and receive Y number of impressions. They will get reports on clicks, but if they aren't under a pay per click model, they won't pay for each click.

What's bothered me about the ads I've been seeing is that I'm seeing a lot in an Asian language. I seem to recall opening some message about something foreign like that, though I can't recall anything more specific than that, and all of a sudden I'm seeing a bunch of ads in that language. It's just a function of the algorithm that tries to present you with relevant ads based on your history, but it's just irritating when it gets it so very wrong.

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What is this ad all about? Hope this is not allowed in the future.

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