Ad Blockers

[Dave Ambrose]

We use advertising income to pay the bills on the servers and for software maintenance. We've been seeing declining ad revenue, and I'm wondering if it's because more of our users have ad blockers on their browsers.

[Roger U]

I don't have any ad blockers, I just ignore the ads. Does the site get any revenue if we have the ads showing but don't open them?

[stitchdup]

I've disabled mine for now to see if they get annoying. So far juse the one ad

[peteski]

I should clarify me response. I stated that I use an Ad Blocker, which is not quite correct. I don't use an Ad Blocker per se, I use NoScript Add-On in my browser which blocks browser scripts from running. The effect often is that  it will block the ads (or many of them).

[Xingu]

I had to start running an AdBlocker. Previously, the ads on this site seemed to slow everything down for me. I can disable the blocker for this site to see if it is any better.

[Anglia105E]

My Opera browser does have the Ad-Blocker enabled by default, Dave...... and it does seem to be blocking ads from MCM Forums. Usually, I do find ads very distracting when I am trying to focus on the content of a web page that I am reading. I will consider turning off the ad-blocker for MCM only......

David

[Danno]

I don’t block them, I just ignore them. 

But, wow! The friggin’ algorithms in use throughout the internet are scary.  I routinely use four different devices, and if I search something on one device I get inundated with “related” ads on all four devices regardless of platform or user identity.

What aggravates me to no end is that my email service gets bogged down to snailspeed by all the ads my provider is piling onto the email service.  I pay big bucks for service and then my service gets loaded down with uninvited and unwelcome advertising.  Their argument (when I protest) is ‘well, think of how much we’d charge you if we didn’t sell you out to our advertisers!”

Racket.

 

[iamsuperdan]

The ads on this site are pretty unobtrusive. They're not overly large, they don't cover content, and they aren't pop ups. So around here, they don't bother me.

 

I run Adblocker on all the computers I use at home and at work, and MCM is on the safe list.

 

 

[Dave Ambrose]

11 hours ago, Roger U said:

I don't have any ad blockers, I just ignore the ads. Does the site get any revenue if we have the ads showing but don't open them?

Yes, we do get revenue, even if you don't click on them. I've tried to make them non-obtrusive, but I have to say that Google makes some odd choices sometimes. I don't run an ad blocker, and have even found a couple of interesting ads. 

Putting us on the safe list definitely helps our income. 

Ideally, we'd have Revelle, Round 2, and Moebius falling all over themselves to bid up the ads here since it's such a focused audience. But, we don't directly sell ads. 

[Ironman63]

I run an ad blocker on my desktop but not on my tablet.  I have MCM whitelisted on the desktop.  I visit the site Railpictures. com and to be able to see the pictures, you must whitelist it.  Believe me, the ads here are invisible compared to the other site.

[Richard Bartrop]

I have no problem with the concept of ads, but it got to the point where some sites were slowing down, and even crashing my computer, and this forum was one of the worst offenders, to the point where I finally broke down and got an ad blocker.

I am okay with looking at ads, but I'm not going to break my computer to do it.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Richard Bartrop

[Dave Ambrose]

3 hours ago, Richard Bartrop said:

I have no problem with the concept of ads, but it got to the point where some sites were slowing down, and even crashing my computer, and this forum was one of the worst offenders, to the point where I finally broke down and got an ad blocker.

I am okay with looking at ads, but I'm not going to break my computer to do it.

I don't blame you. We were having some problems earlier, and to the best of my knowledge, we have those rectified. Would you please try unblocking the ads and let me know what happens?

Has anyone else blocked ads for the same reason?

[Hotrod 97]

Nope, no ad blockers here. I just don't look at the ads.

[Richard Bartrop]

12 minutes ago, Dave Ambrose said:

I don't blame you. We were having some problems earlier, and to the best of my knowledge, we have those rectified. Would you please try unblocking the ads and let me know what happens?

Has anyone else blocked ads for the same reason?

Fair enough.  Otherwise, I don't care about ads, you have to pay the bills somehow.

 

[Richard Bartrop]

And unblocked.  We'll see what happens.

[Dave Ambrose]

1 minute ago, Richard Bartrop said:

And unblocked.  We'll see what happens.

Thanks!

[OldNYJim]

I was running one, just because it's enabled by default on every site I visit, but knowing that it brings in some cash for the site I've turned it off now!

I don't mind the ads at the bottom of the page in the slightest - the ones at the top kinda disrupt the flow for me, personally, but happy to help pay for the site by doing my little bit!

 

 

[Exotics_Builder]

I consider them a necessary evil.  The bills need to be paid.  I can ignore or react depending on the ad.  Ad's get tailored anyway depending on site and search.

[Tom Geiger]

I used to have an ad blocker but I suspected that it may have been one of my slow down issues, so when I reloaded the software on my laptop I didn't put it back on.  I've always seen the ads on my iPhone.  Some of the ads can be funny:

I'm always on eBay and this past week the eBay ads were all bras and panties!  Go figger!    I tried to buy those Merit Badges but they didn't sell a 100 pack!  

I was on LinkedIn this morning so the ad is for that right now.

[Richard Bartrop]

There's no such thing as a free lunch.  If anything, I'm amused by the choices that are made by Google's adbot.  For a while, it was sure I was in the market for a Rolls Phantom

Edited August 27, 2019 by Richard Bartrop

[Gizzy]

I don't mind the ads.You gotta pay the bills,whatever it takes.?

[Dave Ambrose]

Since people are curious, we do get revenue from people seeing the ads. You don't need to click on them, but if you find something interesting, we'd be delighted if you did click on it. We get paid extra for that. Scrolling down to the bottom of the page helps because we only get paid if you actually see the ad. 

We're lucky that we have enough readers to make this scheme work. Not many web sites can fund themselves solely with advertising. 

[MrObsessive]

I was having a problem with ads REALLY slowing down my PC. I just turned it off to see if things are better. I don't mind the ads, but when it gets to a point where an ad is not letting the page fully load, I have to use a blocker as it's frustrating waiting for a script or other such thing to load up.

Edited August 28, 2019 by MrObsessive

[RancheroSteve]

20 hours ago, CabDriver said:

I was running one, just because it's enabled by default on every site I visit, but knowing that it brings in some cash for the site I've turned it off now!

Same here.

[DrKerry]

After as long as I’ve been here and seen the ads they more or less are ignored after awhile and not even seen much..