[NSC] Pop-up ads at bottom of page

[Seasider78]

Was happily paying for ad free version of Tapatalk monthly so would happily do similar for the site if helps and puts some money into coffers.

 

[Bozza]

At the risk of getting flamed, I went on NSC on my mobile to see what all the fuss was about and found it barely intrusive. I normally log in on my desktop which is excellent. The new banner on the bottom of the screen would certainly not put me off NSC. Don’t have a particularly large phone, iPhone 12, so maybe size matters, don’t know. Hope this helps.

I think I must be using a different NSC - I get the annoying wavy line ad and a few other statics but not as many as some are suggesting. Maybe because I've accepted all cookies ? Not sure why you wouldn't.

I’m not finding it a problem at all, either. Didnt have to close the bottom ad to type this, for instance (the keyboard covers it).

I was someone who liked Tapatalk, though, so maybe I’m just a bit weird.

Perhaps it’s an iPhone thing but using Safari browser, always logged in on my iPhone 11 Pro, there’s barely any intrusion apart from the wavy line test advert. If it stays I think I’ll get used to it. I don’t have any ad blockers or other apps preventing any sort of access.

There are a group of people who are so opposed to ads on sites that one silent ad banner is one too many. I'm never going to appease those people.

As I've said before, I run the same view as everyone else and I think I have quite a low tolerance for intrusive ads, so if something pisses me off it won't be on the site - regardless of how much money it may make.

The new sticky bottom banner on mobile is more jarring than any other ad on the site - I know that. I also knew that I would get a chorus of disapproval when I put it there. But I also know, from over 20 years of running this site, that any kind of change is generally greeted the same way, and I know that no-one was sitting at home thinking "What would make NSC better is a new ad at the bottom of every page".

Like you fine people, I don't think it's too bad, but it does catch the eye a lot as it rotates. If it remained static, as is the case on many sites that have a sticky bottom-of-page ad then I think it would be less jarring.

 

[Bozza]

@Bozza, here's a screenshot I just took from my phone (Omsung Phine, logged in). It contains no fewer than THREE ads for amazon on a single screen, at the point where I would usually write and submit a reply. Taken together they comprise about 40% of the screen. A tad excessive no? (they may well be an unintended by-product of the 'wavy line' ad feature you were trying out)

No, I completely agree.

The way it works is this...

When you are viewing a thread there is a banner ad after the first post and the 14th. I somewhat arbitrarily chose 14 as it's a long way from 1, but also far enough away from 20 (the max posts you'll have on any page) that, on a full page of 20 posts, that by the time you've scrolled to the bottom, where there are additional banners, the 14th post ad has long since disappeared.

The problem comes if there are exactly 14 posts (or 34, 54, 74 etc) on the thread at that time as the lower page ads will also come into view making the page look ad-heavy. What I would like to do, but haven't been able to yet, is have the logic that says "if there are only 14 posts on this page, then don't show an ad after the 14th post).

You're right that the new test banner exacerbates this. Part of the test of the bottom banner is to see if existing on-page banners can be removed completely.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Are some people new to the internet, or something? Ads on websites/Apps are nothing new and yes, while they might be a bit of a pain, is that a price not worth paying for the content?

As @Bozza said, the cost of running websites – like everything else – is going up all the time. If having a few ads around the place is the 'cost' to me for keeping North Stand Chat in existence, then I can live with that.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Push the boat out.

Choppy waters ahead for some users.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

Are some people new to the internet, or something? Ads on websites/Apps are nothing new and yes, while they might be a bit of a pain, is that a price not worth paying for the content?

As @Bozza said, the cost of running websites – like everything else – is going up all the time. If having a few ads around the place is the 'cost' to me for keeping North Stand Chat in existence, then I can live with that.

I agree.

As I said in post #23 on this thread ... I don't have an issue whatsoever with the way it looks.

Once I start scrolling through a page on a thread the wavy ad just sits right at the bottom of my iPhone 12 and I just don't notice it. And then scrolling past the couple of ads on each page is no different to scrolling past a post from a poster that I usually ignore anyway

 

[Deleted member 37369]

The one thing I have noticed is that if I'm not completely accurate with clicking on say 'The Big Board' link from a thread (on my iPhone) ... I end up on Amazon!

 

[schmunk]

it does catch the eye a lot as it rotates. If it remained static, as is the case on many sites that have a sticky bottom-of-page ad then I think it would be less jarring.

Very much this - it's the bouncing around which is annoying.

 

[Bozza]

The one thing I have noticed is that if I'm not completely accurate with clicking on say 'The Big Board' link from a thread (on my iPhone) ... I end up on Amazon!

Thanks for the reminder.

Yes, the font size for "The Big Board", when viewing a thread, is bizarrely small and not easy to hit all the time. I'll add it on my list to look at.

 

[schmunk]

Also annoying, I've now noticed twice where auto-generated hyperlinks have been placed in my posts, as if I've added them. The latest one is:

[NSC] - How do YOU use NSC?

Site analytics tell me that 55% of NSC's traffic is on a phone or tablet with 45% on a computer, but what that doesn't tell me is how those who actually USE NSC, as opposed to visit from a random Google search (NSC is number one ranked for: snowboarding sexually) tend to do so. Are you all...

www.northstandchat.com

The previous one was when I used the phrase "agent provocateur" in a recent post which then linked to the lingerie website (and maybe it'll so it again in this post?) which provoked a response from another poster. This feature could easily incite some unfortunate misunderstandings...

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Who has been "snowboarding sexually" and how do you do it?

Asking for a friend.

 

[Bozza]

Also annoying, I've now noticed twice where auto-generated hyperlinks have been placed in my posts, as if I've added them. The latest one is:

[NSC] - How do YOU use NSC?

Site analytics tell me that 55% of NSC's traffic is on a phone or tablet with 45% on a computer, but what that doesn't tell me is how those who actually USE NSC, as opposed to visit from a random Google search (NSC is number one ranked for: snowboarding sexually) tend to do so. Are you all...

www.northstandchat.com

The previous one was when I used the phrase "agent provocateur" in a recent post which then linked to the lingerie website (and maybe it'll so it again in this post?) which provoked a response from another poster. This feature could easily incite some unfortunate misunderstandings...

Sorry, yes.

So the site uses something called Skimlinks. What this does is auto-affiliate links that people post to shopping websites. That means I don't need to sign up for every affiliate scheme that exists and then ensure affiliated links get posted, as Skimlinks takes care of that for me, taking a cut of any commission earned.

But what they also do is affiliate some non-links that also happen to be names of shopping sites. It can look slightly strange, but it happens so infrequently I've been happy to leave it, That's what happened to you there. Looks like 11 people clicked on the auto-generated link, but no-one bought...

The whole thing has earned NSC the grand total of £60 in the last year, but every little helps.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

No, I completely agree.

The way it works is this...

When you are viewing a thread there is a banner ad after the first post and the 14th. I somewhat arbitrarily chose 14 as it's a long way from 1, but also far enough away from 20 (the max posts you'll have on any page) that, on a full page of 20 posts, that by the time you've scrolled to the bottom, where there are additional banners, the 14th post ad has long since disappeared.

The problem comes if there are exactly 14 posts (or 34, 54, 74 etc) on the thread at that time as the lower page ads will also come into view making the page look ad-heavy. What I would like to do, but haven't been able to yet, is have the logic that says "if there are only 14 posts on this page, then don't show an ad after the 14th post).

You're right that the new test banner exacerbates this. Part of the test of the bottom banner is to see if existing on-page banners can be removed completely.

Cheers for taking time to provide explanation boss, appreciate it

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Can't even post my discontent without it saying disable my ad blocker(which I had to do to post this)
Just counted eleven ads on this page...nope, twelve
Adblocker back on
bye

I turned ad blocker off and I still kept getting this...

Sorry, but we can't show NSC to those who block our ads​

If everyone did what you are doing, NSC wouldn't exist. We respect your decision to block ads - please respect our decision to only show the site to those who support us back.
Disable your adblocker


Lucky I run with 5-6 different browsers.

 

[CheeseRolls]

When I disable add blocker plus on this site. It works up until you reach the bottom of a thread. It looks like the ad calls another ad, which means the only way to make this work is to turn off ad blocking globally. Feels like a step too far.

 

[Perfidious Albion]

I am getting all that crap now,having disabled AdGuard on the site .. .Keeps jumping and showing privacy notice.

Rubbish! ... I can still follow Albion without NSC you know!

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Only getting half the ads I was last night and most are right down the bottom of the page.
I don't mind some ads occasionally, if they are of interest to me but it was as if it was trying to make up for all the years without them
Oh wait, a load of clickbait squares have appeared just below this typing box

 

[Fungus]

It's not. Ad revenue, per 1,000 page views is lower than it's ever been, whilst site running costs are higher than they've ever been. This may be because I've not chased the more lucrative ad formats, primarily because lucrative tends to mean annoying.

I will be adding a voluntary paid option as, over the years, numerous people have asked if they can contribute, but....

1. It will absolutely be voluntary.
2. No-one will receive scaled-back functionality in any way.
3. ...but if donations enable some bells and whistles to be added to the site, they will be made available to donators either first or absolutely.
4. ...and donators will have a choice of ad-free templates.

If it’s technically possible, then this has to be the way to go. Happy to set up a repeating payment for an ad-free experience, but what numbers of subscribers and what level of payment would NSC need?

 

[Seagull27]

it does catch the eye a lot as it rotates. If it remained static, as is the case on many sites that have a sticky bottom-of-page ad then I think it would be less jarring.

Is it supposed to be moving? It's not for me... Just a box with a static wavy line on top of it, with an ad inside. Not that I'm complaining.

On a completely separate note, do you know if it's possible to use the NSC Amazon affiliate link when using the Amazon shopping app, as a default rather than clicking the link each time? If I can set that up for the wife than NSC might see a significant increase in income...

 

[Zeberdi]

Echoing what @Coldeanseagull said above - Working much better today on iPhone - and ads are far less intrusive than they were when I posted my screen shots last night.

The site still completely inaccessible when signed out unless all global content blockers disabled which seems a bit OTT to me (I would have thought this might deter potential new members from accessing the site?) but that’s admin’s prerogative - also there doesn’t seem to be an option to whitelist the whole site, only each web page I am currently on which means every time I change page it reverts back to the ‘remove ad blockers’ screen leaving the only option open to me is to disable all my content blockers on my browser, including site trackers etc if I want to access NSC.

The good news is that ads are far less intrusive than they were late last night/early this morning and it’s now possible to scroll through pages where most of the page is free of ads.

if anyone looks at my screenshots of my earlier post where most of the page was covered on ads, I think they would agree it made the site very difficult to use.

All the large moving ads are now at the very bottom of the page so not intrusive and the ads don’t block thread text which they did last night when scrolling through the posts - but they are still moving ads , still very large and there are 13 ads altogether visible on one page.

The Amazon link at the top was never intrusive (I use Amazon frequently anyway so it doesn’t bother me if I click on the embedded link in error either). The only other ads in the actual threads are a few narrow banner ads between some posts that are also not particularly intrusive.

I have no problem with how the site looks now in terms of it being useable but would happily pay an annual subscription to have an ad free membership because It is still possible though to click on ads embedded into the actual thread posts by mistake (especially on a mobile phone because the screen is so small!) as well of having (according to my site tracker) upto 30 other websites tracking my activity on NSC and downloading a loads of cookies when I disable my content blockers. I also don’t want to run the risk of downloading malware by accidentally clicking on embedded links/doubleclicks in a text or banner ad which my Ad blockers protect me from.