DON'T PANIC! COOKIES...

digitalscream

Don't worry when you get the cookie permissions popup!

So...the last few months have been quite instructive when it comes to running ads on t'Interwebs. It can all be condensed down into the following:

- Google's AdSense is really easy to deal with
- It's bloody marvellous when you first start
- It makes you pray for clicks, though
- And none of the ad industry blacklists actually work particularly well
- It's also really variable in terms of revenue
- When it tanks, it tanks

That's where we are right now - giving lots of space to advertisers, with revenue that's just not cutting it, and we're still getting gambling ads and the like all over the place.

That's absolutely no use to anyone, and if I'm honest I'm getting really pissed off with the constant gambling/alcohol/Viagra ads and other completely irrelevant rubbish that's showing up, despite being blacklisted. There are other problems too, like the fact that a bunch of stuff just doesn't seem to work (like the "accept cookies" GDPR functionality which has never worked, and thus leaves us open to legal challenges), and it's obviously impossible to actually get support from anyone at Google.

Therefore...I'm switching providers.

Starting at some point tomorrow, I'll be moving it over to another company (Monumetric, in case anybody's bothered). They purport to solve all of these problems, and they've shown themselves to be very capable and supportive up to this point. They haven't even argued with me when I've given them requirements which I know will leave money on the table for both parties, even though I know it must've hurt them in their souls.

The ad layout may be changing a bit as we experiment - for non-logged-in users there will be a sticky ad at the bottom of the screen all the time, in addition to the top-and-tail ads we currently have. They also think they can fix the problem with the sidebar ad, so I may switch that in at some point, instead of the "tail" ad we currently have. The goal is, of course, to avoid the ads being too intrusive; there's currently a reasonable balance, but I'm not sure we've hit the sweet spot yet.

Of course, I hope that you guys will give me feedback in here if any of the ads that appear are problematic in any way, rather than just installing AdBlock (if you haven't already) - as stated before, I'm trying to hit the balance of the forum being self-sustaining without becoming an unusable ad-infested mess, and that can only happen with constructive feedback.

tl;dr - If, after tomorrow afternoon, you see any shitty ads - please let me know, with a screenshot if possible.

Devil#20

I only see the same Feline Guitars ad. Nothing else of what you mention. I'm on a Laptop. I've never seen any ads apart from that. 

thumpingrug

I'm surprised at how quickly I got used to the adds, especially the guitar based ones.  It was the adds for period pants that surprised me.  Lets see what the new lot can do.

tone1

That's absolutely no use to anyone, and if I'm honest I'm getting really pissed off with the constant gambling/alcohol/Viagra ads….

So that’s my weekend buggered then….

sinbaadi

I wouldn't have complained about the gambling ads but I assumed you'd at least be making some money from them.

The way that ads are managed here is absolutely unintrusive.  If they had been of interest I would have clicked a few, but once you've seen the 888 one a few times you kind of just switch off, and I couldn't tell you what most of the other ads are.

Good move to try something else.

Funkfingers

thumpingrug said:

It was the adds for period pants that surprised me.

New or used? 

digitalscream

sinbaadi said:

I wouldn't have complained about the gambling ads but I assumed you'd at least be making some money from them.

I find that kind of ad annoying, but we have a few members who work in the mental health and addiction treatment fields, and for them it's absolutely verboten to have that kind of content appear when browsing on a break at work. That's the main reason that I got really quite angry about it, but the only way I can do anything about it with Google's tools is to play whack-a-mole with each individual ad. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Devil#20 said:

I only see the same Feline Guitars ad. Nothing else of what you mention. I'm on a Laptop. I've never seen any ads apart from that. 

In that case...I suspect you've got an ad blocker of some sort installed

CavemanGrogg

digitalscream said:

sinbaadi said:

I wouldn't have complained about the gambling ads but I assumed you'd at least be making some money from them.

I find that kind of ad annoying, but we have a few members who work in the mental health and addiction treatment fields, and for them it's absolutely verboten to have that kind of content appear when browsing on a break at work. That's the main reason that I got really quite angry about it, but the only way I can do anything about it with Google's tools is to play whack-a-mole with each individual ad. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Devil#20 said:

I only see the same Feline Guitars ad. Nothing else of what you mention. I'm on a Laptop. I've never seen any ads apart from that. 

In that case...I suspect you've got an ad blocker of some sort installed

I'm not using an ad blocker, and it's the only add I see as well.

TimmyO

Did you look at Ezoic ?

Devil#20

digitalscream said:

Devil#20 said:

I only see the same Feline Guitars ad. Nothing else of what you mention. I'm on a Laptop. I've never seen any ads apart from that. 

In that case...I suspect you've got an ad blocker of some sort installed

I must have then. I think it's through my Kaspersky total security. At least those Russian's are good for something. 

digitalscream

TimmyO said:

Did you look at Ezoic ?

Yes - I had a few concerns with them, not least that I was looking for a company that could provide an account manager and human support, and...nothing about them suggested that was going to be the case. Also, it's very difficult to get unbiased reviews of them, because they run an affiliate scheme with a fairly wide net.

Also, just about every site I've seen that runs Ezoic is a toxic swamp of ads compared with Monumetric. That's a flat "nope" from me, but it also implies something else - both providers pay per thousand impressions, rather than per click, and whenever you see sites that are festooned with ads it's because it's the only way they can make a decent return (more ads = more money, it's a direct relationship...at least, to begin with). That suggests to me that Ezoic's return simply isn't as good as Monumetric's.

I mean...money's really a secondary concern for me here. Monumetric set up a call with me straight away, and totally understood where I was coming from in terms of the user experience being the primary goal and not wanting to milk the site for all it's worth. The only interview criterion was "Did they try to persuade me to add more ads than I want to?", and they passed with flying colours

fastonebaz

I'm still waiting to see ads for horny milfs in my area but have had no such luck so far. 

Pabcrane

The ad at the top of the page while reading this was for an online casino and at the bottom one to win a house.

I have worked in mental health and addictions and it's not, for me, that I can't look at the forum at work but I worry about some people who are trying to get over or manage their addictions and having this come up on their screen when they are lust trying to focus on music stuff. 

Give me period pants over these anyday!   

CavemanGrogg

digitalscream said:

"accept cookies" GDPR functionality which has never worked, and thus leaves us open to legal challenges)

That's just popped up for me, in case you are wondering, and it's the first time I've ever been asked to accept cookies fpr this site- that's not me complaining just pointing it out.  And it leaves a shield shaped thing in the bottom left of my screen that if IO hover over says ''Manage Preferences''.  And after getting all nosey to see what happens, it rings me to a screen  to manage my cookies powered by OneTurst.

digitalscream

CavemanGrogg said:

digitalscream said:

"accept cookies" GDPR functionality which has never worked, and thus leaves us open to legal challenges)

That's just popped up for me, in case you are wondering, and it's the first time I've ever been asked to accept cookies fpr this site- that's not me complaining just pointing it out.  And it leaves a shield shaped thing in the bottom left of my screen that if IO hover over says ''Manage Preferences''.  And after getting all nosey to see what happens, it rings me to a screen  to manage my cookies powered by OneTurst.

Yep - that's exactly what it's supposed to do. Thanks for chiming in

Philly_Q

digitalscream said:

CavemanGrogg said:

digitalscream said:

"accept cookies" GDPR functionality which has never worked, and thus leaves us open to legal challenges)

That's just popped up for me, in case you are wondering, and it's the first time I've ever been asked to accept cookies fpr this site- that's not me complaining just pointing it out.  And it leaves a shield shaped thing in the bottom left of my screen that if IO hover over says ''Manage Preferences''.  And after getting all nosey to see what happens, it rings me to a screen  to manage my cookies powered by OneTurst.

Yep - that's exactly what it's supposed to do. Thanks for chiming in

Yes, same here.  I was a bit taken aback because I've never seen it before.

Deadman

Yay! No more weird fetish porn masquerading as bikini fashion ads for one legged women for me! 

thumpingrug

Funkfingers said:

thumpingrug said:

It was the adds for period pants that surprised me.

New or used? 

I never clicked through to check - now Im regretting my life choice.

thumpingrug

I do seem to have the constant shield in the corner now.  thats new.

digitalscream

thumpingrug said:

I do seem to have the constant shield in the corner now.  thats new.

It's meant to be reassuring

Seriously, though, click it and you can change your cookie preferences at any time.

ICBM

How do you get rid of it?