Forum Issues

[MadAmster]

35 minutes ago, David said:

If your browser has block all cookies turned on, simply press consent and no cookies will be stored anyway as your browser would reject it.

 

Changed from block 3rd party cookies to block all cookies. The site wouldn't let me log in... back to blocking 3rd party ones and I'm back in. Still had to manually turn the cookies off...

[Day]

1 minute ago, MadAmster said:

Changed from block 3rd party cookies to block all cookies. The site wouldn't let me log in... back to blocking 3rd party ones and I'm back in. Still had to manually turn the cookies off...

Ok, wasn't aware you was only blocking 3rd party before.

I guess it would make sense why the software won't log you in with all cookies blocked.

What happens is when you login a session token is created, allows you to post under your username, also saves content in the editor and theme selection for you to come back whilst also keeping you logged in.

That is all, absolutely nothing malicious or Black Mirror stuff going on.

That cookie, from the software will not track any other data on your computer at all. This is just an updated software version of what you would have been using over at COYR's.

Our third party cookies from Google for Adverts and Analytics, they track more of your usage data.

Not sure any of this will put you at ease, if you're in the mindset of all cookies are bad and must be blocked, totally respect your opinion.

However I can only recommend to make life easy, trust me with this and continue to block 3rd party cookies (Google), whilst also clicking consent to the general pop up. 

 

[MadAmster]

32 minutes ago, David said:

Ok, wasn't aware you was only blocking 3rd party before.

I guess it would make sense why the software won't log you in with all cookies blocked.

What happens is when you login a session token is created, allows you to post under your username, also saves content in the editor and theme selection for you to come back whilst also keeping you logged in.

That is all, absolutely nothing malicious or Black Mirror stuff going on.

That cookie, from the software will not track any other data on your computer at all. This is just an updated software version of what you would have been using over at COYR's.

Our third party cookies from Google for Adverts and Analytics, they track more of your usage data.

Not sure any of this will put you at ease, if you're in the mindset of all cookies are bad and must be blocked, totally respect your opinion.

However I can only recommend to make life easy, trust me with this and continue to block 3rd party cookies (Google), whilst also clicking consent to the general pop up. 

 

Thanks David, My security package stops all tracking so that's not an issue. I'll hit the consent button in future, sage in the knowledge it won't work as designed 😉

 

[Will the Ram]

I’ve been on the forum tonight and there’s adverts across the bottle of the screen. Is this now a regular thing? It’s very intrusive.

[Day]

5 hours ago, Will the Ram said:

I’ve been on the forum tonight and there’s adverts across the bottle of the screen. Is this now a regular thing? It’s very intrusive.

Yes, I realise adverts are universally hated, however to ensure the forum can pay its bills we do need to rely on the revenue that they bring in.

We are working with a new advertising partner now which has seen the introduction of a "sticky" advert seen at the bottom of the screen.

I would like to think our adverts are not "intrusive" compared to other sites that do not take user experience into account.

We do offer monthly subscriptions which remove all adverts from the forum starting from £3pm. 

[Loughborough Ram]

I have adverts between every post which is a little intrusive in my opinion

[Day]

2 minutes ago, Loughborough Ram said:

I have adverts between every post which is a little intrusive in my opinion

We have always ran adverts between posts on the forum apart from the last few weeks whilst we moved to the new partner.

They are limited to 4 per page where we have 20 posts per page. 

 

[Comrade 86]

On 22/03/2023 at 22:08, i-Ram said:

Member+ have 9” tools or above 👍

Isn't it a member requiring an extension - sooooo confusing 

I'd actually not even noticed these updates until reading this thread this morning. Clearly I'm in the no member extension required bracket 😋

[therealhantsram]

7 hours ago, Will the Ram said:

I’ve been on the forum tonight and there’s adverts across the bottle of the screen. Is this now a regular thing? It’s very intrusive.

This new one at the bottom of the screen is very intrusive if you run the dark theme for the site. It sticks a big white bar across the bottom of the screen.  

[Day]

10 minutes ago, therealhantsram said:

This new one at the bottom of the screen is very intrusive if you run the dark theme for the site. It sticks a big white bar across the bottom of the screen.  

I will talk to them today, see if there is anything they can do to make the bar more transparent. There is a time zone issue here in where it's midnight their time so it will be a few hours before any changes will be made.

Please bare with us as we tweak things.

[Day]

Just a final summary note on the ads as I'll be out all day and unable to respond.

This is a new ad partner we are working with and unlike Adsense who we were exclusively with previous, I have no direct control over the adverts on the forum, any changes must be made their end. They are based in the US so we're looking around 3pm UK time before any emails can be dealt with.

I have sent through an email to reduce the opacity of the sticky bar at the bottom to blend in better with our night mode, as I don't use night mode myself so I didn't notice it last night. It will be sorted.

As for the quantity of ads, they are the same as they were previously, just in different positions, for anyone that's thinking look at all these ads, you may be noticing them more as we haven't ran any for the last month to 6 weeks as we moved to a new partner.

That's 6 weeks of revenue from subscriptions/donations only, which does not cover the monthly costs.

For anyone that is dead set against all adverts, we do offer a basic ad free package for £3pm which can be found in Subscriptions on the main menu, which if you are a regular user, I do not think 10p a day is completely unreasonable?

After Paypal fees, we actually receive £2.61 of that, at the time of writing this whilst we have 41 Members+ and 5 Forum Legends (£5pm), only 9 are active subscribers as I have honoured the lifetime ad removal for donations made a few years ago when our running costs were a lot less.

Where our running costs are now close to £300 for the 6 weeks, we have had revenue during that period of around £60 with subscriptions/donations. 

No need to fetch the violin nor do I have my begging bowl out, this is just the reality of the situation and offering you all an either or. 

Whilst I started this forum as a bit of a hobby at £5pm running costs back in 2009, we have had a large scale growth and I simply cannot afford to keep the forum online 100% out of my own pocket. 

Final note, running costs do not include my own time managing the forum, also the moderators which give up their free time are unpaid. 

tl;dr

no adverts, no forum

no moderators, no forum 

😕

 

[Will the Ram]

2 hours ago, therealhantsram said:

This new one at the bottom of the screen is very intrusive if you run the dark theme for the site. It sticks a big white bar across the bottom of the screen.  

Yes that’s what I’m talking about.

[Day]

I've just been made aware of the multi quote button being hidden by an advert.

I will fix this when I get in later, currently out and only on my phone.

[Day]

The sticky footer ad has been disabled whilst we look into the issues with night mode and multi quote.

[Scott129]

4 hours ago, David said:

For anyone that is dead set against all adverts, we do offer a basic ad free package for £3pm which can be found in Subscriptions on the main menu, which if you are a regular user, I do not think 10p a day is completely unreasonable?

After Paypal fees, we actually receive £2.61 of that, at the time of writing this whilst we have 41 Members+ and 5 Forum Legends (£5pm), only 9 are active subscribers as I have honoured the lifetime ad removal for donations made a few years ago when our running costs were a lot less.

I didn't even know this was a thing, to be honest.

I know that you don't want to come across as "begging", but you should make more users aware of this. I think a lot would have no problem with £3pm.

[Day]

Just now, Scott129 said:

I didn't even know this was a thing, to be honest.

I know that you don't want to come across as "begging", but you should make more users aware of this. I think a lot would have no problem with £3pm.

We did have a pinned topic for a few weeks, it's not something I want to push too much in members faces.

Just trying to find the right balance.

[Wolfie]

6 hours ago, David said:

For anyone that is dead set against all adverts, we do offer a basic ad free package for £3pm which can be found in Subscriptions on the main menu, which if you are a regular user, I do not think 10p a day is completely unreasonable?

 

Well I for one am grateful that I wasn't bombarded with adverts the moment that I stopped my subscription a few months ago during a period of financial stress & anxiety.

Thanks for the reminder to start a new one

[Will the Ram]

15 hours ago, David said:

I will talk to them today, see if there is anything they can do to make the bar more transparent. There is a time zone issue here in where it's midnight their time so it will be a few hours before any changes will be made.

Please bare with us as we tweak things.

The issue seems to have been fixed (for me at least). Thanks.

[RoyMac5]

Whatever just happened in the latest bit of downtime, the forum is now loading up lots faster for me anyway.

[Day]

9 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Whatever just happened in the latest bit of downtime, the forum is now loading up lots faster for me anyway.

So it's not an issue then?