New ad free sailing forum

[Ex-SolentBoy]

If someone wanted to start one, how would one go about getting the good news out to all forumites before the thread got nuked?

 

[xyachtdave]

You would be better off advertising it as 'bad news'....it travels faster.

 

[jbweston]

Isn't this forum ad free? Or is it just that I have my browser set up right? Certainly I never see any ads except for posts in the for sale and wanted sections.

 

[prv]

Isn't this forum ad free?

Currently is if you're logged in, as their last ad system used to slow some browsers down so much that people complained.

They're planning to go back to ads even when logged in though - see the announcement at the top of each forum.

As for the OP - I think you'd struggle to achieve a mass exodus from here. The twin forces of inertia and google-juice conspire against it. That and bloody-minded awkwardness

Pete

 

[BurnitBlue]

I believe most folk log on and stay logged on all day. If IPC use animated ads it would distract at the work place and also eat up bandwidth for Gb restricted users. Many will have to stay away or log on for a limited time which will destroy the immediacy of replies and make it slowly degrade its value. Other alternative forums will then be investigated and attract the expertise available on here. What a pity. The law of unintended consequences will result.

 

[jbweston]

Thanks Pete - I hadn't seen the announcement until you pointed it out.

If they do introduce ads then very probably the standard ad blockers will stop them - they seem to on nearly all sites I go to. I know there is a school of thought that we have a duty to receive the ads to help pay for the site. The same argument goes for ITV that we should watch the ads rather than putting the kettle on in the breaks or fast forwarding through them when we watch later. But in fact the advertisers go on paying to show their ads even if we do fast forward or put the kettle on.

Personally I rather like the TV ads with the meerkats and that mole that rides the gusher of spring water - in fact any ads involving fluffy animals - even if I have seen them 100 times before, but if my wife gets her hands on the zapper, it's bye-bye ads. So I suppose ads on ybw will reach those who don't block them and any advertisers will go on paying for them even if many of us do block them.

 

[nigelmercier]

If someone wanted to start one, how would one go about getting the good news out to all forumites before the thread got nuked?

There are ways ...
I note that practical-yachting.co.uk is available.

 

[causeway]

Easy thing to do is use an ad blocker, only when bandwidth restricted of course!

 

[prv]

If IPC use animated ads it would distract at the work place and also eat up bandwidth for Gb restricted users.

Certainly I have no objection to static ads, but videos and even more so things that jump about as your mouse inadvertently moves over them, I find very annoying. So if they go for those I might have to install an ad blocker. If they stick to pictures, I'm very unlikely to bother.

Pete

 

[onesea]

Sadly for it it may well be the end of these forums... I spend half my life working on a very limited internet connection, this is one of the few sites that works reliably... Some of the time its on third party computers where add blockers are not an option...

I can read several forum pages whilst waiting for my Hotmail or Gmail to catch up...

 

[nigelmercier]

... this is one of the few sites that works reliably...

Really? I find it crashes regularly, especially if one does a search.

 

[RobbieW]

Just curious, do ad blockers simply stop the ad displaying but allow the data download or do they block the data download as well ?

 

[[70521]]

Just curious, do ad blockers simply stop the ad displaying but allow the data download or do they block the data download as well ?

ALL of my devices have ad blockers on them, to be honest I don't care if they stop the download of data or just not display the stuff on screen I don't want to have it cluttering up my screen.

I no longer subscribe to any magazine due to the amount of advertising.

 

[onesea]

Really? I find it crashes regularly, especially if one does a search.

Yup, when your connections is slow you do not notice the crashes, I search using Google and adding YBW I do similar for other forums.
On a slow connection its quite light on data without the adds and seems to be quite robust to occasional internet drops (my end).

 

[nigelmercier]

I no longer subscribe to any magazine due to the amount of advertising.

I quite like adverts in magazines (apart from the stiff card page) they can be useful. They do not get in the way of what I am trying to read.

On a web page they are very annoying, as they use up the limited screen space. Less so on my main PC, but I normally read the forums on a 15" laptop or an iPad.

 

[RobbieW]

ALL of my devices have ad blockers on them, to be honest I don't care if they stop the download of data or just not display the stuff on screen I don't want to have it cluttering up my screen.

I no longer subscribe to any magazine due to the amount of advertising.

When you're paying for the data, as you are with a PAYG limited data dongle (as many/most of us use on the boat), you start to care what you're actually downloading as well as what is displayed - thats why I asked

 

[fireball]

I believe (some) ad blockers work by preventing the call to the ad provider in the first place. When you open a web page it may include content from www.show-me-ads.com so your browser diligently goes off and requests content from that domain. The plugin simply intercepts the request from the browser - and probably returns a blank so the browser has fulfilled it's task.

Otherways of achieving similar is to add known advert hosting site domains to a firewall block list on your router or placing them in your hosts file with dummy ip addresses.

But we're not supposed to be discussing this!

I do not doubt that it costs a lot to run this forum - but I don't believe IPC are running this for no return - there is quite a wealth of information in here that attracts potential readers as well as providing content & ideas for their mags.

I can see why they're wanting to cash in on the huge audience figures they've attracted - as long as it is done sensitively and the adverts are not too intrusive or bandwidth intensive then I will not worry. If the adverts start taking over the screen then I will question my presence here.

 

[Neeves]

ALL of my devices have ad blockers on them, to be honest I don't care if they stop the download of data or just not display the stuff on screen I don't want to have it cluttering up my screen.

I no longer subscribe to any magazine due to the amount of advertising.

Maybe buy Practical Sailor

Jonathan

 

[elton]

I'll wager this and similar threads will get pulled if people keep on advising the use of ad blockers.

 

[Neeves]

I'll wager this and similar threads will get pulled if people keep on advising the use of ad blockers.

Or publications without ads?