A few posters have recommended that I make this more obvious.
BBI depends on (1) ad revenue and (2) a 2-month contribution campaign (August-September) that usually receives contributions from a few hundred readers.
One of the reasons I have had to add new ads is that I need to increase revenue. It's not a case of me being "greedy" but simple reality.
If you use an ad blocker and can select which sites you can block or not, please consider turning it off for BBI.
I do not allow intrusive ads (i.e., overlays, pop-ups, take-over, auto-sound, etc.). If you compare BBI with even other MSM sites, we tend to be more surfer friendly.
If ad revenue increases from people shutting off ad blocking software, I can decrease the number of ads. At the very least, I won't have to increase the number of ads, which becomes a destructive circle.
Thank you for your consideration.
This may be related to a recent ad code change pushed out by one of our ad networks.
It's a great question, but I am actually contractually prevented from commenting on that.
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Does it increase revenue for the site? If it does, I'll start clicking on the ads. Let me know.
It's a great question, but I am actually contractually prevented from commenting on that.
I hear you. Either way, I'm going to click on the ads. I enjoy reading this site, and if it gets you another contract with the companies, it's worth it to me.
Same here, I hesitate to even use my work laptop to go here because of that ad, it is the only site where it shows up. With the recent change Eric implemented I was getting ads for Asian Dates as well, I didn't see one of those yesterday though. Never been to or searched for either.
Eric needs revenue to run the site so stop bitching.
I would not expect twice the donations, but I think it would be reasonable to see overall donations increase a fair amount.
I don't like the ads, I mean, who likes advertisements?
I won't click on them. I never do, not on any page I visit.
Thanks for taking the time to address the issue.
Absolutely.
I think you should consider something like Patreon. You could still have your annual campaign drive.
But it would make it easier for more people to support you more regularly and in smaller amounts.
I do not block ads here, but I do avoid this site without private browsing due to the ads that show up.
You should also consider a website redesign, which you may be able to crowdfund.
I know there is an old guard here that loves to defend the current UI, but it is a usability clusterfuck.
Have you used your own site on mobile?
This is the biggest NY Giants community online. You should really do something with that before someone else does.
I work in IT and know all about them. I also have no issues with the Ads and try to click on a few of them from time to time to help with the sites numbers and help support BBI the best I can.
I second this.
If they had a defined space right in the thread I think there wouldn't be as many people complaining.
Again, I don't care, but when it breaks up someones comment it can be a little tough on the reading flow.
If they had a defined space right in the thread I think there wouldn't be as many people complaining.
Again, I don't care, but when it breaks up someones comment it can be a little tough on the reading flow.
It's a Google autoads feature. We don't have control over placement.
Btw eric here is a suggestion to get more donations
You know how the Admin and Mods have the red font by there name. Donors can have like a blue color or something like that.
Would probably add a few more donors than normal.
I bought a new laptop within the last year that came with Microsoft Edge installed and I just went with it (not big fan of google, firefox kind of sucks, etc.).
I just discovered that Edge doesn't allow you to enable pop ups from certain sites. It's either on or off. And I don't see setting for adblock, just pop ups.
We're aware of the issue for some readers. I don't see it on any of the devices I use, but enough people have complained about it. We're looking into it.
Reddit on mobile, Instagram, etc. all slip adds in between their user's posts pretty seamlessly--it's not disruptive to normal skimming/scrolling behavior and has a better click through rate.
I would think that has be more lucrative rather than having that sidebar on the right with one or two ads at the top of it. The white space underneath the ads carries all the way down the page and makes reading threads on mobile annoying.
Do you look at analytics for your site to see what devices your users are using to browse the forum (i.e. Google Analytics)? That information could influence your thinking. There typically is no ad blocking on mobile either.
Happy to support Eric with donations and accepting ads on this website.
Reddit on mobile, Instagram, etc. all slip adds in between their user's posts pretty seamlessly--it's not disruptive to normal skimming/scrolling behavior and has a better click through rate.
I would think that has be more lucrative rather than having that sidebar on the right with one or two ads at the top of it. The white space underneath the ads carries all the way down the page and makes reading threads on mobile annoying.
Do you look at analytics for your site to see what devices your users are using to browse the forum (i.e. Google Analytics)? That information could influence your thinking. There typically is no ad blocking on mobile either.
No one has been able to provide us with an example of an out-of-the-box solution that seems to be acceptable on BBI.
The Corner Forum coding is home grown. There is no mobile version without re-writing from scratch.
The two "better" examples suggested last night by other posters don't appeal to me. I asked for reaction to them from other posters and it was negative. I am open to considering mobile-friendly options if someone can show me an attractive example.
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I mentioned this on the other thread, but I would gladly take more ads between thread comments (or even between threads on the main forum page) if we could get a more mobile-friendly layout. i.e. eliminate the need for horizontal scrolling and zooming.
Reddit on mobile, Instagram, etc. all slip adds in between their user's posts pretty seamlessly--it's not disruptive to normal skimming/scrolling behavior and has a better click through rate.
I would think that has be more lucrative rather than having that sidebar on the right with one or two ads at the top of it. The white space underneath the ads carries all the way down the page and makes reading threads on mobile annoying.
Do you look at analytics for your site to see what devices your users are using to browse the forum (i.e. Google Analytics)? That information could influence your thinking. There typically is no ad blocking on mobile either.
No one has been able to provide us with an example of an out-of-the-box solution that seems to be acceptable on BBI.
The Corner Forum coding is home grown. There is no mobile version without re-writing from scratch.
The two "better" examples suggested last night by other posters don't appeal to me. I asked for reaction to them from other posters and it was negative. I am open to considering mobile-friendly options if someone can show me an attractive example.
You could make improvements to the mobile layout of the Corner Forum just by using CSS. You just need a front end developer to work on the code base you have. This is not Gary's forte.
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In comment 14399449 widmerseyebrow said:
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I mentioned this on the other thread, but I would gladly take more ads between thread comments (or even between threads on the main forum page) if we could get a more mobile-friendly layout. i.e. eliminate the need for horizontal scrolling and zooming.
Reddit on mobile, Instagram, etc. all slip adds in between their user's posts pretty seamlessly--it's not disruptive to normal skimming/scrolling behavior and has a better click through rate.
I would think that has be more lucrative rather than having that sidebar on the right with one or two ads at the top of it. The white space underneath the ads carries all the way down the page and makes reading threads on mobile annoying.
Do you look at analytics for your site to see what devices your users are using to browse the forum (i.e. Google Analytics)? That information could influence your thinking. There typically is no ad blocking on mobile either.
No one has been able to provide us with an example of an out-of-the-box solution that seems to be acceptable on BBI.
The Corner Forum coding is home grown. There is no mobile version without re-writing from scratch.
The two "better" examples suggested last night by other posters don't appeal to me. I asked for reaction to them from other posters and it was negative. I am open to considering mobile-friendly options if someone can show me an attractive example.
You could make improvements to the mobile layout of the Corner Forum just by using CSS. You just need a front end developer to work on the code base you have. This is not Gary's forte.
I've been wanting to say this too, it shouldn't take too much work.
Make a modern frontpage.
Ad revenue is dogshit these days.
I'll continue to block ads because they fucking suck on this site especially with the clusterfuck if a design.
Redesign the site and forums and I'll be a Patreon supporter day 1. I can't support the site with its current functionality.
The Corner Forum coding is home grown. There is no mobile version without re-writing from scratch.
The two "better" examples suggested last night by other posters don't appeal to me. I asked for reaction to them from other posters and it was negative. I am open to considering mobile-friendly options if someone can show me an attractive example.
What I'm proposing would be some CSS and HTML work, not switching to another packaged solution. The Corner Forum being "home grown coding" actually works in your favor to make said changes.
The solution is "responsive web design." When you visit a site like Politico on a desktop browser at full width, you see a 3 column layout with some links in the header. If you adjust the browser window and shrink it down horizontally, you can see how the layout changes in response: it goes from 3 columns to 2, then 2 columns to a single column (with all the header links getting moved inside the hamburger menu icon). That final single column layout is what you'd see if you were visiting the site on mobile.
Essentially there's an optimal layout for any browser size. Your desktop users would just continue to see what you have now.
It'd be up to you how far you'd want to take making your site mobile friendly: something like Politico would be more CSS work and probably some template changes, but I think the forum could benefit from even just some minor CSS tweaks (limiting the size of the the giant image uploads, moving the thread sidebar to the top or bottom of the thread comments on mobile, larger add comment button on mobile etc.).
If Gary knows a front end guy/designer, they should know how to do that pretty easily. I'm a front end developer myself and I could take a look at some of the low hanging fruit in my free time if you're interested. Let me know.
I still get ads blocking postings when I use Firefox... when I use chrome I have no problem...
I'm testing Google auto ads (in-article). From what I can tell, only on mobile devices, it can place two ads within the middle of threads.
The interface can always be updated to enhance with the feel. Personally, ive enabled ads to help with the revenue and have no issues on my laptop. The problems I have are with the iPad and mobile where ads become a burden and show-ups across threads.
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I just noticed this in one of my replies and sent an email about it. However, I just saw the same thing in another thread. Maybe I haven't been paying close enougn attention, but I don't recall seeing ads within threads on the corner forum before.
I'm testing Google auto ads (in-article). From what I can tell, only on mobile devices, it can place two ads within the middle of threads.
Got it. Thanks.
Totally understand the need to generate revenue, so no complaints on my end :)
Happy to support Eric with donations and accepting ads on this website.
Found that I can see the ads on my phone. Will try to visit on my phone daily just for the ads.
The ads at the top of the threads (on the right side) do -- both on my Android and PC. Chrome is my browser in both.
2. a New Forum and or modification of the existing. Talking as an IT guy, I always recommend vendor software to reduce the spot we are currently in, someone inherited Pete's mistakes ( If you've been here long enough, you'll get the reference). If you have vendor type software bugs and upgrades are someone else's problem to help maintain and most likely have the web and mobile thing sorted out already.
If you are serious about looking at other software, maybe set up a team of folks to define the needs and wants for BBI and look at some of the packaged software and build a beta site to have some others test -- there are a lot of "power users" here that can probably help do that testing for usage and ideas for improvement.
I played with phpBB a little and it is a pretty vanilla forum that is open-source. They will let you modify it for an hour or so so you can see all the features and stuff. There are some features on there we've seen talked about in the past about new users posting, you can turn off all the emoticons and such and have a decent look and feel, but might have some faults you don't think can be overcome.
The only ad networks I use are Google and USA Today. If they are selling you brides...
There really is no excuse.