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Anoying Panda Adverts

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,661
What ad are you talking about? The google ads (which we've had since 2010) for members are set to be text-only, so I can't imagine they are using much bandwidth. Last week, I even disabled the header ad for members with more than 15 posts.
 

MarkJohn

One of the Regulars
Messages
220
Location
Devon England
For the past few days... though not today... I was seeing adverts in the first post on each page, taking up about a third of the text space; they would scroll with the post, as if they were part of someones message, and could not be clicked away.

Edit: to add.. FL has also been very-very slow for quite a while for me, more so than any other site/forum.

What ad are you talking about? The google ads (which we've had since 2010) for members are set to be text-only, so I can't imagine they are using much bandwidth. Last week, I even disabled the header ad for members with more than 15 posts.
 
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Otter

One Too Many
Messages
1,445
Location
Directly above the center of the Earth.
The very ones, guess they use one of the tracking cookies. When you are not logged in they show you a nasty animated advert based on your browsing history for me it came out as pandas, sucking the life out my bandwidth. For shame FL, I have now had to addblock all the banner ads and engaged ghostery to remove the tracking cookies!
 

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,661
That was a mistake on my part. We're running some first post area ads, though they should only be seen by unregistered guests. Registered users should only be seeing the two sponsoring affiliate banners (which don't use cookies), and the adsense ad in the footer (though we might be able to get rid of that one for registered users as well). It helps to pay for the site, which uses loads of bandwidth and resources.

The Lounge has done as many as 2 million pageviews per month, and as high as 616GB of data a month. It's taxing our server pretty hard, and we're moving to a new one hopefully later this month. We're going to be able to do this because of the ads. A necessary evil, but hopefully one that won't be bothersome to our registered users. We have to pay the bills somehow, and we would rather it be via the guests than you guys.
 

Miss Stella

One of the Regulars
Messages
195
Location
California
"We're moving to a new one hopefully later this month. We're going to be able to do this because of the ads. A necessary evil, but hopefully one that won't be bothersome to our registered users. We have to pay the bills somehow"

Will you need to charge a fee to do this?
My husband pays a $30 yearly fee to view the XLForum without all the ads, around 1,100 at a time and his welding forum has over 1,000 viewing at a time but its free.
 
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Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,661
The very ones, guess they use one of the tracking cookies. When you are not logged in they show you a nasty animated advert based on your browsing history for me it came out as pandas, sucking the life out my bandwidth. For shame FL, I have now had to addblock all the banner ads and engaged ghostery to remove the tracking cookies!

To opt-out of all Google Ad tracking, all across the web, follow these directions: https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en


You might consider it shameful, but it's necessary. A dedicated server for a site the size of the Lounge costs thousands of dollars a year. Unfortunately, this means there are some ads, especially for our unregistered users. If you're registered and logged in, you should only see three advertisements (two of which have zero cookies), and are paid for by our sponsoring affiliates. For the low, low price of $0.00, you're welcome to be a part of the best message board communities out there. We want it to continue to be sustainable as long as possible!

That said, let us know if there's an ad that is obnoxious, or you're seeing another problem. We're here to make things as good as we can for our community of members.
 

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,661
"We're moving to a new one hopefully later this month. We're going to be able to do this because of the ads. A necessary evil, but hopefully one that won't be bothersome to our registered users. We have to pay the bills somehow"

Will you need to charge a fee to do this?
My husband pays a $30 yearly fee to view the XLForum without all the ads, around 1,100 at a time and his welding forum has over 1,000 viewing at a time but its free.

It is our intention right now that the Fedora Lounge remain a free site.
 

MarkJohn

One of the Regulars
Messages
220
Location
Devon England
It is our intention right now that the Fedora Lounge remain a free site.

Cool... a FL with adverts is better than no FL at all... all the sites and forums I visit have ads, so I don't consider it an issue. Ads that pop-up over a page, or open another window are hateful, but I sure we will not see those here.

Hope the move to new servers goes well, and help speed things up somewhat.

keep up the good work people.
 

Talbot

One Too Many
Messages
1,855
Location
Melbourne Australia
I guess it depends on how intrusive the adverts are.

I would not have my natty shirts without the advert, so I can live with them.

When I start seeing pop ups for things I did not initiate, I run my spyware/adware applications.

Full respect to the FL team for providing this fantastic resource.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,081
Location
London, UK
Cool... a FL with adverts is better than no FL at all... all the sites and forums I visit have ads, so I don't consider it an issue. Ads that pop-up over a page, or open another window are hateful, but I sure we will not see those here.

Hope the move to new servers goes well, and help speed things up somewhat.

keep up the good work people.

Agreed on all counts!
 

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,661
Foot.... shot in........adblock enabled..........all ads now blocked!:eeek:

Seriously though, on a mobile device this realy eats into your mobile data alowance.

If you're on a mobile device, you should be using the Lightweight skin, or Tapatalk, which is pretty much ad-free.
 

Tomasso

Incurably Addicted
Messages
13,719
Location
USA
Seriously though, on a mobile device this realy eats into your mobile data alowance.
May I interest you with some cheese to go with your whine?

cheese_16x94.jpg



j/k ;)
 

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