Annoying Pop-Up Ads

Gyumri

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Nov 25, 2008
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There are a huge number of pop-up ads appearing on the site which makes it almost unnavigable (if that's the right spelling). I also wonder on the impact of search engine listings for postings - I am sure the Google bot would not be pleased.

Members are not exposed to the onslaught of ads but that is beside the point. I am not sure whether the ads are even economically beneficial to you, although I can see that you are not a registered charity and must earn a crust somehow from the forum.

If the ad revenue is not something to write home about then it may be better to drop them, as they must be a turn-off for potential posters with ads popping up like these fairground stalls where you have to hit the pop-up skittles with a hammer to knock them back into place as fast as they pop-up.

It's exhausting work.
 

fisicx

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No popups here. Maybe you have got something installed that generates the popups. Often happens if you agree to everything you get asked about.
 
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JEREMY HAWKE

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    You're a paying member.
    This brings me on to my thread for Monday morning 🤣

    Why do you all drive flash cars and drink Dom Pérignon but not pay a hundred quid a year 🤣🤣
     
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    This brings me on to my thread for Monday morning 🤣

    Why do you all drive flash cars and drink Dom Pérignon but not pay a hundred quid a year 🤣🤣
    Serious answer - the site has no commercial value for me, it's just entertainment- so I'll live with the pop-ups.

    On the other hand, i have absolutely no appreciation of fizz - put a bottle of Poundland 'sparkling' and a bottle of Dom in front of me, I won't know the difference

    I've wasted some serious money on cars though

    These days, holidays and eating out are our extravagance
     
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    JEREMY HAWKE

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    These days, holidays and eating out are our extravagance
    Oddly enough this is my priority in life these days
    With the business Enterprise hire account I can drive any vehicle I want and the novelty has completely gone
    I try to avoid the drink now 😎
     
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    Ozzy

    Founder of UKBF
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  • Feb 9, 2003
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    Some browser plugins do what is known as 'ad hijacking, which is where they replace the website code of a site you are visiting hiding the ads the site owner displays and injects their own, and often much more intrusive ads because the plugin developer knows the user will think it is the site owner.

    For sites like UKBF and many other 'free' sites, these browser plugins (usually search plugins) are damaging to the sites which are funded primarily through the ads they display, so using adblockers and these ad hijack plugins is detrimental to their sustainability.
     
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    The more non paying members there are (or, more specifically, less paying..), the greater the need to fund the site with advertising!
     
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    ThatDevAaron

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    The more non paying members there are (or, more specifically, less paying..), the greater the need to fund the site with advertising!
    Wrong, wrong, and once again, absolutely wrong.

    In my opinion, I think UKBF is extremely lacking in the department of actually providing people with upgrades that are needed, provide use outside of one-time posts in sections that aren't available to normal users.

    Easy ways to monitize:
    Make more shit FREE TO USE, encourage more usage of the forum by free users, therefor, making it more valuable to actually have a membership to stand out, as right now, UKBF has little usage for most outside of asking some questions and stuff.

    I recommend:
    • Cheaper Upgrades
    • Yearly Upgrades
    • and there is a lot more i might make a thread on.
    I don't see UKBF costing too much to run, operationally for the website - Maybe ozzy could consider, if he hasn't/isn't already, hiring someone one-time to lower costs, as ozzy likely like many, has purchased stuff for extremely high prices (hosting etc), and even then, I highly doubt UKBF would cost over 250/year to run.
     
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    JEREMY HAWKE

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    Wrong, wrong, and once again, absolutely wrong.

    In my opinion, I think UKBF is extremely lacking in the department of actually providing people with upgrades that are needed, provide use outside of one-time posts in sections that aren't available to normal users.

    Easy ways to monitize:
    Make more shit FREE TO USE, encourage more usage of the forum by free users, therefor, making it more valuable to actually have a membership to stand out, as right now, UKBF has little usage for most outside of asking some questions and stuff.

    I recommend:
    • Cheaper Upgrades
    • Yearly Upgrades
    • and there is a lot more i might make a thread on.
    I don't see UKBF costing too much to run, operationally for the website - Maybe ozzy could consider, if he hasn't/isn't already, hiring someone one-time to lower costs, as ozzy likely like many, has purchased stuff for extremely high prices (hosting etc), and even then, I highly doubt UKBF would cost over 250/year to run.
    I'm not really sure what you getting at here weather it be an over exposure to technology or simply a lack of experience doing deals and being a part of an effective network

    I do well out of this site because I use it to its full potential

    As for this place costing 250 quid a year to run I would have thought that this would be the weekly minimum
     
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    ThatDevAaron

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    I'm not really sure what you getting at here weather it be an over exposure to technology or simply a lack of experience doing deals and being a part of an effective network

    I do well out of this site because I use it to its full potential

    As for this place costing 250 quid a year to run I would have thought that this would be the weekly minimum
    lmao you must think the forum has 100 new posts every 10 minutes.

    UKBF is a fantastic forum, but there are a lot more active, and more popular forums, for instance, gaming forums, etc, all of which use the same forum software as UKBF (Xenforo Forum Software), and run on servers that cost <30/mo USD (let alone GBP lol).
     
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    JEREMY HAWKE

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    lmao you must think the forum has 100 new posts every 10 minutes.

    UKBF is a fantastic forum, but there are a lot more active, and more popular forums, for instance, gaming forums, etc, all of which use the same forum software as UKBF (Xenforo Forum Software), and run on servers that cost <30/mo USD (let alone GBP lol).
    Gaming forums don't get me valuable contacts and help from people in other sectors 😎
    Gaming forums are for knuckle daggers who would probably be devastated if their families found out what else is on their laptops 🤣🤣
     
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    all of which use the same forum software as UKBF (Xenforo Forum Software), and run on servers that cost <30/mo USD (let alone GBP lol).
    ...and so how many businesses start their road to failure. "it's only a bit of software on a server.....'.

    Don't worry about things like design, management, services (e.g. cloudflare), email software & costs, insurance etc. You don't need those (and a lot more)!
     
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    Gyumri

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    The ads are all over the forum at least on my i-phone - either as pop-ups or on the page at various points such that they take up at least half the page. One has then to close them or bypass them to get to the actual postings.

    This is simply spoiling the forum and unfortunately in the end cheapening it.
     
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    fisicx

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    I’ve looked at the site on an iPhone as a non member and don’t see any pop ups.
     
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    Ozzy

    Founder of UKBF
    UKBF Staff
  • Feb 9, 2003
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    I’ve looked at the site on an iPhone as a non member and don’t see any pop ups.
    I've done the same, used Incognito on Chrome on an iPhone and apart from my own banner (eFiling) there are only banners inserted by Google after every few threads. They don't cover anything up, they are in between the threads. They don't need to be closed; you are able to scroll past if they are not of interest.
    Or upgrade your membership and see none of the Google ads.
     
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    ThatDevAaron

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    Gaming forums don't get me valuable contacts and help from people in other sectors 😎
    Gaming forums are for knuckle daggers who would probably be devastated if their families found out what else is on their laptops 🤣🤣
    Right, but in comparison, the technology used in gaming forums is more complex than the tech used in UKBF, yet, they maintain their sites for stupid cheap, reliable uptime etc.

    Some people just go to the big names straight away, and end up paying an arm and a leg.
     
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    ThatDevAaron

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    ...and so how many businesses start their road to failure. "it's only a bit of software on a server.....'.

    Don't worry about things like design, management, services (e.g. cloudflare), email software & costs, insurance etc. You don't need those (and a lot more)!
    if you need a paid version of cloudflare for a site like UKBF I will laugh my head off, honestly.

    using cloudflare actually makes it all overall cheaper since they utilize global caching resulting in less requests sent to the actual origin server.

    Cmon famalam you should know this

    the actual hosting, which is what we're talking about, should cost a damn lot less, and you don't need to pay for all this shit, and if you need something paid, there are many affordable options. UKBF can probably send from their own SMTP server and land in inbox perfectly fine. Plenty of viable and reliable open source emailing software lmao
     
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    ThatDevAaron

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    I've done the same, used Incognito on Chrome on an iPhone and apart from my own banner (eFiling) there are only banners inserted by Google after every few threads. They don't cover anything up, they are in between the threads. They don't need to be closed; you are able to scroll past if they are not of interest.
    Or upgrade your membership and see none of the Google ads.
    I use brave so i actually don't see any ads at all :p
     
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    JEREMY HAWKE

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    @ThatDevAaron I don't think you understand what this site is all about
    I dont give a f££k about what they do up in Northampton I just care about ROI 1both in the money I pay and the time I put to this site.

    I am here to help people with my lifetime in business and gain help and advice from others
    The bi product of this is the promotion my business gets on here
    Every thing you mention is completely irrelevant
     
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    Wrong, wrong, and once again, absolutely wrong.

    In my opinion, I think UKBF is extremely lacking in the department of actually providing people with upgrades that are needed, provide use outside of one-time posts in sections that aren't available to normal users.

    Easy ways to monitize:
    Make more shit FREE TO USE, encourage more usage of the forum by free users, therefor, making it more valuable to actually have a membership to stand out, as right now, UKBF has little usage for most outside of asking some questions and stuff.

    I recommend:
    • Cheaper Upgrades
    • Yearly Upgrades
    • and there is a lot more i might make a thread on.
    I don't see UKBF costing too much to run, operationally for the website - Maybe ozzy could consider, if he hasn't/isn't already, hiring someone one-time to lower costs, as ozzy likely like many, has purchased stuff for extremely high prices (hosting etc), and even then, I highly doubt UKBF would cost over 250/year to run.

    Everyone's business (or job) is easy from the outside.

    A true business person will quickly understand where the complexity and challenges lie
     
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    ThatDevAaron

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    Everyone's business (or job) is easy from the outside.

    A true business person will quickly understand where the complexity and challenges lie
    im aware, which is why I've consistently said only on the technical side, idfk wtf goes on behind closed doors, but it certainly doesnt take a genius to understand the scale of a forum using public software -_-
     
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    JEREMY HAWKE

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    im aware, which is why I've consistently said only on the technical side, idfk wtf goes on behind closed doors, but it certainly doesnt take a genius to understand the scale of a forum using public software -_-
    I am actually involved in a small business transaction at the moment where the person involved is to concerned with what is not important over the potential financial outcome

    You are this type of business person and it will cost you in the long term
     
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    ThatDevAaron

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    I am actually involved in a small business transaction at the moment where the person involved is to concerned with what is not important over the potential financial outcome

    You are this type of business person and it will cost you in the long term
    Not really. When you have technical knowledge, you are familiar with the art of scaling, which is meant to optimize your resource consumption. Just because you may one day need X amount of resources, doesn't mean you need to sit on that amount of resources simply because you may need it, instead, you scale based on your current and projected usage for X months ahead of time.

    Don't overcomplicate it. Simply put; Some idiots would rather submit to AWS bills of 5k/mo than do some of the hard shit themselves and end up with a bill almost 60-70% cheaper.
     
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    fisicx

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    On the other hand some prefer to pay someone else to do all the hard stuff. AWS may cost more but using their services means business owners can get on with running their business.
     
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    JEREMY HAWKE

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    On the other hand some prefer to pay someone else to do all the hard stuff. AWS may cost more but using their services means business owners can get on with running their business.
    Exactly this
     
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    fisicx

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    We have a bloke come round and clean the windows. I could do it myself but it’s far easier for Jay to use his long brush on a pole and do it in 20 minutes instead of me on a ladder taking 3 hours. And probably getting wet at the same time.

    Sometimes it’s not about the money, it’s the convenience of letting someone else doing stuff so you don’t have to. It’s how the whole world works. If you did everything yourself the economy would collapse.
     
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