Feedback i've been seeing a LOTo of ads

bartjeej

Hall of Famer
Over theast few days, when I log in to Cameraderie.org (only tried it on my android phone with firefox so far), I get a LOT of LARGE ads.

Some of these consist of a list of links with thumbnail photos, where some links are apparently a thread here on cameraderie, and others are advertisement; i dont feel like checking if the apparent cameraderie links are actually that, or in fact also links to ads.

About half of the height of the front page scrolling now consists of ads. This, and the confusing nature of whether the links are threads here or ads, makes browsing cameraderie.org's front page kind of stressful, which it never has been before.

Individual threads also have ads now, where i didnt see them before. Did something change?
 
I did wonder which one of you were photographing curvy Kate’s bras. I agree the positioning (the ads not the bras) does make it confusing which are forum posts and which are ads on the home page. I use an iPhone btw. I get that this forum won’t run without subscriptions and ads though. Grin and bear it. I’m just waiting for Jock’s jocks to be advertised!
 
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This is what I see from the home page. I just bypass it.
 
To answer the best I can (the "Cliff Notes" version is that nothing has been changed for about 2 months now and ads are appearing in the same spots they were)...

Over theast few days, when I log in to Cameraderie.org (only tried it on my android phone with firefox so far), I get a LOT of LARGE ads.

Some of these consist of a list of links with thumbnail photos, where some links are apparently a thread here on cameraderie, and others are advertisement; i dont feel like checking if the apparent cameraderie links are actually that, or in fact also links to ads.
A few months ago the block of Amazon ads at the bottom of the page was replaced with Google ads. The settings are roughly the same, thumbnails the width of the content block.

From a different thread here's a description of the ad format...
Those are Google Adsense ads and it's a new-ish type of ad that combines content from the site with any applicable ads based on the content of the page being viewed.

In other words, if you are viewing a page on the site about Widgets then Google will try to display ads about Widgets to you and, based on space, some pages from the site that Google found related to Widgets. But if Google doesn't have any ads to display about Widgets then most of the slots, if not all, will be pages from the site that Google found related to Widgets.

For the most part I think that type of ad is the lesser of the evils of having to display ads; yeah, ads are still displayed but instead of having a chunk of screen display taken up entirely by nothing but ads this helps to get some notice to content on the site itself.

About half of the height of the front page scrolling now consists of ads. This, and the confusing nature of whether the links are threads here or ads, makes browsing cameraderie.org's front page kind of stressful, which it never has been before.
I didn't notice it to be that distracting on my tablet but I will go back and see if something can be done for the mobile view versus the full desktop view. I may have to play around with the settings for a bit and will follow-up if/when I make a change to them. Thinking out loud, I'm not sure how flexible Google Adsense ads are in regards to displaying different ads based on the device screen with but it's certainly something I'll take a look at. :)
Individual threads also have ads now, where i didnt see them before. Did something change?
Individual threads have always had threads; from memory, they show after the 1st post, middle of the thread, before the last post and at the bottom of the page. The only change done to the a few months ago was that the ads shown at the bottom of the page used to be Amazon ads while the rest of the page was using Google Adsense; the Amazon ads were replaced by Google ads.

If anything, Cameraderie is actually showing less ads this past year or so versus in the past. For example, we're not showing ads at the top of every page, not showing them at the top of every content area on all pages, and, if I'm remembering correctly, we're not showing them in the sidebar anymore either.

I did wonder which one of you were photographing curvy Kate’s bras. I agree the positioning (the ads not the bras) does make it confusing which are forum posts and which are ads on the home page. I use an iPhone btw. I get that this forum won’t run without subscriptions and ads though. Grin and bear it. I’m just waiting for Jock’s jocks to be advertised!
I'll be taking a look to see if I reduce the size of that block for mobile users. The old Amazon ads were just as annoying but I suspect that they were more prone to being ignored versus the Google block.

As a non-Aussie.... Is "Jock's jocks" something I want to be doing a Google search on? 🤔
This is what I see from the home page. I just bypass it.
Apparently there is a section of Cameraderie that I must not visit! 😲
 
A quick follow-up....

The evening that this thread was created I did submit a tweak to the Google Adsense code. Essentially, the default display of the ad block is 4 columns by 2 rows (4 x 2). On desktops that isn't too bad but on narrow screens only displaying one column then it was a bit... much. I tend to test on my laptop and a tablet with a high res screen so sometimes I miss stuff that may only be evident on narrow screens. I submitted a change so that the block instead displays 4 x 1 instead.

Now the interesting part... even though it's a minor change Google Adsense still has to re-index the pages the before deciding to display anything again. In the interim pages that were displaying the ad might not be displaying anything at all now and if Google decides that a 4 x 1 isn't a big enough block area then it also won't display anything. How will I know? Time & patience. Eventually ads might start showing up again in that spot and if they do, then it should be 4 x 1 (or 1 x 4 on mobile). If after a while nothing continues to show up then it means Google doesn't like me choosing 4 x 1 for that block and then I'll need to submit another change and wait again to see if anything shows up.

On a related note, if there are any advertisers that may not be appropriate then by all means take a screenshot and send me a message with the details so I can go into Adsense and block them.


TLDR: The ad block at the bottom of the screen may not be showing for you right now but it will again at some point and, when it does, it should be smaller.




(Of course there's a way of getting rid of ads entirely. ;))
 
Things are hotting up in the ads tonight!
I'll see if I can block that one explicitly; I've already changed our Google adsense settings to essentially turn off every type of questionable ad possible along with a few other categories not really relevant to the sites so either "Platinum Magazine" is not identifying itself correctly to Google in regards to what type of ads it is serving or its an advertiser purposely using some click-bait type ads for an otherwise legitimate magazine.



{Kevin can be heard mumbling to himself "Damnit, Google, get your act together!".... }
 
I'll see if I can block that one explicitly; I've already changed our Google adsense settings to essentially turn off every type of questionable ad possible along with a few other categories not really relevant to the sites so either "Platinum Magazine" is not identifying itself correctly to Google in regards to what type of ads it is serving or its an advertiser purposely using some click-bait type ads for an otherwise legitimate magazine.



{Kevin can be heard mumbling to himself "Damnit, Google, get your act together!".... }
Is this related to veggie anime porn thread:
????
 
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