Sudden appearance of ads on OCUK site ??? UPDATE: There will be no adverts

TheSwede · 9 Oct 2020 at 22:22

Dyson said:
I think I'd even be willing to pay a nominal fee to keep it ad free. I may not post a great deal, but I come on every day and browse.

^^ This for me as well. I am more a lurker then a poster, but when I have asked questions/advice it always.. well, mostly been all sound help I been given. Although I have not seen any ads, I do have uBlock Origin but I turned it off earlier today but still couldn't see any ads so quiet not sure as to why that happened. In any case, would love if it did stay ad free anyway, the forum is to good to be spoiled by random ads ! At least in my humble opinion.

robfosters · 9 Oct 2020 at 22:23

I don’t know what the fee would be, but for example I’d be happy to pay about £20 a year to keep it as it is.

Akagi · 9 Oct 2020 at 22:23

Dont say you'll be happy to pay a fee, the people who thought the ads were a good idea will see it!

V F · 9 Oct 2020 at 23:01

G-MAN2004 said:
And why would you do that, broseph? I'm sure multi million pound OcUK can cope with you not whitelisting them.

Well, some forums like AVForums.com and avsforum.com has their site built the last time I was there, that if you block ads on their site/forums, it then blocks you access to parts of the forums.

robfosters said:
I don’t know what the fee would be, but for example I’d be happy to pay about £20 a year to keep it as it is.

Acme said:
Dont say you'll be happy to pay a fee, the people who thought the ads were a good idea will see it!

That was what happened to neowin.net. Tiered subscriptions. Only tier 2 and 3 got rid of the ads even though people on basic tier 1 who were paying the yearly fee? I believe still got ads.

Even autosport went the same way at one point. You were limited to 10 page views before it asked you to pay. It reset monthly. That was many years ago. No idea what stuff they changed with their forums but there was a lot of ruckus.

Space Monkey · 9 Oct 2020 at 23:05

Armageus said:
Wouldn't want to speak for all of us, but I'd think it's all of the team at this point.

Yep, I'm with you guys on this, a very sad day but we are making our voices heard

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Oct 2020 at 23:33

V F said:
That was what happened to neowin.net. Tiered subscriptions. Only tier 2 and 3 got rid of the ads even though people on basic tier 1 who were paying the yearly fee? I believe still got ads.

Even autosport went the same way at one point. You were limited to 10 page views before it asked you to pay. It reset monthly. That was many years ago. No idea what stuff they changed with their forums but there was a lot of ruckus.

If this is how it goes.....

/I’m outta here.

tom_nieto · 9 Oct 2020 at 23:40

My internet home is absolutely how I see this place.

Unobtrusive ads at the top of the page probably wouldn’t change the way I browse (my brain’s inbuilt ad blocker causes me to ignore adverts quite effectively online).

A subscription model would dramatically change the dynamic and I would be very against that. I would not have joined the site almost 20 years ago if there had been a paywall and I would not want to discourage anyone from joining in the same way in the future.

Keeping my fingers crossed for the status quo to be maintained.

Maccy · 9 Oct 2020 at 23:40

Bouton Aide said:
If this is how it goes.....

/I’m outta here.

Just to clarify - this won’t be happening.
Nobody will be expected to contribute or click on ads in order to maintain their membership here.

V_R · 10 Oct 2020 at 08:37

Zefan said:
As I can see you've noticed, the ads are gone for now.

I know that many of you - if you're anything like me - have come to know this place as your "internet home" over the years. It pains me to see this, as well as read posts quite rightfully displaying disappointment as to what might be becoming of the forum you know and love. I want to assure you that those feelings are not going unheard. This community is something special - far more than ad revenue fodder - and I will personally do all I can to ensure that this place continues to hold true to the things that have made it special all these years.

Well said.

Neil79 · 10 Oct 2020 at 10:53

randal said:
Ugh. Don't OcUK make enough money already?

Gimped people on their graphics cards, now gimping forum members ££££££££

But yes use adblockers!

Hagar · 10 Oct 2020 at 11:58

The main purpose of the forums is to support the interests of its members initially in the procurement, setting up and use of computer hardware. This has led to associated software and then all topics and interests, hobbies etc.
Like many, I am a daily visitor although I do not buy much hardware nowadays. It would leave a hole in my retirement schedule

not to log in.

Keep up the good (unsupported by ads) work. Except for your own banner header of course.

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Oct 2020 at 12:04

It's moved away from tech talk slowly, not sure if that's a good thing. It's turning into Mumsnet/Dadsnet.

Rilot · 10 Oct 2020 at 16:51

Armageus said:
Wouldn't want to speak for all of us, but I'd think it's all of the team at this point.

Indeed.

CREATIVE!11 · 10 Oct 2020 at 17:35

Just install an adblocker,

It's 2020 you should all be using one by default at this point. No idea how anyone (especially tech guys) survives not using one. Websites are just filled with ads these days.

paradigm · 10 Oct 2020 at 18:11

CREATIVE!11 said:
Just install an adblocker,

It's 2020 you should all be using one by default at this point. No idea how anyone (especially tech guys) survives not using one. Websites are just filled with ads these days.

What’s a good adblocker for iPhone and Android?

I use ublock origin on my PCs, but on my phone, outside of the basic built-into Opera adblocking (which is pretty cack), I’m at the mercy of adwords when using 4G.

V_R · 10 Oct 2020 at 21:07

paradigm said:
What’s a good adblocker for iPhone and Android?

I use ublock origin on my PCs, but on my phone, outside of the basic built-into Opera adblocking (which is pretty cack), I’m at the mercy of adwords when using 4G.

For Android the private DNS route is probably the simplest, can toggle it on and off as needed. I have to disable it to use our work network for example.

V_R said:
Settings - > Wifi & Internet - > Private DNS

Select "Private DNS provider hostname" and type

dns.adguard.com

Then go to chrome://flags and search async and disable it.

Or

https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html

Skynet5 · 10 Oct 2020 at 21:59

Yup run pinhole and remain vpnd to home whilst off my WiFi. So not affected.

Pretty unimpressed that a forum run by the company has ads?

Akagi · 10 Oct 2020 at 22:08

lnoton said:
Yup run pinhole and remain vpnd to home whilst off my WiFi. So not affected.

Pretty unimpressed that a forum run by the company has ads?

It doesn't anymore.

Anyway there always used to be ads in the top right, but they were for products and deals on the OcUK website, that I'm OK with haha. It was also a teeny tiny banner and it had OcUK branding so it didn't stand out and wasn't jarring.

Skynet5 · 10 Oct 2020 at 22:11

Acme said:
It doesn't anymore.

Anyway there always used to be ads in the top right, but they were for products and deals on the OcUK website, that I'm OK with haha. It was also a teeny tiny banner and it had OcUK branding so it didn't stand out and wasn't jarring.

I'm not seeing any? You updated the database on pihole?

V F · 10 Oct 2020 at 22:12

Bouton Aide said:
It's moved away from tech talk slowly, not sure if that's a good thing. It's turning into Mumsnet/Dadsnet.

Most forums are these days. Apart from the few quiet forums from the beginning.

Sudden appearance of ads on OCUK site ??? **UPDATE: There will be no adverts**

Sudden appearance of ads on OCUK site ??? UPDATE: There will be no adverts