Ads on the DinoToyBlog & Forum

[DinoToyForum]

The adverts I can see are the ones for the PNSO Zhuchengtyrannus, Lingwulong and Centrosaurus, and the Mattel Therizinosaurus.  I tried disabling the ad blocker and the forum loaded in only a few seconds...  So it appears that it's causing the forum to load slowly, but then I don't understand why it also loads slowly on my phone.

Your ad blocker is successfully blocking an Adsense banner at the top of the page, so maybe its unsuccessful attempts to block the Amazon ads in the side bar are the cause of the slowness. But as you say, that doesn't explain why it is also slow on your phone.

I try to keep the ads on the blog and forum to a minimum (and as relevant as possible) but I keep some as they help to cover the hosting costs. In the past I've thought about offering a completely ad-free version of the forum for a small subscription charge, but I doubt it would receive much interest or be worth the effort of setting it up.

[Halichoeres]

I would pay a small amount to use the forum and have it ad-free.

[ceratopsian]

As would I. Or indeed something just to help cover the hosting costs. But unless quite a few were willing, I assume the effort of set up wouldn't be worth it.

[SidB]

Truthfully, the ads, such as they are, have never bothered me.

[DinoToyForum]

Truthfully, the ads, such as they are, have never bothered me.

I think (hope) the vast majority of members feel that way.

[Faelrin]

This is the only website I have my adblocker (ublock origin) disabled. Everywhere else go I keep it on (in tandem with Firefox's built in tracking prevention) as a preventive for computer viruses, in combination with Windows Defender, or Malwarebytes on my phone. Which is to say I haven't had an issue with for many years now.

[DinoToyForum]

This is the only website I have my adblocker (ublock origin) disabled. Everywhere else go I keep it on (in tandem with Firefox's built in tracking prevention) as a preventive for computer viruses, in combination with Windows Defender, or Malwarebytes on my phone. Which is to say I haven't had an issue with for many years now.

Interesting, may I ask what is the reason you disables adblocker for this site? Does the adblocker slow the site down, or do you just want to see the ads here!?

[Faelrin]

I have it turned off to help support the forum here. Honestly I think having the adblocker on helps with performance for other sites, but it's probably a negligible impact for my newest laptop with Win 11 and an SSD, etc. It was however more impactful on my older Win 7 laptop (and also with dried out thermal gel, which prevents it from cooling efficiently, and as a side effect slowed it down).

[DinoToyForum]

I have it turned off to help support the forum here. Honestly I think having the adblocker on helps with performance for other sites, but it's probably a negligible impact for my newest laptop with Win 11 and an SSD, etc. It was however more impactful on my older Win 7 laptop (and also with dried out thermal gel, which prevents it from cooling efficiently, and as a side effect slowed it down).

Oh, thanks, I appreciate you making a special case for this site!

[Halichoeres]

Yeah, the ads here are pretty unobtrusive compared to most of the rest of the internet!

[ceratopsian]

I barely notice the ads at all here.

[ceratopsian]

Suddenly I'm being pestered when using my phone  for the forum by a large and intrusive "tabbed"advert at the top. I'm not aware of it being like that previously. Any idea of why this has changed @DinoToyForum?

[DinoToyForum]

Suddenly I'm being pestered when using my phone  for the forum by a large and intrusive "tabbed"advert at the top. I'm not aware of it being like that previously. Any idea of why this has changed @DinoToyForum?

It's a temporary experiment I'm running in Google Adsense. It will be gone soon.

[DinoToyForum]

I've been getting ads for "free online dating" on the dtf and i don't know why

That'll be Google Adsense being random.

[Faelrin]

Getting an obnoxious ad placement where I need to keep closing it (which still leaves a tab behind). Also puzzled at the placement of an ad in the middle of the updated threads. Not a good placement there, assuming intentional, in case members with vision problems click on it by accident. Edit: A few clicks off the page here back onto the main page and they are gone, so they must be random intrusive ads.





There was another ad I experienced earlier today, but haven't seen since though. I didn't think to screen grab it at the time, sorry. It was basically way below the post of the Quick Reply section, like it made the scroll bar so short. If you scrolled onto it would take up your whole screen with two vertical styled pop up banners. Scrolling up would hide it, thankfully. If I see it again I'll grab a screen grab of it.

[DinoToyForum]

I was toying with AdSense auto-ad settings earlier but quickly deactivated it when I saw what a mess it made to the forum - it plasters ads everywhere. I'll stick with selecting ad placements manually!

[Faelrin]

@DinoToyForum Ah okay. Thanks for the explanation. That takes care of that I guess.

[Remko]

I'm getting this annoying dropdown add at the top of the screen everytime I visit the forum on my phone. When I use my tablet, it's not there.

You can't close it completely, only collapse it. But it will unfold everytime I visit a thread on th boards.

See example:



Any ideas how to block this?

I don't care about the other adds, sure, they're annoying and sometimes on weird places in topics, but it's this or we start paying for a membership.

[DinoToyForum]

I'm getting this annoying dropdown add at the top of the screen everytime I visit the forum on my phone. When I use my tablet, it's not there.

You can't close it completely, only collapse it. But it will unfold everytime I visit a thread on th boards.

See example:



Any ideas how to block this?

I don't care about the other adds, sure, they're annoying and sometimes on weird places in topics, but it's this or we start paying for a membership.

New ads (they are called anchor ads) were showing on dinotoyblog.com for a week as part of an automated Google Adsense "experiment". It's a bit mad how Adsense can self-initiate an experiment like this, it's always trying to "optimize" to increase earnings. On this occasion I'm deciding to let the experiment play out for a few days instead of shutting it down. The results so far: a predicted 156% increase in monthly earnings.

On a laptop or desktop screen, or on tablets, these anchor ads seem to appear at the bottom of the screen where they are less intrusive. So, I was considering leaving the anchor ads turned on. That's how I access the site and I could live with that. But I didn't think of mobiles, and as you point out, the ads appear at the top of mobile screens, which is no good at all.

Let me look at the settings and see if I can find a way to disable the ads on mobile devices, or at least move them to the bottom of the screen. They are a kind of auto-ad, which means Adsense chooses where to place them, so I might not be able to control it. In which case, I'll just turn them off and forego that tempting 156% bonus! Bear with me in the meantime.

Edit - I've tweaked the code on the forum (not the blog yet) in an attempt to stop the anchor ads appearing at the top of mobile screens. Please let me know if it works or not.

[Remko]

Thanks, they're at the bottom now.
Less annoying.