Why am I suddenly getting advertisements in forum?

[JohnS33931]

Hope its alright to ask this here - couldn’t find anything on it searching.
Had a problem getting through to the forums yesterday - kept getting an error saying site certificate had expired on 4/24/2021.
Once I was finally able to get to the forum, I started getting ads between posts - don’t remember ever seeing this before.
Any way way to stop them?
Thanks!

 

[Doctor Strange]

Big changes here recently, with a long thread about it:

That's it, I'm out. The ADS ARE RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | The Fedora Lounge

Basically, there are more ads, and on some platforms/systems they're a real pain. But you know, those ads help keep TFL a free site!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Ha !!...where ya been...LOL

 

[JohnS33931]

Oh well - I was hoping that there was something in my settings that I could change.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And if you look at it from a humorous perspective, some of the ads are absolutely hilarious.

 

[Rmccamey]

But the ads prior to the change were also keeping it a free site. And now half the Lounge has reduced their participation, changed settings, browsers, or installed ad blockers to eliminate or reduce the very ads "someone" was hoping we would see. I don't see an upside.

Big changes here recently, with a long thread about it:

That's it, I'm out. The ADS ARE RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | The Fedora Lounge

Basically, there are more ads, and on some platforms/systems they're a real pain. But you know, those ads help keep TFL a free site!

 

[Edward]

But the ads prior to the change were also keeping it a free site. And now half the Lounge has reduced their participation, changed settings, browsers, or installed ad blockers to eliminate or reduce the very ads "someone" was hoping we would see. I don't see an upside.

I hear what you are saying. Some of this is beyond the control of TFL as the forum is based on third party forum software, and we don't have control of all settings - nature of the beast. That said, our top management put a lot of time into this over the last couple of weeks and have trimmed out most problems. The biggest change we now have is an ad between occasional posts as well as down the side, which is easily scrolled past. I'd like to hope that's not enough to push people away entirely.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's a "free" site which, as we all know, means we, the users, are the product - got it. And, as I understand it (which could be wrong) the people who generously run it do not make any money and the ads cover costs, but don't generate a profit. Is all that correct?

Since I've assumed the above to be true, I've always been willing to give FL a lot of latitude for any issues as it's basically a site run for the "fun" of its users. That's why I'm okay with ads as long as they don't overwhelm the experience. I use an ad blocker, which, I guess, keeps the situation tolerable, for me anyway.

What I have noticed over the past, more than a month now, is intermittent slowness - sometimes incredible slowness - on the site where sometime you have to give up as a page just won't load. I'd blame my computer/network, but I've not had that issue on any other site. I've cleared out my FL cookies a few times, but it hasn't helped.

I know one other FL user I asked has experienced this too - has this been identified as a site-wide issue?

 

[Old Mariner]

I tend to prefer viewing the forum on my phone where I have an Ad Block Plus browser, which tends to speed up loading time compared to my laptop. I want to see if I can get the same for my laptop as well. The only thing I noticed as of late on my end, is, with regards to my phone, I keep getting the "accept cookies" all the time I come here. Not implying it is the site's fault, I just don't know how I can correct it, because I don't recall it doing that before. This just started not too long ago.

 

[Old Mariner]

What I have noticed over the past, more than a month now, is intermittent slowness - sometimes incredible slowness - on the site where sometime you have to give up as a page just won't load. I'd blame my computer/network, but I've not had that issue on any other site. I've cleared out my FL cookies a few times, but it hasn't helped.

I know one other FL user I asked has experienced this too - has this been identified as a site-wide issue?

I have experienced this as well.

 

[JohnS33931]

In my iphone “safari” settings, I just turned on content blocking for all websites - so far, I don’t see any ads on the FL.
So many ads were removed it made this into a one page thread instead of two!

 

[Harp]

The site slowness issue, noticed. Advertize occasionally pops up, some surprisingly lascivious.
Other ads, Chinese to Russian, not so much anymore.

 

[Frunobulax]

I'm kinda sorry I have an Ad Blocker. I'd like to see the lascivious ads.

I too have had the experience of the site, and individual threads, loading much slower than previous. This occurs on all devices with various and sundry firewalls. I have assumed the "new" ad scenario is loading the site with a bunch of scripts, slowing the site down.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.....