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24 minutes ago, pwr said:

So we have two options - pay for RM Web Gold (which I don't wish to do) or sign up for the World of Railways Plus

 

 

Third option (free): Use Firefox as your browser and set tracking protection to Strict.

 

Martin.

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Good morning everyone. Apologies for not replying sooner. I was out of the office without access to email or the web. 

 

As you will have seen, we are testing some new adverts: the main change being the full screen pop-up that some of you have commented about. I am told that this pop-up is appearing just once a day per device, that's it (if this is incorrect, please message me direct and I'll find out why). All pop-ups should have either a cross in the top right corner or a 'close' button - both will delete the advert. I apologise if you find it intrusive. Like Andy has said, World of Railways Plus members don't see any non-trade adverts.

 

RMweb is incredibly expensive to run. The server space required is huge and therefore incredibly expensive. There are associated staff costs too. RMweb is free to use and we have no plans for it to become otherwise.

 

As always, we will continue to monitor what adverts are effective (both financially and in the best interest of users) and what's not.

 

Kind regards,

 

Steve

Publisher

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10 minutes ago, Izzy said:

Of as big a concern for me as these ads is that in recent times RMweb has reduced to a crawl for much of the time, or just completely inaccessible. I don’t know if the ads are connected to this problem but I’m sure things will resolve themselves in one way or another sooner or later. 

 

Yes I have noticed its very unresponsive and slow at times even on a fast internet.

 

Paul R

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1 hour ago, SteveCole said:

. I am told that this pop-up is appearing just once a day per device, that's it (if this is incorrect, please message me direct and I'll find out why). All pop-ups should have either a cross in the top right corner or a 'close' button - both will delete the advert.

 

The ads are regularly repeating on the same devices so they've not advised or implemented correctly. 

 

I have had numerous ads which have no method of closure and/or lead to content freezing. 

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1 hour ago, martin_wynne said:

 

Third option (free): Use Firefox as your browser and set tracking protection to Strict.

 

Martin.

 

Fourth option, Adblock Plus. I had it enabled for all browsing but set it to allow adverts here on RMweb as I believe that advertising revenue is an important source of funding for the forum. However the pop-ups are worrying as they're not always straightforward to shut down and on one occasion caused everything to lock up so I've turned on Adblock Plus for this site too as a temporary measure. It appears to successfully repulse the pop ups; but it's a blunt tool and suppresses all other adverts too. Hopefully the flirtation with pop ups will soon be over and more straightforward forms of adverts will take their place and I can reset Adblock Plus to how it was before.

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1 minute ago, AY Mod said:

 

The ads are regularly repeating on the same devices so they've not advised or implemented correctly. 

 

I have had numerous ads which have no method of closure and/or lead to content freezing. 

 

You are not alone Andy.

 

One strange thing I have noticed on my PC is that when I hover over the "Close" button on the ads, my arrow cursor becomes a word style cursor as if I wish to type something. Some of them don't have an obvious "Close" button or an X to click on but will clear if you click outside the advert frame on the blurred out background.

 

It does seem that the are some technical problems.

 

If it was just one a day and could be closed easily, it would be much less of a problem.

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2 hours ago, SteveCole said:

Good morning everyone. Apologies for not replying sooner. I was out of the office without access to email or the web. 

 

As you will have seen, we are testing some new adverts: the main change being the full screen pop-up that some of you have commented about. I am told that this pop-up is appearing just once a day per device, that's it (if this is incorrect, please message me direct and I'll find out why). All pop-ups should have either a cross in the top right corner or a 'close' button - both will delete the advert. I apologise if you find it intrusive. Like Andy has said, World of Railways Plus members don't see any non-trade adverts.

 

RMweb is incredibly expensive to run. The server space required is huge and therefore incredibly expensive. There are associated staff costs too. RMweb is free to use and we have no plans for it to become otherwise.

 

As always, we will continue to monitor what adverts are effective (both financially and in the best interest of users) and what's not.

 

Kind regards,

 

Steve

Publisher

I see these adverts every time I access the forum if I have been away for more than about 30 minutes. 

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Just like Kris, it looks like they re-appear after being idle for abut 30 minutes or so.  I usually have RMWeb open on my web browser in the background and occasionally check for updates during quiet times in my working day. Every time I check after the session has been idle for any length of time, the pop-up appears. Clearly not once per day - I've seen at least five or six today.

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What is it about 'tech guys'? Any other profession will perfect their work before allowing the general public anywhere near it. 'Tech guys' have a rough stab at the job in hand, then dump it on the users so that they can find the cock-ups for them.

 

It's not an RMweb thing - it is standard 'tech' industry practice - one presumes it's because they only have a vague idea of what they are doing in the first place.

 

When I still worked for a living, we users dreaded the next 'upgrade', because we knew that it would take the 'tech guys' a whole year to get the 'upgraded' system working anywhere near as good as it had done - at which point they'd institute the next 'upgrade!

 

Talk about keeping yourself in work!

 

CJI.

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2 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

What is it about 'tech guys'? Any other profession will perfect their work before allowing the general public anywhere near it.

 

Are you sure about that ;-) 60 years of life on this planet have taught me otherwise. Let's start with pretty much every car design for starters.

 

Where I do see your point is with regard to pure software products, or those where the functionality is changed by software. The internet has now made it fairly easy in many cases to fix / improve / downgrade a product after it has been shipped. so the temptation is always there for Project Management or Marketing to decide to 'ship and be damned' 

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Just to try to confirm any patterns, I get it every time I come to RMweb afresh, either by entering the URL in the address bar or by having RMweb already open when resuming my browser on my phone after using another app for a bit. For example, just now I was away from the internet for about an hour whilst picking up a hire car, using Google maps on the phone to get to the rental place.

This is using Chrome on an Android phone, and none of the adverts are modelling related, unlike the banners around the site. Mainly I've had car dealerships and Google's "answer us these questions".

 

Jo

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6 hours ago, SteveCole said:

I am told that this pop-up is appearing just once a day per device, that's it (if this is incorrect, please message me direct and I'll find out why). All pop-ups should have either a cross in the top right corner or a 'close' button - both will delete the advert

 

Much like everyone else I am finding this to be incorrect, with it appearing every time I visit the site, which is much more than once a day. and have had a couple with no close button.

 

Please make sure to let us know when these adverts have been decided to be a bad idea and got rid of so I can re add RMWeb to the whitelist on Adblock Plus, I don't want it sat there for too long

 

Gary

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Why is it that the owners of RMweb regularly feel the need to alienate as many members as possible in the shortest possible time?

 

In common with many other members, I am disinclined to pay a subscription for a forum that was acquired for commercial reasons.

 

It is clearly apparent that these regular attempts to generate more revenue from RMweb are aimed at offsetting the inevitable costs of owning such a website.

 

Surely, a little due diligence prior to acquiring the forum would have given an idea of the costs that would be incurred.

 

..... or perhaps the acquisition was intended from the outset to be an opportunity to generate revenue from the membership via a subscription and / or advertising?

 

Whatever, current policy is doing nothing whatsoever to enhance the public image of BRM and its publishers. Food for thought?

 

CJI.

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16 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

or perhaps the acquisition was intended from the outset to be an opportunity to generate revenue from the membership via a subscription and / or advertising?

Are you sitting on a grassy knoll typing? :lol:

 

Yes the forum was free and Andy lost his job and was made an offer that supported the forum and gave him a job. 
Andy along with many others worked damn hard to raise the revenue pre BRM along with generous donations. Virtually all the original free photo sites now require subs, the costs are going up from those running the servers because no one expected the huge rise in image sizes. This is the only forum I use that hosts the pics for us and Andy has put in software to resize them as people with later model phones were uploading 6mb + images. 
Someone has to pay and my Flickr host has gone up much more to keep it ad free for the forum I help run. 
 

If anyone knows of a way to host it cheaper then I’m sure they will be delighted but we are getting a free forum without having to subscribe still. On the three other railway forums I use people still rail against why they don’t host pictures despite each having a simple guide to embedding from Google, Flickr etc. 
You just can’t win. 

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1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

In common with many other members, I am disinclined to pay a subscription for a forum that was acquired for commercial reasons.

 

Why? Most other goods or services you use in life require you to pay something.

 

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

It is clearly apparent that these regular attempts to generate more revenue from RMweb are aimed at offsetting the inevitable costs of owning such a website.

 

Yup. 

 

Is there a registered charity number at the bottom of the page?

 

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

Surely, a little due diligence prior to acquiring the forum would have given an idea of the costs that would be incurred.

 

Any costs were an open-book process 10 years ago. Site usage has grown significantly and steadily from then and, guess what, costs have risen.

 

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

or perhaps the acquisition was intended from the outset to be an opportunity to generate revenue from the membership via a subscription and / or advertising?

 

Well the intent wasn't to spend massive amounts of money providing facilities for people who don't contribute, in some form, to business revenue. Do we not give value for money? The leading platform for the hobby in the UK? Just look at what you get for nothing and what you pay for or have to pay for.

 

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

 

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1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

Why is it that the owners of RMweb regularly feel the need to alienate as many members as possible in the shortest possible time?

In common with many other members, I am disinclined to pay a subscription for a forum that was acquired for commercial reasons.

It is clearly apparent that these regular attempts to generate more revenue from RMweb are aimed at offsetting the inevitable costs of owning such a website.

Surely, a little due diligence prior to acquiring the forum would have given an idea of the costs that would be incurred.

..... or perhaps the acquisition was intended from the outset to be an opportunity to generate revenue from the membership via a subscription and / or advertising?

Whatever, current policy is doing nothing whatsoever to enhance the public image of BRM and its publishers. Food for thought?

 

You had better not look at ModelRailForum. You might have a heart attack. :) It was recently sold to VerticalScope Inc. for the very purpose of making its new owners some money:

 

 https://www.modelrailforum.com

 

But in fact, it's a pleasant site to visit.

 

Martin.

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You can't escape ads in this day and age, they're everywhere.  So why all the ado about ads herein?  I can read the interesting bits and ignore ads and other intrusions; after all how long does it take to peruse RM Web?:scratchhead:

     Brian.

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2 hours ago, AY Mod said:

Why?

 

Simple - I like to discuss model railway related matters with like-minded individuals. I wouldn't pay a subscription to join a club to do this, and if RMweb became subscription-only, I would rescind my membership.

 

If a model railway forum was run by a person with no commercial interest in the subject, I might well contribute to the running costs.

 

BRM did not acquire RMweb for altruistic motives - it saw commercial possibilities and made a commercial decision to become involved.

 

Fine - but now that they find that they have made a rather expensive acquisition, I do not feel under any obligation to subsidise them.

 

CJI.

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