Advertising

[younGGuns7]

I give up 

[AY Mod]

8 minutes ago, Londontram said:

Is there no way please that this one banner can be removed or even moved to a different location as its made a lot of faffing around.

 

Why not read my post from this morning?

[Londontram]

Thank you Andy now I know it was there l have read it and you appear to already have the matter in hand thank you. 

 Steve

[Talltim]

10 hours ago, AY Mod said:

There's now this too. 

 

Already noted and escalated. 

Do I gather from this that the adverts are now controlled by third party rather than yourself?

BTW happens in Safari and Chrome on IOS too. If you aren’t signed in it covers the sign in button

[AY Mod]

On 16/09/2021 at 23:49, AY Mod said:

 

The ad-serving systems sit outside the community software and are not within my control.

 

When I am back at work tomorrow I'm raiding the stationery cupboard for some visible ink.

[Talltim]

Well, I’m sorry I didn’t read back through the whole thread to check if you had ceded so much control that you can’t stop other people making changes at the weekend that prevent major functionality like logging on working.

[AY Mod]

12 minutes ago, Talltim said:

if you had ceded so much control

 

I work quite enough hours thank you.

 

It's not too much to ask people to read previous posts; that's three instances tonight.

[martin_wynne]

If you are having trouble logging in, click this link:

 

 https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/login/

 

You should be able to see this post, even if not logged in (just tested it).

 

Martin.

Edited September 19, 2021 by martin_wynne
typos

[beast66606]

2 hours ago, AY Mod said:

 

When I am back at work tomorrow I'm raiding the stationery cupboard for some visible ink.

 

Have some of mine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is that enough ?

[rodent279]

17 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

I've found on my phone (Android & Chrome) that clicking the 3 dots, top right corner, then selecting Desktop View from the menu that comes up, gets rid of the blank box that covers the top bar of the Forum otherwise.

Ok, so the slow banner ads at the top of the page are really doing my head in now (I'd do a screenshot, but my phone doesn't make it easy).

For those who are not experiencing this, it's blocking the top of the page, just under the browser address bar. It's not a problem until you press the 3 bars to get at the notifications tab. That tab displays with the top part under the banner ad, which means the notifications icon is not visible.

I've tried using desktop site mode, and this appears to be a workaround, although it's a faff. I go into desktop mode, look at notifications, select the one I want, then go back to mobile mode.

@AY Mod -thanks for raising this, please keep us posted.

Cheers N

[Tom F]

59 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

Ok, so the slow banner ads at the top of the page are really doing my head in now (I'd do a screenshot, but my phone doesn't make it easy).

For those who are not experiencing this, it's blocking the top of the page, just under the browser address bar. It's not a problem until you press the 3 bars to get at the notifications tab. That tab displays with the top part under the banner ad, which means the notifications icon is not visible.

I've tried using desktop site mode, and this appears to be a workaround, although it's a faff. I go into desktop mode, look at notifications, select the one I want, then go back to mobile mode.

@AY Mod -thanks for raising this, please keep us posted.

Cheers N

I’m guessing this is what you mean N

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Tom F

[Chamby]

I have not posted on this thread before, but sought it out owing to the same issue as a seemingly large number of other users.  Using iPad, iOS, Safari.

 

My concern is not the pop-up ads per se, I realise the commercial imperatives behind these.  The big problem for me is that some of these adverts are unnecessarily energy/data hungry and/or are placed inappropriately, so they compromise site functionality.  This is not just an RMWeb problem, it occurs elsewhere on ad-heavy sites, but it does become self-defeating when users start accessing a website less often, or click away because the advertising has overwhelmed the website’s core content and functionality to the point of impracticality.

 

Ads - OK if you must.

Dysfunctional and irritating website - I click out.

 

You guys have worked bl**dy hard to make this forum hugely successful, it has become an everyday read for me.  But these latest ads are wounding the core product because of how they are being applied...  can a sensible balance be restored, please?

 

Thanks in anticipation.

[AY Mod]

5 minutes ago, Chamby said:

can a sensible balance be restored, please?

 

I am endeavouring to do so.

 

Right now.

[rodent279]

4 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

I am endeavouring to do so.

 

Right now.

I appreciate your efforts, and that not all is under your control.

[AY Mod]

36 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

I appreciate your efforts, and that not all is under your control.

 

Thank you. I know I will have been particularly grumpy with some posters not having read previous input but that came at the end of what was supposed to be a week off - well that worked out well didn't it? I don't mind helping users and dealing with crises whenever necessary but when there's a degree of self-harm to the scenario it's no wonder I get a bit moody. 

[mallaig1983]

Seems back to normal now (unless my phone has defaulted to the desktop version)

 

It appears to be the latter. 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by mallaig1983
Update

[BoD]

9 hours ago, AY Mod said:

with some posters not having read previous input

Aww, c’mon Andy that’s not fair.

Some of those posts were a day old and on the previous page.

[Zunnan]

20 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

Seems back to normal now (unless my phone has defaulted to the desktop version)

 

It appears to be the latter. 

 

 

Still doing the same on Safari and Edge. I have to admit its not too much of an issue when using my works VPN however, that blocks all adverts, it also flags things like the invasive popups to BT security as a significant security breach as its very easy for a nefarious link to be inserted into such popups. I did however get rather peeved yesterday at one repetitive ad for service which I was already subscribed to...cancelled the service and cited the intrusive ads as my reasoning.

 

It isn't limited to RMW. Hopefully Andy can wrangle some form of restraint, but I think it may be out of RMW hands...using certain VPN and adblockers can eliminate the issue otherwise, although it would be preferable not to need to!

[uax6]

I've just logged on. 

Firstly a bit of praise. Yesterday the advert situation I thought had been sorted to an acceptable level. The full page pop-ups had been reduced in size to about 3x4" box in the middle of the screen, with the rest of the screen fuzzied out. There was a definate close box, and it appeared every hour or so. Perfect compromise, result.

 

Today? Well I had one of yesterdays little boxes, but I have now got the worlds most annoying array of banners. There is one at the top of the screen, and also one at the bottom of the screen, and they are constantly changing like some sort of demented rollerdec. 

 

There appears to be no way to be rid of them, and frankly they are most distracting and makes it almost impossible to read the screen as your eye is being constantly distracted. They also make the site difficult to use, as the main index is built around having to scroll down, and now you end up looking down at a distracting ever changing banner, which makes you not see what is in the list of threads.

 

Can we please go back to yesterdays solution please? 

 

Andy G

 

[tractionman]

7 minutes ago, uax6 said:

 

Today? Well I had one of yesterdays little boxes, but I have now got the worlds most annoying array of banners. There is one at the top of the screen, and also one at the bottom of the screen, and they are constantly changing like some sort of demented rollerdec. 

 

 

 

Yep, on my laptop there's a tiny 'window' of RMWeb content now viewable between the top and bottom banners, like peering into a letterbox!

 

I have given up accessing RMWeb on my smartphone, though, it's too frustrating :-(

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[AY Mod]

I've had a lengthy video call this afternoon with the publisher and the manager of the ad code placement giving my perspectives as an administrator and those relevant to users.

 

Of course ads need to be there for revenue and proposals have been given for increasing that revenue (call it paying off what RMweb owes the business over the years and sustainability for the future*). It shouldn't negatively impact site users unless there is a suitable alternative so users need to accept ads or (my preferred option) to pay a sensible amount not to receive the Google Ads. Of course that's possible with World of Railways + membership but that does include magazine access. I know that a lot of you would like the option of an ad-free membership at sensible cost so that you can continue to enjoy using the site and we are now working towards that and hopefully I should be able to give you something in a few weeks.

 

In the interim I have expressed views on the deployment of ads which affect usability and changes should start to happen to improve that over the next few days. I am quite happy to see more ads for non-members (after all they normally just read and don't require access to functions) and fewer for registered members; hopefully that change can be instituted shortly too. Once there is a payable alternative I'm quite comfortable in the number of ads shown to non-paying registered members increasing once a sensible alternative is available.

 

On those points we were in broad agreement.

 

Let's see what further tweaking brings us.

 

* If you still wish here to be there for you in the future.

[tractionman]

Just now, AY Mod said:

 

 

Let's see what further tweaking brings us.

 

ok thanks Andy, at the mo it looks like this on my laptop:

 

 

 

 

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[johndon]

So, I've currently got a banner ad at the top of the screen, an ad at the bottom, ads down the right hand side and, ironically, when I tried to open this thread, I got the full screen ad as well.  I might lead a sheltered internet life but, as it stands, this site currently has the most in your face advertising I've ever seen...

[steve1]

Thanks for your efforts Andy.

 

I totally understand the reason for advertising. RMWeb has previously been fine from that point of view  in the past.

 

If you can just get rid of that obscuring banner at the top of the page by putting it at the bottom, I for one, will be perfectly happy. 

 

Making the pop-up only appear only once would also be nice, if it can't be got rid of altogether.

 

steve

[pirouets]

27 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

If you still wish here to there for you in the future

But sir, you always tell us off for wish lists.

 

Thanks for the update and i shall get my coat.