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3 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

I understand the frustration Andy but non-advertising videos sounds like a different problem. 

 

It's the same thing Andy, it's a placeholder before the ad is delivered (or not). What's bugging me is some people functioning in broadcast only mode that want people to spend time reading their post when they haven't read the posts by others. There's even a banner at the top of every page (until it's closed) which explains the test.

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57 minutes ago, martin_wynne said:

 

What usually happens is that they sell out to VerticalScope Inc., a Canadian company. Which has a business model of buying up successful amateur-run enthusiast forums and running them professionally, with advertising. But they do it so well, that users don't seem to mind, provided they keep their favourite forum running. That's happened to three forums I'm a member of, most recently another UK model railway forum: https://modelrailforum.com

 

They might be interested in RMweb?  -- see: https://www.verticalscope.com/about/acquisitions/

 

Martin.

 

Bit late for that - RMWeb has been owned by Warners publishing for a good few years now. It is to their credit that they have given Andy Y and co a free hand to continue running RMWeb as they see fit which is presumably why you still think its 'amateur run'.

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31 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

Bit late for that - RMWeb has been owned by Warners publishing for a good few years now. It is to their credit that they have given Andy Y and co a free hand to continue running RMWeb as they see fit which is presumably why you still think its 'amateur run'.

 

I know full well it is owned by Warners Group Publications Plc : https://www.warnersgroup.co.uk/

 

That doesn't mean they can't sell it if it's becoming a pain to run.

 

Actually my comment was tongue-in-cheek. :)

 

Martin.

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5 hours ago, jamespetts said:

 

The larger producers of browsers (Google especially, but also Apple, who wish to compete with Google for advertising revenue) have a fundamental conflict of interest leading them maliciously to interfere with advertisement blocking functionality even though it is in the interests of browser users to permit fully functional advertisement blocking. Do not trust the excuses given by these organisations for the abusive behaviour in restricting advertising blockers. Instead, use Firefox, a browser produced by an organisation dedicated to internet freedom.

 

In reality, there were internet forums run by enthusiasts long before paid advertising on forums was a viable business model. If an advertising backed model were to become unviable in the future because of increased use of advertisement blockers, forums would not go away: amateur run forums would replace commercially run forums. People would probably have to host their own images (e.g. on the free web space normally provided by ISPs) as amateur forums would be unlikely to be able to pay for mass image hosting, but there would be no incentive for those who run forums to make the experience for those who do not pay as unpleasant as possible to coerce them into paying to upgrade. Likewise for video hosting: if YouTube were to become unprofitable overnight, PeerTube would take its place. There would be no shortage of video hosting capacity nor people who make videos because they enjoy it and want to share the things that they love.

 

Thus, a choice about whether to use advertisement blocking software is not just about whether to "support" things that you want to see. It is a choice about what sort of economic model that you think is preferable for hobby content on the internet: one dominated by large commercial concerns, or a decentralised, largely amateur based economy. I know what I prefer.

Couldn't agree more.

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9 hours ago, AY Mod said:

(if I knew where they lived I'd stare in their windows 

 

That would make me pay for Gold.....

 

(And I have a strange feeling that Andy Y does know where I live......)

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8 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 The busiest bits of the forum are those with generally fact-free rows about RTR models. 

 

And there you need to place the ads, as those threads have the largest readership......

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14 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

Have a read through the last week's posts.

thank you - have scanned back through to 23rd September. So signing up for Gold completely 100% removes all flashing adverts (these drive me insane)? 

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Hmm.

 

Advertising is part of the modern world. The internet is a transport system, it transports data, our computers and the sites we visit are the stations, airports, bus shelters of the internet. Look at those, they are covered in adverts, so why would the internet be any different?  The revenue goes into the pot, overall costs are reduced. To be brutally honest that is the way the world works these days. 

 

Now, many internet sites give users the option to give a bit of cash and the ads go away . Never happens elsewhere, are the local bus company going to remove all their ads if a few folk offer a  bit of money? nope. 

 

So the options are there. If I could afford it I might go gold, but for now I'll put up with the ads and support RMweb that way. All I actually see is an ad for world of railways and a bit of video which goes away if I click X . ( though tbh I have to laugh at the car show one. Really I'd be gawking at the lassie not some naff motor car .... Oh and look carefully, there are some trains in the one with the ship ..... )

 

So Andy, 20 odd pages of  hassle, I just feel I should just throw in a bit of support for you running a seriously tough site, if ads are needed to pay for it all then so be it. 

 

 

 

 

 

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14 minutes ago, Dave John said:

are the local bus company going to remove all their ads if a few folk offer a  bit of money? nope. 

 

But those ads don't track your computer activity and harvest details of your interests and lifestyle.

 

There would be no objection to web advertising if that was all it is -- some pictures and words to look at or not as you wish. But it's not -- they all try to install tracking scripts on your computer, as if they own it. They are not going to do it on my computer if I can help it. Which is why I prefer to pay a subscription to Warners instead, and turn the tracking off.

 

Martin.

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28 minutes ago, Dave John said:

Er, so turn tracking off ? 

 

Yes. In Firefox and Microsoft Edge set Tracking Protection to Strict. Result is no ads on RMweb or most other web sites. But subscribe to Gold or World of Railways Plus first, to compensate Warners for the loss of income they won't be getting from your page impressions.

 

Martin.

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EDIT - just seen Andy's post above about this being a test.

 

a) how long is this 'test' going on for?

b) am I the only person to be finding video ads popping up on EVERY PAGE very annoying and degrading of my RMWEB experience

c) am I alone in believing some of the 'payment' for RMWEB is in the info, opinions, knowledge and content that us, the members, spend (often many) hours writing....?

 

 

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1 hour ago, G-BOAF said:

am I the only person to be finding video ads popping up on EVERY PAGE very annoying and degrading of my RMWEB experience

 

No. As the many pages of this thread demonstrate, which is why it is being tested. Please keep up. 

 

1 hour ago, G-BOAF said:

am I alone in believing some of the 'payment' for RMWEB is in the info, opinions, knowledge and content that us, the members, spend (often many) hours writing....?

 

Again, no. Even on the last couple of pages, that point has been made and refuted. IF your great words have value, it's not enough to cover the running costs of the forum. Those costs have to be met by someone. If you honestly believe your utterances are so valuable everyone else should pay for the communication channel that transports them from your ivory tower to the ears/eyes of the great unwashed, set up your own website/magazine and collect your riches. 

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1 hour ago, Phil Parker said:

Again, no. Even on the last couple of pages, that point has been made and refuted. IF your great words have value, it's not enough to cover the running costs of the forum. Those costs have to be met by someone. If you honestly believe your utterances are so valuable everyone else should pay for the communication channel that transports them from your ivory tower to the ears/eyes of the great unwashed, set up your own website/magazine and collect your riches. 

 

On the other hand, if they have no value at all, no-one would bother coming here to read them -- and what would that do to your advertising income?

 

This "you lot are a right pain to us and you should be grateful we bother" attitude is not doing you any favours. You have a perfectly good financial model, why not promote it? Sell the idea positively that RMweb is a paid-for subscription service and well worth the modest cost, just as you sell the paid-for BRM magazine. But add a note that it is also available free of charge as an advertising medium for those who want to try it out first. Even on the paid-for service you could include some advertising from the model trade, again just like the magazine.

 

Martin.

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1 hour ago, martin_wynne said:

On the other hand, if they have no value at all, no-one would bother coming here to read them -- and what would that do to your advertising inome?

 

3 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

IF your great words have value, it's not enough to cover the running costs of the forum.

 

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5 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

 

IF your great words have value, 

 

IF our words have value?

 

If our words didn't have value then Warners wouldn't have bought RMweb in the first place. If our words don't have value then why do people visit the site? If our words don't have value then why do advertisers want to pay to advertise to those that read them?

 

5 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

Again, no. Even on the last couple of pages, that point has been made and refuted. 

 

No, you haven't refuted them, you have explained that they don't have sufficient value to Warners for the company to want to pay for (all of) them, although particularly in the post I'm quoting I think you have gone beyond that (accidently I hope) and actually suggested that they have no value at all.

 

Jon 

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I haven't seen any comments on here about Facebook which is full of advertising and is accepted by millions (billions?) more users than we have on RMweb - and of course it's the advertising that pays for the free use of Facebook as evidenced in their recent failure said to have been costing them hundreds of thousand dollars every minute. How many of the complainants here would be prepared to suggest to Mr Zuckerberg that he should provide his service free and without advertising.

 

Following on from that comment - we had our exhibition last weekend (to get the topic back to model railways) and paid for a Facebook advertising campaign run by the local newspaper (Derbyshire Live). For £240, as well as a full page advert in the paper, we also got 7 days of targeted marketing to the local area - in total the advert went to 25,000 readers and there were around 2,500 who clicked on the headline to see the details of the show. This 'click rate' of 10% was much higher that their usual response of 2-5% and shows that the right advertising in the right place does make a difference. I was on the door most of the time and it was surprising the number of young families coming in and almost all of them said they had seen it on Facebook.

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28 minutes ago, jonhall said:

IF our words have value?

 

Of course a lot of content is of value. However, there's a lot that adds nothing and, often, it's those that add least moan most whereas many who give everyone value grumble least. It's just the nature of people as a whole. 

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As the videos are a test then I hope you will not mind my personal opinion.

I have absolutely no objection to advertising on RM Web.  It's in all the magazines and that is what pays for them.

However I do have a problem with flickering images.  The rapidly changing and moving pictures in my peripheral vision give me a headache and makes me feel nauseous within a few minutes.  If I cancel the image it soon comes back.

I have resorted to a double thickness of Post-it over that area.  It still 'grins' through so perhaps card would be better. 

I suppose I could always spend less time looking at a screen and do some modelling ?

Rodney

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OK feedback on videos :

 

Actually for me its not that bad . On the iPad you can actually blot it out as you scroll through the content .  On computer I get used to it and already just ignore it . I had an issue with my eyes recently involving a retinal bleed . The Dr said the bleed would disappear and what "floaters" were left the brain sees through and eventually disregards .   This video I suspect will be the same. 

 

The major issue for me remains that pop up advert that obscures content  . Because there you actually have to go and delete it or press a button . To me thats the intrusion . I can live with the video 

 

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