Is this the wrong website?

[Inertiatic]

Maybe everyone should commit to never spending a penny with advertisers who take the piss :-)

[MagicalTrevor]

Blackpuddin said:

Maybe I'm just lucky but Adblock sorts everything for me.

I deliberately allowed adverts for Pistonheads.com when they first started advertising because I recognised that they needed to raise revenues somehow. Eventually I gave in and block all the adverts

[Studio117]

Are the user content sites broken? Is AdBlock now Mandatory?

Minimal views
Sporadic placement in gg
Poor quality content, mobile content has gone completely tits up.

404 errors on mobile

meh.

[Inertiatic]

According to Adblock there are 28 ad elements on the front page. Not that I see them ;-)

Thats also 28 things I dont want loading on my system as they are uncontrolled.

It does mean that there is a blank space where the WBAC ones would be, but its not really a problem. Loads significantly faster without all the dross as well.

With adblock running the classifieds seem eminently useable. Without adblock it still seems to work but is slower (21 ad elements)

I can understand the need for ads on a mostly free website - but when the ad design means that users just use an adblocker to get rid of them all, doesn't it show that its a flawed concept? I guess WBAC et al are paying either way unless its all pay per click?

[rscott]

Studio117 said:

Are the user content sites broken? Is AdBlock now Mandatory?

Minimal views
Sporadic placement in gg
Poor quality content, mobile content has gone completely tits up.

404 errors on mobile

meh.

Are you using the old mobile.pistonheads.com site? Try switching back to www.pistonheads.com and setting your skin to Beta2

[jammy_basturd]

rscott said:

Are you using the old mobile.pistonheads.com site? Try switching back to www.pistonheads.com and setting your skin to Beta2

You'd think it would be a relatively simple thing for the PH techies to automatically do this, or at least stick in a closable banner advising as such.

[ridds]

I can't wait for the new forum design to be rolled out on to mobile and the page hits plummeting.

If you've had the displeasure of trying to use it there is currently no way to block ads on mobile that I've found. They page layout is terrible also.

I really don't understand why people even bother not using an ad blocker. We, the users, have whinged, moaned, complained, tried to suggest improvements but no one cares. It's purely a money making exercise to line Haymarket's pockets and nothing else.

[Funk]

I used to tolerate the ads here but it got silly so I block everything with a couple of things including adblock and ghostery. One thing I've noticed is that Adblock can block the post in a thread where the ad appears next to it so for an unlucky few their posts won't appear. However, that's infinitely more tolerable than living with the complete clusterfk of a design that PH has become. It's like looking at web design from 20 years ago, the layout, design and use of space is appalling.

The whole lot needs junking and re-doing properly, it's visually ugly and I too have set my links to shortcut me straight into the forums bypassing everything else.

[ukaskew]

Another day, another mess (Safari on iPad, so no easy way of blocking this stuff)

[Megaflow]

Link directly to the forums instead of the front page. I haven't read the front page since my post a few posts above yours.

[LordGrover]

If you have a Mac running, glimmerblocker is dead handy.

[ukaskew]

Megaflow said:

Link directly to the forums instead of the front page. I haven't read the front page since my post a few posts above yours.

I appreciate that, but this is 2 weeks after basically the exact same screenshot was posted, which was apparently being sorted by ditching the ad agency.

I like visiting the front page from a content perspective, but the design and usability is at least 5 years out of date, it's 2015 and we're still nowhere near nice big scalable images in articles (if they pay a photographer it's a waste of money right now, frankly), there are many, many other sites producing great free content without annihilating the site with ads, most of them actually have a design philosophy as well.

[Megaflow]

A fair point, well made.

Frankly I wouldn't believe anything the mods say about advertising, I'm not sure they actually have control over the content.

[Megaflow]

Maybe moderators is not the correct name, staff or editors?

Either way, these problems have been reported many times, ad agencies allegedly change, but the problems still persist.

[Shaw Tarse]

It's not something the mods can control.
Try contacting http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?mem...

[Shaw Tarse]

drivetrain said:

Om the forum on which I am a mod (US based motor cycle racing but with a world-wide membership of 6000+) we have a dedicated moderator area where any issues can be discussed, I assume PH has the same system?

No.
If you have concerns click on report.

[TheJimi]

I thought it was fairly common knowledge that the mods had a mod-only sub forum on PH.

Very surprised to hear there isn't because I've seen the subheading for such a forum here.

[Shaw Tarse]

TheJimi said:

I thought it was fairly common knowledge that the mods had a mod-only sub forum on PH.

Very surprised to hear there isn't because I've seen the subheading for such a forum here.

Sorry, yes there's a mod area.
Do we have a say on what goes on with adverts on the main site?
Nope

[Shaw Tarse]

drivetrain said:

eh?

It was a general question.

I have no concerns, wind your neck back in.

Gaz has said things better than me ^^^