Ads by Google....
Discussion
Yep, we were running low on the '95 Krug, and so I instructed the boys to turn the money making machine up a notch we thought that some contextual ads against relevant content in sub forums (such as photography and computer games) would allow us to monetise the forums without interfering too much with your user experience. As ever, no obligation to click...
andy-xr said:
Option to switch off please, before I try to switch them off locally? 
There is no option to switch them off. They won't always be served (they weren't on this page for example). As ever, we'd prefer it if you didn't switch them off. The forum is and will always remain free, but you must respect our right to generate ad revenue as an alternative business model. Contextually relevant (which they will be for the most part) ads are hopefully not too offensive to the majority.I'm not normally one to b
h about ads on here but I don't like them at all
The context sensitivity is dubious at best and they ruin the clean lines
Before it was easy, on a long thread and want to read the last reply, scroll all the way to the bottom and read it, hit my stuff, job done, except now these are at the bottom, so I have to find my stuff a 1/3 of the way up and click
I've never installed ad blocker before but this may be the final insult I'm afraid chaps, just a shame I can't do it on my phone
h about ads on here but I don't like them at allThe context sensitivity is dubious at best and they ruin the clean lines
Before it was easy, on a long thread and want to read the last reply, scroll all the way to the bottom and read it, hit my stuff, job done, except now these are at the bottom, so I have to find my stuff a 1/3 of the way up and click
I've never installed ad blocker before but this may be the final insult I'm afraid chaps, just a shame I can't do it on my phone
Just noticed these too. They are low profile compared to some, but I am irked that they've automatically white-listed themsleves in Adblocker and there doesn't seem to be a way to disable them. That should be my choice, not PHs, and the few of us who are sufficliently interested to want rid of them are hardly going to dent the income stream.
Stuart said:
There is no option to switch them off. They won't always be served (they weren't on this page for example). As ever, we'd prefer it if you didn't switch them off. The forum is and will always remain free, but you must respect our right to generate ad revenue as an alternative business model. Contextually relevant (which they will be for the most part) ads are hopefully not too offensive to the majority.
There are ads now, I accept, PH have to raise revenue, but I'm not keen, sorry Stuart.HoHoHo said:
Henry Hawthorne said:
They look st and are taking up a third of the page.
Agreed t and are taking up a third of the page. 
Shaw Tarse said:
Stuart said:
There is no option to switch them off. They won't always be served (they weren't on this page for example). As ever, we'd prefer it if you didn't switch them off. The forum is and will always remain free, but you must respect our right to generate ad revenue as an alternative business model. Contextually relevant (which they will be for the most part) ads are hopefully not too offensive to the majority.
There are ads now, I accept, PH have to raise revenue, but I'm not keen, sorry Stuart.Plus one.
As has been suggested for years now, put a paid ad-free alternative up or even a voluntary method for those of us who block the ads and you'd happily get a few quid out of me. It's the only way you will, frankly. It's a model which works exceedingly well on a number of other forums, better conversion of guests to members, more revenue, people who don't want to see ads are happy, people who don't care about the ads are happy...
OK, we'll have a look at tweaking the formatting to see if they can be made a little smaller, point taken. The contextualisation won't work as well in forums such as this where there's not much relevant text to deliver ads against, and usually if it can't get a good enough match it'll serve nothing, which is why sometimes this thread won't show anything. Looking elsewhere though, it seems to be working pretty well in delivering contextually relevant ads.
Everything can be tweaked, as ever.
Everything can be tweaked, as ever.
Terminator X said:
2 at the bottom of the page for me ... just ignore em?! Surely no hardship on a free site that is as excellent as this one 
TX.
Yep. PH is bloody wonderful and I'm happy to have to put up with a few ads at the bottom of the page in exchange for its remaining as good as it's always been in my time here.TX.
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