Beta Classifieds and Firefox browser

[SteveRST]

Been bugging me for ages why I couldn't use the new Beta Classifieds with Firefox, but it worked fine with IE.

When using Firefox, if I clicked on a car I would not be able to see the advert itself and would just see the page header section and then the 'Pistonheads also found...' section.

Turns out that the Firefox add-on 'AdBlock Plus' was blocking the import part of the page. All OK when AdBlock disabled for that page. Think it's worth a mention as AdBlock is the #1 add-on for Firefox.

Steve

[freecar]

This is happening to me too, now SOTW has been ruined by not being able to see the ad in question. I don't have IE on my PC and don't intend on having it.

Any chance of a fix, I'm sick of not being able to see what others are talking about.

Off now to see if any of the pages on the SOTW thread have the proper URL.

[miniman]

Slightly optimistic, don't you think, asking a business that exists due to ad revenue to make their site work better with ad blockers?

[freecar]

miniman said:

Slightly optimistic, don't you think, asking a business that exists due to ad revenue to make their site work better with ad blockers?

Not really no, the other section of the classifieds works so adblock doesn't see them as ads, I don't know why it does on the beta, as I'm not a coder I wouldn't like to say whether it is possible or not.

Frankly I'd see it as a failing of the code if the no1 add-on for the 2nd most popular browser worldwide made it impossible to use the site.

[MattDell]

We know exactly why adblock doesn't show our ads on the beta site and I can assure you we're doing nothing to fix it. Advertising is what keeps the lights on here.

-Matt

[SteveRST]

Matt - I appreciate that banner advertising revenue funds the site, but currently the Beta classifieds just appears to be completely broken for FF users with adblock. Unusable, so no point in visiting.

However, now I know the issue is related to adblock, I have disabled it and I am able to use the Beta Classifieds site, banner adverts and all. I'm happy, and you get an extra user and potential customer for your advertisers.

Can you not implement a detection script for adblocking software, and prompt users to disable it? I've seen this on a few other sites.

steve

[MattDell]

That might be possible. It's crossed my mind briefly before, but since we have a rather large list of improvements for the beta site to work on already I haven't actually written it down. I'll put it in our backlog as a minor issue.

-Matt

[Beartato]

Ah, that's what's causing the problem. I had assumed it was just a niggle on the beta classifieds.

As has already been said, it'd be worthwhile having a warning that this is what's happening. I'd just given up and gone back to the old classifieds.

[Stuart]

OP - can you not just add PH as an exception in Adblock?

[freecar]

MattDell said:

That might be possible. It's crossed my mind briefly before, but since we have a rather large list of improvements for the beta site to work on already I haven't actually written it down. I'll put it in our backlog as a minor issue.

-Matt

If you don't make it clear to FF users why it is happening you'll get less hits to your ads and therefore less revenue so I would have thought it was more than a minor issue, tonnes of people use FF with adblock.

[CommanderJameson]

MattDell said:

We know exactly why adblock doesn't show our ads on the beta site and I can assure you we're doing nothing to fix it. Advertising is what keeps the lights on here.

-Matt

Well, that'll smooth things over.

[Trommel]

MattDell said:

We know exactly why adblock doesn't show our ads on the beta site and I can assure you we're doing nothing to fix it

Your loss.

[McHaggis]

freecar said:

If you don't make it clear to FF users why it is happening you'll get less hits to your ads and therefore less revenue so I would have thought it was more than a minor issue, tonnes of people use FF with adblock.

Ahh... that's why it is happening... me too.

[anonymous-user]

Trommel said:

Your loss.

How's that then?

Their gain surely as people will have to disable it or use another browser either way win win

Can't believe how many cry babies there are about this, its how they make a lot of their money

[Trommel]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Or just not bother.

[anonymous-user]

Trommel said:

Or just not bother.

I'd wager the amount of people who do vs the amount of people who chuck their toys and go elsewhere will be massively in PH's favour

[McHaggis]

I'm simple. I use one browser - Firefox (+adblock), except on my iphone.

If a site doesn't work, I'll go elsewhere (like Autotrader) where many cars will be advertised anyway. They don't seem to have a problem with adblocker.

It's a minority of users though I agree.

[Trommel]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Maybe. Seems to work for me in any case with Firefox and ABP with no custom filters. Either way, crappy adverts are annoying so I won't be looking at them.

[Stuart]

Hi All,

We've had a catch up on this in the office this morning and we'll make a fix to remove this problem with Firefox. Whilst Adblocker is a PITA for us, it certainly wasn't the intention to try and force people not to use it because of this, and we'd rather prioritise usability across all browsers, particularly the big ones like FF.

No idea on timing yet, but we'll update here when fixed.

Cheers,

Stuart

[Output Flange]

MattDell said:

We know exactly why adblock doesn't show our ads on the beta site and I can assure you we're doing nothing to fix it. Advertising is what keeps the lights on here.

-Matt

Wrong attitude.

Stuart said:

Hi All,

We've had a catch up on this in the office this morning and we'll make a fix to remove this problem with Firefox. Whilst Adblocker is a PITA for us, it certainly wasn't the intention to try and force people not to use it because of this, and we'd rather prioritise usability across all browsers, particularly the big ones like FF.

No idea on timing yet, but we'll update here when fixed.

Cheers,

Stuart

Right attitude.

Common sense prevails.